Biography of Henry Ford, American Industrialist and Inventor
Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American manufacturer who founded the Ford Motor Company and pioneered the assembly line method of mass production.
Despite the fact that Ford did not invent the vehicle or the assembly line, he built and produced the first car that many middle-class Americans could purchase. Ford succeeded in transforming the vehicle from an expensive curiosity into a practical mode of transportation that would have a significant impact on the landscape of the twentieth century. The Model T vehicle, which he introduced, transformed transportation and American business. He became one of the world's wealthiest and most well-known people as the owner of the Ford Motor Company. He is credited with "Fordism," or mass production of low-cost goods with high worker wages. Ford had a big picture in mind, and he saw consumption as the route to peace. His unwavering drive to progressively reducing costs led in a slew of technical and financial breakthroughs, including a franchise structure that spread dealerships across most of North America and to major cities on six continents. The Ford Foundation received the majority of Ford's immense fortune, and his family was given permanent ownership of the corporation. Ford was also notorious for his pacifism during World War I's early years, as well as for propagating antisemitism through his daily The Dearborn Independent and book The International Jew.
Early years
Henry Ford was born on a farm in Greenfield Township, Michigan, on July 30, 1863. William Ford (1826–1905), his father, was born in County Cork, Ireland, to a family that emigrated from Somerset, England. Mary Ford (née Litogot; 1839–1876) was born in Michigan to Belgian immigrants as the youngest child; her parents died while she was a kid, and she was adopted by neighbours, the O'Herns. Margaret Ford (1867–1938), Jane Ford (c. 1868–1945), William Ford (1871–1917), and Robert Ford (1873–1934) were Henry Ford's siblings. In his early adolescence, his father gave him a pocket watch. Ford earned a reputation as a watch repairman at the age of 15, when he dismantled and rebuilt the timepieces of friends and neighbours dozens of times. Ford travelled four miles to their Episcopal church every Sunday when he was twenty. When Ford's mother died in 1876, he was crushed. His father wanted him to take over the family farm in the future, but he detested farm work. "I never had any particular love for the land—it was the mother on the farm that I loved," he later wrote. In 1879, Ford moved to Detroit to work as an apprentice machinist, first for James F. Flower & Bros. and then for the Detroit Dry Dock Co. He returned to Dearborn in 1882 to work on the family farm, where he honed his skills with a Westinghouse portable steam engine. Westinghouse then employed him to service its steam engines. Ford also studied bookkeeping at Goldsmith, Bryant & Stratton Business College in Detroit at this time.
Biography of Henry Ford, American Industrialist and Inventor
Family and marriage
Career
In 1891, Ford joined the Edison Illuminating Company as an engineer. He had ample time and money after his elevation to Chief Engineer in 1893 to focus on his personal research with gasoline engines. These experiments culminated in 1896 with the development of the Ford Quadricycle, a self-propelled vehicle. On June 4, he took it for a test drive. Ford discussed ideas to improve the Quadricycle after several test drives. In 1896, Ford also attended a conference of Edison executives, where he met Thomas Edison for the first time. Ford's car experiments were approved by Edison. Ford was inspired by Edison to design and build a second car, which he completed in 1898. On August 5, 1899, Ford resigned from the Edison Company and created the Detroit Automobile Company, backed by the funds of Detroit timber mogul William H. Murphy. However, the cars manufactured were of inferior quality and cost more than Ford had hoped. In the end, the company was a failure, and it was liquidated in January 1901. Ford designed, manufactured, and raced a 26-horsepower vehicle with the help of C. Harold Wills in October 1901. As a result of this accomplishment, Murphy and other Detroit Automobile Company owners founded the Henry Ford Company on November 30, 1901, with Ford as chief engineer. Murphy hired Henry M. Leland as a consultant in 1902, and Ford resigned from the corporation that bore his name. Murphy renamed the company Cadillac Automobile Company after Ford's departure. Ford also created the 80+ horsepower racer "999" in collaboration with former racing cyclist Tom Cooper, which Barney Oldfield drove to victory in a race in October 1902. Ford obtained support from an old acquaintance, Alexander Y. Malcomson, a coal dealer in the Detroit region. To produce automobiles, they formed a partnership called "Ford & Malcomson, Ltd." Ford and Dodge set about constructing a low-cost car, and they leased a factory and hired a machine shop run by John and Horace E. Dodge to furnish over $160,000 in parts. Ale production was delayed, and when the Dodge brothers requested payment for their first shipment, a dispute ensued.
