—“Man and His Machines” by Henry Ford, as told to William A. McGarry, from the May 1, 1926, issue of The Saturday Evening Post
Those who mourn the good old days are hardly acquainted with the conditions under which the vast majority of the people then lived.
[The assembly line is a] vast increase in production and quality and wages, [and an] equally important decrease in hours of labor and cost of goods.
It does not give it the appearance of a menace, except as it may be a menace to scarcity and poverty and social helplessness. In our own industry there are numerous paths open to all our men. We want them to move up and make place for others.
Another criticism [is that] machine-production methods, rapidity of operation, is responsible for the so-called killing pace of present-day life. How is one to reconcile the killing pace with the fact that the average of human life is lengthened year by year?
This article is featured in the May/June 2026 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. Subscribe to the magazine for more art, inspiring stories, fiction, humor, and features from our archives.
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