Ford, Henry 1863-1947

FORD, HENRY 1863-1947

Automotive genius

Model T

Henry Ford, a self-taught mechanical genius, was undoubtedly the most famous automaker and perhaps the most famous man of the era. Ford vastly improved the techniques of mass assembly and production and revolutionized the auto industry by producing the famous Model T, or "Tin Lizzie," an inexpensive, durable car that essentially democratized automobile ownership. The Model T, which was first produced in 1908 and remained in production until 1927, had sales of more than seventeen million during its nineteen years.

Contradictions

Ford was a man of many contradictions: an idealist who was a pacifist during World War I and health-food faddist all his life, he was also a pragmatist and sometime cynic; an obviously bright man, he also proved doggedly anti-intellectual, dismissing books and art as wastes of time. A would be politician running for the Senate in 1918 and frequently mentioned as a presidential candidate, he did not have a politician's skills or instincts. His domain remained the auto industry.

Ford Innovations

In its early years the Ford Motor Company was considered a good place for labor. On 5 January 1914 Henry Ford introduced the five-dollar day and reduced the normal shift from nine to eight hours, innovations that generally horrified other industrialists but had obvious appeal for workers. He also became famous for his paternalistic Sociology Department, which attempted to offer humanitarian services to his workers but also closely monitored their private lives to be certain that they conformed to Ford's own standards. He forbade his employees to smoke, for example, since he regarded tobacco as evil and disgusting.

Twenties Accomplishments

During the 1920s Ford and his company flourished. Journalists amused themselves by speculating on the size of his fortune, and, although he was often called the "last billionaire," he lived quite modestly compared to other tycoons. Between 1919 and 1927 his River Rouge production plant became a model of modern industrial design. In the early 1920s he bought Lincoln so that the Ford Motor Company could have and refine a luxury car and thus appeal to a different market from that of his Tin Lizzie. And his 1927 introduction of the replacement for Lizzie, the Model A, was one of the media events of the decade. During this period, too, Ford became a figure in aviation when he produced the fine Ford Tri-Motor aircraft. He personally hated to fly and did so only once, on a short flight piloted by Charles Lindbergh; he ultimately dropped the aviation operation after a crash in the early 1930s killed a pilot of whom he was fond.

Final Years

As Ford grew older he became more imperious. His one-man control of the giant corporation began to cause organizational difficulties, and the firm went into decline. During World War II Ford's son Edsel, who had been a stabilizing force in the company, died. Ford Motor Company was serving as a major military contractor, but its operations became so chaotic that officials felt it might be unable to meet its production goals. Consequently, the navy released young Henry Ford II, Henry Ford's grandson, from his military duties so that he could take leadership of the corporation. Under his direction Ford Motor Company was rebuilt and went public in 1961. It remains a major American auto producer in the mid 1990s.

Sources:

Harry Bennett, We Never Called Him Henry (New York: Fawcett, 1951);

Alan Nevins and Frank E. Hill, Ford: Decline and Rebirth, 1933-1962 (New York: Scribners, 1962);

William C. Richards, The Last Billionaire (New York: Scribners, 1948);

Charles Sorenson, My Forty Years With Ford (New York: Norton, 1956).