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90-813: Henry Ford initiated Ford Air Transport Service—the world's first regularly scheduled commercial cargo airline—in 1925. Ford Air Transport Service started with Stout 2-AT Pullman aircraft in 1925. Henry and Edsel Ford had an investment in Stout Engineering that became the Stout Metal Airplane Division of the Ford Motor Company later that year in August. The first 2-AT was built at the Stout factory in Dearborn and called

180-458: A collective bargaining agreement with the unions because the violence, work disruptions, and bitter stalemates could not go on forever. But Ford, who still had the final veto in the company on a de facto basis even if not an official one, refused to cooperate. For several years, he kept Bennett in charge of talking to the unions trying to organize the Ford Motor Company. Sorensen's memoir makes clear that Ford's purpose in putting Bennett in charge

270-454: A franchise system, which allowed for car dealerships throughout North America and in major cities on six continents. Ford was known for his pacifism during the first years of World War I , although during the war his company became a major supplier of weapons. He promoted the League of Nations . In the 1920s Ford promoted antisemitism through his newspaper The Dearborn Independent and

360-501: A libel lawsuit in response. During the trial, the editor of Ford's "Own Page", William Cameron, testified that Ford had nothing to do with the editorials even though they were under his byline. Cameron testified that he never discussed the content of the pages with Ford, or sent them to Ford for his approval. Friends and business associates said they warned Ford about the contents of the Independent and that Ford probably never read

450-488: A pocket watch when he was 12. At 15, Ford dismantled and reassembled the timepieces of friends and neighbors dozens of times, gaining the reputation of a watch repairman. At twenty, Ford walked four miles to their Episcopal church every Sunday. Ford said two significant events occurred in 1875 when he was 12: he received the watch, and he witnessed the operation of a Nichols and Shepard road engine, "...the first vehicle other than horse-drawn that I had ever seen". Ford

540-646: A sawmill . They had one child, Edsel Ford (1893–1943). In 1891, Ford became an engineer with the Edison Illuminating Company of Detroit . After his promotion to Chief Engineer in 1893, he had enough time and money to devote attention to his experiments on gasoline engines . These experiments culminated in 1896 with the completion of a self-propelled vehicle, which he named the Ford Quadricycle . He test-drove it on June 4. After various test drives, Ford brainstormed ways to improve

630-593: A $ 5 daily wage ($ 152 in 2023), which more than doubled the rate of most of his workers. A Cleveland, Ohio , newspaper editorialized that the announcement "shot like a blinding rocket through the dark clouds of the present industrial depression". The move proved extremely profitable; instead of constant employee turnover, the best mechanics in Detroit flocked to Ford, bringing their human capital and expertise, raising productivity, and lowering training costs. Ford announced his $ 5-per-day program on January 5, 1914, raising

720-559: A 48-hour week, but in 1926 it was announced as five 8-hour days, giving a 40-hour week. The program apparently started with Saturday being designated a workday, before becoming a day off sometime later. On May 1, 1926, the Ford Motor Company's factory workers switched to a five-day, 40-hour workweek, with the company's office workers making the transition the following August. Ford had decided to boost productivity, as workers were expected to put more effort into their work in exchange for more leisure time. Ford also believed decent leisure time

810-539: A Detroit-area coal dealer. They formed a partnership, Ford & Malcomson, Limited, to manufacture automobiles. Ford went to work designing an inexpensive automobile, and the duo leased a factory and contracted with a machine shop owned by John and Horace E. Dodge to supply over $ 160,000 in parts. Sales were slow, and a crisis arose when the Dodge brothers demanded payment for their first shipment. In response, Malcomson brought in another group of investors and convinced

900-493: A Ford family intimate, remarked that 'I don't think Mr. Cameron ever wrote anything for publication without Mr. Ford's approval.' The trial prompted the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to begin a concerted effort to oppose the Independent . An ADL-led coalition of Jewish groups led the charge, and raised objections to Ford's writings in the Detroit press. The ADL also organized a boycott of Ford products, which

990-495: A bombshell with the flathead Ford V8 , the first low-price eight-cylinder engine. The flathead V8, variants of which were used in Ford vehicles for 20 years, was the result of a secret project launched in 1930 and Henry had initially considered a radical X-8 engine before agreeing to a conventional design. It gave Ford a reputation as a performance make well-suited for hot-rodding. Ford did not believe in accountants; he amassed one of