Ford Motor Company is a car manufacturer.
In response, Malcomson enlisted the help of a new group of investors and persuaded the Dodge Brothers to take a stake in the new firm. Ford & Malcomson was renamed the Ford Motor Company on June 16, 1903, with a capital of $28,000. Ford and Malcomson, the Dodge brothers, Malcomson's uncle John S. Gray, Malcolmson's secretary James Couzens, and two of Malcomson's lawyers, John W. Anderson and Horace Rackham, were among the first investors. Ford then drove a freshly constructed car across the ice of Lake St. Clair, covering one mile (1.6 km) in 39.4 seconds and setting a new land speed record of 91.3 mph (146.9 kilometres per hour). Convinced by this success, race driver Barney Oldfield, who named this new Ford model "999" after the fastest locomotive of the time, drove the automobile across the country, bringing the Ford brand to the attention of the general public. Ford was also an early supporter of the Indianapolis 500.
Biography of Henry Ford, American Industrialist and Inventor
Model T is a car made by Ford.
On October 1, 1908, the Model T was unveiled. It had a left-hand steering wheel, which was quickly replicated by everyone else. The engine and transmission were completely enclosed, and the four cylinders were cast in a monolithic block with two semi-elliptic springs for suspension. The car was simple to operate and maintain, as well as simple and inexpensive to repair. At $825 in 1908 ($21,760 today) (the price dropped every year), a majority of American drivers had learned to drive on the Model T by the 1920s. Ford set up a massive PR organisation in Detroit to ensure that stories and advertisements about the new product appeared in every newspaper. The car became prevalent in practically every city in North America because to Ford's network of local dealers. The franchises prospered as independent dealers, publicising not only the Ford but also the concept of automobiling; local motor clubs came up to assist new drivers and encourage visiting the countryside. Ford was always anxious to sell to farmers, who saw the vehicle as a commercial tool that would aid their operations. Sales soared—in some years, they increased by 100% over the preceding year. Ford, always on the lookout for methods to improve efficiency and cut costs, introduced moving assembly belts into his plants in 1913, allowing for a massive rise in production. Although employees Clarence Avery, Peter E. Martin, Charles E. Sorensen, and C. Harold Wills are generally attributed with the concept, contemporary sources show that the concept and its development came from Ford employees Clarence Avery, Peter E. Martin, Charles E. Sorensen, and C. Harold Wills. In 1914, sales surpassed 250,000. Sales of the basic touring car reached 472,000 by 1916, when the price was reduced to $360. (This price was equivalent to $7,828.08 in 2015 USD based on the consumer price index.) By 1918, Model Ts accounted for half of all automobiles in the United States. "Whatever customer can have a car painted any colour that he likes as long as it is black," Ford wrote in his autobiography, "as long as it is black." Model Ts were available in a variety of colours, including red, until the invention of the assembly line, which necessitated black because of its faster drying time. Ford vigorously marketed and defended the design, and production lasted until 1927, with a total production of 15,007,034. For the next 45 years, this record stood. This milestone was reached 19 years after the first Model T was introduced (1908). In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson encouraged Ford to run for the United States Senate from Michigan as a Democrat. Ford ran as a peace candidate and a strong advocate of the projected League of Nations despite the fact that the country was at war. Ford was narrowly beaten by Republican nominee Truman Newberry, a former United States Secretary of the Navy, in a close election. In December 1918, Henry Ford handed over the president of Ford Motor Company to his son Edsel Ford. Henry kept final decision-making authority and occasionally overruled his son. The goal was to scare the remaining holdout stockholders of the Ford Motor Company into selling their stakes to him before they lost most of their value. Henry started another company, Henry Ford and Son, and made a show of taking himself and his best employees to the new company; the goal was to scare the remaining holdout stockholders of the Ford Motor Company into selling their stakes to him before they lost most of their value. (He was adamant on having complete control over strategic decisions.) The subterfuge worked, and Henry and Edsel bought all of the remaining stock from the other investors, effectively giving the family total control of the company. Due to increased competition, Model T sales began to fall in the mid-1920s. Other automakers provided payment plans for customers to purchase their vehicles, which often contained more current mechanical features and design than the Model T. Despite Edsel's pleadings, Henry refused to incorporate.
