THE FORD SYSTEM.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12254, 3 June 1914, Page 8

THE FORD SYSTEM.

Detroit, April IS. The responsibilities that so with money are being brought home to workers employed by the Ford Motor Car Company. They mast live decently. , This is the order of Henry Ford, who is sharing.profits with, them in order to i give r,hern that opportunity. Men and women who cannot lift themselves above squalor when the evils of their living conditions are pointed out to them and when the money to provide bettor conditions is .supplied will cease to be employees of the Ford company. Such is the notice sent to all employees. .Married and single men who do not live up to the modern standard of American /"very day living are to be eliminated. .Married men who keep boarders in their homes will lose their places. So will single men who reside in rooming houses such as have been found 111 Highland Park, where they sleep in shifts and never bathe. Another innovation at the Ford plant, an English teaching school, will beopened on Monday. A teacher has been brought from Now York. The first class will comprise 200 students of eleven nationalities, represented .by Armenians, Austrians, Greeks, Hungarians. Poles, Russians, Rumanians, Servians, Slavs, Syrians, and Turks. "These men of many nations must be talight- American ways, the English language, the right way to live," said Mr Ford to-ciay.

"'Married men should keep 'their households for themselves and their immediate families. They should not sacrifice family, rights, pleasure and comfort by filling their homes with roomers and boarders.

"Single men are also expected to .live comfortably and under conditions that make for good manhood arid good citizenship. It would not do for them to waste their share of the profits.Once they live correctly, breathe the real fresh aii- of freedom, see that health and Strength are fully conserved, we can make them g-ood citizens. .

' "We now have 45 investigators interviewing ea-ch employee. Every detail of living is enquired into. From the figures so inr presented, and none of them is complete, it appears that there are more men 23 years 'old in our employ tlian of any other age? Our in- ; vestigators have found many of the men in', deplorable surroundings, and the notice sent to employees will warn those who transgress. "We will give every one time to correct his living- conditions. But the tenement 1 and the crowded rooming house must he eliminated. Men who earn from £1 to £1 12s 6d a day do. not need to have their wives take in hoarders. They should save their share of the 'profits and invest it in homes or real estate. They sell their labor to ns and we give them a bonus. "Our lawyers will give each man help that he can be certain is sincere find honest. We will investibate the land lie wishes to buy to see if the price is right, and will supervise the contract. Protection is afforded against schemers and agents who wish to secure their money for fraudulent purposes. "The investigators have wide latitude. No red tape binds them. We found one man, his wife and three children, living in four rooms, and there were five live ducks in the bath-tub. He couldn't understand why he wasn't considered clean and a share in the profits had been denied him. The investigator rented another flat in a better neighborhood for him.'