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1080-433: A candy bar and, finding it not as good as it once had been, said "The Jews have taken hold of it. They've cheapened it to make more money". In 1915, Ford blamed Jews for instigating World War I, saying "I know who caused the war: German-Jewish bankers." In 1925, Ford said "What I oppose most is the international Jewish money power that is met in every war. That is what I oppose – a power that has no country and that can order

1170-523: A commercial device to help their business. Sales skyrocketed—several years posted 100% gains on the previous year. In 1913, Ford introduced moving assembly belts into his plants, which enabled an enormous increase in production. Although Ford is often credited with the idea, contemporary sources indicate that the concept and development came from employees Clarence Avery , Peter E. Martin , Charles E. Sorensen , and C. Harold Wills . (See Ford Piquette Avenue Plant .) Sales passed 250,000 in 1914. By 1916, as

1260-539: A consultant; Ford, in response, left the company bearing his name. With Ford gone, Leland renamed the company the Cadillac Automobile Company . Teaming up with former racing cyclist Tom Cooper , Ford also produced the 80+ horsepower racer " 999 ," which Barney Oldfield was to drive to victory in a race in October 1902. Ford received the backing of an old acquaintance, Alexander Y. Malcomson ,

1350-607: A focus on business efficiency would discourage warfare because, "If every man who manufactures an article would make the very best he can in the very best way at the very lowest possible price the world would be kept out of war, for commercialists would not have to search for outside markets which the other fellow covets." Ford admitted that munitions makers enjoyed wars, but he argued that most businesses wanted to avoid wars and instead work to manufacture and sell useful goods, hire workers, and generate steady long-term profits. Ford's British factories produced Fordson tractors to increase

1440-503: A massive new assembly plant at River Rouge for the new Model A, which launched in 1927. In addition to its price ladder, GM also quickly established itself at the forefront of automotive styling under Harley Earl 's Arts & Color Department, another area of automobile design that Henry Ford did not entirely appreciate or understand. Ford would not have a true equivalent of the GM styling department for many years. By 1926, flagging sales of

1530-799: A means to foster employment, but Ford saw this as self-defeating because, in his view, productivity was necessary for economic prosperity to exist. He believed that productivity gains that obviated certain jobs would nevertheless stimulate the broader economy and grow new jobs elsewhere, whether within the same corporation or in others. Ford also believed that union leaders had a perverse incentive to foment perpetual socio-economic crises to maintain their power. Meanwhile, he believed that smart managers had an incentive to do right by their workers, because doing so would maximize their profits. However, Ford did acknowledge that many managers were basically too bad at managing to understand this fact. But Ford believed that eventually, if good managers such as he, could fend off

1620-423: A mid-range make to challenge Dodge and Buick, although Henry also displayed relatively little enthusiasm for it. Ford was a pioneer of " welfare capitalism ", designed to improve the lot of his workers and especially to reduce the heavy turnover that had many departments hiring 300 men per year to fill 100 slots. Efficiency meant hiring and keeping the best workers. Ford astonished the world in 1914 by offering

1710-786: A set of four bound volumes, cumulatively titled The International Jew, the World's Foremost Problem . Steven Watts wrote that Adolf Hitler "revered" Ford. He quotes Hitler as saying, "I shall do my best to put his theories into practice in Germany", and says that Hitler modeled the Volkswagen , the people's car, on the Model T. Several themes from the Dearborn Independent articles appear in Mein Kampf . Hitler even quoted

1800-416: A six-inch stroke, which was connected to a countershaft by a belt and then to the rear wheel by a chain. The belt was shifted by a clutch lever to control speeds at 10 or 20 miles per hour , augmented by a throttle . Other features included 28-inch wire bicycle wheels with rubber tires , a foot brake, a 3-gallon gasoline tank, and later, a water jacket around the cylinders for cooling. Ford added that "in

1890-465: A statement titled "The Peril of Racial Prejudice" denounced antisemitism as un-American and condemned the Independent for its antisemitic campaign. It was signed by more than one hundred prominent citizens of "Gentile birth and Christian faith", including President Woodrow Wilson , former president William Howard Taft , William Jennings Bryan , Clarence Darrow , Nicholas Murray Butler , Robert Frost , Samuel Seabury , Ida Tarbell , Paul Cravath and

