# The Slim and Certain Style of Henry Ford.



## Fogey (Aug 27, 2005)

_'The Style of...' series was created to showcase gentlemen - past and present - whom I believe to have a particularly compelling sense of style. I've included photographs progressing through the course of each man's life, interspersed with a few of his quotations. Please feel free to add additional photographs and quotations! Past subjects have included Charles Chaplin, Somerset Maugham, The Earl of Avon, HRH Prince Michael of Kent, Gore Vidal, and William Faulkner, among others._
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*Henry Ford​*(1863-1947) was a Michigan-born industrialist, philanthropist, peace-activist, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and, uniquely - the world's first billionaire.

All quotations are his own.

Enjoy!

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Whether you think you can, or think you can't - you're right.

Asking "who ought to be the boss" is like asking "who ought to be the tenor in the quartet?" Obviously, the man who can sing tenor.










Exercise is bunk. If you are healthy, you don't need it: if you are sick, you should not take it.

A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits: they will be embarrassingly large.

It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste.

Chop your own wood, and it will warm you twice.

There is one rule for the industrialist and that is: Make the best quality of goods possible at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible.

A bore is a person who opens his mouth and puts his feats in it.

It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.

Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.

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## wheredidyougetthathat (Mar 26, 2006)

> quote:_Originally posted by JLPWCXIII_
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> There is one rule for the industrialist and that is: Make the best quality of goods possible at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible.
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How unAmerican!

Who was this guy anyhow, some kinda commie?

Somebody: "I tell you, he's so well dressed that when he walks down the street people turn around to look at him."
Beau Brummell: "Then he is not well dressed."


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## Literide (Nov 11, 2004)

Peace Activist? Only so far as it helped his NAZI friends...


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## Tomasso (Aug 17, 2005)

> quote:_Originally
> the world's first billionaire.
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I believe that distinction is held by John D. Rockefeller._


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## Fogey (Aug 27, 2005)

> quote:_Originally posted by Tomasso_
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_The Washington Post_ (in 2004) said that Henry Ford is the world's first billionaire:

This may or may not be controversial, though in any case I expect we can agree that he was one of the first two or three, along with Rockefeller and Carnegie. Perhaps with all of their holdings it is difficult to rank them accurately.


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## dopey (Jan 17, 2005)

Had you merely posted pictures of Henry Ford wearing nice clothes this would have been, perhaps, unnecessary. Since you included examples of his â€œwit and wisdomâ€, your portrayal is incomplete without noting that Ford was also a bigot and anti-semite. His Dearborn Independents served as Fordâ€™s anti-semitic mouthpiece with its series â€œThe International Jewâ€ and culminated in its publishing of the infamous anti-semitic â€œProtocols of the Elders of Zionâ€ which continues to survive as a focus of the Jew-obsessed. I donâ€™t know what the policy of the administrators are, but as I believe in letting people see what true hatred looks like, have a look at Fordâ€™s work as preserved by his anti-semitic fans:

And just to keep in the spirit of JLPWCXIII worship of this great American, here is Mr. Ford receiving the Grand Cross of the German Eagle from Hitlerâ€™s Third Reich in 1938. But he is wearing a nice suit.


And since the original post referred to him as a peace activist, you might consider this contribution to world peace illuminating. A year after receiving his award from the Nazis, Ford explained away their invasion of Poland: "There hasn't been a shot fired. The whole thing has just been made up by the Jew bankers."


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## DEG (Jan 29, 2005)

"I believe that distinction is held by John D. Rockefeller."

"The Washington Post (in 2004) said that Henry Ford is the world's first billionaire:



This may or may not be controversial, though in any case I expect we can agree that he was one of the first two or three, along with Rockefeller and Carnegie. Perhaps with all of their holdings it is difficult to rank them accurately."

__________________


I think that you hit on the problem. Journalists often treat incorret a legend as a fact. I have said on this forum before that I feel it is because they are driving to meet deadlines and they are nearly alwayts J. School graduates. They have to be generalists. Their expertise is in writing and usually nothing else. In my field I read errors often in Money, Fortune and especially the Wall Street Journal. Sometimes they jump right off the page the are so outlandish.

Dan


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## DEG (Jan 29, 2005)

JLPW, I meant to thank you for this very interesting post!

Ford was a beautifully dressed guy in most every photograph I have seen of him.

Dan


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## Monte Cristo (Aug 15, 2005)

Ugh, here we go....

