Ford, Henry
Ford, Henry (1863–1947), industrialist and isolationist.Born on a Michigan farm, Ford used his skill as a machinist to develop an automobile, founding the Ford Motor Company in Detroit in 1903. Cutting production costs through an assembly line, Ford produced an inexpensive, standardized car, selling over 15 million autos between 1908 and 1928, and becoming a multimillionaire.
In 1914–15, Ford spoke out against World War I and arms races, blaming them on financiers and the military men. He personally financed an effort by pacifists to end the war through mediation by neutral nations. The “Ford Peace Ship” took a contingent of American pacifists to neutral Sweden in December 1915, and the dramatic gesture broke the previous suppression of peace news in the warring nations. Nevertheless, many newspapers derided the effort as naive, especially when Ford proclaimed that he hoped to end the war by Christmas. The Ford Neutral...
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