Biography of Henry Ford, American Industrialist and Inventor
Incorporating new features into the Model T or establishing a consumer credit plan. Ford's latter career and the Model A
By 1926, dwindling Model T sales had persuaded Henry to create a new car. He put his technical talents to work on the engine, chassis, and other mechanical requirements of the project, leaving the body design to his son. Edsel also overcame his father's apprehensions over the installation of a sliding-shift transmission. The result was the popular Ford Model A, which was introduced in December 1927 and produced until 1931, with a total production of over 4 million units. As a result, Ford implemented an annual model change scheme similar to that of its competitor General Motors, which was just pioneered (and still in use by automakers today). Ford did not overcome his aversion to finance businesses until the 1930s, when the Ford-owned Universal Credit Corporation established a significant auto-financing operation. Ford did not believe in accountants, and he acquired one of the world's largest fortunes without ever having his company audited.
Occupational philosophy
The $5 hourly wage
14 January 1935, Time magazine
Ford was a pioneer of "welfare capitalism," which aimed to improve the lot of his employees and, in particular, to reduce high turnover, which saw several departments hire 300 men each year to fill 100 positions. Hiring and retaining the best employees was crucial to efficiency. In 1914, Ford stunned the world by giving a $5 per day wage ($120 today), more than doubling the pay of most of his employees. The announcement "shot like a dazzling rocket through the dark clouds of the current industrial depression," according to a Cleveland, Ohio newspaper editorial. Instead of frequent staff churn, the top mechanics in Detroit went to Ford, taking their human capital and knowledge with them, increasing productivity and cutting training costs. On January 5, 1914, Ford launched his $5-per-day initiative, which increased the minimum daily wage for qualified male workers from $2.34 to $5. Detroit had already established itself as a high-wage city, but competitors were pushed to raise salaries or risk losing their best employees. Ford's strategy, on the other hand, demonstrated that paying people more would allow Ford employees to afford the automobiles they were making while also benefiting the local economy. He saw the higher compensation as a form of profit-sharing tied to rewarding individuals who were the most productive and of excellent character. Couzens may have persuaded Ford to embrace the $5-day policy. Employees who had worked for Ford for six months or longer and, more crucially, lived their lives in a way that Ford's "Social Department" approved were eligible for profit-sharing. Heavy drinking, gambling, and (what are now known as) deadbeat parents were all looked upon. To maintain employee standards, the Social Department deployed 50 investigators and support staff; a substantial number of workers were able to qualify for this "profit-sharing." Ford's intrusion into his employees' personal life sparked outrage, and he quickly backtracked on the more intrusive portions. By the time he wrote his biography in 1922, he was speaking in the past tense about the Social Department and the private profit-sharing terms, and he recognised that he was wrong "In business, paternalism has no place. Welfare work that involves delving into employees' personal issues is outdated. Men require advice and assistance, frequently specialised assistance, and all of this should be provided for the sake of decency. However, a broad, realistic plan of investment and involvement will do more to enhance business and organisation than any outside social effort. We changed the payment mechanism without changing the principle."
Biography of Henry Ford, American Industrialist and Inventor
The five-day workweek is a workweek that lasts five days.
In addition to raising his workers' wages, Ford instituted a new, shorter workday in 1926. The decision was made in 1922, when Ford and Crowther defined it as six 8-hour days, resulting in a 48-hour week, but it was changed to five 8-hour days, resulting in a 40-hour week in 1926. (It appears that the programme began with Saturday as a workday and was later altered to a day off.) The Ford Motor Company's production workers began working a five-day, 40-hour workweek on May 1, 1926, with the company's office staff following suit in August. Ford had decided to increase productivity since workers were expected to put in more effort in exchange for more leisure time, and he believed that having more leisure time was beneficial for business because workers would have more time to buy and consume more items. "It is high time to rid ourselves of the assumption that leisure for workmen is either 'lost time' or a class privilege," Ford explained.