I'm sure that JLP in no way intended to support any of Ford's anti-semitic or bigoted beliefs. His post was merely meant to highlight the fashion style of one of the earliest and most ingenuitive American industrialists, and to pepper the photos with some of Ford's thoughts and witicisms regarding industry, money, etc. 

We are all entitled to our opinions, but my own is that Ford's antisemitism, which I wholeheartedly reject, does not taint everything the man ever said or did that might have been good. I'm not going to reject his views on automation or the assembly line because he happened to be a bigot any more than I'm going to refuse to drive a Mercedes or Volkwagen because they supplied autos to the Nazis.

"My tastes are simple; I am easily satisfied with the best."


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## Doctor Damage (Feb 18, 2005)

> quote:_Originally posted by Arelius_
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> I'm sure that JLP in no way intended to support any of Ford's anti-semitic or bigoted beliefs. His post was merely meant to highlight the fashion style of one of the earliest and most ingenuitive American industrialists, and to pepper the photos with some of Ford's thoughts and witicisms regarding industry, money, etc.


Ahmen.
Good thread, JP!
Lots of thick cuffs on view.


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## dopey (Jan 17, 2005)

> quote:_Originally posted by Arelius_
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> I'm not going to reject his views on automation or the assembly line because he happened to be a bigot.


 I didnâ€™t ask you to, and I wouldnâ€™t reject them either. A good idea is a good idea, but Ford is the sum of all of his ideas, not just the good ones. And the post didnâ€™t describe him merely as a man who were nice suits or as an industrialist, which, as I said, would have been fine with me, but also as a peace-maker and a man of wisdom and wit. And his quoted comment about the banking system should be seen in the context in which he meant it.


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## jml90 (Dec 7, 2005)

So what if he's a bigot? At least he had the balls to stand for what he believed.


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## cpac (Mar 25, 2005)

> quote:_Originally posted by jml90_
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> So what if he's a bigot? At least he had the balls to stand for what he believed.


Hitler was a bigot who didn't just stand for his beliefs, but went about acting on them. The same could be said of many a terrorist. Standing for something isn't admirable if it's the wrong sort of something.

*------------
cpac*


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## Tomasso (Aug 17, 2005)

> quote:_Originally posted by jml90_
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> So what if he's a bigot? At least he had the balls to stand for what he believed.


Interesting philosophy.


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## SchumanNYC (Aug 31, 2005)

I love the photos, thanks!

The Sartorialist at https://thesartorialist.blogspot.com/


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## Doctor Damage (Feb 18, 2005)

Okay, let's just agree to drop this Nazi topic, can we? JLPWCXIII has gone to no small effort to find and post a bunch of interesting photos about an interesting man and I hate to see his effort get sidetracked.


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## DocHolliday (Apr 11, 2005)

> quote:_Originally posted by Tomasso_
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Disgusting, more like it. And it didn't even take much guts back then. Such sentiments were common. Thankfully, most of society has moved on.


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## jml90 (Dec 7, 2005)

> quote:_Originally posted by cpac_
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If I wanted oranges I'd ask for them. Ford's beliefs didn't involve killing people now did they? If they did then I missed something and I'll take it back


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## Yellman (Aug 25, 2005)

> quote:_Originally posted by jml90_
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> So what if he's a bigot? At least he had the balls to stand for what he believed.


You are kidding me right, are you that ignorant? This is a joke right?


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## iammatt (Sep 17, 2005)

> quote:_Originally posted by jml90_
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You seem to have a lot to learn.


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## Yellman (Aug 25, 2005)

If I wanted oranges I'd ask for them. Ford's beliefs didn't involve killing people now did they? If they did then I missed something and I'll take it back

Didn't involve killing people? Do you think Hitler personally ever killed a jew? Or Eichmann? You feel that because they didn't personally kill someone they are not guilty. So if you are part of a group that promotes hatred it is ok, and if this group influences others to kill or hurt others it is ok if you personally did not pull the trigger?


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## Fogey (Aug 27, 2005)

DEG, Arelius, Dr Damage, jml, Schuman, &c, *thank you!*

At the top of these threads I issue an open invitation for others to post other photographs and quotations of the subject. I am engaged in neither biography nor hagiography, though I think the style of a person is comprised of more than their clothes - elements of manner, speech, kinesic smartness, wit, humour, among others.

