constructing automobiles.

Ford's 1908 introduction of the Model T automobile is credited with having

revolutionized both transportation and American industry. As the Ford Motor
Company sole owner, "he became one of the richest and best-known people in the
world."[4] Aside from "Fordism", Ford was also among the pioneers of the five-day
workweek. Ford believed that consumerism was a key to global peace. His
commitment to systematically lowering costs resulted in many technical and
business innovations, including a franchise system that put dealerships throughout
North America and 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 the book The International Jew. He
opposed United States entry into World War II, and served for a time on
the America First Committee board. 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 subordinates. He turned over the company to his grandson Henry
Ford II in 1945. He died in 1947 after leaving most of his wealth to the Ford
Foundation, and control of the company to his family.

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This article is about the American industrialist. For other people with the same name,
see Henry Ford (disambiguation).
Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist and business
magnate. As founder of the Ford Motor Company,[1] he is credited as a pioneer in
making automobiles affordable for middle-class Americans through the Fordism system.
[2]
In 1911, he was awarded a patent for the transmission mechanism that would be used in
the Model T and other automobiles.

Henry Ford

Portrait by Fred Hartsook, c. 1919

Born July 30, 1863

 Springwells Township, Michigan, U.S.

Died April 7, 1947 (aged 83)

Dearborn, Michigan, U.S.

Resting place Ford Cemetery, Detroit, Michigan

 Engineer
Occupations  industrialist
 publisher
 philanthropist

Years active 1891–1945

Known for  Founding and leading the Ford

Motor Company
 Pioneering a system that launched
the mass production and sale of
affordable automotives to the
public

Title President of Ford Motor Company (1906–

1919, 1943–1945)

Political party  Republican (1881–1918)

 Democratic (1918–1947)

Spouse Clara Jane Bryant

(m. 1888)
 Children Edsel

Signature

Ford was born in a farmhouse in Michigan's Springwells Township, leaving home at age 16
to find work in Detroit.[3] It was a few years before this time that Ford first experienced
automobiles, and throughout the later half of the 1880s, Ford began repairing and later
constructing engines, and through the 1890s worked with a division of Edison Electric. He
officially founded the Ford Motor Company in 1903, after prior failures in business but
success in constructing automobiles.
Ford's 1908 introduction of the Model T automobile is credited with having revolutionized
both transportation and American industry. As the Ford Motor Company sole owner, "he
became one of the richest and best-known people in the world."[4] Aside from "Fordism",
Ford was also among the pioneers of the five-day workweek. Ford believed
that consumerism was a key to global peace. His commitment to systematically lowering
costs resulted in many technical and business innovations, including a franchise system that
put dealerships throughout North America and 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 the book The International Jew. He opposed United States entry
into World War II, and served for a time on the America First Committee board. 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 subordinates. He turned over the company
to his grandson Henry Ford II in 1945. He died in 1947 after leaving most of his wealth to
the Ford Foundation, and control of the company to his family.
Early life
Henry Ford was born July 30, 1863, on a farm in Springwells Township, Michigan.[5] 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.[6] His mother, Mary Ford (née
Litogot; 1839–1876), was born in Michigan as the youngest child of Belgian immigrants;
her parents died when she 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,[7] Springwells Middle School. He never attended high
school; he later took a bookkeeping course at a commercial school.[8]
His father gave him 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.[9] At twenty, Ford walked four miles to their Episcopal church every
Sunday.[10]
Ford 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."[11]
In 1879, Ford left home to work as an apprentice machinist in Detroit, first with James F.
Flower & Bros., and later with the Detroit Dry Dock Co. In 1882, he returned to Dearborn
to work on 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.[12]
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". 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 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 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 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.[13]
Marriage and family

Henry Ford in 1888

(aged 25)
Ford married Clara Jane Bryant (1866–1950) on April 11, 1888, and supported himself by
farming and running a sawmill.[14] They had one child, Edsel Ford (1893–1943).[15]
Career
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 the
Quadricycle.[16]
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.[17] 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.[17] However,
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.[17]
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.[17] In 1902, Murphy brought in Henry M. Leland as a
consultant; Ford, in response, left the company bearing his name. With Ford gone, Leland
renamed the company the Cadillac Automobile Company.[17]
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, a
Detroit-area coal dealer.[17] They formed a partnership, "Ford & Malcomson, Ltd." 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.[17] Sales were slow, and a crisis arose when the
Dodge brothers demanded payment for their first shipment.

