Arizona republican., 1919-07-18
The Cross Examination of Henry Ford


 That high intellectual attainment is not necessary to the accumulation of great wealth or to record of great achievement was emphasized in the cross-ex- animation of Henry Ford in the trial of his libel suit against the Chicago Tribune. It was developed that Mir. Ford ignorant of almost everything outside the automobile business; of the meanings of the oommonest words and of facts concerning our gov ernment with which even school children sup posed to be familiar. That MT. Ford should con- found the present day writer Arnold Bennett with Benedict Arnold the arch -traiter leaves no doubt that Mir. Ford has been too busly employed with mechanics during his active life to fool away time with literature and history
 Tn this respect we not suppose MT Ford differs widely from most other captains of industry nerce and finance who have figured in America for 15O years. Almost all of them have from the bottom. Daniel Drew, the early Astors the founders of the Vanderbilt fortunes very large majority of our railroad kings started as brakemen, firemen, pr section men,
 Carnegie and Schwab without the oppor- tunides of education in youth. So great is the Iorty of those who have taken the lead in great business, that some have thought that liberal education is a hndrance rather than help to financial success. It may be in many cases but we think there is better explanation this phe- ,nomenon.
 Men like Henry Ford geniuses and genius cannot be fettered though it is susceptible of di- rection. Left itself it will rise pre-eminence and the ignorant genius in this day and age as to his field of operation. He must become financial success or nothing. In former state of society he became great warrior, great political leader or even a monarch
 Henry Ford had been ed he nroba hiv would not have become great manufacturer or have cut a figure in the financial world. Genius would have been diverted in other direction. Undoubt edly though he would have become a leader in one or another of the many fields which education have thrown open to him but there in the fiercer competition he might, though attaining success, have failed to secure pre- eminence
 All men who have started from lowly be- g1nnings, steeped in ignorance have not re- maned in ignorance. Many rounded out their lives as they along They became not only self made men self educated men and their education was perhaps practical than any that could have been bestowed upon them It not only practical but had polishing effect. They could have been put into such humiliatng position that occupied by Mr. Ford Wednesday.
 Another development in the Ford case has been the fact that the utterances of MT. which had given him a philosophical reputation and led us to believe that he had been engaged in improving his mind well his bank account were not of his own connection. He had been employing the intellect another, just as he had been employing the skill and brains of others in his great factory We may der whether his intellectual philosophical employe proft-sharer along with the other Ford employees It turns out that MT. Ford had never read much of his philosophy and from what have seen we pretty with his intellectual equipment he could have understood it.
 We also led wonder whether philosophiz- ing by proxy is original with Mir Ford; and to what extent, if at all other whose learned "signed' lucubrations in ke public prints have surprised us. had used methods similar to those of Mr. Ford
 Whether not the Trbune's attorneys exposure of Mir. Fords meager intellectual attainments was tactical move, do not know. We inclined to think it not, In the of a like MT Ford, one who has accomplished much for his fellow men, unnecessarily to put him into a humilating position is more likely to awaken sympathy than to create prejudice There should course be neither sympathy prejudice in a trial On the other hand it be asked what had Mir Fords intellectual at tsinments to do with the libel case?
 Article and the Irish RepubIie