He was a pioneer of American automotive
engineering. He revolutionized the way people got from point A to point B. He
was also a massive fan of union busting, Nazi Germany, and… Square dancing? Fasten
your seatbelts. We're slamming on the gas and driving into the ugly truth about Henry Ford. Henry Ford was an American industrialist born on
July 30, 1863. He spent the earlier part of his career repairing and constructing engines when
working for a division of Edison Electric. In 1903, he founded Ford Motor Company, his own
automobile manufacturing company. In 1908, Ford introduced the Model T automobile,
the first affordable car of its kind. With the introduction of the Model T,
cars became accessible to the middle class. The low price of the vehicle was
due to Ford's efficient manufacturing, involving production on an assembly line rather
than individual crafting by hand. Cars were no longer a luxury for the extremely wealthy but
an item that the average family could purchase. The solid black car was simple and easy to
drive, with the steering wheel on the left and a unique foot-operated transmission. It quickly
became the iconic image of the American car, available in nearly every city in
North America. These nation-shaping vehicles were always 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." By 1918, half of all the cars in the United
States were those unmistakable black Model Ts. However, Henry Ford had a lot more to
him than advancements in the world of transportation and manufacturing. He had
some deeply pernicious and damaging beliefs, beliefs he was not content to keep to
himself. Like many people in America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries,
Ford was incredibly racist. One particular target of his hate and paranoia was the
Jewish community, and he was determined to spread his antisemitic views and conspiracy
theories to as wide of an audience as possible. In 1918, he purchased the Dearborn Independent, a
struggling newspaper. In 1920, he began publishing his own weekly series, "The International Jew:
The World's Problem." Classy stuff, Henry. This series was based on the debunked antisemitic
hoax "The Protocol of the Elders of Zion," a document that claimed to reveal a global Jewish
conspiracy for power and money. It was a lie, but the perfect lie to stoke the flames of hatred
and justify Ford's biases. He published this series for years, distributing copies of the paper
in Ford car dealerships all around the country. Henry Ford attributed a variety of things that
he personally disliked to the influence of, you guessed it, Jewish people. One of
these was a popular genre of music that was beginning to take the United
States by storm: Jazz. In 1921, in the third volume of his series
"The International Jew," Ford wrote: “Many people have wondered whence come the
waves upon waves of musical slush that invade decent homes and set the young people of
this generation imitating the drivel of morons. Popular music is a Jewish monopoly.
Jazz is a Jewish creation. The mush, slush, the sly suggestion, the abandoned sensuousness
of sliding notes, are of Jewish origin.” This is not only deeply antisemitic, it isn't
true. But that didn't matter to Ford. He believed that jazz was a corrupting force, threatening
the innocence of Americans and encouraging them to partake in the use of tobacco, alcohol, and
other "sinful" behavior. But Henry Ford had a plan to counter the popularity of Jazz in America
and steer the population in the white direction- ahem, the "right" direction. The answer, he
believed, was getting Americans interested in traditional forms of dance again, such as
waltzes, quadrilles, and… Square dancing. Ford paid for dance instructors to come to
his town and teach the steps to these dances and hired orchestras to play square dancing
music. In 1926, he published an instruction manual titled “Good Morning: After a Sleep of
Twenty-Five Years, Old-Fashioned Dancing is Being Revived by Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ford.” He
also funded fiddling contests and radio shows that promoted this "old-time dancing music,"
required his employees to attend square dances that he threw, and created liquor-free
square dancing clubs around the country. By the way, in spite of Ford's association
between square dancing and a traditional, white version of American life, a
lot of square dancing traditions, such as the practice of calling out dance moves
to the crowd during a square dance, originated in black communities. But again, the truth
about these things didn't matter much to Ford. He kept at it with his anti-jazz campaign,
campaigning alongside his wife and square dancing instructor Benjamin Lovett to
convince schools to incorporate square dancing into the physical education
curriculum. This would, he claimed, teach children "social training, courtesy,
good citizenship, along with rhythm." By 1928, nearly half the schools in America were
teaching square dancing to their students. Thankfully, Ford didn't succeed in wiping
out jazz. But he did kickstart a movement, and square dancing persisted as a part of
the culture and a fixture in many American schools for decades after him. That's right.
