THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1930.
HENRY FORD GIVES EUROPE A SHOCK
Higher Wages. Mean Lower Costs.
HOW WORKERS REACT.
German manufacturers were as- tonished to learn recently that the German Ford Company, although it
operations.
There are some, evea, who any that the European Ford companies, backed by the vast resources of the American parent organisation, are seeking to establish wage standards which their European competitors cannot meet, and that American nas production offers simply the prospect of the subjection of Europe
American and which Ford is taken production whler are essentially
to typify.
Though numerous manufacturers, principally, of course, in the auto-
Į
CAR COOLER.
THE CHINA MAIL.
A Most Important Component.
retained: as the cooler in America, should be
simple, but powerful and accurate, presses, (b) a lot of brass, (c) a lot of solder, (d) a tremendous amount of water, and (e) a terrifle nickel- plating and chronlum-depositing machine or vat or plant or installa- tion-call it what you will. The Items (a), (b), (c) and (d) are all by American capital and enterprise. to say that cars will not run with fancying himself as a radiator While, of course, it is not tru: pretty simple, and almost anyone, This thesis has been advanced in out radiators, it is certain that auker, might be tempted to begin mans quarters, notably in recent overwhelming majority of engines to a specialist, issues of La Revue des Vivants in are cooled by water rather than by
making his own instead of going an elaborate series of articles en-air direst. titled, "The United States Buys Up are just a few direct air-cooled en- the courts, is the snag.. That Item
But exhibit (c), as 1 know full well there)
they say in Europe.".
So Europe is sharply divided. on ran so well and seem so entirely to ingenuity I have ever seen. Need gines, and the cars thus powered almost human piece of mechanical is the most extraordinary, uncanny. if only a year old and although the question of "Fordiaing." There escape heating troubles that one is Days. "extraordinarily high wages, already shows a large profit on its pro-Ford Europe and an anti-tempted to ask why the rather cost-less to say, it costs a great deal of Ford Europe using these terms inly and relatively fragile component money to buy and fit up, and it is Ford himself startled British busi-Panies but to the principles of mass and, more correctly, it seems to me, it requires constant and very costly At about the same time Henry application not to the Ford com- known in Europe as the radiator not like some machinery which is coatly at first but cheap to operate; refilling with various chemicals day I do not propose to debate that by day, and it uses an amount of particular problem, but rather to action or an increase of a farthing a electric current that makes a redue. mobile, and allied industries, have cept the conventional radiator as a unit a matter of very real concern. more or less completely and more or demise has often been threatened, recognised part of our cars. Its
Radiators consists of two mair methods to their plants, the best he a vial part of most cara' anato- less successfully adapted Fordhut venture to think that it wo parts-the shell and the block. examples In Europe of pure and mies for very many years to come.
Each is made entirely 013 unadulterated "Fordism" are the
its
, and the two are factory assembling plants of the idea as to how a motor car is made. ously enough, each component passes
Quite a lot of people have a fairsion of the making of each.
not united until the conclu- Ford companies in twelve European many are conversant with the mys through a dozen major operations, Cari- countries.
These may be called, in a sense,
terlus of electrical equipment design and the life-story or, perhaps bet- European establishments; for, while and manufacture, but few, I believe, ter, the birth-story of them runs as a majority of the capital, some ofdintors are constructed.
have any clear notion as to how ra- follows. the material used and all of the elusive things; in the atores of any begins life as a brass sheet. methods are
The shell we will take first. American, the man- ngers and workmen are Europeans.
big car-making firm one generally cut to shape, the shaped sheet The German Ford Company.
finds them all complete and bright is raised When the German Ford Company them to the place of their birth.
In 1 and smiling, but one seldom tracks
press, the His personality, his economic was organised slightly more than One just takes them for accom- pierced out of the shell, a bon- flange on the raised sheet tenets and his achievements are al- year ago, Ford cars made up 6plished facts, as it were, and thinks net rest is formed, the shell is pick- removed, the centre portion most as well-known in Landoa, per cent. of the registered auto- Paris, Berlin and Moscow as they mobiles in Germany: to-day they no more about them, at ali events led. then polished, next nickel- are. in his native country. Capital- make up' 20 per cent. The Ford till the radiator one happens to own plated, again polished, then chro- ist and Communist alike have Company produces about 1,000 cars springs a leak from some cause of mium-plated, and finally polished striven to profit by his methods, and trucks a month-12,000 during other. Then one thinks a whole once more. The shell is then ready some in Western Europe "Fordism" as it is called on the plant is completed this rate is excently, but now I know how the part
see in the last year--and when the Cologne hendful!
