THE H A BIT 0 F DOl N G M 0 RET HAN P A I D FOR 579ground, then sows his wheat and waits while the law of increasing
returns brings back the seed he has sown-plus a manyfold increase.
Were it not for this law of increasing returns, humankind would
perish because we could not make the soil produce sufficient food for
our existence. There would be no advantage to be gained by sowing a
field of wheat if the harvest yield did not return more than was sown.
With this vital "tip" from Nature, let us proceed to appropriate
this law and learn how to apply it to the service we render, so that it
may yield returns in excess of the effort put forth.
First let me emphasize that there is no trickery connected with
this law, although quite a few seem not to have learned this great
truth, judging by the number who spend all of their efforts trying
to get something for nothing or something for less than its true value.
A remarkable and noteworthy feature of this law of increasing
returns is that it may be used, with as great returns, by those who
purchase service as it can be by those who render service. For proof
of that, we have but to study the effects of Henry Ford's famous
five-dollar-a-day minimum-wage scale.
Those who are familiar with the facts say that Mr. Ford was
not playing the part of a philanthropist when he inaugurated this
minimum-wage scale. To the contrary, he was merely taking advan-
tage of a sound business principle that probably yielded him greater
returns, in both dollars and goodwill, than any other single policy
ever inaugurated at the Ford plant.
Through the inauguration of that minimum-wage policy, Ford
attracted the best labor on the market and placed a premium on the
privilege of working in his plant.
Although I have no hard figures to prove it, I believe that for
every five dollars Ford spent under this policy, he received at least
seven dollars and fifty cents' worth of service. I also have reason to
believe that this policy enabled Ford to reduce the cost of supervision,
because employment in his plant became so desirable that no worker
would run the risk of losing his position by rendering poor service.