Henry Ford’s Own Story

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. So, with the growth of Big Business during the last quarter of a century, we have built up the modern myth of the Big Business Man. Our imaginations are intrigued by the spec tacle of his rise from our ranks. Yesterday he was a farmer's son, an office boy, a peddler of Armenian laces. To-day he is a demigod. Is our country threatened with financial ruin? At a midnight conference of his dependents, hastily called, he speaks one word. We are saved. Does a foreign nation, fighting for its life, ask our help? He endorses the loan. We contemplate him with awe. In one life time he has made himself a world power; in twenty years he has made a hundred million dol lars, we say. He is a Big Business Man. Our tendency was immediately to put Henry Ford in that class. He does not belong to it. He is not a Big Business Man; he is a big man in business.

So, with the growth of Big Business during the last quarter of a century, we have built up the modern myth of the Big Business Man. Our imaginations are intrigued by the spec tacle of his rise from our ranks. Yesterday he was a farmer's son, an office boy, a peddler of Armenian laces. To-day he is a demigod. Is our country threatened with financial ruin? At a midnight conference of his dependents, hastily called, he speaks one word. We are saved. Does a foreign nation, fighting for its life, ask our help? He endorses the loan. We contemplate him with awe. In one life time he has made himself a world power; in twenty years he has made a hundred million dol lars, we say. He is a Big Business Man. Our tendency was immediately to put Henry Ford in that class. He does not belong to it. He is not a Big Business Man; he is a big man in business.