The Foraker Act, also known as the Organic Act of 1900, established a civilian government on the island of Puerto Rico, formerly a Spanish colony, which became a U. S. possession after the Spanish-American War. Named for its sponsor, Ohio senator Joseph Benjamin Foraker, the law created a territorial government with a governor and executive council appointed by the American president, a popularly elected House of Representatives, and a system of courts. It also established a new, nonvoting Resident Commission of Puerto Rico in Congress. The first civilian governor of Puerto Rico, Charles H. Allen, was inaugurated in 1900. The Foraker Act also mandated that federal statutes and regulations were in effect in Puerto Rico, but the inhabitants of the island were citizens of Puerto Rico, not the United States. They had neither the rights nor the privileges of American citizens. Legally, the island was not incorporated into the United States, and the clauses of the U. S. Constitution on citizenship and taxation did not apply to its citizens. The status of Puerto Rico and other territories was defined as outside constitutional protections; the Supreme Court upheld this definition of Puerto Rico’s status in the landmark Insular Cases.
There were many reasons for the special status of Puerto Rico and other territorial possessions that the United States acquired after the Spanish-American War. First, 40 percent of the Puerto Rican population was nonwhite. Moreover, they spoke Spanish, not English, as their primary language. Second, opposition to the Spanish-American War, while it did not prevent the United States from going to war, generated constraints on how the United States governed its new possessions. Because many Americans were ambivalent about U. S. expansionism and opposed to open IMMIGRATION, they saw the integration of Puerto Rico into the United States as a real threat to American culture.
It would not be until 1917 that the citizenship status of Puerto Ricans changed. In that year, the Foraker Act was replaced by the JONES AcT (1917), which granted Puerto Rican inhabitants U. S. CITIZENSHIP and made them eligible for the rights and duties of American citizens, including the obligation to pay taxes and eligibility for military conscription.
See also fOREIGN POLICY; NATIVISM.
Further reading: Jose A. Cabranes, Citizenship and the American Empire: Notes on the Legislative History of the United States Citizenship of Puerto Ricans (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1979); Bartholomew H. Sparrow, The Insular Cases and the Emergence of American Empire (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 2006).
Ford, Henry (1863-1947) industrialist Henry Ford’s introduction of the Model T Ford automobile and his innovations in assembly line production fundamentally transformed American society. Born in Dearborn, Michigan, in 1863, Ford displayed a genius for mechanical innovation at an early age. Ford moved to Detroit when he turned 16 and began working as an apprentice in a machine shop. In the 1890s, while working for the chief engineer for the Detroit Edison Company, Ford began experimenting with an internal combustion engine. He built his first automobile in 1896 and sold it to raise money to build more. In 1899, he secured enough financial backing to create the Detroit Automobile Company, which later became the Henry Ford Company. During these early years, Ford frustrated many of his backers when he insisted that his automobile was not yet ready for sale to the public. Frustrated by these disputes, he left the company, which later became the Cadillac Motor Car Company. In 1903, he created the Ford Motor Company.
Ford’s first automobile, the Model A Ford, was well-built, relatively inexpensive (at $850 it was among the least expensive automobiles on the market), and sold exceptionally well. By 1904, Ford had sold 1,700 of the Model As and had established himself as one of the leading manufacturers in the city. Ford’s rise to prominence, however, was almost derailed before it began. His reluctance to push his early models into production had alienated many of Detroit’s wealthiest financiers and manufacturers. When Ford introduced the Model A, Ford was taken to court because he was not a licensed manufacturer. Other licensed automakers charged that Ford had violated the 1895 patent given to George Baldwin Selden, an early innovator. Ford finally won the suit on an appeal in 1911. Ford’s commitment to manufacturing good quality, inexpensive automobiles, along with his decision to fight wealthy manufacturers in Detroit and their financial backers, made him a popular figure with many ordinary citizens.
Not content to have only a minority share of the automobile market, Ford announced in 1908 that he was going to build a durable, inexpensive car that would enable ordinary citizen to enjoy the benefits of automobile transportation. Although critics scoffed at the idea that automobiles could be mass-produced, the Model T Ford was released in March 1908 and became an instant success. The Model T featured top-of-the-line engineering and construction but no frills. Priced at $850, Ford boasted that no car offered more for less, and the American public agreed. Between its introduction in 1908 and its discontinuation in 1927, Ford sold 15 million Model Ts.
The early success of the Model T convinced Ford that he could in fact sell an automobile to every family in the country. In order to do so, he had to make them even cheaper and faster. Ford concluded that MASS PRODUCTION would be the key. The more Model Ts he produced, the cheaper he could sell them. Building on the SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT ideas introduced by FREDERICK WiNSLOW TAYLOR, Ford created an intricate assembly line for the production of the Model T and set about to integrate every aspect of the car’s production. Ford realized that his current facility was not capable of housing a fully integrated assembly line, and so in 1910 the company moved its operation to the newly designed Highland Park plant. Built by architect Albert Kahn, the plant was a massive complex, complete with state-of-the-art
Henry Ford (Library of Congress)
Machinery. With the opening of the Highland Park Factory, Ford created a revolutionary process, in which every step of the Model T’s production had been automated. The Model T’s production time dropped from 728 minutes to a remarkable 93 minutes. The result was that Ford was able to mass-produce the Model T, further reduce the car’s cost (in 1927, only $290), and maximize profits. By 1921, Ford controlled 55 percent of the automobile industry and had a net annual income of $78 million.
In 1914, Ford was in the national spotlight when he announced that all Ford employees would be paid the incredible amount of $5 a day for an eight-hour workday. At the time, industrial employees were averaging only $11 a week, and they often worked more than nine hours a day. Praised by some and denounced by others, Ford insisted that keeping skilled and loyal employees was essential to maintaining his rigorous production schedule. Knowing the value of their skills, craft workers were frequently late for work or simply moved from job to job. Ford’s decision to pay his employees such a handsome wage was not motivated by a commitment to humanitarianism, but rather by a desire to homogenize and discipline his employees. He provided many of his employees with affordable housing but also insisted that they learn how to speak English, refrain from consuming alcohol, and become upstanding American citizens. Ford created a Sociological Department to investigate how his employees lived. The company also withheld part of a worker’s $5 a day wage if he was late or did not fill her production quota. Part of the withheld money could be retrieved if workers agreed to meet the demands of the Sociological Department. Ford’s personal beliefs also were highly controversial. In 1918, he purchased the Dearborn Independent and published a series of articles attacking Jews. Finally, Ford regularly employed company police and spies to intimidate employees; and until the 1940s, his company vigorously opposed attempts by employees to form a union.
The innovations introduced by Ford helped transform the country, while throughout the world Ford’s achievements with the new assembly-line production methods became identified as “Fordism.” Widespread ownership of the automobile helped spread the construction of goods roads and the expansion of cities. Over the next several decades, the automobile changed virtually everything about American society. In addition, the introduction of mass production, the assembly line, scientific management, and corporate paternalism changed the very nature of American industry.
Further reading: Robert Lacey, Ford: The Man and the Machine (Boston: Little, Brown, 1986).
—Robert Gordon
World History