Trade unions
Ford was a staunch opponent of labour unions. In Chapter 18 of My Life and Work, he discussed his feelings about labour unions. He believed they were overly influenced by some leaders who, despite their seeming good intentions, would wind up doing more harm to workers than good. Most people sought to limit productivity in order to increase employment, but Ford considered this as counterproductive because productivity, in his opinion, was required for any economic prosperity to exist. He felt that productivity advances that eliminated certain employment would stimulate the greater economy, resulting in the creation of new jobs elsewhere, whether within the same company or abroad. Ford also argued that union officials had a perverse motivation to keep the economy in a state of continual crisis in order to keep their control. Meanwhile, he believed that clever managers were motivated to do the right thing by their employees since doing so would increase their own earnings. Ford did admit, though, that many managers were just incapable of comprehending this fact. However, Ford believed that if good managers like himself could fend off misguided people from both the left and right (i.e., both socialists and bad-manager reactionaries), good managers would eventually create a socio-economic system in which neither bad management nor bad unions would be able to survive. Ford appointed Harry Bennett, a former Navy boxer, to head the Service Department in order to prevent union activities. Bennett used a variety of intimidation methods to prevent unionisation. Bennett's security men beat with clubs UAW representatives, including Walter Reuther, on May 26, 1937, in the most famous episode. The supervisory police chief on the scene, Carl Brooks, an alumnus of Bennett's Service Department, did not intervene while Bennett's men were beating the UAW delegates." The Battle of the Overpass was the name given to the occurrence. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Edsel Ford, the firm's president, believed that the corporation needed to reach a collective bargaining deal with the unions because the violence, work stoppages, and nasty stalemates could not continue on indefinitely. But Henry, who held a de facto veto over the corporation even if it wasn't an official one, refused to cooperate. Bennett was in charge of talking to the unions that were trying to organise the Ford Motor Company for numerous years. According to Sorensen's account, Henry's goal in putting Bennett in charge was to ensure that no agreements were ever achieved. The United Auto Workers union was last recognised by the Ford Motor Company, which was the final Detroit automaker to do so (UAW). The River Rouge Plant was shuttered in April 1941 due to a sit-down strike by the United Auto Workers union. According to Sorensen, a distressed Henry Ford was close to carrying out his promise to dissolve the company rather than collaborate, but his wife Clara warned him that if he did, she would leave him. It would not, in her opinion, be worth the disruption it would cause. Henry complied with his wife's ultimatum, and in reflection, he even agreed with her. Ford Motor Company moved from being the most obstinate holdout among manufacturers to having the most favourable UAW contract terms in an instant. In June 1941, the contract was signed.
Biography of Henry Ford, American Industrialist and Inventor
The Ford Airplane Company was founded in 1903.
During World War I, Ford, like other vehicle firms, joined the aviation market by producing Liberty engines. It returned to auto manufacturing after the war until 1925, when Ford purchased the Stout Metal Airplane Company. The Ford 4AT Trimotor, known as the "Tin Goose" due to its corrugated metal construction, was Ford's most successful aircraft. It made use of a novel alloy called Alclad, which combined aluminum's corrosion resistance with duralumin's strength. The plane resembled Fokker's V.VII-3m, and some speculate that Ford's engineers secretly measured and duplicated the Fokker plane. The Trimotor was the first successful U.S. passenger airliner, flying on June 11, 1926, and carrying roughly 12 passengers in a fairly uncomfortable manner. The US Army employed several variations as well. The Smithsonian Institution has recognised Ford for his contributions to the aviation sector. Only 199 Trimotors were produced before the Ford Airplane Division shut down in 1933 due to weak sales during the Great Depression. Willow Run is a fictional character who appears in the both peace and war are possible.
During World War I,
Ford was opposed to war, which he saw as a dreadful waste of resources. Ford became a harsh critic of people he believed were funding wars, and he attempted to stop them. Rosika Schwimmer, a pacifist, won Ford's favour in 1915, and he promised to fund a Peace Ship to Europe, where World War I was raging. He travelled there with roughly 170 other famous peace leaders. Reverend Samuel S. Marquis, Ford's Episcopal pastor, accompanied him on the mission. From 1913 to 1921, Marquis was the head of Ford's Sociology Department. Ford discussed the expedition with President Wilson, but the operation received no government assistance. His delegation travelled to the Netherlands and neutral Sweden to speak with peace campaigners. Ford, who had become a laughingstock, disembarked off the ship as soon as it arrived in Sweden. Ford facilities in the United Kingdom manufactured tractors, vehicles, and aviation engines to supplement the British food supply. When the United States entered the war in 1917, the firm became a key provider of weaponry, particularly aeroplane engines and anti-submarine boats. President Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, encouraged Ford to run for a Michigan Senate seat in 1918, when the war was still going on and the League of Nations was becoming a hot topic in international affairs. Wilson hoped that Ford's support in Congress would tilt the balance in favour of Wilson's proposed League. The president wrote Ford, "You are the only man in Michigan who can be elected and assist bring about the peace you so desire." "If they want to elect me, let them," Ford replied, "but I won't make a penny's investment." Ford, on the other hand, ran and came within 4,500 votes of winning out of over 400,000 votes cast statewide. Ford remained a committed Wilsonian and League fan. In the summer of 1919, when Wilson went on a major speaking tour to promote the League, Ford stepped in to assist fund the publicity.