to embrace the railiator block. Continent--the solution of their pected to rise. economic difficulties, Soviet Russia It is said that about 70 per cent. of the car which makes or mars its relies to a considerable extent upon of the selling price of each ear re-eneral appearance is built. I have Ford tractors and the Ford type of rains in Germany and that soon the seen it produced at the rate of two reanagement for the success of its German company will dispense with thousand a week, in five-year reconstruction plan. American parts and turn out an variety of shapes and sizes.
entirely German-made product. The
It came about like this. Tu Europeans Ford is a symbol of waxes it pays are about twice these
ness men with the unorthodox sug gestion that the way to cure Bri tain's trade depression and nnem- ployment was to pay higher wages.
Shortly before this the British Ford Company had issued a state- ment asserting that the application of this and other Ford principles in the Ford plants in a dozen European countries had shown that, the Euro- pean workman responded exactly like the American workman, and that costs of production consequent ly were reduced.
Few Americans have made such an impression upon Europe since the Warns has Henry Ford, says Harold Callender, by whom the article from which fuotations are being now made was written for the New York Times.
Ford A Great Symbol.
·
They are
So it was with me until quite re-
قسم
It
It is
on the shoil has been in prozess, the While this sequence of operationa block, which is less attractive to the eye, is undergoing rather more spectacular processes.
It starts widish life in the guise of big rolls of brass strip, about 3 ins, wide by 0.005 in. I was thick.
The brass comes to Oxford passing recently down the great shop in these rolls from the metal ills company very special, when suddenly I camed through crinklers. then the crink Across a perfect wall of radiatora led brass la planished, it is cut into un-European type of society and technical achievements, have been scores,
The Germans, who appreciate There must have been dozens, correct length, seamed and packed
perhaps which might conceivably-the-pos. siblity makes many Europeana shud. deeply impressed by this perform them. Each new and brilliant in assembled in jigs, the front, back its chromium coat, and carrying thu and ends are dipped in solder, the wings and bull that distinguished block is weighed--and must weigh the latest Morris cars.
In the close neighbourhood of 17lb.
at sort of second industrial revolu./Pail for similar work in other Ger.at Cowley, thinking of nothing in Birmingham. The rolls are pass-
tion, which has created in American factories, yet the Within a few decades a strangely prospers.
der-da somewhat the sume thing to Europe.
ance.
them.
hundreds
of
into groups är seta.
There
The sela ars
THE
New BUICK
On March 10, 1930. Cecil Hawley, Director of Texaco National Road Reports, left New York for Los Angeles in a stock model Buick Roadster. He was back in New York on March 26, after travelling 10,243 miles in a total elapsed time of 16 days, 13 hours and 36 minutes. Every precaution was taken to observe all trafic rules and regulations. An average speed of 29.35 miles per hour was maintained. This was a business trip, testing the qualities of current model Buicks and the new Texaco Motor Oil: No attempt whatever was made to establish a record.
1
j
Five months later, Mr. Hawley again left New York on a round trip dash to Los Angeles (California) and return to New York. This time Mr. Hawley was driving
a stock model 118" wheelbase Buick Coupe, Hawley's total time from New York to Los Angeles and return was five days, 21 hours and 44 minutes. This record is more than 17 hours faster than the swiftest trans-Continental Trains. record held by Cannonball Baker, the famous cross-country driver, was broken by The previous more than 15 hours. Mr. Hawley's stock model Buicks were fuelled and lubricated by the new and better Texaco gasoline and Texaco Golden motor oil.
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118" Wheelbase Buick Models 124" Wheelbase Bolck Models
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were so many of these glittering if for a Cowley and 25lb, if for an id. FOR HOSPITALS. just pulled me up short to look at in six vats of water, then with top and very attractive units that they Oxford Six-it has successive baths
and was told at the radiator branch, teated under water with air at a Where are they made?" I asked, and bottom tanks attached, it is about three miles away on the Wood-Pesaure of 10 lb. per sq. in., is painted, and finally assembled into its sheli.
stock side of Oxford. "Would you like to see them made?""
tions carried out that there are but So precisely are all these opers-
Plan to Make Motorists Help Upkeep.
More Work For Higher Pay. Most impressive of al-from the He is regarded as personifying the America of to-day somewhat as broader point of view of mass- Gandhi may be said to personify production principles as they may Young India and Lenin revolution affect Europe's future-is the recent ary Russia. For many Europeans statement of Sir Percival Perry, picture America as a gigantic Ford chairman of the Ford Motor Com factory in which everything is pany, Ltd., the English concern. ruthlessly subordinated to on in- To a meeting of the company's credibly rapid and yet
ever ac-shareholders he said that careful celerating process of mass produc- studies of the costs of production,
Of course I would; and so we en- tion, which necessitates in turn a curried on over many months in the tered an leis and fared forth.
