New Britain herald., 1919-07-17
FORD AND HIS IDEAS,

mander-in- chief of the Oscar the IT., and originator of the phrase Out of the Trenches by Christmas" which came so far from realization is striv- ing in court to justify and coordinate his mass of publicity work which seems to have betrayed him. JJis search for advertising for himself and his f1iver has seemingly led him into deep water from which he is find ing it hard to extract himself. His million dollars suit against the Chi cago Tribune is bringing to light a great many inconsistencies in his va mobiles Mr. Ford was great suc- cess. but as a propogandist it appears that he is far from one.
 There are few but that will re- ton into Germany and the famous trip of the Oscar the H. loaded to the gunwales with peace advocates and would-be bencfactors of the Ar many from herself and the rest of the world. Even Henry's squirrel, mascot of the party, came in for great share of publicity and needless to say the organizer of the trip, and the person paying the expense there Of, gained many columns in the news papers despite the fact that it was war times. His deed may have been actuated by real desire to put a stop to the War. most of us wished that the fighting would stop at that time, but there is no doubt that pub licity was one of the reasons for the party.
 MT. Ford consistently fought any efforts on the part of the United States to enter into uuarrels. so the testim ony at the trial leads us to SUD- pose. He did not wish to see our National Guard sent to the border neither did he wish to have us inter- Ifere in Germany though he did lend his aid in gathering munitions after the step had been taken. Now he says that soldiers are murderers all of them, and advocates another war if the League of Nations is not put into effect. He is for preparedn l on our part despite the former stand 1 that preparedness was merely fur l thering murder, as war must follow 1 preparedness.
 The answer to the whole thing l may be found in the arguments of | Theodore de Lavigne, press agent for l MT. Ford, who was authorized to
 conduct campaign against pre- | paredness as it was being advocated l by the Chicago Tribune and many
 other newspapers in the United States.
 MT. Ford hired him, and did not ac- 1 cording to his own testimony, read 1 what he said, nor did he know the
 extent of the arguments until they were put into print and not even
 then, in some cases. Mir. Ford was
 lime-light of publicity. Now he is
 having a hard time making his va 1 rous expressions of opinion and those
 of his agents hook together in a
 harmonious whole.
 As far as his fight with the Tribune i goes we cannot judge. Efforts are, quite naturally, being made to prove
 that the paper had pecuniary ad-
 vantages In the sending of United l States troops to Mexico. The editorial ! upon which the manufacturer has l based his suit has been almost lost 1 sight of and every conceivable po- 1 litical situation is being aired. A 1 million dollars is a lot of money and l the Tribune hopes to keep it. Mr. 1 Ford is unfortunate in that he was a
 peace at any price advocate when the
 whole world was resolved upon war to eradicate a thorn in it's side. He had adopted a procedure that was l greatly similar to that of German 1 ,,ro ,tbicb piyes . A,or-