Henry Ford Quotes
Now we shall see whether I can build anything but automobiles, tractors and ships.
He lost to a career politician, Truman Newberry and was very bitter. See {603299}.
Henry Ford, 1863-1947, Industrialist & Philanthropist, Unsuccessful Republican Michigan U. S. Senatorial Candidate [1918], Statement when he announced his candidacy, 1918
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Ford was a notorious anti-Semite.
He was intensely fascinated by mechanics so he joined the Russian Army where he received education and training, and became one of the great military inventors and engineers of all time.
While this is generally true, from the scientific point of view, it is not quite right. The layman and most engineers believe that scientists discover things that exist. Although they do most of the time, breakthrough’s of the last century have for example discovered new chemical elements, but there are a few that science has CREATED—they exist nowhere in nature. Scientists are beginning to develop new life forms as well as discovering already existing ones. For over a century now the science of metallurgy has created thousands of alloys that did not previously exist.
See {43974} for a succinct statement of the objections.
La Guardia was the first member of Congress with flying experience and was alarmed that although Americans had invented the airplane, most airplanes were developed and manufactured in Europe and not America:
Often a candidate will win even though there is a prevailing view that he/she is not well qualified and not worthy of the job. However he/she is not as bad as the other candidate. To win, all a candidate needs is to not be perceived as badly as his/her competitor.
Ford, an inveterate racist and anti-Semitic in his old age was very liberal when he first started and accomplished so much. He not only hired foreigners, but also some men of his initial workforce were handicapped. He was proud of the fact that jobs could be created on his concept of an assembly line that was so specialized that handicapped people could be productive workers as they did not have to do everything in the manufacturing process. Since the assembly line did the moving, men who had trouble walking could sit and be very productive at some tasks. Further, Ford did not try and pay his assembly line workers less than the going wage because their skills could be much narrower. He actually doubled the salaries (see {642361}) and picked men who were not wed to the older, traditional way of manufacturing things. The productivity came from the engineering of the cars and the assembly line, not be cutting wages, a practice that he did not continue as he grew older and tried to make his money the traditional way of exploiting the workers more. When the other auto companies had recognized the union, the elder Ford would not.
- Born: July 30, 1863
- Died: April 7, 1947
- Nationality: American
- Profession: Engineer, Industrialist, Philanthropist
Henry Ford was an American industrialist, business magnate, anti-Semite, and founder of the Ford Motor Company and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that middle-class Americans could afford, he converted the automobile from an expensive curiosity into an accessible conveyance that profoundly impacted the landscape of the 20th century.
