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Eyewitness to history “One hundred thousand people flocked into the showrooms of the Ford Company in Detroit; mounted police were called out to patrol the crowds in Cleveland; in Kansas City so great a mob stormed Convention Hall that platforms had to be built to lift the new car high enough for everyone to see it.” - Charles Merz
In December 1927 the American public clamored to see the Ford Motor Company’s new Model A automobile. Ford had kept the new design secret, and public excitement grew in the days before its unveiling. This interest was heightened by a massive advertising campaign that featured a five-day series of full-page newspaper ads costing $1.3 million The prosperity of the 1920s increased the spending power of many families and allowed them to purchase the wide variety of new products being produced by American industries. These products transformed Americans’ lives, changing the way they worked, socialized, and ran their households. Does this remind you of anything from our present society????
Massive Advertisement Campaign iPhone Commercial
Iphone hysteria Iphone Hysteria
Americans buy more in the 20S • Americans were able to purchase more goods in the 1920s because of 2 reasons: • Scientific Management decreased the cost of goods • At the same time, workers’ wages rose + = SPEND!!! SPEND!!! SPEND!!! Scientific Management Increased Worker Wages
Henry Ford and the automobile • Ford Motor Company was the industry leader in the early 1900s. • Ford wanted to make the automobile even more affordable Hmmm…how do I make cars more affordable?
Henry Ford and the automobile • Ford Motor Company was the industry leader in the early 1900s. • Ford wanted to make the automobile even more affordable
Henry Ford and the automobile • Ford Motor Company was the industry leader in the early 1900s. • Ford wanted to make the automobile even more affordable I can apply scientific management and a new production method called the assembly line
Assembly Line • In an assembly line, workers stood in one place as partially assembled products such as automobiles moved past them on a conveyor belt. • How could this affect companies? • How could this affect workers?
The Automobile Industry • The auto industry became a huge business in the 1920s. By 1929, more than 1 million people labored in the automobile industry.
Effects of Automobiles • Road Trips & Sunday Drives • Increased population of suburbs • Decreased population of inner cities • Growth of other industries associated with automobiles
Ford’s thoughts on the “average worker” • Henry Ford maintained an unapologetic attitude about the deadening nature of assembly-line work. In an autobiography published in 1922, Ford offered the following assessment of conditions in his factories: “Repetitive labor – the doing of one thing over and over again and always in the same way – is a terrifying prospect to a certain turn of mind. It is terrifying to me. I could not possibly do the same thing day in and day out, but to other minds, perhaps I might say to the majority of minds, repetitive operations hold no terrors…The average worker, I am sorry to say, wants a job in which he does not have to put forth much physical exertion – above all, he wants a job in which he does not have to think.
What do you think??? • Henry Ford had some strong views regarding American workers. What are your thoughts on Ford’s assessment of the “average worker”? Do you agree or disagree with him. Write a 2 paragraph response expressing your opinion.
