The People's Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century (Vintage) (105 page)

It is a pleasure to acknowledge the many individuals who contributed in some way to the completion of this book. At Alfred A. Knopf, my editor, Ashbel Green, used his legendary skills over the last several years to help shape the manuscript and give my prose whatever elegance it may have. His editorial assistant, Luba Ostashevsky, generously offered her own expertise to complete a host of tasks in the latter stages of the project.

At the Benson Ford Research Center in Dearborn, Michigan, the staff treated me with great kindness over the course of several years during my research stays. They helped me understand a “complicated” filing system, suggested new avenues of inquiry, and brought great mounds of material for my inspection with unfailing good cheer. Special thanks go to Linda Skolarus, who assisted with issues and requests far too numerous to list, and to Andrew Schornick, the Columbo of the archives, who often was able to find the most obscure materials hidden in the nooks and crannies of this large facility. The entire staff has my gratitude; this book could not have been completed without their help.

In the Department of History at the University of Missouri, many people played significant roles. The departmental staff—Patty Eggleston, Sandy Kietzman, Melinda Lockwood, Jenny Morton, Karen Pecora, Nancy Taube—helped relieve the burdens of a beleaguered chairman by taking care of business efficiently and well. Many colleagues offered sustenance (intellectual and otherwise) over the last few years in discussions, at lunches, or at Friday afternoon seminars: Carol Anderson, Richard Bienvenu, John Bullion, Win Burggraaff, Mark Carroll, Robert Collins, John Frymire, Lois Huneycutt, Abdullahi Ibrahim, Larry Okamura, Jeff Pasley, Mark Smith, Jonathan Sperber, John Wigger, Ian Worthington. Several research assistants—Mary Jane Edele, Mary Ann Fitzwilson, and, especially, Elizabeth Read—did wonderful work gathering and organizing research material.
My pal of many years, Cindy Sheltmire, kindly proofread the manuscript when it first reached printed form. Catherine Damme deserves special credit. Her skillful assistance with research, editing, and word processing proved invaluable, while her comments on the text never failed to get me thinking about an important issue in a fresh way.

My agent, Ronald Goldfarb, has been a star. Whether negotiating contracts, offering shrewd career advice, or just being a friend, he continues to be indispensable to the successful completion of my books. I also owe special thanks to my good friend and fellow author, Steve Weinberg, whose encouragement and enthusiasm for the project never flagged, and to Sherrie Goettsch, whose photographic skills produced a picture where, contrary to tradition, I do not look as if a bill for overdue taxes had just arrived in the mail.

Much appreciation goes to my family, noted in the dedication, and to my in-laws and new neighbors, Tom and Vivian Sokolich. My boon companions at the farm—Oscar, Maxine, Elvis, Levon, Lucy, Loretta, Jesse, Roady, May, and George—provided hours of pleasant distraction. My greatest thanks, of course, go to Patti Sokolich Watts for her support, interest, assistance, and understanding over the last several years. The book goes to her with familiar words: “You're going to love it.”

Many of the following notes refer to documents held in the Ford Archives at the Benson Ford Research Center, located at the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. Most of the research for this book was conducted there. This facility is an enormous repository of materials on the life of Henry Ford and the history of the Ford Motor Company. It contains thousands of items—interview transcripts, news stories, publicity scrapbooks, letters and correspondence, company publications, memoranda, photographs, personal papers, and so on. All citations to this material will indicate the Ford Archives (FA).

Several matters in the notes require brief explanation. First, HF stands for Henry Ford. Second, the FA organizes its holdings according to a system of accessions, so citations to archival material will designate an accession number, followed by a box number. Third, the FA houses several hundred interviews with friends and associates of Henry Ford that were conducted and transcribed in the early 1950s. Citations note these “Reminiscences,” as they are called, and page numbers refer to the transcriptions. All “Reminiscences” are in acc. 65 in the FA. Fourth, the FA has a large number of articles and manuscripts arranged topically in special files. Thus some of the notes will designate “Vertical File,” followed by the name of the person, incident, or topic around which it is organized.

My analysis of Henry Ford and American culture has been bolstered by a huge scholarly literature on such topics as consumerism, populism, celebrity, and progressivism. Because of space limitations, the notes indicate only the most salient secondary sources I have consulted.

1.
HF, quoted in Charles Merz, “Our Second Billionaire,”
World's Work,
April 1929, p. 110, and in Allan L. Benson,
The New Henry Ford
(New York, 1923), p. 330.