But (Dopey and Literide) - all posts being fair game, I might add that Beau Brummell probably did not have 2006 values with regards to race, yet I don't think it would be appropriate to mention that every time he is referenced. I hope that human beings living in the year 2100 will judge me by the standards of my own time, and not by their own. Imagine what some of our shoe threads on Ask Andy would look like to people many generations hence, who may have a highly developed sense of animal rights?

With regard to the Grand Cross award, it was given to Ford by the German government on the occasion of his 75th birthday 'in recognition of pioneering in making motor cars available for the masses'.* It was presented to Ford in his own office by the German consul in Cleveland - since in 1938 the US still had full diplomatic relations with Germany. People living at the time did not remember WWII, since it hadn't happened yet. Hindsight is always 20/20, and those who study events of the past need to recognise this.

* _The Detroit News_, 31 July 1938.


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## malinda (Aug 25, 2002)

Gentlemen: Need we move this thread to the Interchange? It is very close to going there. Hopefully, a word is sufficient.

Malinda


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## dopey (Jan 17, 2005)

> quote:_Originally posted by JLPWCXIII_
> . . . At the top of these threads I issue an open invitation for others to post other photographs and quotations of the subject. . . .


I believe I did both, as your invitation suggested. I also provided what I hope is some useful context for at least one of your quotations and for better understanding the totality of the man. As you noted, he was about more than just clothes.

Out of deference to Malinda and to the other merits of this thread (I do enjoy the pictures) I will not debate the obvious distinctions between Brummel and Ford. I will suggest that after reading what Hitler wrote about Ford in _Mein Kampf_, readers might reasonably come to different conclusions about why Ford was awarded Nazi Germanyâ€™s Grand Cross.


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## jml90 (Dec 7, 2005)

> quote:_Originally posted by Yellman_
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> If I wanted oranges I'd ask for them. Ford's beliefs didn't involve killing people now did they? If they did then I missed something and I'll take it back
> 
> Didn't involve killing people? Do you think Hitler personally ever killed a jew? Or Eichmann? You feel that because they didn't personally kill someone they are not guilty. So if you are part of a group that promotes hatred it is ok, and if this group influences others to kill or hurt others it is ok if you personally did not pull the trigger?


But he more than forced them into doing it.
The beautiful thing about the first amendment is we can hate anyone we please whether it be legitimate or not. I never said I endorssed his views just that he had the right to do it.


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## malinda (Aug 25, 2002)

*LAST WORD: TALK - ABOUT - THE - CLOTHES.

MALINDA*


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## 16412 (Apr 1, 2005)

Great photographs JLPWCXIII! I love some of those lapels and collars! Who ever his tailor was made some very nice clothes. Does anybody know who his tailor was? The quotes are nice, too.

Dopey! Don't become like Ford with hatred!


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## Yellman (Aug 25, 2005)

Ford's beliefs didn't involve killing people now did they? If they did then I missed something and I'll take it back

He wanted the jews dead, simple as that, he felt they were worthless, is that clear enough.


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## Yellman (Aug 25, 2005)

As for the clothes, his crotch looks funny in the fourth pic. What type of man sits like that?


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## Étienne (Sep 3, 2005)

No doubt about that : the man was very stylish.

If one wants to be very picky about details, though, I think we can find some tiny oddities (doubtless a matter of different tastes for different times). Take the fifth picture, for example. A very smart outfit, no rule broken, everything works.

And yet... Somehow, I find that the jacket is a tad too long for his frame (although it follows the usual rule-of-thumb, hanging to the knuckles). I also find the trousers to be a bit too short (I prefer more break). Finally the shoes are awesome and very classic. Nowadays, people would probably shun this type of traditional, slightly bulbous, toe, though.


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## globetrotter (Dec 30, 2004)

JLPWCXIII,

sorry, you raised the issue when you listed Ford as a peace activist and a man of style. 

anti-semitism was one of the stronger charactor points of Ford. Frankly, I think that if you asked a good part of the population of the states (who knew who ford was, mind you) he would be remembered for his anti-semitism and nazi sympathies right after his relationship with the automobile. 

many men of style have had views that we wouldn't like today - few were as evil as ford. 


in terms of his dress - I think that he could have done something to make him look less sunken chested, and in the pictures where he is seating, his crotch looks funny.


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## EL72 (May 25, 2005)

Ford, a peace activist  that's the funniest thing I've read today. That's like saying the 9-11 pilots were landscape architects. Thanks JLP, your twisted humour never ceases to amuse me. 

Thanks to Dopey as well for his factual addendum to this thread.

