The People's Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century (Vintage) (96 page)

On the educational front, Ford activated some of his pet pedagogical theories. Soon after arriving in Bryan County, he established the Ford Industrial Arts and Trade School to teach mechanics, drafting, wood- and metalworking, welding, printing, and furniture-making to local boys. In the spring of 1937, he assumed a major role in financing the local school district and embarked upon a program of construction and curricular development. He added science laboratories, dining rooms, and playgrounds to several schools, and provided bus transportation for students in outlying areas. He also encouraged the development of new classes and activities, such as a school newspaper, theater, gardening, home economics, photography, and music. To help solidify these advances, he provided a monthly salary supplement to each teacher, which made them among the best-paid in the state, and provided summer jobs to guarantee a respectable income. In addition, Ford constructed a small apartment complex for teachers only a block from the school, and a home for the principal adjacent to it.
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Ford supplemented these health and education endeavors with several community-service projects. In 1937, he built a Martha-Mary Chapel, which, like five other such structures in Michigan and Massachusetts, was modeled on the original in Greenfield Village. Standing near the school in Ways Station, it held a nondenominational service every morning for students as well as regular Sunday services and Sunday school. Ford funded construction of a large community house, which became the cultural and social center of the area. He also financed the building of an icehouse, a post
office, a vehicle maintenance garage, a bakery, and a firehouse with a modern fire truck and ambulance.
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To revive depressed economic conditions in Bryan County, Ford undertook several agricultural projects. In 1937, he established a laboratory to investigate new uses for Southern crops, while starting a farming operation at Richmond Hill that eventually put some three thousand acres under cultivation. Ford's crews reclaimed hundreds of acres of old rice fields and engaged in the truck farming of vegetables, especially corn, sweet potatoes, and lettuce. Harry G. Ukkelberg, who had a degree in agriculture from the University of Minnesota, managed both the farming operation and the research laboratory. He oversaw the growing of crops such as the perilla plant, soybeans, castor beans, and tung trees. Ukkelberg and his assistants extracted starch from sweet potatoes and water chestnuts, and alcohol from several plants, which was blended with gasoline to fuel cars and tractors at Richmond Hill. The lab spent much time producing experimental plastics and rayon from natural products such as wood pulp, sawdust, and corn-cobs.
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Perhaps most important in economic terms, Ford rehabilitated a local sawmill and made it the most thriving industry in Bryan County. It provided jobs for area residents, many of whom were chronically unemployed. “We want to give them all work until this depression is over, and teach them how to work,” Ford told a Richmond Hill supervisor. His acreage contained substantial growth of pine, hardwood, gum, and cypress trees that were harvested for lumber, railroad ties, and pulp. With the installation of large steam boilers and engines and the enlargement of the building, the mill began to produce lumber commercially. Ford took great personal interest in the facility and visited it every day when he was in residence. Typically, he was especially concerned with the efficiency and cleanliness of its operation. He determined how many board feet of lumber grew daily on his property, and set a quota for daily lumber production precisely at that amount. By 1940, approximately 670 workers were on the payroll at Richmond Hill, primarily working in the sawmill and farms. Ford eventually built some 235 houses for these employees and their families, to whom he charged no rent.
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Ford's many endeavors at Richmond Hill displayed a striking feature— the enlightened treatment of African Americans. Soon after arriving in Georgia, he made it known that anyone who was willing to work, regardless of race, would enjoy fair treatment and opportunity. He offered jobs to local black citizens at the sawmill and on the farms; by 1940, Richmond Hill employed 351 white workers and 320 African Americans. Although he never directly challenged educational segregation in the South, he made
special efforts to improve the local schools for black children. He replaced seven small, ramshackle buildings throughout the county with a new school building and hired an African American principal, H. G. Cooper, to run it. Like Ford's other schools, it supplemented traditional academics with practical instruction in modern farming and the manual arts. On March 15, 1940, this modern institution was dedicated as the George Washington Carver School, and the scientist from Tuskegee participated in the ceremony. With tears running down his cheeks, he told listeners that it was one of the greatest days of his life. During Carver's stay, Ford also arranged to bring the former slave to a formal tea in Savannah, an occasion described by a contemporary magazine as “a landmark in the racial relations of the South.”
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A genuine concern for African American progress lay behind Ford's actions. He frequently asked locals about the impact of the new black school and appeared excited at reports of improvement. “They seem to want better things, fix up their houses better, and so on. They've got more pride,” Ford once commented to a Richmond Hill employee about African Americans. He stressed work as an endeavor to promote harmony and understanding between the races. Though blacks and whites remained separated in their churches and schools, it was a different story in the workplace at Richmond Hill. “Come to work, and the colored man works at one end of the log and the white man at the other,” Ford said. “They work together just like brothers.” Henry demonstrated a personal concern in many ways. Janie Lewis, an elderly black lady known locally as “Old Aunt Jane,” had been born a slave and still lived in a decrepit shack near Richmond Hill. Henry and Clara built a modern home for her and provided food, clothing, and medical care for the rest of her life. One time, Ford visited a tough section of Savannah while Clara was inspecting a nursery school in which she was interested. He got out of the car and introduced himself to several young black men standing on the corner. The police arrived shortly thereafter to rescue the visitor, only to find him earnestly discussing the virtues of work with his new friends. When Clara finished her tour, according to the driver, Henry “shook hands with every colored person that was around there. There must have been fifteen or twenty of them. Those fellows were in their glory. The policemen were standing there laughing, much as to say, ‘What a man!’ ”
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In fact, Ford's actions in Georgia reflected his longtime devotion to racial progress in Detroit. In the late 1880s, he had worked with William Perry, an African American acquaintance, manning a two-man crosscut saw to harvest lumber on his land in Dearborn. Ford later hired Perry to work at his company, where he stayed on the payroll until his death in 1940. In the
1910s, Ford expressed particular interest in getting African Americans into the Henry Ford Trade School. When he dropped by and saw young black men in the classes, Ford “stepped right up among them, shook hands with some of them, and said, ‘I'm glad to see
these
fellows!’ ” By the late 1910s, black workers were being hired into a wide variety of jobs at the Ford Motor Company, including skilled machinist and white-collar positions. Ford contacted prominent black ministers to funnel dependable, hardworking members of their congregations into the company, and by 1929, its percentage of African American workers was greater than the percentage of blacks in the Detroit population. The Ford Motor Company became the largest employer of African Americans in the city, and they responded with fervent support. Black workers were the industrialist's staunchest allies during his struggle with striking CIO members throughout the 1930s.
