[beaver fever]

I have seen several docs on Ford.

My take on HF is he was the last of the great American capitalists who saw the danger of losing control of his enterprise in exchange for public financing.

He was a bit of a contradiction. Staunchly anti union but his factories were eventually unionized. During the depths of the depression his workers were the highest paid in the auto industry.

As for his anti semitism he was typical of every executive on Wall Street at the time.

Even Nixon railed against the Jews to Kissinger of all people.

The model T was a brilliant car. Simple and cheap enough that a farmer could purchase and assemble it in a day. The wooden crates the the model T were shipped in were stamped with diagrams for the floor boards and pickup bed.

And you could order it from the Sears Catalog!!!

[durasell]

He was something of an odd duck. The anti-semitism went beyond the usual Wall Street WASP variety. He actually paid to publish the protocols of the elders of zion in this country. Hitler actually had a signed picture of him up in his office. He was anti-union, but also weirdly intrusive into his employees' lives. His Sociological Dept. would actually inspect the homes of workers.

He was also a good engineer in both mechanical and organizational terms. Not many guys could go from tinkering in their garage to running a major corporation.

Unfortunately, we live in an age where people either want to hear fairytales about perfect beings or tout the flaws of notable individuals to denigrate their positive contributions. Both make for boring history.