The difficulties of the volun- similarly stimulated and correspond- twelve different European countries
The radiator branch, an offshoot, ble may be experienced. First the motoring accident cases, with little two points at which some little trou-tary hospitals, which have to treat ingly enlarging mass consumption.
where there are Ford plants, show of the great and manifold activi- block may be Europe and "Fordism".
ed conclusively that the European ties controlled by Sir William Mor-owing to too deep immersion in the before the House
a trifle overweight hope of financial recompense, came workman reacted to the forty-hour rig While Henry Ford has
is growing. some week and high wages precisely as the
fast. It is
of Commone re- ardent imitators and supporters in American workman did-that under turn out two thousand radiators returned to its training quarters,
solder bath. If so, it is like a boxer cently during the debate on the re- already big. It could not Europe, there are many who ques-Ford methods European workers week for Minors and Midgets, so to speak, and get rid of that extra vides that an insurance claim cover- in a championship fight, it must be port stage of the Road Traffic Bill: tion both the practicability and the actually surpassed American,
One clause of that measure pro- desirablity of the application of
for Morris-Commercials, for M. G. "Fordism" to Europe's industries,
The workers to whom he referred Sporta, for Morris taxis, for the corea of the radiator and make an obligation to pay to the hospitai weight. Too much solder may clog ing third-party risks shall include were Englishmen, Irishmen, Dutch- Cowleys and Oxfords and Isis-la it get hot, just as top much "beef" which has treated a victim in a men, Frenchmen, Belgians, Danes the plural Isle or Teises? to say on the boxer may similarly slow, him motor accident the cost of treatment Germans, Italians, Spaniards, nothing of Wolseleys, and test every
Swedes, Finns and Turks, each single one before letting it forth on though now and again the block goes
up. This fault rarely happens, up to £25.
ENJOY
YOUR HOLIDAY
TOURING
THIS
SUMMER
cal, according to Sir Percival.
ON
approachable
Norton
ABGE TRADE MARK
It will bring you to the
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Easy payment arranged
SINCERE'S
SOLE AGENTS
FOR A RELIABLE
OVERHAUL.
FIAT GARAGE 67A 67B, Des Voeux Rd. C
Tel. 21821.
Radiator Ingredients. It la soon very
anyone with eyea to
the main ingredients for motor radiator
Climate and social environment differed. enormously, as did the pre- vious experience of the men con- cerned. But the mathods by which to their work was organised were ex- that actly the same, and the results ob-required tained from this application of manufacture are (a) some rather "Fordism" under widely divergent circumstances were roughly identi
group labouring in its native laid its active career, if the space were into the testing tank and spouts als the deletion of this provision on the and using the same tools under the not very large.
Major Hills (Con., Ripon) moved It is large, but in when pressure is applied. The leak ground that the method of rasist. same factory conditiona.
every way and every day it is get-is immediately discernible and genance proposed was wrong in prin- ting larger and larger.
erally comes from an Infinitesimally ciple. His alternative proposal was amall hole near the edge of the block. that a penny or twopence should be evident It is soldered up, then and there, added to the charges for every
see and re-immersed.
driving licence, and that the pro- This, then, is a brief history of a ceeds should be given to the hos radiator as made by a modern plant. pitals. One penny, he computed,
But the real llon of the establish- would produce £10,000 a year. ment fa the immense vat, or rather The Minister of Transport, Mr. series of vats, through which passes Herbert Morrison, was willing to In Denmark, where wages are the countries may be taken as represen- every single article to be nickel plat-leave the decision to a free vote of highest in Europe, the production tative, they indicate that, as Sired, which is a
necessary opera- the House, but ultimately, In face costs are the lowest. In Belgium,ercival Ferry put it, "Ine Amer- tion prior to chromium plating. of considerable opposition, Major where the wages are lowest, the ican workman is no miracle mon besides radiator shelle, as door
These articles embrace such Items Hills withdrew his amendment. production costs are the highest; ger; neither is the British, Irish nor and when pay was increased in the Continental artisan any inferior handles, bonnet catches, radiator Antwerp plant, the cost of produc- creature: given like conditions, and caps and badges. tion immediately dropped.
treatment, workers in Europe ac A Manchester Experience, tually beat their American cousins, The experience of the Manchester aa proved by the standard of our plant is enlightening, as showing minute.costs." how the Ford companies have ex- perimented in an effort to determine
The Original Experiment.