2.
A fuller account of Ford and the Mount Clemens trial, complete with citations of sources, appears in chap. 13.

3.
“Businessman of the Century,”
Fortune,
Nov. 22, 1999, pp. 108–28; poll of fifty-eight academic business experts conducted by Blaine McCormick of the Baylor University School of Business on April 1, 2002, results forwarded to me by personal letter.

1.
HF,
My Life and Work
(Garden City, N.Y., 1922), pp. 24, 34.

2.
William Ford's comment was reported by longtime Dearborn resident George F. Holmes, “Reminiscences,” p. 94, in acc. 65, FA.

3.
Ibid., p. 2.

4.
For a standard history of Michigan, see Willis F. Dunbar and George S. May,
Michigan: A History of the Wolverine State
(Grand Rapids, 1965). On the rise of the Republican Party and its essential ideas, see Eric Foner's brilliant treatment in
Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party Before the Civil War
(New York, 1970).

5.
HF, “Loose Notes,” in acc. 1, box 14-2, FA.

6.
Ann Hood, “The Boy Henry Ford,” in acc. 653, box 1, FA. This manuscript, produced in the 1930s by a schoolgirl reporter, was based on a number of extensive interviews with HF.

7.
On HF's early experiences in school, see Margaret Ford Ruddiman, “Memories of My Brother, Henry Ford,”
Michigan History,
Sept. 1953, pp. 240–42, 251–52; William A. Simonds,
Henry Ford: His Life, His Work, His Genius
(Indianapolis, 1943), p. 34; Sidney Olson,
Young Henry Ford: A Pictorial History of the First Forty Years
(Detroit, 1997 [1963]), pp. 15–16; and the following in FA: HF, “Loose Notes”; Dr. Edsel Ruddiman, “Reminiscences,” pp. 1–3; Hood, “Boy Henry Ford.”

8.
Ruddiman, “Memories of My Brother,” p. 237; William Ford, Jr., quoted in Ford R. Bryan,
The Fords of Dearborn: An Illustrated History
(Detroit, 1997), p. 99; HF, “Loose Notes.”

9.
HF, quoted in Edgar A. Guest, “Henry Ford Talks About His Mother,”
American Magazine,
July 1923, pp. 116, 11.

10.
Among many works illuminating the dominance of Victorian values in nineteenth-century America, see Daniel Walker Howe, ed.,
Victorian America
(Philadelphia, 1975); Karen Halttunen,
Confidence Men and Painted Women: A Study of Middle-Class Culture in America, 1830–1870
(New Haven, 1982); John F. Kasson,
Rudeness and Civility: Manners in Nine-teenth-Century America
(New York, 1990).

11.
Guest, “Ford Talks About His Mother,” pp. 119, 14.

12.
Ibid., pp. 119, 120.

13.
Ibid., pp. 119, 13.

14.
Ibid., p. 12; Ruddiman, “Memories of My Brother,” p. 237.

15.
Hood, “Boy Henry Ford”; Ruddiman, “Memories of My Brother,” p. 237; HF, quoted in Allan L. Benson,
The New Henry Ford
(New York, 1923), p. 19.

16.
Reynold M. Wik,
Henry Ford and Grass-Roots America
(Ann Arbor, 1973), p. 204.

17.
HF, “Loose Notes”; Hood, “Boy Henry Ford”; Ruddiman, “Memories of My Brother,” p. 242.

18.
John G. Cawelti,
Apostles of the Self-Made Man
(Chicago, 1965), p. 208. For analyses of the
McGuffey Reader,
see Richard D. Mozier,
Making the American Mind: Social and Moral Ideas in the McGuffey's Readers
(New York, 1947); Dolores P. Sullivan,
William Holmes McGuffey: Schoolmaster to the Nation
(Rutherford, N.J., 1994).

19.
HF, “The McGuffey Readers,”
Colophon: A Quarterly for Bookmen,
Spring 1936, p. 587.

20.
Harvey C. Minnich, ed.,
Old Favorites from the McGuffey Readers
(New York, 1936); HF, “McGuffey Readers,” pp. 587–603; HF, speech to Federation of McGuffey Societies, July 2–3, 1938, in acc. 1, box 113, FA; Harvey C. Minnich,
William Holmes McGuffey and His Readers
(New York, 1936), pp. v, vii. A useful overview of HF's adult attempts to memorialize McGuffey appears in Ford Bryan's paper, “The Fords and the McGuffey's,” Oct. 10, 1998, in Vertical File—“Wm. McGuffey,” FA.

