Henderson daily dispatch., 1939-09-02
Ford Won't Foster
New Peace Trip


one of Henry's cost above half a mil
lion CASTOR Planteff, who did the
bookkeeping, told me so. Of course,
if half million really could prevent
corking good investment, but private
capital isn't a bit likely ever again
to finance such a cruSade-nOt after
Henry Ford's trial at it, with no bet
ter result than a record for perpetrat
ing the most colossal fiasco in his
tory.
Among the Survivors.
AS a veteran of that tour I know
what Pm talking about.
I went along as neWSpaperman;
not a peace delegate. Nevertheless,
at the outset was sympathetic, if
not very confident of its prospects of
attaining its objective. / was cured
about the second day east of Sandy
Hook.
The Ford management's original
plan had been to get together gen.
timely top-notch aggregation Of
"peacers,' as we called 'em. Illus
tratively, William j. Bryan and
Thomas A. Edison were scheduled.
But at the last minute most of these
stars got cold feet, though Bryan and
Edison came down to the pier to see
us off on the Oscar II (the Horsecar
Second, as we soon rechristened the
boat).
Deprived of our sure-enough cele-
brities, the Ford organizers had to
ransack "Who's Who" for a second
rate roster.
About 40 per cent of these folk
were wen-meaning but rattleheaded
radicals. Ashore, diluted by a lot of
rational atmosphere, they'd have
classed merely as pretty eccentric,
but bottle 100 of 'em up inside a
steamship in the north Atlantic in
mid-winter and let 'em ferment-
and, oh, what a brew you got!
About 40 per cent were utter ir-
responsibles-grabbing a European
trip at Henry Ford's expense.
The remaining 20 per cent were
violently roisting newspapermen.
Only One Bar.
There was only one bar on that
ship. It was little coop in cor
ner of the second class dining cabin.
You didn't go into this bar for your
drinks. You bought 'em through an
aperture like a box-office window
and consumed 'em standing out in
the dining saloon. This saloon was a
nice place. The decent bunch on
board had requisitioned it for peace
and religious services. Yet while
these services were going on, the
newspapermen in a corner of the
same cabin were sopping up Swed-
ish punch and cussing in their cor
ner.
The respectable crowd didn't like
it. 1t appealed to Capt. Hempel to
put the vessel on prohibition basis
The captain referred the issue to the
| purser. The purser, well satisfied
with his journalistic business, mega
| tived the decent elements sugges-
ton. Thenceforward there was nc
peace between the "peacers" and the
correspondents.
Relations Get Worse.
Inter-relations between "peacerS'
and correspondents became simply
terrible. AS they met on deck, they
literally said, "You blankety-blank'
one another.
It was so bad that, as we know
Henry Ford jumped the party. al
Christiana (now Oslo). He beat it out
in the middle of the night for Ber-
gen, leaving "Gas" Planteff to ad-
minister the balance of his half-mil-
lion and-odd-dollar appropriation
You have to hand it to Henry. He
continued to foot the bill to the
finish
! 1t isn't quite possible to finish this
yarn in one instalment.
I'll follow it with another, an
alyzing Henry Ford's qualifications
| as a peace prophet.