If you grew up in the American school system with square dancing as part of your gym class
curriculum, you probably have Henry Ford to blame. But Henry Ford's antisemitism was a
lot more serious than an obsession with square dancing. Henry Ford's
work as a titan of industry and vocal anti-Semite attracted him to one
particularly infamous fan: Adolf Hitler. In 1922, copies of "The International Jew" were
translated into German and quickly found an audience among those looking for confirmation of
their antisemitic sentiments. Ford was actually the only American mentioned by name in Hitler's
1925 manifesto, Mein Kampf. He referred to Ford as a "great man" who was holding out against
the Jewish influence over American labor. Thomas Weber, author of "Becoming Hitler: The Making
of a Nazi," attributes Hitler's exposure to Ford's writing to his journey further down the
rabbit hole of "conspiratorial anti-Semitism." Ford's name was even brought up at the Nuremberg
trials. Baldur von Schirach, a former leader of the National Socialist German Students League and
prominent Nazi, said at his 1946 trial that “The decisive antisemitic book which I read at that
time and the book which influenced my comrades…was Henry Ford’s book, The International Jew." He
added, "In those days, this book made such a deep impression on my friends and myself because we
saw in Henry Ford, the representative of success. In the poverty-stricken and wretched Germany of
the time, youth looked toward America, and apart from the great benefactor, Herbert Hoover, it
was Henry Ford who, to us, represented America.” Ford didn't do much to beat the Nazi sympathizer
allegation, either. In the summer of 1936, Henry Ford accepted a 75th birthday present
from Hitler in the form of the Grand Cross of the Supreme Order of the German Eagle, the
highest Nazi regime award given to foreigners. One of the more positive things that Henry Ford
is known for is the dramatic wage increase given to factory workers in 1914. In January of that
year, Ford announced that the company would be doubling employee wages to 5 dollars a day. This
was intended to bring stability to the workforce and lower turnover rates caused by constant
quitting. It was an impressive wage for the time, but it came with strings attached. The
workers' pay actually remained the same, around 2.50 a day, and the extra money was
considered a bonus that they would have to earn. How? Why, by passing an inspection by the
company's Sociological Department, of course! If the workers committed such egregious sins as
having unclean homes, drinking or gambling habits, or wives that worked outside of the home?
Well, that could kiss that bonus goodbye. Other lifestyle choices that could jeopardize
the bonus included taking in boarders at their house, or neglecting to contribute to a
savings account. You might be thinking, "That sounds like a really inappropriate
breach of privacy and a violation of employee boundaries," and you'd be right! Welcome to the
reality of life as an employee of Henry Ford. Ford didn't stop his overstepping with the
inspections. He established a school to teach immigrant Ford workers English,
which doesn't sound so bad at first, except that it was mandatory. Workers who
failed or even hesitated to attend were laid off. Those who did attend were forced
to participate in a graduation ceremony where they would dress in a stereotypical
costume of their homeland's culture, then walk behind the stage and change into a suit
and tie, emerging as a homogenized "American." Another aspect of Ford's management style that
earned him a good reputation was his willingness to pay the same wages to his black and white
employees. While this might have come across as progressive for the time, considering the
prominence of Jim Crow laws and segregation, it wasn't out of a belief in equality. He hired
black and white workers for different jobs, keeping black employees working in the foundry
and forge, the most dangerous places to work. They were also prevented from rising through the
ranks to executive levels. He was able to garner a good reputation while simultaneously regarding
black workers as inferior and giving them much more difficult jobs, which paid the same wage as
the positions occupied by their white colleagues. Henry Ford hated and feared a lot of things.
Jazz, racial and ethnic minorities, immigrants. But one of the things he hated more fervently
than anything else was unions and anything he saw as union organizing. When the Great Depression
hit, life got a whole lot harder for the average American worker, and that Union activity that Ford
hated so much started to get a lot more popular. More than half of the workers in
the auto industry had been laid off, and 125,000 Detroit families were left with
no financial help. What did Ford think about the Great Depression? He called it
a good thing, generally speaking. "Let them fail," he was reported to say, "Let
everybody fail! I made my fortune when I had nothing to start with, by myself and my
own ideas. Let other people do the same." This may come as a shock, but the impoverished
people of Detroit didn't just immediately pull themselves up by their bootstraps.
Two years after the Depression hit, four Detroiters were dying of hunger every
day. There was no unemployment compensation, and two-thirds of Ford's employees
had been laid off. Henry Ford, incredibly wealthy as he was, weighed in
with some helpful advice: just work harder! In 1932, unemployed auto workers led a hunger
march to the Ford River Rouge factory. They had fourteen demands: jobs for the laid-off
Ford workers, payment of 50 percent of wages, seven-hour days without pay reduction, slowing
down of the deadly speedup at the factories, two fifteen-minute breaks a day, no discrimination
against black workers, welfare, medical care, free medical aid in Ford hospital for the unemployed
workers and their families, coal for the winter, the abolition of the Service Men (more on that
later), pay up of fifty dollars for winter relief, wages for part-time workers, abolition of the
graft system of hiring, and the right to organize. Ford responded in an extremely
reasonable and measured way. Wait, sorry, that's not right. He actually deployed the Ford Service Department.