The great series of tanks are all cold water and reducing the steam. arranged in a row as a whole, in that The vat is extremely sensitive to the parts treated start at one end climatic variations. Thus very ac and, after dips of varying duratión curate and quick-recording thermo in swimming bath after swimming meters must be employed and ob- bath, finally are plunged into the served constantly, for in summer- Incidentally a fact one has not nickel vat. It is the biggest con- time the flooding is often needed the right ware, Anding that when soen mentioned in this connection- tinuous plating plant in any motor urgently, while in winter the control they raised wages they reduced the a great many of the workers who manufacturing firm in this coun- of the steam heating has to be care cost of production.
turn out about 7,500 cars a day in try. Those who are familiar with fully watclied. In 1920. It required thirty-nine American Ford plants are Euro-printing machinery will appreciate hours and seventeen minutes to turn peans of recent arrival, many of its size when I say that its external authorities on chromium plating do It is worth noting that eminent out an equipped chasals in the them previously unskilled. So it dimensions are approximately equal not view the deposit on the natural Manchester works, and this process may be said that the original Ford to three double-decker Hoe rotaziés metal in this case brass with cost $21.48. In August of that year experiment, which has proved sach placed end to end. The items under favour. The part must be previous the pay was raised from 54 cents an an extraordinary saccess, was cargoing treatment are not touched by ly nickel
and very well and hour to 66 cents an hour, and by ried out largely with European humans at any time during the trips carefully March, 1921, the chassis was made labour.
too.
after In twenty-seven to twenty-eight Hence, perhaps, it is not so in chronised pulleyeroller
a cunnjagarrangement of syn polishing be chromium-plated on the hours at a cost of from $13.18 to conceivable, after all, that a unified
cams and nickel.Thus the best chromfupi finish must be more expensive, than $10,44.
chain pic and tarifless Europe, with a domes
nickel plate. This is orth noting In May, 1921, the wage was the market comparable to Americas!
when a car Ilk the Tis, which increased to 70 cents an hour, and might go in successfully for
is sold at a highly competitive price, is considered because t toach proves in most conclusive re manner that, although one- to pays so little comparatively with tant former years for such cars, one ob- tains not only more refinements, but low deliberately expensive refinements. roper It Is only by the use of large and costly pparatus, and by specia}Ida- of tion wan manufacture, that tha and seemingly impossible trites are aurice Sampe
by September the cost had dropped fam" and thereby sot
to $18.04 and the time for produc-of living as his
ing a chassis to twenty-five hours. United Stat
Thus, when the wage was 54 cents seems to!
the job-cost $21.48, and when the th
wage rose to 70 cents the dostá
to $18.04. No changes)
in the work for, Husdy
everything in
cepting th
stocar
BUYERS GUIDE
MOTOR CARS.
ARMSTRONG SIDDELEY.-Hongkong Hotel Garage, Queen's
Road. Tel. 24769. EUICK-The Dragon Motor Car Co., Ltd., 38, Wong Nei Chung
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FIAT MOTOR CAR-A Goeke & Co., China Bldg., 7th floor.
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24759. STUDEBAKER.-Hongkong Hotel Garage, Queen's Road. Tel
24759. WILLYS-KNIGHT & WHIPPET MOTOR CARS-Gilman & Co.,
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Tel.
OUTBOARD MOTORS.-Rudolf Wolf & Kew, 64 Queen's Road,
Tel. 22173.
Tel.
MOTOR TRUCKS AND TRACTORS. CHEVROLET Kongkong Hotel Garage, Queen's Road.
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MORRIS Hongkong Hotel Garage, Queen's Road, Tal. 24769. STUDEBAKER Hongkong Hotel Garage, Queen's Road. Tel.
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MOTOR CYCLES.
NORTON The Sincere Co., Ltd. Des Voeux Road C. Tel.
BSA The Stucere Co, Ldt., Des Voeux Road. Tel. 27767.·
MOTOR OILS. GARGOYLE MOBILOIL Vacuum Oil Company, King's Bldg. SHELLAsiatic Petroleum Co. (S.C.), Ltd., Asiatic Bldg.
TYRES AND ACCESSORIES. ACCESSORIES-Hongkong Hotel, Garage, Bueen's 'Road.
Tel.
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4 Tel. 66226, p
FISK TYRES Gilman & Co., Ltd. 4a, Des Voeux Rd. G. Tel
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INDIA TYRES W. R. Loxley Co. (York Blogs. Tel. 22285. MICHELIN TYRESA Goeke & Co., China Bldg, 7th floor:
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