[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 14931]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FORD MOTOR COMPANY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Kennedy) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KENNEDY of Minnesota. Mr. Speaker, on this 16th day of June, 
2003, as the Ford Motor Company celebrates its 100th anniversary, in 
the city of St. Cloud, Minnesota, which is in my congressional 
district, the world's oldest Ford dealership, Tenvoorde Ford, is 
celebrating its centennial as well.
  Mr. Speaker, the story behind this century-old family-owned business 
is one that I think Members of the House should hear, and I rise today 
to share it with my colleagues and recognize such a remarkable 
achievement. In 1899, Stephen Tenvoorde and a friend brought the first 
automobile to St. Cloud, Minnesota. Back then they called them 
horseless carriages; and this machine, a Milwaukee Steamer, was the 
first anyone in central Minnesota had seen. So new was the horseless 
carriage, that Stephen had to bring it in the old oxen trail to get it 
from Minneapolis. From the buzz that resulted from the presence of this 
machine in St. Cloud, it was clear that the horseless carriage was 
something more than the latest technological leap forward. It was a 
change in our way of life.
  The American love affair with the automobile, which thrives today, 
began that day at least for the people in central Minnesota who were 
there to see Stephen motoring around in his horseless carriage. There 
can be no doubt that Stephen Tenvoorde recognized the opportunity of 
this invention. A blacksmith and bicycle shop owner, this entrepreneur 
clearly knew that he was on the cusp of a fantastic new age. In fact, 
Mr. Speaker, 3 months before the first Model A would roll off the 
assembly line at Henry Ford's Detroit factory, Stephen Tenvoorde became 
a Ford franchisee. At that time he was the second person to sign a 
franchise agreement, but a month before the first dealer sold out and 
left the business. So today 100 years afterwards, Tenvoorde Ford is the 
oldest Ford dealership in the world.
  The past 100 years have not always been easy for this family-run 
business. As the country has experienced bumps along the way, this 
family-run business has also run into challenges. Yet, Mr. Speaker, in 
the face of wars and the Great Depression, when people just were not 
buying cars, this business has overcome the challenges. Stephen 
Tenvoorde passed on the business to his son Cy in 1948 and Cy passed on 
the dealership to his three sons, Jack, Paul, and David, who run the 
business today. And as the fourth generation prepares to enter into the 
family business in its centennial year, we appropriately observe this 
remarkable achievement. It is businesses like this that drive our 
economy and create jobs.
  It is also fitting to note on this great occasion the valuable 
economic lessons that could be learned from the successes of Ford Motor 
Company. When Henry Ford entered the car market, it was the standard 
practice to build cars that only the wealthy could afford, the more 
expensive, the better. How else could a company maximize their profits? 
But Henry Ford's genius lay in the fact that he knew a better way. Ford 
understood that his company could make more money by selling more cars 
at a lower price than they could by selling a handful of cars to the 
wealthy. So he lowered the price of the Model T every year, and his 
sales and profits went through the roof. He even got the price low 
enough that my grandfather, Charles Kennedy, was able to buy the first 
Model T in my hometown of Murdock, Minnesota, in the early 1900s, 
possibly from Tenvoorde Ford.
  Ford also knew that the more money people had in their pockets, the 
more cars they could buy. So what did Ford do? He increased his 
employees' wages to $5 a day so that every one of his workers could 
afford to buy his products, and they did, expanding the market for Ford 
cars to people who could never before have afforded one. Lower prices 
to increase profits and giving people more money to buy more goods, 
that was revolutionary thinking 100 years ago. This new approach to 
economics made men like Henry Ford and Stephen Tenvoorde business 
visionaries far ahead of their time.
  The success of their business has proven that their practice worked 
back then, and it still works today. One hundred years later, we can 
see this free market approach in action. Since May 28 when the 
President signed the Jobs and Growth Tax Act into law, the stock market 
has been surging. In fact, today alone the Dow was up over 200 points 
and closed at the highest level of the year. The NASDAQ and S&P 500 
also hit their highest levels.
  The lessons are simple: give people more of their own money to spend, 
and they will build a stronger country. Give companies some relief from 
the cumbersome burdens government taxes out of them, and they lower 
prices and sell more goods. That was what we did with the Jobs and 
Growth Tax Act, and the results have been spectacular. In a free 
market, economics work in action. One hundred years ago Henry Ford 
knew. Stephen Tenvoorde knew it. And today, Mr. Speaker, we are the 
fortunate ones who can reap the rewards and the benefits of their 
knowledge.
  I want to commend Stephen Tenvoorde and the generations that have 
followed for their hard work and dedication to automobile excellence 
over the past 100 years.

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