BTW I like his outfit with the bowler hat. Nice coat.


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## malinda (Aug 25, 2002)

*Next time, please listen. Moved to the Interchange.

Malinda.*


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## jml90 (Dec 7, 2005)

> quote:_Originally posted by Yellman_
> 
> Ford's beliefs didn't involve killing people now did they? If they did then I missed something and I'll take it back
> 
> He wanted the jews dead, simple as that, he felt they were worthless, is that clear enough.


Wanting and forcing are different things.


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## globetrotter (Dec 30, 2004)

> quote:_Originally posted by jml90_
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Ford, one of the richest and most powerful men in the US at the time, wrote numourous newspaper articles attacking jews, as well as paying for the distribution and publication of the protocals of the elders of zion. this is not like some freak sitting at home and having bad thoughts.


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## jbmcb (Sep 7, 2005)

Ford was a pretty snappy dresser. There's a great picture of him having a picnic at his house, along with Thomas Edison, the Rockefellers, and President Harding, all dressed rather dandily for a summer afternoon. There are lots of pictures like this at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, along with a great collection of historical buildings in the attached Greenfield Village. I've also been through his home, Fairlane, which was a technological marvel at the time of it's construction.

As for his political leanings, here's another pithy quip from Ford:
"The international financiers are behind all war. They are what is called the International Jew -- German Jews, French Jews, English Jews, American Jews. I believe that in all these countries except our own the Jewish financier is supreme... Here, the Jew is a threat."

He was, without a doubt, a rather nasty anti-semite. He passed out anti-Jewish literature to his factory workers. Ugh.


Good/Fast/Cheap - Pick Two


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## jml90 (Dec 7, 2005)

> quote:_Originally posted by globetrotter_
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Whoopity Doo
That it was makes America beautiful we can hate anyone legitamate reasoning or not. Again I'll say I don't support his thoughts but I beleive he had the right to express them.


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## EL72 (May 25, 2005)

> quote:_Originally posted by jml90_
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You need to learn more about free speech before you make inane comments.

Does your definition of free speech also cover the right of an individual to yell fire in a crowded theater?


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## BertieW (Jan 17, 2006)

Stupidest thing I've heard all day.



> quote:_Originally posted by jml90_
> 
> So what if he's a bigot? At least he had the balls to stand for what he believed.


********************************
"It's about time some publicly-spirited person told you where to get off. The trouble with you, Spode, is that just because you've succeeded in convincing a handful of half-wits to disfigure the London scene by going about in black shorts, you think you're someone."


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## globetrotter (Dec 30, 2004)

> quote:_Originally posted by EL72_
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I also support his right to free speech. I would not, however, refer to him in any way with respect, and certainly not refer to him as a peace activist. in my opinion, there are certain things that a person does, that strips from him all rights to respect, no matter how great his achievements. Ford's activities are such - he had every right to speak the way he did, but he should be remembered not as a man of style but as what he was - an industrialist and an anti-semite.


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## jml90 (Dec 7, 2005)

> quote:_Originally posted by EL72_
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If there's a fire why not?
We let rappers go out and say how much dope they smoke and how many "broders dey shat"


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## EL72 (May 25, 2005)

> quote:_Originally posted by jml90_
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How about if there is no fire? It's still my right to express myself in America right? I should be praised for having the balls to stand up for what I think is right, which includes creating a stampede because I want to express myself. That's what makes America great.


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## Fogey (Aug 27, 2005)

Henry Ford, to strangely tailored trouser crotches, to Nazis, to US Constitutional law, to fires in theatres. All in one thread! Isn't AAAC wonderful?


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## jml90 (Dec 7, 2005)

> quote:_Originally posted by EL72_
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No because you are not expressing an opinion, but a fact which you made up.

HEY I ORDERED APPLES!


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## Tom Bell-Drier (Mar 1, 2006)

apples ,oranges, Who`s making fruit cocktail?

Frivolity has its place!


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## EL72 (May 25, 2005)

> quote:_Originally posted by jml90_
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"Jews control the media, the financial markets..."

Is this an opinion or a fact that I made up?