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1980-509: Is called the international Jew: German Jews, French Jews, English Jews, American Jews. I believe that in all those countries except our own the Jewish financier is supreme ... here the Jew is a threat". Ford felt that Jews, in their role as financiers, contributed nothing of value to society. He believed that Jewish businesses focused solely on price, and cheapened their products. Ford once bit into

2070-490: The Dearborn Independent in Mein Kampf and Henry Ford was the only American that Hitler specifically named: "Every year they [the Jews] manage to become increasingly the controlling masters of the labor power of a people of 120,000,000 souls; one great man, Ford, to their exasperation still holds out independently there even now." On February 1, 1924, Ford received Kurt Lüdecke , a representative of Hitler, at his home. Lüdecke

2160-617: The Dearborn Independent . The first major antisemitic article about Jews was published on June 19, 1920. There were major repetitions on August 28, then again in February, March, and November 1921. The essay "Anti-Semitism- Will it Appear in the U.S.?" quoted Louis Brandeis , a Justice of the Supreme Court , who advocated for Jewish civil rights and said, "Organize, organize, organize, until every Jew must stand up and be counted." Louis Marshall noticed that The Cause of World Unrest

2250-693: The Ford Foundation , and control of the company to his family. Henry Ford was born July 30, 1863, on a farm in Springwells Township, Michigan . His father, William Ford (1826–1905), was born in County Cork , Ireland, to a family that had emigrated from Somerset , England in the 16th century. His mother, Mary Ford (née Litogot; 1839–1876), was born in Michigan as the youngest child of Belgian immigrants; her parents died when she

2340-534: The Ford Model T and other automobiles. Ford was born in a farmhouse in Springwells Township , Michigan , and left home at the age of 16 to find work in Detroit . It was a few years before this time that Ford first experienced automobiles, and throughout the later half of the 1880s, he began repairing and later constructing engines, and through the 1890s worked with a division of Edison Electric . He founded

2430-742: The Great Depression , unemployed Detroit auto workers staged the Ford Hunger March to the Ford River Rouge Complex to present 14 demands to Henry Ford. The Dearborn police department and Ford security guards opened fire on workers leading to over sixty injuries and five deaths. On May 26, 1937, Bennett's security men beat members of the United Automobile Workers (UAW), including Walter Reuther , with clubs. While Bennett's men were beating

2520-543: The Independent in April 1920 in disgust with the planned antisemitic articles, which began in May. He later claimed that a major influence on the paper's antisemitism came from Boris Brasol , a White Russian émigré lawyer, writer, and conspiracy theorist. Ford did not write the articles. He expressed his opinions verbally to his executive secretary, Ernest Liebold, and to William J. Cameron, who replaced Pipp as editor. Cameron had

2610-676: The "Maiden Detroit". The other aircraft in the fleet were also 2-AT's, named "Maiden Dearbon I, II, III and IV". Initially the aircraft were for Ford's company use. The airline's first scheduled commercial flights in America were begun when The "Maiden Dearborn" flew 1,000 lbs. of freight between factories in Detroit and Chicago on April 13, 1925. Ford Air Transport served routes between Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland. The airline logged over 1000 scheduled flights in its first year. The aircraft operated out of Ford Airport off of two grass runways with night lighting. The safety and predicability of

2700-528: The $ 5-day wage. Real profit-sharing was offered to employees who had worked at the company for six months or more, and, importantly, conducted their lives in a manner of which Ford's "Social Department" approved. They frowned on heavy drinking, gambling, and on what are now called deadbeat dads . The Social Department used 50 investigators and support staff to maintain employee standards; a large percentage of workers were able to qualify for this "profit-sharing". Ford's incursion into his employees' private lives

2790-608: The British food supply, as well as trucks and warplane engines. When the U.S. entered the war in 1917, Ford went quiet on foreign policy. His company became a major supplier of weapons, especially the Liberty engine for warplanes and anti-submarine boats . The Dearborn Independent The Dearborn Independent , also known as The Ford International Weekly , was a weekly newspaper established in 1901, and published by Henry Ford from 1919 through 1927. At its height during

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2880-488: The Dodge brothers to accept a portion of the new company. Ford & Malcomson was reincorporated as the Ford Motor Company on June 16, 1903, with $ 28,000 capital. The original investors included 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 . Because of Ford's volatility, Gray