Ford Motor Company

Henry Ford with Thomas Edison and Harvey S. Firestone. Fort

Myers, Florida, February 11, 1929.
In response, Malcomson brought in another group of investors and convinced the Dodge
Brothers to accept a portion of the new company.[17] Ford & Malcomson was reincorporated
as the Ford Motor Company on June 16, 1903,[17] 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 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 the country, making the Ford brand known throughout the United
States. Ford also was one of the early backers of the Indianapolis 500.[18]

Ford's Transmission Mechanism. (1909)

Transmission Patent
In 1909, Ford submitted for patent application for his invention for a
new transmission mechanism.
It was awarded a patent in 1911.[19]
Model T
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; the four
cylinders were cast in a solid block; the suspension used two semi-elliptic springs. The car
was very simple to drive, and easy and cheap to repair. It was so cheap 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.[20][21]

Ford assembly line, 1913

Ford created a huge publicity machine in Detroit to ensure every newspaper carried stories
and ads about 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 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.[22] (See Ford Piquette Avenue Plant)
Sales passed 250,000 in 1914. By 1916, as the price dropped to $360 for the basic touring
car, sales reached 472,000.[23]
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."[24] 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 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).[25]
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 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 the
other investors, thus giving the family sole ownership of the company.[26]
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.[27] 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 the upscale market.[28] 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.[29]

A 1926 Ford T Roadster on display in India

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 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 a massive new assembly plant at River Rouge
for the new Model A, which launched in 1927.[30]
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.[citation needed]
Model A and Ford's later career
By 1926, flagging sales of 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 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.[31]
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, 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 1935–36. For 1932 however, Ford dropped 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.[32]
Ford did not believe in accountants; he amassed one of 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.[citation needed] Not until 1956 would Ford be a publicly-traded company.
[33]

Also, at Edsel's insistence, Ford launched Mercury in 1939 as a mid-range make to

challenge Dodge and Buick, although Henry also displayed relatively little enthusiasm for
it.[28]
Labor philosophy
Five-dollar wage

Time magazine, January 14, 1935

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.[34]
Ford astonished the world in 1914 by offering a $5 daily wage ($152 in 2023), which more
than doubled the rate of most of his workers.[35] A Cleveland, Ohio, newspaper editorialized
that the announcement "shot like a blinding rocket through the dark clouds of the present
industrial depression".[36] 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.[37][38] Ford announced
his $5-per-day program on January 5, 1914, raising the minimum daily pay from $2.34 to
$5 for qualifying male workers.[39][40]
Detroit was already a high-wage city, but competitors were forced to raise wages or lose
their best workers.[41] 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.[42] It may have been Couzens who convinced Ford to adopt the $5-
day wage.[43]
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".[44]
Ford's incursion into his employees' private lives was highly controversial, and he soon
backed off from the most intrusive aspects. By the time he wrote his 1922 memoir, he had
spoken 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
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."[45]
Five-day workweek
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 a 48-hour week,[46] but in 1926 it was announced as five 8-hour days, giving a
40-hour week.[47] 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.[48]
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 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."[48]
Labor unions
Ford was adamantly against labor unions. He explained his views on unions in Chapter 18
of My Life and Work.[49] 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 a means to foster employment, but Ford saw this as self-
defeating because, in his view, productivity was necessary for economic prosperity to exist.
[citation needed]

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 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.[citation needed]
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.[50] On March 7, 1932, during 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.[51] While Bennett's men were beating 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".[51]: 311 The following day
photographs of the injured UAW members appeared in newspapers, later becoming known
as The Battle of the Overpass.[citation needed]
In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Edsel—who was president of the company—thought
Ford had to come to 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[52] makes clear that Ford's purpose in
putting Bennett in charge was to make sure no agreements were ever reached.[citation needed]
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[53] that a distraught Henry Ford was very close to following through with a threat
to break up 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
was signed in June 1941.[53] 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?"[54]