Biography of Henry Ford, American Industrialist and Inventor
The onset of World War II, as well as Ford's mental breakdown
Ford had opposed America's involvement into World War II and remained convinced that international trade might provide the prosperity necessary to prevent wars. Ford "insisted that war was the product of selfish bankers seeking profit in human ruin"; in 1939, he even claimed that the torpedoing of U.S. commerce ships by German submarines was the consequence of financier war-makers' conspiracy operations. He was referring to financiers, which was Ford's code for Jews; he had previously accused Jews of fomenting the First World War. He stated in the years leading up to World War II, and again when the war broke out in 1939, that he did not wish to deal with belligerents. He, like many other businesspeople during the Great Depression, disliked and distrusted Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration, believing Roosevelt was dragging the United States closer to war. Ford, on the other hand, continued to do business with Nazi Germany, including manufacturing military equipment. Ford-Werke broke Article 31 of the 1929 Geneva Convention by requisitioning between 100 and 200 French POWs to work as slave labourers beginning in 1940. Ford-Werke was under the ownership of the Ford Motor Company at the time, which was before the United States entered the war and when it still maintained full diplomatic connections with Nazi Germany. The number of slave labourers increased as the war progressed, while Wallace makes it clear that Nazi authorities did not oblige enterprises in Germany to use slave labour. When Rolls-Royce sought a U.S. manufacturer to supply the Merlin engine (as used in the Spitfire and Hurricane fighters), Ford agreed at first, but backtracked. When the United States entered the war in late 1941, he "lined up behind the military effort." However, his support for the American war effort was troublesome. When the United States entered the war, Ford authorised the Ford Motor Company to build a massive new purpose-built facility at Willow Run, Michigan, near Detroit. Willow Run began construction in the spring of 1941, and the first B-24 bomber was delivered in October 1942. It was the world's largest assembly line at the time, measuring 3,500,000 square feet (330,000 square metres). By 1945, Ford was finishing each B-24 in eighteen hours, with one rolling off the assembly line every 58 minutes, and the Willow Run plant was producing 650 B-24s per month at its peak in 1944. At Willow Run, Ford built 9,000 B-24 bombers, accounting for half of the total 18,000 B-24 bombers built during WWII. When Edsel Ford died in a plane crash in 1943, Henry Ford ostensibly took over the company, but a series of strokes in the late 1930s had left him increasingly disabled, and his mental abilities were deteriorating. Ford was increasingly marginalised, and choices were made in his place. In reality, the corporation was run by a small group of senior executives led by Charles Sorensen, a key engineer and production leader at Ford, and Harry Bennett, the head of Ford's Service Unit, a paramilitary squad that spied on and disciplined Ford employees. Ford became envious of Sorensen's fame and forced him out of the company in 1944. Ford's ineptness prompted conversations in Washington about how to resurrect the company, whether through government decree during the war or by initiating a coup among the company's executives and board. Nothing happened until 1945, when Edsel's widow orchestrated an overthrow and installed her son, Henry Ford II, as president, with the company on the verge of bankruptcy. In a purge of the old guard in 1947, the young guy grabbed complete control and forced Harry Bennett out.
