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Undo revision 902097 by CraigF (talk)
==Peace Ship==
==Peace Ship==
In 1915, Jewish pacifist [[Rosika Schwimmer]] worked with Ford, who funded a peace ship to Europe, where World War I was raging, for himself and about 170 other prominent peace leaders. He talked to President [[Woodrow Wilson]] about the trip but had no government support. His group went to neutral Sweden and the Netherlands to meet with peace activists there. Ford, the target of much ridicule, left the ship as soon as it reached Sweden.
In 1915, Jewish pacifist [[Rosika Schwimmer]] worked with Ford, who funded a peace ship to Europe, where World War I was raging, for himself and about 170 other prominent peace leaders. He talked to President [[Woodrow Wilson]] about the trip but had no government support. His group went to neutral Sweden and the Netherlands to meet with peace activists there. Ford, the target of much ridicule, left the ship as soon as it reached Sweden.
==Dearborn Independent and Anti-Semitism==
In 1918, Ford's closest aide and private secretary, Ernest G. Liebold, purchased an obscure weekly newspaper, ''The Dearborn Independent''. By 1920, it ran numerous antisemitic articles under Ford's name. Ford never wrote any of them, but he knew the contents. The ''Independent'' ran for eight years, from 1920 until 1927, during which Liebold was editor. The newspaper published "Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion" which was discredited as a forgery during the ''Independent'''s publishing run by ''The Times'' of London.<ref> Baldwin (2000)</ref>
Denounced by the [[Anti-Defamation League]] (ADL), the articles nevertheless explicitly condemned pogroms and violence against Jews (Volume 4, Chapter 80), preferring to blame incidents of mass violence on the Jews themselves. None of this work was actually written by Ford, who apparently could barely read beyond the fifth grade level.<ref> Asked at the trial to read an editorial Ford refused; he said he only read headlines. He demanded that all business reports be made to him orally at briefings; he never read the accompanying studies.</ref> Friends and business associates said they warned Ford about the contents of the ''Independent'', and that Ford probably never read them. <ref> Watts pp x, 376-387; Lewis (1976) pp 135-59.</ref> However, court testimony in a libel suit, brought by one of the targets of the newspaper, stated that Ford did indeed know about the contents of the ''Independent'' in advance of publication. <ref> Baldwin (2000)</ref>
A libel lawsuit brought by Jewish farm cooperative organizer Aaron Sapiro in response to anti-Semitic remarks led to a highly publicized trial; Ford closed the ''Independent'' in December 1927 and apologized for attacking the Jewish people. At the trial, William Cameron, the editor of Ford's "Own Page", a regular feature of the magazine, testified that Ford never wrote or dictated the editorials, even though they were under his byline. Cameron testified that he never discussed the content of the pages or sent them to Ford for his approval.<ref>Lewis, (1976) pp. 140-156; Baldwin p 220-221.</ref> Everyone agreed, however, that Ford had a general knowledge of the anti-semitic thrust and funded their publication.
The ADL mobilized prominent Jews and non-Jews to publicly oppose Ford's message. They formed a coalition of Jewish groups for the same purpose, and raised constant objections in the Detroit press. Before leaving his presidency early in 1921, [[Woodrow Wilson]] joined other leading Americans in a statement that rebuked Ford. A boycott against Ford products by Jews had an impact, and Ford shut down the magazine in 1927, recanting his views in a public letter to the ADL. <ref> Baldwin (2000)</ref>
Distribution of ''International Jew'' was halted by Ford, but extremist groups often recycled the text as hate material; copies still appear on anti-semitic and neo-Nazi websites.
Ford's reputation was seriously damaged by his episode of anti-Semitism, even though he recanted in 1927 and never repeated it. He was indeed responsible for the publication, in the U.S. of the ''Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' and several other pamphlets aimed against the Jewish people. He paid for the publication of an anti-Semitic book ''The International Jew'', a work admired by Hitler. Hitler loved automobiles and like many Europeans idealized Ford for bringing autos to the people, which Hitler tried (and failed) to emulate through the Volkswagen.<ref> Ford was honored by the Nazi government for his automobiles, as was General Motors.</ref>
== Ford's international business==
== Ford's international business==