Henry Ford :: essays research papers

In 1915, in an effort to end World War I, he headed a privately sponsored peace expedition to europium that failed dismally, but after the American entry into the war he was a leading producer of ambulances, airplanes, munitions, tanks, and submarine chasers. In 1918 he ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate on the participatory ticket. After weathering a severe financial crisis in 1921, he began producing high-priced motor cars along with other vehicles and founded branch firms in England and in other European countries. Strongly opposed to trade unionism, Fordwho incurred considerable antagonism because of his paternalistic attitude toward his employees and his statements on political and social questionsstubbornly resisted union organization in his factories by the United Automobile Workers until 1941. A staunch isolationist before World War II, Ford again converted his factories to the production of war temporal after 1941. In 1945 he retired. Other Accomplishments and Contro versies His numerous philanthropies, in addition to the Ford Foundation, included $7.5 million for the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit and $5 million for a museum in Dearborn, where in 1933 he established Greenfield Villagea reproduction of an early American village. Ford also wrote, in collaborationism with Samuel Crowther, My Life and Work (1923), Today and Tomorrow (1926), Moving Forward (1931), and Edison as I Knew Him (1930). Fords international reputation made him a natural target for journalists. His smear suit against the Chicago Tribune in 1919 led to an examination by the Tribune attorney, intended to show Fords lack of education. Anti-Semitic articles in Fords Dearborn Independent brought further legal line of reasoning he was forced to apologize for the articles. In the 1930s, Ford was widely attacked for employing Harry Bennett, a former boxer who established a squad of thugs to spy, beat up, and other intimidate union organizers. Ford was also a poor manager who fai led to capitalize on his companys early success. In the 1920s he failed to respond to consumer tastes by introducing new models and the company fell far behind General Motors. By the time of his retirement, the companys accounting procedures were so primitive that Fords managers were unable to accurately tell how lots it cost to manufacture a car and the company was losing $9.5 million a month. Later Generations His son, Edsel Bryant Ford, 18931943, b. Detroit, shared in the control of the vast Ford industrial interests. He was president of the Ford Motor Company from 1919 until his death, when his father once more became (1943) president of the company.