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## Fogey (Aug 27, 2005)

> quote:_Originally posted by EL72_
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 There is a bit of hyperbole to that, but there is some truth as well. Professor Benjamin Ginsberg (of Johns Hopkins University) wrote a book a few years ago called _The Fatal Embrace: Jews and the State_, which examines anti-semitism and the disproportionately large role of Jewish people in modern history. Although the following excerpt focuses more on the US, Prof Ginsberg uses examples from other nations as well:

'_Since the 1960s, Jews have come to wield considerable influence in American economic, cultural, intellectual and political life. Jews played a central role in American finance during the 1980s, and they were among the chief beneficiaries of that decade's corporate mergers and reorganizations. Today, though barely two percent of the nation's population is Jewish, close to half its billionaires are Jews. The chief executive officers of the three major television networks and the four largest film studios are Jews, as are the owners of the nation's largest newspaper chain and the most influential single newspaper, the New York Times ... The role and influence of Jews in American politics is equally marked ...

Jews are only three percent of the nation's population and comprise eleven percent of what this study defines as the nation's elite. However, Jews constitute more than 25 percent of the elite journalists and publishers, more than 17 percent of the leaders of important voluntary and public interest organizations, and more than 15 percent of the top ranking civil servants._'

I say good for them. The great achievements of the Jewish people in the 20th century, despite the unspeakable horrors, are Biblical in scope and immensely inspiring. Any talk of a 'global Jewish conspiracy' is utter rubbish, however. As for Ford's statements and beliefs, all I can say is that many geniuses are notorious cranks in areas outside of their expertise, however well-intentioned.


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## mgnov (Jan 11, 2006)

I guess now wouldn't be the time to post my "Idi Amin seersucker suit collection" pics.


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## EL72 (May 25, 2005)

> quote:_Originally posted by mgnov_
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> I guess now wouldn't be the time to post my "Idi Amin seersucker suit collection" pics.


Please do. And don't forget to introduce him as a philanthropist and peace activist.


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## EL72 (May 25, 2005)

> quote:_Originally posted by JLPWCXIII_
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> quote:
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> There is a bit of hyperbole to that, but there is some truth as well. Professor Benjamin Ginsberg (of Johns Hopkins University) wrote a book a few years ago called _The Fatal Embrace: Jews and the State_, which examines anti-semitism and the disproportionately large role of Jewish people in modern history. Although the following excerpt focuses more on the US, Prof Ginsberg uses examples from other nations as well:
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I am not disputing any of this but merely want to press jml90 to explain what the distinction is between an opionion (presumably protected by his definition of free speech) and a made-up fact (to which he will not accord the same protection).

jml... you there?


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## jml90 (Dec 7, 2005)

His opinion was he didn't like the jews, he stated it.
Now yelling fire in a theater if there is none is black and white no opinion involved either there is or there is not


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## jbmcb (Sep 7, 2005)

> quote:_Originally posted by JLPWCXIII_
> I say good for them. The great achievements of the Jewish people in the 20th century, despite the unspeakable horrors, are Biblical in scope and immensely inspiring.


Here here. I don't invest any feelings in the success or failure of others. If someone is successful, good for them. If not, I'll try to help as best as I can.



> quote:
> As for Ford's statements and beliefs, all I can say is that many geniuses are notorious cranks in areas outside of their expertise, however well-intentioned.


A pity, as otherwise he seemed like a genial and intelligent guy. His house, Fairlane, had a guest room for his best friend, Thomas Edison. Knowing of Edison's irrational hatred for cats, Ford had it furnished with cat motif art glass windows, cat's head drawer pulls, and cat figures in the metalwork of the fixtures. Edison thought it was pretty funny.

Good/Fast/Cheap - Pick Two


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## EL72 (May 25, 2005)

> quote:_Originally posted by jml90_
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> His opinion was he didn't like the jews, he stated it.
> Now yelling fire in a theater if there is none is black and white no opinion involved either there is or there is not


You have evaded the question I asked so I will ask it anew: Is publishing a book stating that the jews control the media and the financial markets simply a matter of expressing one's opinion or is this is a theory one makes up (much like yelling fire where there is none)?


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## EL72 (May 25, 2005)

> quote:_Originally posted by jbmcb_
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## globetrotter (Dec 30, 2004)

> quote:_Originally posted by jml90_
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> His opinion was he didn't like the jews, he stated it.
> Now yelling fire in a theater if there is none is black and white no opinion involved either there is or there is not


he didn't just state that he didn't like jews. he went out of his way to claim false facts about jews that would predidice other people, large masses of other people, against jews. huge difference


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## pleasehelp (Sep 8, 2005)

Ford was a really strange fellow. For another aspect of Ford that might interest some of you, read Ford v. Dodge.


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