Anti-Semitism and the Dearborn Independent
Ford financed a weekly publication in the early 1920s that featured overtly antisemitic views. Ford, on the other hand, had a reputation for being one of the few large firms actively hiring black people, and it had never been accused of discriminating against Jewish employees or suppliers. He also hired women and handicapped men, which was unusual at the time. Ernest G. Liebold, Ford's closest aide and private secretary, purchased The Dearborn Independent, an insignificant weekly newspaper, for Ford in 1918. Liebold served as editor of The Independent for eight years, from 1920 to 1927. Every Ford dealership in the country was required to carry the newspaper and distribute it to their customers. During this time, Ford became known as "a respected spokesman for right-wing extremism and religious bigotry," with his newspaper reaching around 700,000 people. "If fans seek to know the difficulty with American baseball, they have it in three words—too much Jew," Ford wrote on May 22, 1920, according to the 2010 documentary film Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story (authored by Pulitzer Prize winner Ira Berkow). In Germany, Theodor Fritsch, the founder of many anti-Semitic parties and a member of the Reichstag, published Ford's anti-Semitic pieces from The Dearborn Independent in four volumes, collectively titled The International Jew, the World's Foremost Problem. Heinrich Himmler characterised Ford as "one of our most valuable, essential, and funny fighters" in a letter dated in 1924. "Only a single great individual, Ford, [who], to [the Jews'] rage, still maintains absolute independence...[from] the controlling lords of the producers in a nation of one hundred and twenty millions," Adolf Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf. Hitler told a Detroit News reporter in 1931 that Ford was his "inspiration," which explains why he keeps Ford's life-size photo next to his desk. Hitler "revered" Ford, declaring, "I shall do my best to put his theories into effect in Germany," and basing the Volkswagen, the people's automobile, on the Model T, according to Steven Watts. Max Wallace, on the other hand, has remarked "Before reading Ford's The International Jew, Adolf Hitler was an outspoken anti-Semite, according to history. Ford received Kurt Ludecke, an emissary of Hitler, at his residence on February 1, 1924. Siegfried Wagner (son of musician Richard Wagner) and his wife Winifred, both Nazi sympathisers and antisemites, introduced Ludecke to Ford. Ford reportedly rebuffed Ludecke's request for a contribution to the Nazi cause. While the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) condemned Ford's essays, the articles unambiguously condemned pogroms and violence against Jews, but blamed Jews for inciting mass violence. Despite the fact that none of this material was written by Ford, he consented to his name being used as an author. He wrote nearly nothing, according to trial testimony. Ford was informed about the contents of the Independent by friends and business acquaintances, who claim he never read the stories (he claimed he only read the headlines). However, court testimony in a libel suit brought by one of the newspaper's targets claimed that Ford was aware of the contents of the Independent before it was published. In response to the antisemitic remarks, San Francisco lawyer and Jewish agricultural cooperative organiser Aaron Sapiro filed a libel lawsuit, which forced Ford to close the Independent in December 1927. According to news sources at the time, he was taken aback by the material and had no idea what it was about. During the trial, William Cameron, the editor of Ford's "Own Page," testified that despite the fact that the editorials were under his byline, Ford had nothing to do with them. At the libel trial, Cameron testified that he never discussed the substance of the pages with Ford or sent them to him for approval. "Whatever credence this ludicrous claim may have had was quickly shattered when James M. Miller, a former Dearborn Independent employee, stated under oath that Ford had told him he planned to expose Sapiro," wrote investigative writer Max Wallace.
Michael Barkun pointed out:
To people who knew both men, the idea that Cameron would continue to print anti-Semitic material without Ford's express directives seemed inconceivable. 'I don't think Mr. Cameron ever wrote anything for publication without Mr. Ford's agreement,' said Mrs. Stanley Ruddiman, a Ford family friend.
In the words of Spencer Blakeslee:
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) rallied famous Jews and non-Jews to speak out against Ford's message. They created a coalition of Jewish organisations for the same purpose, and the Detroit press was constantly critical of them. Woodrow Wilson joined other prominent Americans in a statement rebuking Ford and others for their antisemitic campaign before leaving office early in 1921. A boycott of Ford products by Jews and liberal Christians had an impact, and Ford shut down the paper in 1927, recanting his views in a public letter to Sigmund Livingston. ADL Wallace also discovered that Ford's apology was likely motivated, at least in part, by a slumping business as a result of his antisemitism repelling potential Ford car buyers. Prior to the apology, a significant number of dealers, who were mandated to ensure that Ford car buyers received the Independent, purchased and destroyed copies of the newspaper in order to avoid alienating consumers. Ford's apologies in 1927 was positively received. "In July 1927, four-fifths of the hundreds of letters addressed to Ford were from Jews, and nearly all of them praised the industrialist." Ford denied "any connection whatsoever with the publication in Germany of a book known as the International Jew" in a statement to the Detroit Jewish Chronicle in January 1937. Ford's retraction and apology (written by others) were not truly signed by him (rather, his signature was forged by Harry Bennett), and Ford never privately recanted his antisemitic views, stating in 1940: "I hope to republish The International Jew again some time." On his 75th birthday in July 1938, just before WWII broke out, the German consul in Cleveland presented Ford with the Grand Cross of the German Eagle, the highest medal Nazi Germany could bestow on a foreigner. The Merit Cross of the German Eagle, First Class, was awarded to James D. Mooney, vice-president of General Motors' international business. Ford wrote a letter to Sigmund Livingston, the Founder and National Chairman of the Anti-Defamation League, on January 7, 1942. The letter's objective was to