Ford Airplane Company

Ford 4-AT-F (EC-RRA) of the Spanish Republican

Airline, L.A.P.E.
Like other automobile companies, Ford entered 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 the strength of duralumin. The plane
was similar to Fokker's V.VII–3m, and some say[who?] that Ford's engineers surreptitiously
measured the Fokker plane and then copied it. 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 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.[55]
World War I era and peace activism
Further information: Peace Ship and 1918 United States Senate election in Michigan
Ford opposed war, which he viewed as a terrible waste,[56][57] and supported causes that
opposed military intervention.[58] Ford became highly critical of those who he felt financed
war, and he tried to stop them. In 1915, 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 the Netherlands to meet with
peace activists. A target of much ridicule, Ford left the ship as soon as it reached Sweden.
[59]
In 1915, Ford blamed "German-Jewish bankers" for instigating the war.[60]
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 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 the most businesses wanted to avoid wars and instead work to
manufacture and sell useful goods, hire workers, and generate steady long-term profits.[61]
Ford's British factories produced Fordson tractors to increase 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.[13]: 95–100, 119 [62]
In 1918, with the war on and the League of Nations a growing issue in global politics,
President Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, encouraged Ford to run for a Michigan seat in the
U.S. Senate. Wilson believed that Ford could tip the scales in Congress in favor of Wilson's
proposed League. "You are the only man in Michigan who can be elected and help bring
about the peace you so desire," the president wrote Ford. Ford wrote back: "If they want to
elect me let them do so, but I won't make a penny's investment." Ford did run, however,
and came within 7,000 votes of winning, out of more than 400,000 cast statewide.[63] He was
defeated in a close election by the Republican candidate, Truman Newberry, a
former United States Secretary of the Navy. Ford remained a staunch Wilsonian and
supporter of the League. When Wilson made a major speaking tour in the summer of 1919
to promote the League, Ford helped fund the attendant publicity.[64][65]
World War II era and controversies
Ford opposed the United States' entry into World War II[51][66] and continued to believe that
international business could generate the prosperity that would head off wars. Ford
"insisted that war was the product of greedy financiers who sought profit in human
destruction". In 1939, he went so far as to claim that the torpedoing of U.S. merchant ships
by German submarines was the result of conspiratorial activities undertaken by financier
war-makers.[67] The financiers to whom he was referring was Ford's code for Jews; he had
also accused Jews of fomenting the First World War.[51][68]
In the run-up to World War II and when the war erupted in 1939, he reported that he did not
want to trade with belligerents. Like many other businessmen of the Great Depression era,
he never liked or entirely trusted the Franklin Roosevelt Administration, and thought
Roosevelt was inching the U.S. closer to war. Ford continued to do business with Nazi
Germany, including the manufacture of war materiel.[51] However, he also agreed to build
warplane engines for the British government.[69] In early 1940, he boasted that Ford Motor
Company would soon be able to produce 1,000 U.S. warplanes a day, even though it did
not have an aircraft production facility at that time.[70]: 430 Ford was a prominent early member
of the America First Committee against World War II involvement, but was forced to
resign from its executive board when his involvement proved too controversial.[71]
Beginning in 1940, with the requisitioning of between 100 and 200 French POWs to work