2970-533: The Elders of Zion , which was discredited by The Times of London as a forgery during the Independent ' s publishing run. The American Jewish Historical Society described the ideas presented in the magazine as " anti-immigrant , anti-labor, anti-liquor, and antisemitic ". In February 1921, the New York World published an interview with Ford in which he said: "The only statement I care to make about

3060-651: The Ford Motor Company in 1903 after prior failures in business, but success in constructing automobiles. The introduction of the Ford Model T automobile in 1908 is credited with having revolutionized both transportation and American industry. As the sole owner of the Ford Motor Company, Ford became one of the wealthiest persons in the world. He was also among the pioneers of the five-day work-week . Ford believed that consumerism could help to bring about world peace . His commitment to systematically lowering costs resulted in many technical and business innovations, including

3150-608: The Ford company adopted an annual model change system similar to that recently pioneered by its competitor General Motors (and still in use by automakers today). Not until the 1930s did Ford overcome his objection to finance companies, and the Ford-owned Universal Credit Corporation became a major car-financing operation. Henry Ford still resisted many technological innovations such as hydraulic brakes and all-metal roofs, which Ford vehicles did not adopt until 1935–1936. For 1932 however, Ford dropped

3240-572: The German Eagle , the highest medal Nazi Germany could bestow on a foreigner. James D. Mooney , vice-president of overseas operations for General Motors , received a similar medal, the Merit Cross of the German Eagle, First Class. There was much negative press about the Dearborn Independent within Jewish communities, but there was non-Jewish negative press as well. There are many accounts of Jewish organizations coming together to fight

3330-415: The Model T finally convinced Ford to make a new model. He pursued the project with a great deal of interest in the design of the engine, chassis, and other mechanical necessities, while leaving the body design to his son. Although Ford fancied himself an engineering genius, he had little formal training in mechanical engineering and could not even read a blueprint. A talented team of engineers performed most of

3420-601: The Netherlands to meet with peace activists. A target of much ridicule, Ford left the ship as soon as it reached Sweden. In 1915, Ford blamed "German-Jewish bankers" for instigating the war. According to biographer Steven Watts, Ford's status as a leading industrialist gave him a worldview that warfare was wasteful folly that retarded long-term economic growth. The losing side in the war typically suffered heavy damage. Small business were especially hurt, for it takes years to recuperate. He argued in many newspaper articles that

3510-628: The Protocols is that they fit in with what is going on." During this period, Ford emerged as "a respected spokesman for right-wing extremism and religious prejudice", reaching around 700,000 readers through his newspaper. During the Weimar Republic in the early 1920s, the Protocols was reprinted and published in Germany, along with anti-Jewish articles first published by The Dearborn Independent and reprinted in translation in Germany as

3600-647: The Quadricycle. Also in 1896, Ford attended a meeting of Edison executives, where he was introduced to Thomas Edison . Edison approved of Ford's automobile experimentation. Encouraged by Edison, Ford designed and built a second vehicle, completing it in 1898. Backed by the capital of Detroit lumber baron William H. Murphy, Ford resigned from the Edison Company and founded the Detroit Automobile Company on August 5, 1899. However,

3690-520: The UAW representatives, the supervising police chief on the scene was Carl Brooks, an alumnus of Bennett's Service Department, and Brooks "did not give orders to intervene". The following day photographs of the injured UAW members appeared in newspapers, later becoming known as The Battle of the Overpass . In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Edsel—who was president of the company—thought Ford had to come to

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3780-470: The actual work of designing the Model A (and later the flathead V8) with Ford supervising them closely and giving them overall direction. Edsel also managed to prevail over his father's initial objections in the inclusion of a sliding-shift transmission. The result was the Ford Model A , introduced in December 1927 and produced through 1931, with a total output of more than four million. Subsequently,

3870-660: The articles (he claimed he only read the headlines). Further court testimony alleged that Ford knew about the contents of the Independent in advance of publication. Investigative journalist Max Wallace noted that "whatever credibility this absurd claim [Cameron's denial] may have had was soon undermined when James M. Miller, a former Dearborn Independent employee, swore under oath that Ford had told him he intended to expose Sapiro." Michael Barkun observed: That Cameron would have continued to publish such controversial material without Ford's explicit instructions seemed unthinkable to those who knew both men. Mrs. Stanley Ruddiman,