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Ford's love for Richmond Hill gave it a special place in his heart. He loved his annual visits. “It seemed like when he came down here, he was like a boy out of school. They were holidays,” noted one of the sawmill managers. “He'd come down here and relax and enjoy himself.” While Clara enjoyed the beautiful flowers and foliage of the Southern climate or entertained friends, her husband prowled his vast acreage to check on the many projects under way. He would visit with the farmhands who were “chiseling out a post or putting up a fence. He'd take the mallet and chisel, and sit there and talk to the man, and he'd work there the whole afternoon. He could handle
any
tool.” Or he would drop by to inspect the labors of carpenters “when they were building different houses. He'd take one man's saw out of his hand and stand there and talk to the man and saw that line. He could saw a line.” Ford visited the sawmill daily, monitoring the lumber being cut, sharing stories with the workers, and listening to the engines to make sure the valves were in perfect adjustment.
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He displayed his democratic spirit at Richmond Hill, easily interacting with the laborers and sharing his interest in their work. Sometimes the consequences proved quite funny. One rainy day, John H. Tienken, a farm-worker, was out in the field, unable to start a Fordson tractor to get it back to the barn. He was cussing enthusiastically when an older man wearing a straw hat and a pair of overalls came across the field and asked if he was having a problem. “Yeah, I sure as hell am,” Tienken exploded. “I wish old Mr. Henry Ford had this damn Fordson shoved up his backside. I've been down here an hour in this rain.” The stranger tinkered under the hood for a few minutes, and the tractor started. When Tienken came to work the next day, he saw the old gentleman standing around, and another worker identified him as Ford. Tienken muttered, “Oh my God,” expecting to be fired. But
Ford spoke pleasantly, never mentioning the earlier incident, and Tienken remained in his employ for many years.
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On October 7, 1934, the
Ford Sunday Evening Hour
was broadcast for the first time on the full CBS radio network of eighty-six stations. As the show beamed out from Detroit's Orchestra Hall, which was filled to its capacity of two thousand seats, Edsel Ford performed the introductions on behalf of himself and his father. Edsel's wife, Eleanor, was in attendance, as were Henry and Clara, who sat in their special box, set above and to the left of the stage. The Detroit Symphony Orchestra followed with several short pieces by Wagner, Bach, Sibelius, and Mendelssohn, along with the traditional American songs “Uncle Remus” and “To a Wild Rose.” Maria Jeritza, a soprano formerly with the Metropolitan Opera, performed selections composed by Tchaikovsky, Joyce, Grieg, and Romberg.

Perhaps the most unusual feature of the program, however, came during its six-minute intermission, when a portly, bespectacled gentleman with long gray hair and an earnest manner approached the microphone. In a rich, folksy voice “reminiscent of an earnest village parson,” according to one description, he explained that each installment of the
Ford Sunday Evening Hour
would feature a brief talk on a public issue instead of advertising messages. In these commentaries, he noted, “we shall sometimes have to sound the personal note … about Mr. Ford and what he stands for.” The speaker concluded with a promise “to make, if possible, a modest contribution to straight thinking and common sense,” as Henry Ford nodded his approval from the box.
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For the next eight years, this promise would be kept, as the commentator, William J. Cameron, delivered hundreds of talks on history, morality and values, economics, government, and the lives of great Americans, distilling the philosophy of his boss and broadcasting it throughout the nation. This radio engagement constituted the final and most influential chapter in Cameron's lengthy career with Ford and his organization. Throughout the 1930s, it allowed this eloquent lay preacher to fulfill completely the role that he had played since the early 1920s: “Mr. Ford's representative to the outside world.”
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Always intrigued by new technologies, Ford had toyed with radio throughout his career, but made a serious move into the field only in the 1930s. He sponsored a successful musical variety show featuring Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians that ran from 1934 to 1937, as well as several high-profile sporting events such as the World Series. His most sustained
and popular radio venture, however, was the
Ford Sunday Evening Hour.
With this show he sought to use radio's capabilities to share his love of music with a popular audience, advertise his company, and keep his views before the public. No one better served this latter purpose than the former newspaper editor who had worked closely with Ford for nearly twenty years.
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William J. Cameron had prepared long and well for his radio sojourn. Born in 1878 in Hamilton, Ontario, Cameron had grown up in Detroit and attended public schools there. After taking several college courses, he worked as a timekeeper for the Michigan Central Railroad and did some lay preaching in several small Michigan towns. In 1904, he found a position with the Detroit
News
as a reporter and staff writer, and took odd jobs as a public speaker. He rose steadily through the ranks of the newspaper to become one of its most valued journalists, eventually writing a column entitled “Reflections.” In 1918, he followed the editor of the paper, Edwin G. Pipp, to the Dearborn
Independent.
Serving as a writer and reporter, he took over as editor following Pipp's resignation. Throughout the 1920s, Cameron penned hundreds of essays for “Mr. Ford's Own Page,” in which he demonstrated a knack for conveying his boss's thoughts on a host of issues.
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