Evening star., 1947-04-08

lcould only drive Ford cars y valu-
liable market. ss.s
But Chevrolet under William s.
IKnudsen, his former production
man, had passed him and he closed
ldoWn to change the model. He re-
lmained closed for year and then
early IN 1928 brought out model A.
lBy the spring Of 1929 he had l25, 600
linen employed and was turning out
almost 5000 d day. IN the worst
year Of the depression, 1892, ne
drought out the Va, predecessor OF
the present Ford.
Sued Chicago Tribune.
The Selden patent suit was only
lone of many court actions IN which
IMr. Ford became involved. Some
Ihe won and some he lost and al
ways he fought shy Of personal ap-
lpearances In court. He was brought
to the witness stand In 1919 in his
lguit against the Chicago Tribune,
which had editorially called him an
anarchist. He sued the paper for
i$1 ,OO0, 900 and won verdict for s
lcents.
In that action attorneys for the
newspaper put him through a
searching examination. BY their
questions they even sought to OBJ
tain from him an admission that
he could neither read noJ write.
Mr.. Ford said he could but refused
Ito demonstrate his ability.
In 1927 he was defendant In a
81 .000, 900 libel suit brought against
him by Aaron Sapiro of Chicago.
The suit was based on articles ap-
pearing In Mr.. Ford's Dearborn In
dependent, q weekly journal Mr..
Sapiro claimed his reputation was
damaged as an organizer of farm
ers co-operatives because of articles
asserting there was a Jewish con-
spiracy to control American agri-
culture. The case was settled out
of court.
In brief testimony taken before
the settlement 1t was brought out
that although the Independent car
ried a page captioned, "Mr. Ford's
Own Page" the articles were writ
ten by the editor of the periodical
and Mr.. Ford subsequently said that
he saw his 'own page" only infre-
quently.
He publicly repudiated articles
critical of the Jewish people ap-
pearing in the Dearborn Independ-
ent and ultimately discontinued its
publication. He said he was not
fully aware of what it had carried.
Makes Race for Senate.
In July, 1927, he issued state
ment in which he said: II am fully
aware Of the virtues Of the Jewish
people as a whole, or what they and
their ancestors have done for civil
ization and for mankind toward the
development of commerce and in
dustry, Of their sobriety and dill
gence, their benevolence and their
unselfish interest in the public well
fare"
Once Mr.. Ford was persuaded to
become a candidate for United
States Senator from Michigan. In
1918 he was entered on both Repub-
lican and Democratic tickets. He
won the Democratic nomination, but
was defeated in the election by
Truman H. Newberry, Republican,
by 1000 votes. .
Six years later boom was started
for the presidential nomination for
him, but 1t collapsed when he an
nounced he favored Calvin Coolidge
Subsequently he indorsed every
Republican nominee for the presi-
dency. In 1882 he made one OF
his rare public addresses when he
spoke over the radio in support OF
President Herbert Hoover, then
seeking reelection.
Born on Farm.
Henry Ford was born on q farm
in Greenfield Township, Michigan,
a suburb of Detroit, July 80, 1868.
His father, William Ford, was an
Irish immigrant; his mother, Mary
Litegott, was Of Dutch ancestry.
Mr.. Ford had three sisters and two
brothers, all younger than himself.
| Contrary to popular belief, he
was not the son of Impoverished
parents. His father was well to do
as a farmer.
He attended a settlement school
near Greenfield, but quit at 16 to
go to work in q machine shop In
Detroit. His wages for six-day
week Of 10-hour days were $3.50
and to make ends meet he worked
four hours night repairing watches
and clocks for jeweler for 81 a
week. His knowledge of mechanics
was largely self-taught.
While working on the timepieces
he dreamed of manufacturing
watches on a mass production basis
from standardized set of dies.
He never attempted that, but did
introduce the idea later into the
motorcar field with the result that
the automobile was changed from
luxury to utility.
Began Work on Auto.
From the Detroit machine shop
Mr.. Ford graduated as a stationary
engineer. It was while employed as
mechanical engineer at the Edison