dispel certain common misconceptions about him, including that he adhered to or supported, directly or indirectly, "any campaign that would foster animosity among my Jewish fellow citizens." "My honest wish that today, in this country and throughout the world, when the war is over, hate of the Jews and hatred of any other racial or religious groups shall stop for all time," he wrote at the end of the letter. Despite obstacles caused by a lack of copyright, distribution of The International Jew was prevented in 1942 by legal action taken by Ford. In Germany, it is still illegal. The information is frequently recycled by extremist groups, and it may still be found on antisemitic and neo-Nazi websites. Baldur von Schirach, a convicted Hitler Youth leader who, as military governor of Vienna, deported 65,000 Jews to camps in Poland, testified at Nuremberg: "The International Jew" by Henry Ford was the decisive anti-Semitic book I was reading and the book that influenced my comrades. I became anti-Semitic after reading it. The book had a big impact on me and my friends because we saw Henry Ford as a symbol of prosperity as well as progressive social policy. When a close Willow Run associate of Ford was shown newsreel footage of Nazi concentration camps, he "was confronted with the atrocities which finally and unmistakably laid bare the bestiality of the prejudice to which he contributed, he collapsed with a stroke – his last and most serious," according to Robert Lacey in Ford: The Men and the Machines. Ford had previously experienced strokes, and his ultimate brain haemorrhage happened in 1947, when he was 83 years old.
International trade
Ford's concept was that the United States should be economically self-sufficient. His River Rouge Plant grew to be the world's largest industrial complex, seeking vertical integration to the point of being able to manufacture its own steel. Ford wanted to build a car from the ground up, without relying on foreign trade. He was a firm believer in his company's global expansion. He believed that international trade and cooperation led to international peace, and he used the Model T assembly line to prove it. In 1911, he constructed Ford assembly operations in the United Kingdom and Canada, quickly becoming the largest automaker in those countries. Ford teamed up with Giovanni Agnelli of Fiat to open the first Italian auto assembly factory in 1912. The first plants in Germany were erected in the 1920s with Herbert Hoover's support and the support of the Commerce Department, which agreed with Ford's notion that international trade was fundamental to world peace. Ford also established factories in Australia, India, and France in the 1920s, and by 1929, he had successful dealerships on six continents. Ford tried a commercial rubber plantation called Fordlândia in the Amazon jungle, but it was one of his few flops.
Personal passions
Ford is listed as a member in a compendium of short biographies of renowned Freemasons issued by a Freemason lodge.] Ford was a Freemason, according to the Grand Lodge of New York, and was raised in Palestine Lodge No. 357 in Detroit in 1894. "Masonry is the best balance wheel the United States has," he declared as he obtained his 33rd in 1940. Episcopal preacher Samuel S. Marquis, Ford's pastor and chairman of his sociology department, asserted in 1923 that Ford believed, or "formerly believed," in reincarnation. In 1914, Ford published The Case Against the Little White Slaver, an anti-smoking book aimed at young people that highlighted many of the harms of cigarette smoking, as attested to by numerous scholars and luminaries. Ford's objection to cigarettes was unusual at the time because smoking was widespread and not yet widely associated with health risks. Materials science and engineering piqued your interest. Henry Ford was fascinated with materials science and engineering for a long time. He spoke excitedly about his company's adoption of vanadium steel alloys and subsequent metallurgical research and development. Ford has long been interested in agricultural-based plastics, particularly soybean-based plastics. For this reason, he developed a friendship with George Washington Carver. Throughout the 1930s, soybean-based polymers were employed in Ford automobiles in plastic parts such as car horns, paint, and other applications. Ford patented an automobile constructed almost completely of plastic, attached to a tubular welded frame, in 1942, as the culmination of this experiment. It weighed 30% less than a steel car and was claimed to be capable of withstanding ten times the force of steel. It also ran on grain alcohol (ethanol) rather than gasoline. The design was never popular. Engineered woods piqued Ford's curiosity ("Better wood can be made than is grown" ) (At the time, plywood and particle board were only wild concepts); corn as a fuel source (via corn oil and ethanol); and cotton's prospective applications. Ford was a pioneer in the development of charcoal briquets under the "Kingsford" brand. E.G. Kingsford, his brother-in-law, made the briquets out of wood scraps from the Ford factory. In 1927, Ford formed the Edison Botanic Research Corp. in Fort Myers, Florida, alongside Thomas Edison and Harvey Samuel Firestone (each donating $25,000) to look for a native supply of rubber. Ford was a prolific innovator, receiving 161 patents in the United States. Residents and communities in Florida and Georgia Ford owned a vacation home in Fort Myers, Florida, near to Thomas Edison's, which he purchased in 1915 and used until 1930. It exists today as a museum and is open to the public. He also owned a vacation home in Richmond Hill, Georgia (now known as the "Ford Plantation"), which is still a private neighbourhood today. Henry began purchasing land in the area and eventually accumulated 70,000 acres (110 square miles) in the area. On the banks of the Ogeechee River, on the site of a 1730s plantation, Ford broke ground in 1936 for a stunning Greek revival style palace. The large mansion had marble steps, air conditioning, and an elevator, and was built of Savannah-gray brick. It was situated on 55 acres of well-kept grass and flower gardens. With visits from the Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, and DuPonts, the mansion became a focal point for social occasions. It is still the focal point of The Ford Plantation. The 1870s–era rice mill was turned into Ford's own research laboratory and powerhouse, with an underground tube connecting it to his new home and producing steam. He made a significant contribution to the town by constructing a chapel and a schoolhouse, as well as hiring a large number of locals.