3960-546: The attacks of misguided people from both left and right (i.e., both socialists and bad-manager reactionaries), the good managers would create a socio-economic system wherein neither bad management nor bad unions could find enough support to continue existing. To forestall union activity, Ford promoted Harry Bennett , a former Navy boxer, to head the Service Department. Bennett employed various intimidation tactics to quash union organizing. On March 7, 1932, during

4050-760: The automobiles produced were of a lower quality and higher price than Ford wanted. Ultimately, the company was not successful and was dissolved in January 1901. With the help of C. Harold Wills , Ford designed, built, and successfully raced a 26- horsepower automobile in October 1901. With this success, Murphy and other stockholders in the Detroit Automobile Company formed the Henry Ford Company on November 30, 1901, with Ford as chief engineer. In 1902, Murphy brought in Henry M. Leland as

4140-601: The aviation business during World War I , building Liberty engines . After the war, it returned to auto manufacturing until 1925, when Ford acquired the Stout Metal Airplane Company . Ford's most successful aircraft was the Ford 4AT Trimotor , often called the "Tin Goose" because of its corrugated metal construction. It used a new alloy called Alclad that combined the corrosion resistance of aluminum with

4230-525: The book The International Jew . He opposed his country's entry into World War II , and served for a time on board of the America First Committee . After his son Edsel died in 1943, Ford resumed control of the company, but was too frail to make decisions and quickly came under the control of several of his subordinates. He turned over the company to his grandson Henry Ford II in 1945. Upon his death in 1947, he left most of his wealth to

4320-432: The broad workable plan of investment and participation will do more to solidify the industry and strengthen the organization than will any social work on the outside. Without changing the principle we have changed the method of payment." In addition to raising his workers' wages, Ford also introduced a new, reduced workweek in 1926. The decision was made in 1922, when Ford and Crowther described it as six 8-hour days, giving

4410-421: The company rather than cooperate. Still, his wife Clara told him she would leave him if he destroyed the family business. In her view, it would not be worth the chaos it would create. Ford complied with his wife's ultimatum and even agreed with her in retrospect. Overnight, the Ford Motor Company went from the most stubborn holdout among automakers to the one with the most favorable UAW contract terms. The contract

4500-572: The country, making the Ford brand known throughout the United States. Ford also was one of the early backers of the Indianapolis 500 . In 1909, Ford submitted for patent application for his invention for a new transmission mechanism. It was awarded a patent in 1911. The Model T debuted on October 1, 1908. It had the steering wheel on the left, which every other company soon copied. The entire engine and transmission were enclosed;

4590-440: The decisions of his son. Ford 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 to sell their stakes to him before they lost most of their value. (He was determined to have full control over strategic decisions.) The ruse worked, and Henry and Edsel purchased all remaining stock from

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4680-427: The expense of trolley wires , and "no storage battery was in sight of a weight that was practical." In 1885, Ford repaired an Otto engine , and in 1887 he built a four-cycle model with a one-inch bore and a three-inch stroke . In 1890, Ford started work on a two-cylinder engine. Ford said, "In 1892, I completed my first motor car, powered by a two-cylinder four horsepower motor, with a two-and-half-inch bore and

4770-476: The family farm, where he became adept at operating the Westinghouse portable steam engine . He was later hired by Westinghouse to service their steam engines. In his farm workshop, Ford built a "steam wagon or tractor" and a steam car, but thought "steam was not suitable for light vehicles," as "the boiler was dangerous." Ford also said that he "did not see the use of experimenting with electricity, due to

4860-496: The first cargo flights were used to advantage in securing the first airmail contracts under the Kelly Act. The "Madien Detroit" entered Contract Air Mail service on February 15, 1926 with Henry and Edsel Ford loading the first bag of mail. The aircraft flew from Detroit to Cleveland under fighter escort to become the first commercial transport of air mail. L.G. "Larry" Fritz piloted the aircraft with Ford and Stout as passengers for

4950-429: The following aircraft: Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist and business magnate . As the founder of the Ford Motor Company , he is credited as a pioneer in making automobiles affordable for middle-class Americans through the system that came to be known as Fordism . In 1911, he was awarded a patent for the transmission mechanism that would be used in

5040-446: The four cylinders were cast in a solid block; the suspension used two semi-elliptic springs. The car was simple to drive, and easy and inexpensive to repair. It was so inexpensive at $ 825 in 1908 ($ 27,980 today), with the price falling every year, that by the 1920s, a majority of American drivers had learned to drive on the Model T. Ford created a huge publicity machine in Detroit to ensure every newspaper carried stories and ads about