as slave laborers, Ford-Werke contravened Article 31 of the 1929 Geneva Convention.[51]
When Rolls-Royce sought a U.S. manufacturer as an additional source for
the Merlin engine (as fitted to Spitfire and Hurricane fighters), Ford first agreed to do so
and then reneged. He "lined up behind the war effort" when the U.S. entered in December
1941.[72]
Willow Run
Before the U.S. entered the war, responding to President Roosevelt's call in December 1940
for the "Great Arsenal of Democracy", Ford directed the Ford Motor Company to construct
a vast new purpose-built aircraft factory at Willow Run near Detroit, Michigan. Ford broke
ground on Willow Run in the spring of 1941, B-24 component production began in May
1942, and the first complete B-24 came off the line in October 1942. At 3,500,000 sq ft
(330,000 m2), it was the largest assembly line in the world at the time. At its peak in 1944,
the Willow Run plant produced 650 B-24s per month, and by 1945 Ford was completing
each B-24 in eighteen hours, with one rolling off the assembly line every 58 minutes.
[73]
Ford produced 9,000 B-24s at Willow Run, half of the 18,000 total B-24s produced
during the war.[73][70]: 430
Edsel's death
When Edsel Ford died of cancer in 1943, at age 49, Henry Ford nominally resumed control
of the company, but a series of strokes in the late 1930s had left him increasingly
debilitated, and his mental ability was fading. Ford was increasingly sidelined, and others
made decisions in his name.[74] The company was controlled by a handful of senior
executives led by Charles Sorensen, an important engineer and production executive at
Ford; and Harry Bennett, the chief of Ford's Service Unit, Ford's paramilitary force that
spied on, and enforced discipline upon, Ford employees. Ford grew jealous of the publicity
Sorensen received and forced Sorensen out in 1944.[75] Ford's incompetence led to
discussions in Washington about how to restore the company, whether by wartime
government fiat, or by instigating a coup among executives and directors.[76]
Forced out
Nothing happened until 1945 when, with bankruptcy a serious risk, Ford's wife Clara and
Edsel's widow Eleanor confronted him and demanded he cede control of the company to
his grandson Henry Ford II. They threatened to sell off their stock, which amounted to three
quarters of the company's total shares, if he refused. Ford was reportedly infuriated, but he
had no choice but to give in.[77][better source needed][78] The young man took over and, as his first act of
business, fired Harry Bennett.
Antisemitism and The Dearborn Independent
Main article: Dearborn Independent
Ford was a conspiracy theorist who drew on a long tradition of false
allegations against Jews. Ford claimed that Jewish internationalism posed a threat to
traditional American values, which he deeply believed were at risk in the modern world.
[79]
Part of his racist and antisemitic legacy includes the funding of square-dancing in
American schools because he hated jazz and associated its creation with Jewish people.[80] In
1920 Ford wrote, "If fans wish to know the trouble with American baseball they have it in
three words—too much Jew."[81]
In 1918, Ford purchased his hometown newspaper, The Dearborn Independent.[82] A year
and a half later, Ford began publishing a series of articles in the paper under his own name,
claiming a vast Jewish conspiracy was affecting America.[83] The series ran in 91 issues.
Every Ford dealership nationwide was required to carry the paper and distribute it to its
customers. Ford later bound the articles into four volumes entitled The International Jew:
The World's Foremost Problem, which was translated into multiple languages and
distributed widely across the US and Europe.[84][85] The International Jew blamed nearly all
the troubles it saw in American society on Jews.[83] The Independent ran for eight years,
from 1920 until 1927. With around 700,000 readers of his newspaper, Ford emerged as a
"spokesman for right-wing extremism and religious prejudice."[86]