Keeping Americana alive
"Americana" was something Ford was interested in. Ford began work in the 1920s to transform Sudbury, Massachusetts, into a themed historical hamlet. He bought the old Wayside Inn and relocated the schoolhouse allegedly mentioned in the nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb" from Sterling, Massachusetts. This plan was never carried out. With the establishment of Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan, Ford reintroduced the concept of collecting historic structures. It's possible that it was also the inspiration for the building of Old Sturbridge Village. He began collecting materials for his museum, which had a practical technological theme, about the same period. The Edison Institute first opened its doors in 1929. The museum is still open today, although being considerably updated.
Later in life and death
When Ford Motor Company President Edsel Ford died of cancer in May 1943, the elderly and sickly Henry Ford opted to take over. He'd had multiple cardiovascular episodes (variously referred to as heart attacks or strokes) by this time in his life, and he was psychologically unstable, suspicious, and unfit for such enormous responsibilities. The majority of the board of directors did not want him to be President. But, despite the fact that he had no official executive title for the preceding 20 years, he had always held de facto control over the company; the board and management had never seriously resisted him, and this time was no exception. He was elected by the directors and served till the end of the war. The corporation began to collapse during this time, losing more than $10 million each month ($136,980,000 now). President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration considered a government takeover of the corporation to assure sustained war production, but the plan was never pursued. With his health failing, Ford handed over the presidency of the company to his grandson, Henry Ford II, in September 1945 and retired. At the age of 83, he died of a cerebral haemorrhage on April 7, 1947, at Fair Lane, his Dearborn estate. Greenfield Village hosted a public viewing, with up to 5,000 people passing by the casket per hour. He was buried in the Ford Cemetery in Detroit after funeral services at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Detroit.
Racing
From 1901 through 1913, Ford was an active participant in auto racing, first as a builder and then as a driver, before handing the wheel over to hired drivers. He raced stripped-down Model Ts, winning a "ocean-to-ocean" (across the United States) race in 1909 (though later disqualified), and setting a one-mile (1.6 km) oval speed record with driver Frank Kulick at the Detroit Fairgrounds in 1911. Ford attempted to enter a rebuilt Model T in the Indianapolis 500 in 1913, but was advised that the car needed to gain another 1,000 pounds (450 kg) to qualify. Ford withdrew from the race and, shortly after, retired from racing permanently, citing unhappiness with the sport's rules, time constraints imposed by the Model T's burgeoning production, and his low opinion of racing as a worthy pursuit. In My Life and Work, Ford dismisses racing as something that isn't a valid gauge of automobiles in general. He characterises himself as someone who raced only because, in the 1890s and 1910s, conventional ignorance felt that racing was the only way to establish an automobile's worth. Ford was not on board. But he was adamant that as long as this remained the criteria of success (flawed as it was), then his cars would be the finest in the racing world. He repeatedly returns to ideals such as transportation, production efficiency, affordability, reliability, fuel efficiency, economic prosperity, and the automation of drudgery in farming and industry throughout the book, but he rarely mentions, and rather dismisses, the idea of simply getting from point A to point B. Nonetheless, during his racing career, Ford had a significant impact on the sport, and he was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1999.