5130-531: The headquarters of the National Social Party. Many issues of the Independent commented extensively upon The Protocols of the Elders of Zion . The first mention of the Protocols appears in the issue of July 10, 1920, the seventh installment of its "International Jew" series. Also, in 1920–21 the Independent carried a series of articles expanding on the themes of financial control by Jews, entitled: The newspaper published The Protocols of

5220-518: The hundreds of letters addressed to Ford in July 1927 were from Jews, and almost without exception they praised the Industrialist." While most of the major national Jewish and non-Jewish newspapers accepted Ford's apology, many local Jewish papers rejected it. In January 1937, a Ford statement to The Detroit Jewish Chronicle disavowed "any connection whatsoever with the publication in Germany of

5310-450: The low-end market. Although Henry Ford was against replacing the Model T, now 16 years old, Chevrolet was mounting a bold new challenge as GM's entry-level division in the company's price ladder. Ford also resisted the increasingly popular idea of payment plans for cars. With Model T sales starting to slide, Ford was forced to relent and approve work on a successor model, shutting down production for 18 months. During this time, Ford constructed

5400-416: The main responsibility for expanding these opinions into article form. Liebold was responsible for collecting more material to support the articles. One of the articles, "Jewish Power and America's Money Famine", asserted that the power exercised by Jews over the nation's supply of money was insidious, depriving farmers and others outside the banking coterie of money when they needed it most. The article asked

5490-423: The mid-1920s it claimed a circulation of between 700,000 and 900,000. If true, this would make it second only to The New York Times in terms of national readership. Those numbers were largely due to a quota system for promotion imposed on Ford dealers. Lawsuits regarding antisemitic material published in the paper caused Ford to close it, and the last issue was published in December 1927. The publication's title

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5580-506: The minimum daily pay from $ 2.34 to $ 5 for qualifying male workers. Detroit was already a high-wage city, but competitors were forced to raise wages or lose their best workers. Ford's policy proved that paying employees more would enable them to afford the cars they were producing and thus boost the local economy. He viewed the increased wages as profit-sharing linked with rewarding those who were most productive and of good character. It may have been James Couzens who convinced Ford to adopt

5670-462: The new product. Ford's network of local dealers made the car ubiquitous in almost every city in North America. As independent dealers, the franchises grew rich and publicized not just the Ford but also the concept of automobiling; local motor clubs sprang up to help new drivers and encourage them to explore the countryside. Ford was always eager to sell to farmers, who looked at the vehicle as

5760-440: The one-hour-seventeen-minute flight. The routes would be known as CAM-6 (Detroit to Cleveland), and CAM-7 (Detroit to Chicago). In 1928 Ford sold the airmail routes to Stout who also was operating his own airline with Stout-Ford built aircraft. The last official flight was in 1932. Most of the 2-AT's eventually were sold to Florida Airways , the forerunner of Eastern Airlines . The Ford Air Transport Service fleet consists of

5850-472: The other investors, thus giving the family sole ownership of the company. In 1922, Ford also purchased Lincoln Motor Co. , founded by Cadillac founder Henry Leland and his son Wilfred during World War I. The Lelands briefly stayed to manage the company, but were soon expelled from it. Despite this acquisition of a premium car maker, Henry displayed relatively little enthusiasm for luxury automobiles in contrast to Edsel, who actively sought to expand Ford into

5940-440: The pacifist Rosika Schwimmer gained favor with Ford, who agreed to fund a Peace Ship to Europe, where World War I was raging. He led 170 other peace activists. Ford's Episcopalian pastor, Reverend Samuel S. Marquis, accompanied him on the mission. Marquis headed Ford's Sociology Department from 1913 to 1921. Ford talked to President Woodrow Wilson about the mission but had no government support. His group went to neutral Sweden and

6030-492: The presidents of Williams, Oberlin, and Dartmouth colleges as well as Princeton, Cornell, and Syracuse universities. However, this did not stop the Dearborn Independent from their negative press regarding Jews. While they explicitly condemned pogroms and violence against Jews, Ford's articles blamed the Jews for provoking incidents of mass violence. San Francisco lawyer and Jewish farm cooperative organizer Aaron Sapiro filed

