The Washington herald., 1921-11-06
Is History Quite All Bunk 7"
wv HATEVER failings Henry Ford has, the,
w not as an advertiser. He may tall

" are not as an advertiser. He may talk
nonsense, but bromides he may
say what sounds foolish, but it is always provoca-
tive of retort. and while he may not have good
wisdom, neither has he good platitudes and strut
In fact, while he may sound like Aivver, he gets
there, and does this with exactly the audience
which forms his market. Hence his supremacy
an advertiser without advertising fault.
In his recent Syracuse interview he once more
puts history in the dark closet and bolts the door,
He has always had spite at history. History"
he says, SIS bunk. What difference does it make
how many times the ancient Greeks flew their
kites?" What, indeed? There is that element of
history which has had too much attention and has
done harm than good. There has been too
much of and of trifles, too much of names
and too little of great world movements which
have had a distinct cause purpose and result Too
little of the great characters agencies of power
outside of and greater than themselves.
%, The trouble with Mr.. Ford is that what history
he has been taught was wrongly taught; what he
has absorbed has been but the semblance not the
substance, and he sweepingly condemns with
rincusiveness he does not mean. In a recent maga-
Zine article, with himself his subject, he tells
something OF what he has done, as though the
knowing had value. But it is history. He tells
what the bankers of New York tried to do to him,
and how they failed. That is history.
He points out to young men how he worked
for twelve years before he began production, and
asked help of no one. That is history. Pretty
much all he gave the interviewer who wrote the
story was OF the past. 1t history, but to Mr..
Ford it all pointed morals of value to others in
their lives and to the public as information He
freely illustrated what he would do by the history
OF what he had DONE and told what others could
do, by recting the history OF his achievements.
Mr.. Ford in many cells of his mind and some
factors OF his remarkable personality, is very much
OF Peter Pan" 1t does not seem to occur to
him that interesting and valuable is his own
history, or the history of which he is the major
part equally valuable contributions have been made
by Mr.. Carnegie, Mr.. Rockefeller, Theodore Roese
velt Abraham Lincoln. and possibly by those of
the to him, dull and deadly distant past when the
Greeks few their kites. The most interesting and
valuable study OF man is still man, and this will
include the study of Henry Ford as a notable char
acter Of his period.
1t is evident, in entire justice to Mr.. Ford and
his wholesale way in speaking in production
that he has his own definition of history. History
to him is that part Of the story of men and events
OF the past which to him has interest SEEM
ing value. He knows mighty little of the history
which he consigns to the garbage can, yet he
ranks among the foremost inventors and indus
tralists of his day. He has not needed history to
accomplish all the wonders credited to him. Hence
it is bunk" all useless save perhaps the story OF
Henry Ford.