The criteria of "usefulness" is a slippery slope. Books like The Iliad are completely devoid of any practical usefulness, they would have been discarded centuries ago by the librarians at Alexandria. I've seen libraries in Spain throw away good novels, even excellent novels, to make room for the latest potboiler.
The library at Alexandria was where the early scholarship on Homer was done.
> The Alexandrine grammarians undertook the critical revision of the works of classical Greek literature,[3] particularly those of Homer, and their studies were profoundly influential,[4] marking the beginning of the Western grammatical tradition.[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandrine_grammarians
(Not arguing with your point about usefulness in general; just twitching when it came to the Iliad.)
What some people who don't see the need to preserve languages are missing is that each living language is in itself a Noah Ark that preserves lots of dead languages and world views. English preserves latin, greek, yiddish... Consider the word "consider". It comes from latin Considerare (cum + sidera) 'to consult the stars'. Each language that dies is a tragedy that kills many precedent languages. Moreover, current status is no guarantee for the future, even English could one day be at risk. I am a Catalan speaker, a language that once ruled the Mediterranean and now is struggling.
This a misleading article. Ford didn't graciously concede the 40 hour week. Moreover, it is an insult to the memory of all the workers that fought and died for it (like in the Haymarket massacre).
http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/audios/emision-en-sefardi/