Who were they? Just his private police force, a completely normal thing to have. These
Service Men included Norman Selby, a former professional boxer who had served twenty years for
murder; Joseph "Legs" Laman, a serial kidnapper; Joe Adonis, an infamous mobster; Chester LaMare,
known as the "Al Capone of Detroit," and other unsavory characters. The Service Men were so
well-known for their intimidation of workers that they coined a term for the anxiety-induced
ailment they caused, "the Ford stomach." The hunger march began in Dearborn, Michigan. It
was going peacefully until Henry Ford's cousin, who just so happened to be the Mayor of Detroit,
sent in riot and military police to attack marchers with tear gas at the city's border. One
protester was shot in the fray, and the group dispersed. But they came back together in front
of the Ford complex, ready to continue the march. When they reached the entrance, however,
Ford ordered the Service Men to open fire at the protestors. Three protestors were
killed, and 22 others were injured. The protestors were preparing to call the whole
thing off and return home when Harry Bennett, the leader of the Service Men, emerged from a car
with two others, opening fire on the protestors. Protestors responded by throwing rocks at
Bennett, but he and the two men with him killed another protestor and injured several
more. Forty-eight workers were arrested on the scene. Some of those brought into custody were
injured and chained to their hospital beds. An investigation was conducted by
Prosecutor Harry S. Toy and a grand jury, but the investigation concluded that there
were "no legal grounds for indictments." However, the battle between Ford and the
organizing auto workers was not over yet. On May 26, 1937, Walter Reuther of the United
Automobile Workers Union arrived at the River Rouge complex with a group of representatives
from the Senate Committee on Civil Liberties, clergymen, and women from UAW Local 174. The
group carried leaflets reading "Unionism, not Fordism," which they planned to hand
out to Ford workers leaving the complex. Reuther posed for some photographs
snapped by Scotty Kilpatrick, a Detroit News photographer, on top of the
public overpass with the Ford Motor Company sign in the background and prepared
to spread the word about their cause. Then, Henry Ford's right-hand man,
Harry Benett, arrived on the scene, accompanied by his officers. He ordered the
Union organizers to disperse, but they refused, insisting that they were not breaking any
rules by being there. And all at once, a fight broke out. Forty of Bennett's men charged
the unionists, attacking them in spite of protests from onlookers. Helpless to do much else,
Kilpatrick and other photographers began to document what they were seeing while nearby
reporters took notes in an attempt to do the same. Reuther was violently kicked, stomped, and
thrown down two flights of stairs. Another one of the union organizers, a 30-year-old man named
Frankensteen, attempted to fight back against the onslaught. In response, Bennett's men pulled
his jacket over his head and beat him in what he later described as "the worst licking I've
ever taken." Union leaders were knocked down, stood up, and knocked down all over again.
Another leader was thrown off of the overpass, falling 30 feet and breaking
his back on the pavement below. Some members of the Ford Service Department
turned their attention to the witnesses present, ripping notebooks out of reporters' hands,
confiscating film from photographers, and smashing cameras on the ground. One
photographer was chased for five miles until he was able to seek refuge in a police
station. Scott Kilpatrick made it to his car just in time to hide the negatives
from his camera under the back seat. Some of the Ford Service Department men
cornered him and demanded to take the negatives, and he gave them unexposed plates
instead. As the story began to spread, Harry Bennett issued a statement in an
attempt to make the unionists look bad. But the witnesses told a different story, and
so did the pictures captured by Kilpatrick and other photographers at the scene. These captured
the violence, showing Ford security men beating and grabbing UAW men and women. Reuther was caught
on camera covered in blood, with a swollen skull, and Frankensteen's face was cut, his shirt stained
with blood. A picture is worth a thousand words, and the message was clear: Ford's private
police force was to blame for the escalation. 1937 wasn't a great year for Henry Ford's
reputation when it came to labor practices. The Ford Motor Company was called before
the National Labor Relations Board that same year to defend itself against charges
that they were violating the 1935 Wagner Act, which prohibited employers from interfering
with workers' attempts to unionize. During this hearing, workers testified that Ford
employees suspected of being interested in UAW would be removed from their posts
and fired on the spot without explanation. After the Battle of the Overpass, the hearing,
and employee walkout protesting the unfair firing of union members, Ford signed
an agreement with UAW on June 20, 1941. Speaking of Ford in the 1940s, would you
believe that he was staunchly opposed to the United States getting
involved in World War II? He was a leader of the America First Committee,
which campaigned to keep America out of the conflict. But that's not all! Up until the attack
on Pearl Harbor, according to documents found in the National Archives, Dearborn produced war
materials for the Third Reich and selected a man to run the German Ford subsidiary who
had been a massive proponent of Hitler. A US Army Report from 1945 says that German
Ford was an "arsenal of Nazism" with the consent of the Ford headquarters
in Dearborn. Ford also cooperated with the Nazis until at least August 1942
through its properties in Vichy, France. According to a wartime report by the US Treasury
Department, the Ford family encouraged Ford of France executives to work with the German
officials overseeing the Nazi occupation of the area. Out of the 350,000 trucks used by the
German army by 1942, one-third were Ford-made. While Ford Motor was working with the Reich, the
company was resistant to working with President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill with
the production of war materials for the Allies. In a 1940 letter from Heinrich Albert to
Charles Sorenson, an executive in Dearborn, Albert wrote, "The Dementi of Mr. Henry Ford
concerning war orders for Great Britain has greatly helped us." Of course, we all
know how World War II ended up going, but that doesn't take away from the enthusiasm
with which Ford cooperated with the Nazis. Henry Ford has a complex legacy. He was
a bigot, an oppressive employer, and, by all accounts, a pretty terrible person. He
was also the father of the American automobile, which revolutionized transportation
forever. For better or for worse, most of us wouldn't be getting around the
way we do today if it weren't for Henry Ford. Now check out “The Real Worst People in
America.” Or watch this video instead!