The Ford publication The International Jew, the World's

Foremost Problem. Articles from The Dearborn Independent, 1920
In Germany, Ford's The International Jew, the World's Foremost Problem was published
by Theodor Fritsch, founder of several antisemitic parties and a member of the Reichstag.
In a letter written in 1924, Heinrich Himmler described Ford as "one of our most valuable,
important, and witty fighters".[87] Ford is the only American mentioned favorably in Hitler's
autobiography Mein Kampf.[88] Adolf Hitler wrote, "only a single great man, Ford, [who], to
[the Jews'] fury, still maintains full independence ... [from] the controlling masters of the
producers in a nation of one hundred and twenty millions." Speaking in 1931 to a Detroit
News reporter, Hitler said "I regard Henry Ford as my inspiration," explaining his reason
for keeping a life-size portrait of Ford behind his desk.[89][84] Steven Watts wrote that Hitler
"revered" Ford, proclaiming that "I shall do my best to put his theories into practice in
Germany", and modeling the Volkswagen Beetle, the people's car, on the Model T.[90] Max
Wallace has stated, "History records that ... Adolf Hitler was an ardent Anti-Semite before
he ever read Ford's The International Jew."[91] Ford also paid to print and distribute 500,000
copies of the antisemitic fabricated text The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.[92][93] Historians
say Hitler distributed Ford’s books and articles throughout Germany, stoking the hatred that
helped fuel the Holocaust.[93] [94]
On February 1, 1924, Ford received Kurt Ludecke, a representative of Hitler, at home.
Ludecke was introduced to Ford by Siegfried Wagner (son of the composer Richard
Wagner) and his wife Winifred, both Nazi sympathizers and antisemites. Ludecke asked
Ford for a contribution to the Nazi cause, but was apparently refused. Ford, did however,
give considerable sums of money to Boris Brasol, a member of the Aufbau Vereinigung, an
organization linking German Nazis and White Russian emigrants which also financed
the Nazi Party.[95][96]
Ford's articles were denounced by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). While these articles
explicitly condemned pogroms and violence against Jews, they blamed the Jews themselves
for provoking them.[97] According to some trial testimony, none of this work was written by
Ford, but he allowed his name to be used as an author. Friends and business associates said
they warned Ford about the contents of the Independent and that he probably never read the
articles (he claimed he only read the headlines).[98] On the other hand, court testimony in
a libel suit, brought by one of the targets of the newspaper, alleged that Ford did know
about the contents of the Independent in advance of publication.[51]
A libel lawsuit was brought by San Francisco lawyer and Jewish farm cooperative
organizer Aaron Sapiro in response to the antisemitic remarks, and led Ford to close
the Independent in December 1927. News reports at the time quoted him as saying he was
shocked by the content and unaware of its nature. 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 at the libel trial that he never
discussed the content of the pages or sent them to Ford for his approval.[99] Investigative
journalist Max Wallace noted that "whatever credibility this absurd claim 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."[100]
Michael Barkun observed: "That Cameron would have continued to publish such anti-
Semitic material without Ford's explicit instructions seemed unthinkable to those who knew
both men. Mrs. Stanley Ruddiman, a Ford family intimate, remarked that "I don't think Mr.
Cameron ever wrote anything for publication without Mr. Ford's approval."[101] According to
Spencer Blakeslee, "[t]he ADL mobilized prominent Jews and non-Jews to publicly oppose
Ford's message. They formed a coalition of Jewish groups for the same purpose and raised
constant objections in the Detroit press. Before leaving his presidency early in
1921, Woodrow Wilson joined other leading Americans in a statement that rebuked Ford
and others for their antisemitic campaign. A boycott against Ford products by Jews and
liberal Christians also had an impact, and Ford shut down the paper in 1927, recanting his
views in a public letter to Sigmund Livingston, president of the ADL."[102] Wallace also
found that Ford's apology was likely, or at least partly, motivated by a business that was
slumping as a result of his antisemitism, repelling potential buyers of Ford cars.[51] Up until
the apology, a considerable number of dealers, who had been required to make sure that
buyers of Ford cars received the Independent, bought up and destroyed copies of the
newspaper rather than alienate customers.[51]
Ford's 1927 apology was well received. "Four-fifths of the hundreds of letters addressed to
Ford in July 1927 were from Jews, and almost without exception they praised the
industrialist..."[103] In January 1937, a Ford statement to The Detroit Jewish
Chronicle disavowed "any connection whatsoever with the publication in Germany of a
book known as the International Jew".[103] Ford, however, allegedly never signed the
retraction and apology, which were written by others—rather, his signature was forged
by Harry Bennett—and Ford never actually recanted his antisemitic views, stating in 1940:
"I hope to republish The International Jew again some time."[104]
Grand Cross of the German Eagle, an award bestowed on Ford by Nazi Germany
In July 1938, the German consul in Cleveland gave Ford, on his 75th birthday, the award of
the Grand Cross of the German Eagle, the highest medal Nazi Germany could bestow on a
foreigner.[89][105] James D. Mooney, vice president of overseas operations for General Motors,
received a similar medal, the Merit Cross of the German Eagle, First Class.[89][106]
On January 7, 1942, Ford wrote another letter to Sigmund Livingston disclaiming direct or
indirect support of "any agitation which would promote antagonism toward my Jewish
fellow citizens". He concluded the letter with, "My sincere hope that now in this country
and throughout the world when the war is finished, hatred of the Jews and hatred against
any other racial or religious groups shall cease for all time."[107]
The distribution of The International Jew was halted in 1942 through legal action by Ford,
despite complications from a lack of copyright.[103] It is still banned in Germany. Extremist
groups often recycle the material; it still appears on antisemitic and neo-Nazi websites.
Testifying at Nuremberg, convicted Hitler Youth leader Baldur von Schirach who, in his
role as Gauleiter of Vienna, deported 65,000 Jews to camps in Poland, stated: "The
decisive anti-Semitic book I was reading and the book that influenced my comrades was ...
that book by Henry Ford, The International Jew. I read it and became anti-Semitic. The
book made a great influence on myself and my friends because we saw in Henry Ford the
representative of success and also the representative of a progressive social policy."[108]
Robert Lacey wrote in Ford: The Men and the Machines that a close Willow Run associate
of Ford reported that when he was shown newsreel footage of the Nazi concentration
camps, he "was confronted with the atrocities which finally and unanswerably laid bare the
bestiality of the prejudice to which he contributed, he collapsed with a stroke – his last and
most serious."[109] Ford had suffered previous strokes and his final cerebral
hemorrhage occurred in 1947 at age 83.[110]
International business
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Racing
Later career and death
Personal interests
In popular culture
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See also
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