The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1916-01-06
IN DEFENCE OF
FORD PEACE PLAN.
CORRECTION OF ALLEGED MIS-
STATEMENTS CONCERNING
THIS NOTED ENDEAVOR.

WaSnluRCOu, ~ ", beSSiioS1 oN
In an article under date of Decem-
Der 25, Mr. George E Miller, Wash
ington correspondent of the Detroit
News. calls attention to the delib-
crate. concerted effort upon the part
of many big newspapers of the coun-
try to cast odium upon the trip OF
Henry Ford to Europe in an effort
for peace.
The Detroit News is one Of the
few big papers in the United States
that have shown a spirit of fairness
in the matter. There is missing
from the News the spirit of malici-
Gus misrepresentation. coloring and
deliberate falsehood so much in evil
dence in certain New York papers
and in papers Of smaller cities that
ape the big city's news methods
all apparently set upon determined
effort to plunge the United States
into the great war, and to discredlt
any effort that might shorten the
conflict. Mr. Miller's story tells some
of the motives behind the attacks
on Mr. Ford.
The article says: persistent
one could say wilful misconception
and misstatement of Henry Ford's
peace expedition is carried in the
press of the east and also brought
across the ocean in the British CEN
sored cables. Ford has deserted
and the expedition is a failure, is
the statement, accompanied with
editorial comment in which MIR Ford
is patronizingly characterized as a
generous soul, but ignorant. The
kindesr thing some of these publica-
tions find to say about him is that
he is a rainbow chaser with a good
purpose and a poor plan for its &C.
complishment.
The New York papers almost with
out exception misrepresented the
character of the Ford enterprise
from the first. For this Mr. Ford
was himself to blame to some ex-
tent as he failed to issue compre-
hensive statement of his plan in the
beginning. Newspapers disposed to
be hostile towards any step to end the
war took advantage of this to ridi.
cule the expedition and their eX-
ample has been very largely follow
ed on both sides of the ocean. The
papers controlled by the steel and
munition interests have been the
most persistent in declining to print
the facts about the nature Of Mr.
Ford's project.
Yet it would not have been diff
cult for them to ascertain that this
big body of people carried abroad on
the Oscar II was not the real peace
commiss on to carry ou, Mr. Ford's
purpose. Though stated over and
over again that the ship was charter
ed to attract the attention of the
world to the peace plan, and for no
other purpose, this fact has been
studiously ignored. And because
the boys did not jump out of the
trenches the moment the ship ar
rived in European waters, the whole
Ford enterprise was and is denounc-
ed as a tarcial failure. That the
Oscar II was the advertisement of
what is to follow has never been
stated in the eastern papers. That
there is to be commission of re-
sponsible men to undertake the
peace suggestions after the Oscar II
passengers have returned to the
United States has been carefully
omitted from the papers which ex-
hibit such apparent fear that Ford
may bring about peace.
Of course the Ford enterprise may
be a failure. Of that Mr. Ford
freely acknowledged cognizance be-
fore he sailed from New York. But
it is not fair nor just nor honest to
dedounce it as a failure before it
has failed, and it hardly can fail
until the commission which is to op-
crate has tried. 1t is MIR Ford's
purpose to have this commission sit
for months and even years if that be
necessary. 1t is to be a body that
will ever try for peace until peace
is secured. This was stated specifi-
cally to the eastern papers, but is
ignored by them in their attempts
to rush the announcement of Ford's
failure to the world.
Again much is made of the asser-
ton that Ford has abandoned the
peace expedition. Yet the eastern
press was informed repeatedly that
he did not know whether he would
go to Europe in the first place nor
- 49,. - n,o,,l1 rovooip Innn II he