Page:Henry Ford's Own Story.djvu/155

 "THE GREATEST GOOD TO THE GREATEST NUMBER"

response to that first Christmas gift from the Ford company to its employees was another proof of Ford's theory that friendliness pays. In the following month the production of cars broke all January records. Salesmen, with a new feeling of loyalty to the firm, increased their efforts, worked with greater enthusiasm and their orders jumped.

The fight with the association still raged in the courts and in the newspapers, but the factory wheels were turning faster than ever before. More cars were pouring out, more people were buying. That year the Ford organization made and sold 10,607 cars. Ford had made good his prophecy that the new factory would produce 10,000 cars in one year.

The phenomenal growth of his business had begun. His own fortune was doubling and doubling again. America had produced another self-made millionaire.

Ford himself believes that any one who will pay the price he has paid can make a financial success as great.

"Poverty doesn't hold a man down," he says.