The frame of the article is that Ford, a dashing socialist in disguise, woke up and decided one day that all would be well and good in the world if workers were paid $5/hr.

That isn't going to be what happened. He would have thought about it carefully and moved deliberately because he thought it would benefit his business.

I'll draw an analogue with, say, Google and their 20% time back in the day. It might be quirky and costly to the company (losing 20% of your workers productivity!!) - but it isn't happening because the bosses are just lovely people. It happens because the boss thinks that there might be a payoff. It is circumstance-specific whether such bold plays work out.

I'll reiterate what some others are saying; capitalism is all about allowing selfish motivations to power great outcomes. The moral people tend to be the wizened monks sitting on mountains rather than the egos that power the machinery of society. Something external to the Ford company would have driven the rise in wages, and that something was likely to be competition or economic opportunity.