21.
Ford R. Bryan,
Henry's Lieutenants
(Detroit, 1993), p. 55; W. J. Cameron, “The McGuffey Readers: A Talk Given on the Ford Sunday Evening Hour, March 17, 1935,” in Vertical File—“Wm. McGuffey,” FA.

22.
HF and James C. Derieux, “The Making of an American Citizen,”
Good Housekeeping,
Oct. 1934, p. 121; HF, “McGuffey Readers,” p. 587; Charles Voorhess, “Reminiscences,” pp. 150–51.

23.
Hamlin Garland, “The Homely Side of Henry Ford,” in Vertical File—“Henry Ford–Biog-raphy,” FA; William C. Richards,
The Last Billionaire
(New York, 1948), p. 165.

1.
Margaret Ford Ruddiman, “Memories of My Brother, Henry Ford,”
Michigan History,
Sept. 1953, p. 249; Edward J. Cutler, “Reminiscences,” p. 185.

2.
Ruddiman, “Memories of My Brother,” pp. 244, 226; HF,
My Life and Work
(Garden City, N.Y., 1922), pp. 200, 22; Edgar A. Guest, “Henry Ford Talks About His Mother,”
American Magazine,
July 1923, p. 12.

3.
HF,
My Life and Work,
p. 22; Ruddiman, “Memories of My Brother,” pp. 243–44.

4.
Ann Hood, “The Boy Henry Ford,” in acc. 653, box 1, FA; HF, “Personal Notebook,” in acc. 1, box 12-5, FA; HF,
My Life and Work,
pp. 22–23; Ruddiman, “Memories of My Brother,” pp. 242–43.

5.
Ruddiman, “Memories of My Brother,” pp. 249, 244.

6.
Edison, quoted in Allan L. Benson,
The New Henry Ford
(New York, 1923), p. 38.

7.
Guest, “Ford Talks About His Mother,” p. 120; HF, quoted in William A. Simonds,
Henry Ford: His Life, His Work, His Genius
(Indianapolis, 1943), p. 34.

8.
Hood, “Boy Henry Ford.”

9.
For details on the early history of the Ford family in Dearborn, and William Ford's early life in particular, see Sidney Olson,
Young Henry Ford: A Pictorial History of the First Forty Years
(Detroit, 1997 [1963]), pp. 5–15; Ford R. Bryan,
The Fords of Dearborn: An Illustrated History
(Detroit, 1997), pp. 93–98.

10.
Margaret Ford Ruddiman, “Reminiscences,” p. 41; Ruddiman, “Memories of My Brother,” pp. 236–37, 245; Clyde Ford, “Reminiscences,” p. 6.

11.
Ruddiman, “Memories of My Brother,” pp. 254, 226, 245, 41, 237.

12.
Ibid., pp. 245–46, 227. Among a vast historiography on republican and free-labor ideology, see Steven Watts,
The Republic Reborn: War and the Making of Liberal America, 1790–1820
(Baltimore, 1987); Charles Sellers,
The Market Revolution: Jacksonian America, 1815–1846
(New York, 1991); Eric Foner,
Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men
(New York, 1970).

13.
Guest, “Ford Talks About His Mother,” p. 119; Hood, “Boy Henry Ford”; Detroit
Free Press
article, quoted in Bryan,
Fords of Dearborn,
p. 102; HF, quoted in Olson,
Young Henry Ford,
p. 19.

14.
HF,
My Life and Work,
pp. 22–23.

15.
Ruddiman, “Memories of My Brother,” p. 259.

16.
Benson,
New Henry Ford,
pp. 33–34, 28–30, 25.

17.
Gus Munchow, “Reminiscences,” pp. 76–77; Benson,
New Henry Ford,
pp. 22–23.

18.
Olson,
Young Henry Ford,
p. 88.

19.
Ruddiman, “Memories of My Brother,” pp. 249, 243–44.

20.
Ibid., pp. 248–49, 246.

21.
Ibid., pp. 246–47.

22.
Ibid., pp. 268–69; Ruddiman, “Reminiscences,” p. 94.

23.
Ruddiman, “Memories of My Brother,” p. 248; Dr. Edsel Ruddiman, “Reminiscences,” p. 4.

24.
Benson,
New Henry Ford,
p. 34; Horace L. Arnold and Fay L. Faurote,
Ford Methods and Ford Shops
(New York, 1915), p. 9; HF,
My Life and Work,
p. 24. This Arnold and Faurote book included a sketch of HF's life based on interviews with him.

