STEVE EMBER: To Make the Model T, Ford built the largest factory of its time. Inside the factory, car parts moved to the workers exactly when they needed them. Other factories moved some parts to the workers. But Ford was the first to design his factory completely around this system. Production rose sharply.

As production rose, Ford lowered prices. By nineteen sixteen, the price had dropped to three hundred forty-five dollars.

The last step in Ford's production success was to raise his workers' pay. His workers had always earned about two dollars for ten hours of work. That was the same daily rate as at other factories.

With wages the same everywhere, factory workers often changed jobs. Henry Ford wanted loyal workers who would remain. He raised wages to five dollars a day.

FRANK OLIVER: That made Henry Ford popular with working men. He became popular with car buyers in nineteen thirteen when he gave back fifty dollars to each person who had bought a Ford car. Henry Ford was demonstrating his idea that if workers received good wages, they became better buyers. And if manufacturers sold more products, they could lower prices and still earn money.

This system worked for Ford because people continued to demand his Model T. And they had the money to buy it. But what would happen when people no longer wanted the Model T, or did not have the money?

STEVE EMBER: In nineteen nineteen, Henry was involved in a dispute with the other people who owned stock in the Ford Motor Company. In the end, Henry bought the stock of the other investors. He gained complete control of the company.