and if it broke down and had to have parts replaced, then that was just
hard luck for the owner. It was considered good business to sell parts
at the highest possible price on the theory that, since the man had
already bought the car, he simply had to have the part and would be
willing to pay for it.

The automobile business was not on what I would call an honest basis, to
say nothing of being, from a manufacturing standpoint, on a scientific
basis, but it was no worse than business in general. That was the
period, it may be remembered, in which many corporations were being
floated and financed. The bankers, who before then had confined
themselves to the railroads, got into industry. My idea was then and
still is that if a man did his work well, the price he would get for
that work, the profits and all financial matters, would care for
themselves and that a business ought to start small and build itself up
and out of its earnings. If there are no earnings then that is a signal
to the owner that he is wasting his time and does not belong in that
business. I have never found it necessary to change those ideas, but I
discovered that this simple formula of doing good work and getting paid
for it was supposed to be slow for modern business. The plan at that
time most in favor was to start off with the largest possible
capitalization and then sell all the stock and all the bonds that could
be sold. Whatever money happened to be left over after all the stock and
bond-selling expenses and promoters, charges and all that, went
grudgingly into the foundation of the business. A good business was not
one that did good work and earned a fair profit. A good business was one
that would give the opportunity for the floating of a large amount of
stocks and bonds at high prices. It was the stocks and bonds, not the
work, that mattered. I could not see how a new business or an old
business could be expected to be able to charge into its product a great