6120-456: The price dropped to $ 360 for the basic touring car, sales reached 472,000. By 1918, half of all cars in the United States were Model Ts. All new cars were black; as Ford wrote in his autobiography, "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black." Until the development of the assembly line, which mandated black because of its quicker drying time, Model Ts were available in other colors, including red. The design

6210-612: The question: "Where is the American gold supply? ... It may be in the United States but it does not belong to the United States." It concluded that Jews controlled the gold supply and, hence, American money. Another article, "Jewish Idea Molded Federal Reserve System", was a reflection of Ford's distrust of the Federal Reserve System and its proponent, Paul Warburg . Ford believed the Federal Reserve system

6300-424: The spring of 1893 the machine was running to my partial satisfaction and giving an opportunity further to test out the design and material on the road." Between 1895 and 1896, Ford drove that machine about 1000 miles. He then started a second car in 1896, eventually building three of them in his home workshop. Ford married Clara Jane Bryant (1866–1950) on April 11, 1888, and supported himself by farming and running

6390-409: The strength of duralumin . The plane was similar to Fokker 's V.VII–3m. The Trimotor first flew on June 11, 1926, and was the first successful U.S. passenger airliner, accommodating about 12 passengers in a rather uncomfortable fashion. Several variants were also used by the U.S. Army . The Smithsonian Institution has honored Ford for changing the aviation industry. 199 Trimotors were built before it

6480-582: The upscale market. The original Lincoln Model L that the Lelands had introduced in 1920 was also kept in production, untouched for a decade until it became too outdated. It was replaced by the modernized Model K in 1931. By the mid-1920s, General Motors was rapidly rising as the leading American automobile manufacturer. GM president Alfred Sloan established the company's "price ladder" whereby GM would offer an automobile for "every purse and purpose" in contrast to Ford's lack of interest in anything outside

6570-436: The world's largest fortunes without ever having his company audited under his administration. Without an accounting department, Ford had no way of knowing exactly how much money was being taken in and spent each month, and the company's bills and invoices were reportedly guessed at by weighing them on a scale. Not until 1956 would Ford be a publicly-traded company. Also, at Edsel's insistence, Ford launched Mercury in 1939 as

6660-436: The young men of all countries out to death." Ford ensured that everyone who worked for any of his companies accepted his views, and made sure not to hire a single Jew in office jobs, although he hired them for physical labor. So began the articles with themes of a worldwide conspiracy by Jewish super-capitalists, that the Jews invented the stock market and gold standard just to corrupt the world and other peoples. Pipp left

6750-409: Was a child and she was adopted by neighbors, the O'Herns. Henry Ford's siblings were John Ford (1865–1927); Margaret Ford (1867–1938); Jane Ford (c. 1868–1945); William Ford (1871–1917) and Robert Ford (1873–1877). Ford finished eighth grade at a one-room school , Springwells Middle School. He never attended high school ; he later took a bookkeeping course at a commercial school. His father gave him

6840-449: Was advertised on the back of one issue of the Independent , so he wrote a personal letter to the publisher, Major George Haven Putnam, condemning him for his intolerance. Marshall said that Putnam was using Jews as his scapegoat. Eventually Putnam apologized for his advertisement and for publishing the book. The Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America published a resolution condemning Ford's propaganda and beliefs. In January 1921,

6930-569: Was derived from the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, Michigan . In 1918, Ford's closest aide and private secretary, Ernest G. Liebold , purchased the Independent from Marcus Woodruff, who had been running it at a loss. The initial staff of the newspaper included E. G. Pipp , previously managing editor of the Detroit News , writers William J. Cameron (also formerly of the News ) and Marcus Woodruff, and Fred Black as business manager. The paper

7020-524: Was devastated when his mother died in 1876. His father expected him to take over the family farm eventually, but he despised farm work. He later wrote, "I never had any particular love for the farm—it was the mother on the farm I loved." In 1879, Ford left home to work as an apprentice machinist in Detroit, first with James F. Flower & Brothers, and later with the Detroit Dry Dock Company. In 1882, he returned to Dearborn to work on

7110-604: Was discontinued in 1933, when the Ford Airplane Division shut down because of poor sales during the Great Depression . In 1985, Ford was posthumously inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame for his impact on the industry. Ford opposed war, which he viewed as a terrible waste, and supported causes that opposed military intervention . Ford became highly critical of those who he felt financed war, and he tried to stop them. In 1915,

