Ford, Henry (1863-1947)

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Neutral Conference for Continuous Mediation (1916)

Herman Jerome Schwartz to Jane Addams, September 27, 1915

Harriet Park Thomas to Nellie B. Van Slingerland, November 26, 1915

Belle van Dorn Frazier Harbert to Jane Addams, November 26, 1915

William Hope Harvey to Jane Addams, November 26, 1915

Margaret E. Loughrin to Jane Addams, November 26, 1915

Aletta Henriëtte Jacobs, Chrystal Macmillan, Rosa Manus to Jane Addams, November 27, 1915

John Henry Dundas to Rebecca Shelley and Jane Addams, November 28, 1915

William Isaac Hull to Jane Addams, November 29, 1915

Alice Thacher Post to Jane Addams, November 29, 1915

Rosika Schwimmer to Jane Addams, November 29, 1915

Anna Garlin Spencer to Jane Addams, November 29, 1915

Edward Alfred Steiner to Jane Addams, November 29, 1915

Mary Hanchett Stone to Jane Addams, November 29, 1915

They Only Can Who Think They Can, December 4, 1915

Mabel L. Hyers to Elizabeth Glendower Evans, December 4, 1915

Emily Greene Balch to Jane Addams, December 4, 1915

Emily Heney Denison to Jane Addams, December 4, 1915

Aletta Henriëtte Jacobs to Jane Addams, December 4, 1915

Harriet Park Thomas to Clara Jane Bryant Ford, December 9, 1915

Jane Addams to Aletta Henriëtte Jacobs, December 12, 1915

Harriet Park Thomas to Laura Hughes, December 15, 1915

Excellent Talks on Preparedness, December 16, 1915

Harriet Park Thomas to Clara Jane Bryant Ford, December 24, 1915

Jane Addams to Rosika Schwimmer, December 26, 1915

Ch Skoog to Jane Addams, December 26, 1915

Jane Addams to David Starr Jordan, December 28, 1915

Statement on the Ford Peace Ship, January 5, 1916

David Starr Jordan to Jane Addams, January 6, 1916

Address at the first annual meeting of the Woman's Peace Party, January 9, 1916

Address to the Woman's Peace Party, January 9, 1916

Testimony Before the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, January 11, 1916

Testimony before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, January 11, 1916 (fragment)

Dorothea Louisa Hollins to Jane Addams, January 11, 1916

Sara Jane Lincoln to Jane Addams, January 12, 1916

Jane Addams to William Isaac Hull, January 16, 1916

Jane Addams to Henry Crittenden Morris, January 18, 1916

Rosika Schwimmer to Jane Addams, January 26, 1916

Jane Addams to William Isaac Hull, January 27, 1916

Jane Addams to David Starr Jordan, January 27, 1916

Mary Armistead Holt to Jane Addams, January 29, 1916

Secretary to Jane Addams to Casson Eugene Parsons, January 31, 1916

Harriet Park Thomas to Laura Margaret Snow Le Gette, February 2, 1916

David Starr Jordan to Jane Addams, February 2, 1916

Paul Underwood Kellogg to Jane Addams, February 7, 1916

Harriet Park Thomas to Jane Addams, February 7, 1916

Chrystal Macmillan to Jane Addams, February 8, 1916

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Jane Addams to David Starr Jordan, February 13, 1916

Rosika Schwimmer to Jane Addams, August 19, 1916

Jane Addams to Rosika Schwimmer, August 22, 1916

Browse all documents that mention "Ford, Henry (1863-1947)"

Henry Ford to Jane Addams, November 29, 1915

Henry Ford et al. to Jane Addams, December 7, 1915

Henry Ford to Jane Addams, December 21, 1915

Raymond Carl Dahlinger to Harriet P. Thomas, January 13, 1916

Henry Ford Testimony in Ford-Tribune Libel Case, July 15, 1919

Una Brasfield Herrick to Jane Addams, November 29, 1915

David Starr Jordan to Henry Ford, January 3, 1916

Jane Addams to Henry Ford, April 2, 1916

Rosika Schwimmer to Henry Ford, July 31, 1916

Rosika Schwimmer to Henry Ford, August 1, 1916

Rosika Schwimmer to Henry Ford, August 2, 1916

Rosika Schwimmer to Henry Ford, August 8, 1916

Emily Greene Balch to William Jennings Bryan, September 7, 1916

John Dewey et al. to Andrew Carnegie et al. January 31, 1917

Comments

Birth Date

1863-07-30

Death Date

1947-04-07

Birthplace

Springwells, MI

Biographical Text

Henry Ford was a pioneering businessman and automobile manufacturer, best known for his development of the modern assembly line production factory. Ford was a self-taught mechanic, who worked as an engineer at the Edison Company. In the early 1890s, Ford began experimenting with building automobiles. In 1896, he built an gasoline-powered "Quadricycle." In 1899 Ford left the Edison Company and started the short-lived Detroit Automobile Company. Ford founded the Ford Motor Company in 1903. With the introduction of the Model "T" in 1908, Ford built the first mass produced automobile. Ford made a fortune by building lightweight, inexpensive cars, developing an innovative assembly line, and by controlling all aspects of the manufacturing, a process called "vertical integration." Ford's other innovation was his 1915 economic philosophy that if his workers received high wages and shorter work hours, they would have the means and time to also become his customers. This only lasted until World War I, when the company's policies became less friendly to labor. Ford became active in social causes, building the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, and the Henry Ford Trade School which provided vocational training to poor boys.

Ford was a pacifist, who claimed he was wiling to spend his last dollar to fight war. He opposed American entry into World War I, both personally, and as a businessman. A member of the American Peace Society, Ford backed Rosika Schwimmer's efforts to halt the war and create an organization that could mediate international disputes. They chartered the Oscar II, or the "Peace Ship," which sailed to Oslo with pacifists, advisers and reporters. After catching a cold on the way to Oslo, Ford abandoned the effort, which was widely mocked in the press. Once the United States entered the war, Ford shifted gears and pledged his factories to the war effort. Ford produced cars, tractors, ambulances, and airplane motors for the Allies.

Though initially praised for his progressive stance towards his workers, in the 1920s Ford cut costs and employees to meet his business needs. He promoted anti-Semitic articles, republishing them as The International Jew (1922), which made him a darling of the German Nazi party, at least until the outbreak of the war. He fought Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal polities and efforts to unionize workers, but after a 1941 strike he finally signed an agreement with the United Auto Workers. In 1938, Ford suffered a stroke which left him mentally erratic, and he was forced to step down as president of his company in 1945, in favor of his grandson, Henry Ford II.

Ford married Clara Bryant in 1888. The couple had one son, Edsel Bryant Ford.

Map

Edited By

Hajo, Cathy Moran

Rights

Public domain

Gender

Male

First appears

1915

Bibliography and Links

Ford's Genius Surmounted All Obstacles, Detroit Free Press, April 8, 1947, p. 4.

Henry Ford, American National Biography Online.

Pioneer in Autos, New York Times, April 8, 1947, p. 1.

SNAC

Citation

“Ford, Henry (1863-1947),” Jane Addams Digital Edition, accessed October 7, 2024, https://digital.janeaddams.ramapo.edu/items/show/8375.