Manipulating history

http://www.wiley.com/legacy/products/subject/business/forbes/ford.html

On January 5, 1914, Henry Ford announced a new minimum wage of five dollars per eight-hour day, in addition to a profit-sharing plan. It was the talk of towns across the country; Ford was hailed as the friend of the worker, as an outright socialist, or as a madman bent on bankrupting his company. Many businessmen -- including most of the remaining stockholders in the Ford Motor Company -- regarded his solution as reckless. But he shrugged off all the criticism: "Well, you know when you pay men well you can talk to them," he said. Recognizing the human element in mass production, Ford knew that retaining more employees would lower costs, and that a happier work force would inevitably lead to greater productivity. The numbers bore him out. Between 1914 and 1916, the company's profits doubled from $30 million to $60 million. "The payment of five dollars a day for an eight-hour day was one of the finest cost-cutting moves we ever made," he later said.

It is interesting to see how the web is being used to shape views of history for the benefit of the power elite.

It used to be easy to find a reference to the fact that Ford foresaw that paying his people higher wages would lead to them being able to buy their own cars, and end up bringing him profit. Just look up "henry ford". But now, all of the early entries for

"henry ford" 1914
or even
"henry ford" 1914 sell more cars,

refer only to positive effects on employee turnover.

I finally found the following.

http://ondix.com/pdf/docs/essays_thesis_1071112328.pdf

In 1914 Ford astonished the business world by more than doubling the minimum wage for his workers, raising it from about $2.50 to $5. He argued that if his employees earned more, the company would sell more cars to them and reduce employee turnover. He said in regards to this economical move "The high wage begins down in the shop. If it is not created there it cannot get into pay envelopes. There will never be a system in vented which will do away with the necessity for work."

http://www.ibiblio.org/prism/feb98/asian.html

In April 1914, Henry Ford and James Couzens announced that they would pay their unskilled workers $5 a day and reduce the work day to 8 hours from 9, "because that is about the least a man with a family can live on these days," as Ford explained in an interview. Five dollars was about twice the prevailing pay scale in the auto industry at the time.

Ford added later that decent wages helped him sell more cars, in addition to gaining better, more committed workers and reducing labor attrition.