7200-413: Was elected president of the company. Ford then demonstrated a newly designed car on the ice of Lake St. Clair , driving 1 mile (1.6 km) in 39.4 seconds and setting a new land speed record at 91.3 miles per hour (146.9 kilometres per hour). Convinced by this success, race driver Barney Oldfield , who named this new Ford model " 999 " in honor of the fastest locomotive of the day, took the car around

7290-418: Was fervently promoted and defended by Ford, and production continued as late as 1927; the final total production was 15,007,034. This record stood for the next 45 years, and was achieved in 19 years from the introduction of the first Model T (1908). Henry Ford turned the presidency of Ford Motor Company over to his son Edsel Ford in December 1918. Henry retained final decision authority and sometimes reversed

7380-634: Was good for business, giving workers additional time to purchase and consume more goods. However, charitable concerns also played a role. Ford explained, "It is high time to rid ourselves of the notion that leisure for workmen is either 'lost time' or a class privilege." Ford was adamantly against labor unions . He explained his views on unions in Chapter 18 of My Life and Work . He thought they were too heavily influenced by leaders who would end up doing more harm than good for workers despite their ostensible good motives. Most wanted to restrict productivity as

7470-548: Was highly controversial, and he soon backed off from the most intrusive aspects. By the time he wrote his 1922 memoir, he spoke of the Social Department and the private conditions for profit-sharing in the past tense. He admitted that "paternalism has no place in the industry. Welfare work that consists in prying into employees' private concerns is out of date. Men need counsel and men need help, often special help; and all this ought to be rendered for decency's sake. But

7560-572: Was introduced to Ford by Siegfried Wagner (son of the famous composer Richard Wagner ) and his wife Winifred , both Nazi sympathizers and antisemites. Lüdecke asked Ford for a contribution to the Nazi cause, though this is denied by the Ford Motor Company . In July 1938, prior to the outbreak of war, the German consul at Cleveland gave Ford, on his 75th birthday, the award of the Grand Cross of

7650-743: Was printed on a used press purchased by Ford and installed in Ford's tractor plant in The Rouge . Publication under Ford was inaugurated in January 1919. The paper initially attracted notoriety in June 1919 with coverage of the libel lawsuit between Henry Ford and the Chicago Tribune , when stories written by Pipp and Cameron were picked up nationally. Henry Ford , a self-proclaimed pacifist who opposed World War I , believed that Jews were responsible for starting wars in order to profit from them: "International financiers are behind all war. They are what

7740-426: Was published without Ford's final approval. This series of antisemitic articles in the Dearborn Independent was published for a total of 91 weeks. The articles pinned cultural developments such as jazz, immoral books, flashy jewelry, and alcohol consumption on the Jews and Jewish influence. Partially attributable to his antisemitic beliefs, Hitler was a fan of Ford, and Hitler had a full-length portrait of Henry Ford at

7830-429: Was secretive and insidious. These articles gave rise to claims of antisemitism against Ford, and in 1929 he signed a statement apologizing for the articles. While Henry Ford owned The Dearborn Independent , none of its content was directly written by him, including the "International Jew" series. However, the views expressed in the "International Jew" reflected Ford's own antisemitic views, especially because nothing

7920-588: Was signed in June 1941. About a year later, Ford told Walter Reuther, "It was one of the most sensible things Harry Bennett ever did when he got the UAW into this plant." Reuther inquired, "What do you mean?" Ford replied, "Well, you've been fighting General Motors and the Wall Street crowd. Now you're in here and we've given you a union shop and more than you got out of them. That puts you on our side, doesn't it? We can fight General Motors and Wall Street together, eh?" Like other automobile companies, Ford entered

8010-415: Was supported not only by Jews, but also by several liberal Christian groups. In December 1927, Ford gave in and abolished the paper. News reports at the time quoted him as saying he was shocked by the paper's content and unaware of its nature. Ford also wrote a public letter to ADL president Sigmund Livingston recanting his antisemitic views. Ford's 1927 apology was generally well-received: "Four-Fifths of

8100-480: Was to make sure no agreements were ever reached. The Ford Motor Company was the last Detroit automaker to recognize the UAW, despite pressure from the rest of the U.S. automotive industry and even the U.S. government. A sit-down strike by the UAW union in April 1941 closed the River Rouge Plant . Sorensen recounted that a distraught Henry Ford was very close to following through with a threat to break up

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