25.
Ruddiman, “Memories of My Brother,” pp. 254–55; Frederick Strauss, “Reminiscences,” p. 2.

26.
Strauss, “Reminiscences,” pp. 2–4.

27.
“Fairlane Papers,” unsigned 14-page HF interview, p. 11, in acc. 1, box 118, FA; Allan Nevins,
Ford: The Times, the Man, the Company
(New York, 1954), pp. 84–85.

28.
HF,
My Life and Work,
p. 24; Olson,
Young Henry Ford,
p. 30; Nevins,
Ford: Times, Man, Company,
pp. 84–85.

29.
Strauss, “Reminiscences,” pp. 6–10.

30.
HF, quoted in Simonds,
Ford: Life, Work, Genius,
pp. 35–38; HF,
My Life and Work,
p. 24.

31.
HF, quoted in Olson,
Young Henry Ford,
p. 31; HF,
My Life and Work,
p. 27.

32.
HF, quoted in Olson,
Young Henry Ford,
p. 33.

33.
Ibid., pp. 34–38; HF,
My Life and Work,
pp. 25–28.

34.
HF,
My Life and Work,
p. 29; Olson,
Young Henry Ford,
p. 45; Nevins,
Ford: Times, Man, Company,
pp. 108–11.

35.
HF,
My Life and Work,
p. 29; Olson,
Young Henry Ford,
pp. 39–41, 46–48; Nevins,
Ford: Times, Man, Company,
pp. 104–10.

36.
HF,
My Life and Work,
pp. 28–30; Ruddiman, “Memories of My Brother,” pp. 264–65; Olson,
Young Henry Ford,
pp. 45–46.

37.
HF,
My Life and Work,
p. 30, quoted in text. Ruddiman, “Memories of My Brother,” p. 265; Olson,
Young Henry Ford,
p. 49.

38.
“Mr. Ford Doesn't Care,”
Fortune,
Dec. 1933, p. 134.

39.
HF, “The McGuffey Readers,”
Colophon: A Quarterly for Bookmen,
Spring 1936, p. 588; S. J. Woolf, “Mr. Ford Shows His Museum,” New York
Times Magazine,
Jan. 12, 1936, p. 2.

1.
Allan L. Benson,
The New Henry Ford
(New York, 1923), p. 108. Benson claimed that Edison made this statement to him.

2.
A picture of this house—taken much later, in 1941—can be found in Sidney Olson,
Young Henry Ford: A Pictorial History of the First Forty Years
(Detroit, 1997 [1963]), p. 52.

3.
The facts of Ford's career at Edison Illuminating Company are well known. For useful and accurate narratives of these years, see, for example, Olson,
Young Henry Ford,
pp. 53–56, 58–59, 68; Allan Nevins,
Ford: The Times, the Man, the Company
(New York, 1954), pp. 119–20, 135–36.

4.
Dow, quoted in William A. Simonds,
Henry Ford: His Life, His Work, His Genius
(New York, 1943), p. 47. For another, similar interview, see Benson,
New Henry Ford,
pp. 57–58, 59–60.

5.
Charles T. Bush and Claude Sintz, “Interview,” March 3, 1952, in acc. 65, box 10-11, p. 24, FA; Ingram, quoted in Simonds,
Ford: Life, Work, Genius,
p. 48.

6.
These stories were related by Jim Bishop, who was interviewed for Simonds,
Ford: Life, Work, Genius,
pp. 48–49.

7.
HF, quoted in Olson,
Young Henry Ford,
p. 54; Frederick Strauss, “Reminiscences,” pp. 37–38.

8.
HF,
My Life and Work
(Garden City, N.Y., 1922), p. 29; Olson,
Young Henry Ford,
pp. 56–58.

9.
HF confirmed this story in discussions with William Simonds for his
Ford: Life, Work, Genius,
quote from p. 47.

10.
Olson,
Young Henry Ford,
p. 54.

11.
HF,
My Life and Work,
30; Olson,
Young Henry Ford,
p. 71.