[3] If one is interested in what can cause a financial and economic crisis and depression and how it can be done on somebody’s demand please refer to the works of IP of the USSR “The Brief Course…”, “The Economic «Rupture» Must Be Excised”, abstract of “On Understanding the Macroeconomy of State and World”.
[4] Douglas Reed provides the facts referring to this issue in his book “Dispute on Zion”.
[5] Gorky is named Nizhnyi Novgorod nowdays.
[6] The factory named after Likhachev. At the time it was named ZiS (factory named after Stalin) and was headed by Ivan Lihatchov (1896 — 1956) in the period of 1926 — 1930 and 1940 — 1950. He had an agricultural background, started as a worker at the Putilov factory in 1908. He served in the Baltic Navy during World War I (1914 — 1918) and was a soldier in the Red Army in the years of the Civil War. Later he was promoted to a Red Army commander, then an official of the VChK (National Emergency and Security Committee). In 1953 he was appointed Minister of motor transport and highways in the Soviet government.
[7] Statistical data given here are taken from the book “My Life and Work” by H. Ford. It will become clear from further evidence that they provide documentary proof of the fact that Marxists slander Ford by this article while being aware of the truth. If it isn’t so it only remains to conclude that they are hopelessly dumb and are capable of making sense neither out of a book’s text nor of the happenings of life.
[8] When compared to contemporary competitors.
[9] The sentence is worded in a way, which implies that payment by the hour is the best and most just method of remuneration. Marxists are not interested in that this very method is inconsistent in the conditions of modern industry where manufacturing processes are carried out collectively and where the principle of professional specialization is employed, and this fact will be exemplified further in the text. These men of no scruples and intelligence seek only to maintain the class approach in its purity while turning a blind eye to the differences in morality of concrete people, and to accuse H. Ford of being an exploiter of the working class in his intentions and actions.
[10] One wonders where on Earth have they found a metrologically consistent (there can be no other) science of control generally and of controlling production and distribution, the state, society in particular in Marxism?
[11] We take quotations from the book by Ford (in Russian translation) out of an electronic file obtained in the Internet. That is why we mark quotations with names of chapters only without providing the numbers of pages. The file being quoted can be found in the «Other authors» section in the Internal Predictor of the USSR CD information base.
[12] The quoted file gives «partially capable» instead of «partially able-bodied» though it follows from the context that what is meant is limited work capacity. Unfortunately the Russian translation contained in the file being quoted leaves much to be desired in various other passages as well.
[13] In his book H. Ford writes that among other things «Ford Motors» kept its own hospital. Medical services at that hospital were charged, but those charges and the personnel’s wages were maintained at a ratio that would enable them to pay the charges out of their wages. In other words two birds were killed with one stone: health care was accessible and an economical attitude to one’s health received a monetary stimulus — though medicine is affordable it is not only more pleasant to be healthy, it is more profitable.
[14] This paragraph is followed by an extract containing the statistical data on personnel training that are given in the above-mentioned article «Fordizm» from the “Big Soviet Encyclopedia”:
« The length of time required to become proficient in the various occupations is about as follows: 43 per cent. Of all the jobs require not over one day of training; 36 per cent. require from one day to one week; 6 per cent. require from one to two weeks; 14 per cent. require from one month to one year; one per cent. require from one to six years. The last jobs require great skill − as in tool making and die sinking».
The broader context where the data given by the encyclopedia are taken from shows that the authors of the article «Fordizm» were deliberately slandering Ford, i.e. they had a malicious intent and were performing an order on propaganda.
[15] Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
[16] A device consisting of two multi-pass blocks and a rope passed through them, one end of the rope being attached to one block and the other end (running end) being pulled either manually or by means of a winch when weights need to be moved. One block is mounted on a beam; the other is fixed on the rope being passed several times through both blocks to form rings. Either a crook or a claw is mounted on the free block. The hoist is intended for lifting and moving heavy weights. When operating the hoist the worker must wear clothes reducing the risk of its getting between the blocks.
Ties and broad sleeves may also cause injuries when caught by moving parts of machinery: drills, shafts, cutters, component parts while turnings etc.
[17] Here and further throughout the text <angular brackets> are used to designate our notes and commentaries.
[18] I.e. in the very beginning of the 20th century.
[19] What is meant is the US Administration.
[20] 343 English miles correspond to approximately 550 kilometers, and as Ford says it sometimes takes up to 5 or 6 weeks for a shipment to go this distance. It means that the average speed of transportation on this railroad could be as low as 0.65 km/h while at the time a steam engine could haul a train of 20 to 30 carriages (even if they were two-axle) at a speed of some 40 — 50 km/h. Comparing the two figures may say something about the quality of management at the railroad before it was acquired by «Ford Motors» and after that.
[21] In fact a «financier» in this context nearly always means a «stock exchange speculator».
Similarly almost every time Ford uses the word «banker» one should read «usurer» instead. That is why we have substituted the word «banker» for «usurers» in the remaining part of the quotation whenever it is unambiguously clear that lending loans on interest is meant. This is a norm, which the US banking system operates by, and this substitution simply clears things up calling social phenomena by their proper names.
[22] And moreover so a «financier» who is a stock exchange speculator mostly acting as a parasite on production and on processes of macroeconomic control.
[23] The conclusion Ford makes about US railroads can be applied for interpreting the increase in railroad fares by 30 % in Russia, which took place on January 15th, 2002, and for the production slump at the majority of Russian enterprises that occurred in the course of reforms, especially in high-tech industries.
[24] This means that Ford objects to a society (including economic science, law and legislature) which does not distinguish between:
profit gained by means of interest on loans and
profit gained by enterprises of the industrial sector of economy by means of trade.
He also objects to attempts of raising parasitism achieved through financial manipulations to the level of a highly important task. Compare Ford’s point of view with the Koran, sura 2:
«276 (275) Those who feed on interest will rise <on Judgment day> in the same way as those whom Satan casts down with his touch. This will be the punishment for having spoken: «Trade is same as usury». And God has allowed trade and forbidden usury. Those who will hear the word of God and keep away will be (forgiven) what had preceded. His cause belongs to God. And those who carry one are dwellers of flame <hell>, they are in it forever! 277 (276) God destroys usury and breeds charity. Truly God has no love for every sinner! (277) Those who have found faith did good, and built prayer, and lent purification. Those will have their reward from God, and have no fear, and they will not be sad!»