Page:Henry Ford's Own Story.djvu/172

. The paid teachers were dismissed, and now those 200 men, on their own time, are helping their fellow-employees to learn the language of their new country.

Shortly after the newspapers had carried far and wide the news of Ford's revolutionary theories a man knocked late one night at the door of the manager s home.

"Will you give me a job?" he asked.

"Why, I don't know who you are," the manager replied.

"I'm the worst man in Detroit," said the caller defiantly. "I'm fifty-four years old, and I've done thirty-two years in Jackson prison. I'm a bad actor, and everybody knows it. I can't get a job. The only person that ever played me true is my wife, and I ain't going to have her taking in washing to support me. If you want to give me a job, all right. If you don't I'm going back to Jackson prison for good. There's one man yet I want to get, and I'll get him."

Somewhat nonplussed by the situation the manager invited the man in, talked to him a bit, and called up Ford.

"Sure, give him a chance," Ford's voice came over the wire. "He's a man, isn't he? He's entitled to as good a chance as any other man."

The ex-convict was given a job in the shops. For a couple of months his work was poor. The foreman reported it to the manager. The manager wrote a letter, telling the man to brace up,