Henry Ford

1. The life of Henry Ford

Ford – who does not know this name? Henry Ford played a very important role in the automobile industry. Some people even believe that Henry Ford was one of the initiators of the Industrial Revolution because of his inventions: the Model T and the assembly line.  For that reason, Aldous Huxley chose Henry Ford for the role of the God of the New World Society. This showed the positive role of Henry Ford in his lifetime, but there was also a negative side to his life. He was a faithful follower of the National Socialism, which was very popular in this time. So Henry Ford was not only a good inventor, but also a racist fascist.

Henry Ford was born on the 30th of July in 1863 in Wayne County, Michigan. He was the oldest of six children and did not have a good education. He was interested early on in mechanics, and was very talented in manual things. When he was 16, he left his home and started education to be a machine operator. In the year 1888, he married Clara Jane Bryant, and three years later he started working as an engineer in the Edison Illuminating Company, where he met Thomas Alva Edison, who became a good friend. A few years after Ford left the Company, he founded the Ford Motor Company in 1903. After having worked hard for sixteen years in his company he backed out a bit and started to work for the anit-Semetic newspaper “Dearborn Independent.” In the year 1936, he founded the Ford Beneficence together with his son Edsel in order to support the commonwealth of the world. It seems to us that this foundation for the commonwealth does not fit together with the fascism of Henry Ford. After the Second World War, Henry Ford transferred the administration of the Company to his grandson. On the 7th of April in 1947, Ford died in the age of 83 in Fair Lane, Dearborn.

2. Ford, the mechanical man – his inventions: Model T and the assembly line

Even today people talk about Henry Ford because of his inventions like the Model T, as already mentioned above. In the year 1908, the Model T, the first model of a car, was published by the Ford Motor Company. In order to promote this car he took part in lots of automobile races. This strategy succeeded and after a short time the Model T was driven on all the streets of America. Henry Ford was reported to say that the car could be produced in every possible desired colour, as long as this colour was black. It was also better for the mass production, because it was easier to produce a model in only one colour. Most of the Model Ts were black, but not all. Henry Ford had a good relationship with his workers. They only had to work eight hours a day, which was very progressive and modern in this time, and their salary was quite high. In the highest production period the workers got even more money. Despite this attitude he was still an enemy of trade unions and even fought against them in his company.

3. Ford and National Socialism

In Germany, Henry Ford helped to fit out the German troops for the Second World War. 78,000 trucks were produced to fight for the armed forces. Many workers were people forced by the SS to work there. The SS got four Reichsmarks a day for every worker. In July 1938, Henry Ford got an award for helping and working with the German nation. He was the first American to get this award. It was the most important award that foreigners could get during the period of National Socialism. Ford got this award “in admission for his pioneer work, in order to make cars available for the masses.” Adolf Hitler also congratulated him. The German leader even had a portrait of Henry Ford in his office, who he considered to be “his inspiration.” This clearly shows that the relationship between Henry Ford and the German leader was very good. The factories of the Ford companies were almost not destroyed by the Allies. But Henry Ford did not only work with the German leadership, he even favoured their regime. He wrote anti-Semitic articles for the newspaper “Dearborn Independent,” which he owned for a few years. His texts were above all against Jewish people, Socialists and Liberalists. National Socialism antagonists described Henry Ford as “anti-immigrant, anti-labor, anti-liquor and anti-Semitic.” In the 1920s, some anti-Jewish articles were published under the subtitle “The International Jew - the World’s foremost problem”.

4. Connections with the book “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley

This aspect of Henry Ford is not mentioned in Brave New World. In the book Henry Ford plays a very important role because he is a kind of God for the people in the World State, who think that with the invention of the assembly line he was one of the initiators of the Industrial Revolution. They celebrate religious rites like the “Solidarity Service”, in which twelve people meet together and pray to Ford. This rite is comparable to the last supper, in which Jesus is assembled with the twelve apostles. They pass around Soma, a drug, like Christians pass around bread, which symbolizes the body of Jesus Christ. The “Loving Cup” of strawberry ice-cream symbolizes the wine, the blood of Jesus Christ. The president of the solidarity service is comparable to a priest. Their religious sign is the T they form with their hands, which is comparable with the crucifix of Christianity. The T is also an allusion to the Model T. The year of invention of the model T is the year 0 in the New World State. All the important dates are expressed in years after Ford. The people in the World State believe in the materiality of Ford. Feelings and love do not play a role for them. Ford represents the mechanical “assembly line society”, in which they live. The importance of his role in history makes him the only historical person in the modern World State of “Brave New World” that is spoken about.

In our opinion, both the book and the general knowledge of Henry Ford convey false impression of this person. Before our research, we considered him an inventor who did good things for the population and who was very important for them and the Industrial Revolution. He was not only a benefactor, however, but a racist. Henry Ford should not be celebrated so much, even though he developed such a great invention. Adolf Hitler, for example, also founded VW and made the autobahn popular. Of course these are great inventions, but fascism should not be tolerated or supported. Maybe we should celebrate Henry Ford’s invention, but not the inventor himself. Maybe Henry Ford is not the right character for the God in the book, because everybody is considered equal in the New World State. There is no racism. Henry Ford does not support the idea of the peaceful world, where everybody is welcomed. The book leads you to have a false idea, even a positive view of Henry Ford because he is shown almost as a God, who helped the population to become what it is now. He is not a person you should pray to, but someone you should question about whether he was such a good person. Racism should not be met with sympathy. If he did not invent the car, someone else would have. Adherence on National Socialism should be considered with contempt.

Sources