The Early Days of Ford Motor essays

The Early Days of Ford Motor essays For years, very few believed that a horse-less carriage would ever exist. Henry Ford was determined to prove them wrong. The crazy loon or the eccentric inventor as they called Ford, started the industrial revolution which changed daily life for the entire world (Sinclair 4). Ford built his first plant in Detroit, Michigan on Mack Ave. with the help of investors that backed up his beliefs in making the world mobile. During the first years of Ford Motor Company, Mr. Ford took great care and interest in his employees. As years went on, the demand for automobiles increased. With demand for cars in the rise, the company found that they needed to have the employees work harder and faster to produce more cars. In order to compensate his employees for this Mr. Ford began a Sociological Department within the Ford Motor Company. The purpose of that department was to determine if his workers qualified for the standard $5 a day plus a $0.26 per hour raise and a bonus every January. In order to qualifying for the bonus, you had to be married, had a good home, stable family life amongst many other qualifications (Sinclair 30). This program worked out for some time but at the end of that era, working conditions were worse off then ever before. For decades , the Ford workers were mistreated. Conditions inside the Ford Motor Company are completely different now than it was sixty years ago. The establishment of unions helped to better the life of all automobile workers. Upton Sinclair, the author of The Flivver King: A Story of Ford America , writes an extremely interesting historical novel about the start of the Ford Automobile Company. The story is told from the perspective of Abner Shutt, one of Ford's first employees. Abner lives in the times where Henry Ford began his auto design in the early 1900's till the mid 30's when Ford was known as the richest man in the world. ...