Was There a Ford in Their Future?

In today's thrilling episode of our Graphical History Tour, we catch up on jockeying in the 1924 presidential race:

"His Hat Is All Over the Ring" by J.T. Alley in Memphis Commercial Appeal, July 10, 1923

As far as the pundits were concerned, President Warren Harding was a shoo-in for the Republican Party's nomination for a second term. The economy was doing well (at least for Wall Street), the nation was at peace (even if other parts of the world weren't), and that Spanish flu epidemic was a distant memory. Heck, even Pancho Villa turned up dead (for reals this time).

"Hunting the Wild Redbird" by J.N. "Ding" Darling in Des Moines Register, July 18, 1923

Senator Robert LaFollette (R-WI) was actively considering a challenge to Harding, but on the Progressive Party ticket. "Ding" Darling had been skeptical of Harding's candidacy in 1920, but he was even less favorable to LaFollette, who was campaigning against the Republican Party candidate for Minnesota's open senate seat in favor of the Farmer-Labor candidate there.

"Oh Bill look Were I Got to in One" by J.N. "Ding" Darling in New York Tribune, ca. July 13, 1923

Outcome of the Democratic race at this point was anybody's guess. Dealt a resounding defeat in the 1920 presidential race, and being in the minority in Congress since the 1918 elections, the party was without a natural leader to succeed Woodrow Wilson, sidelined by the strokes he suffered in the last years of his presidency.

"1924 Model" by Daniel Fitzpatrick in St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 13, 1923

One possibility getting a lot of attention in the summer of 1923 was whether Henry Ford would run for president — and if so, for which party's nomination.

"Knitting Is Fine for the Nerves" by Clifford Berryman in Washington (DC) Evening Star, July 10, 1923

Although there was talk of Ford mounting a third-party bid, the Democratic Party would have seemed to be Ford's more logical choice. Three-time loser William Jennings Bryan, in the foreground of Berryman's cartoon, was an unlikely candidate but still wielded considerable influence within the party over a quarter century after his first run.

The other knitters in Berryman's cartoon are the Democrats' 1920 standard-bearer, James Cox; Woodrow Wilson's son-in-law William MacAdoo; Alabama Senator Oscar Underwood; and Indiana Senator Samuel Ralston. Curiously absent is New York Governor Al Smith; but none of these gentlemen would end up as the Democrats' presidential nominee in 1924 anyway.

""My Isn't the Scenery Simply Wonderful This Year" by J.N. "Ding" Darling in Colliers, July 7, 1923

"Ding" Darling here depicts neither major political party as being particularly interested in having Henry Ford as its standard bearer. The Ford for President "boom," as such movements were called, was primarily a creation of the Hearst newspaper chain.

"A Mixed Load" by Roy H. James in St. Louis Star, July 16, 1923

James illustrates the primary drawbacks of a Ford candidacy. His anti-Jewish attitude was offensive to some Americans; others may have found it embarrassing that he was saying the quiet part out loud. 

Ford published frequent antisemitic editorials in the newspaper he had bought, the Dearborn Independent, blaming a vast conspiracy of Jews for everything wrong with the world from jazz to baseball. Ford dealerships were required to carry the Dearborn Independent, and a four-volume collection of his editorials in booklet form, The International Jew: The World's Foremost Problem, was translated into 16 languages for sale in the U.S. and Europe.

The Peace Ship was a widely derided voyage of pacifists Ford had organized in 1915 in an effort to head off World War I. It did not have the support of the Wilson administration, and its idealistic crew met with no European officials of any consequence.

"A Few Points to Be Considered" by Harold J. Wahl in Sacramento Bee, July 9, 1923

Henry Ford had used his influence with the Department of War to keep his son Edsel, then in his 20's, out of military service during World War I. Biographers now believe that Edsel would have preferred to enlist, and was acutely embarrassed that his father's connections held him up to scorn and ridicule as a symbol of unfair privilege. Thus, during World War II, Edsel made doubly sure that his car company was fully committed to the wartime production effort.

The "History is bunk" tack in Harold Wahl's cartoon refers to an interview with the Chicago Tribune in 1916 in which Henry Ford said, 

"History is more or less bunk. It is tradition. We don’t want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker’s dam is the history we make today. That’s the trouble with the world. We’re living in books and history and tradition. We want to get away from that and take care of today. We’ve done too much looking back. What we want to do and do it quick is to make just history right now."

That comment was in the "Chicago Tribune exposé," which had revealed Ford to be a shallow-minded, incurious blowhard who literally did not know British author Arnold Bennett from American turncoat Benedict Arnold. Ford had successfully sued the Tribune for libel over its reporting, for which he was awarded six cents in damages. 

No wonder he hated history.

Said the Tribune regarding his possible 1924 candidacy, "What makes him impossible is that he lacks any sense of his limitations. If a man is both ignorant and ignorant of his ignorance, he is not one to be put in any place of responsibility."

If Henry Ford reminds you of any presidential candidate today, that's the true value of history. But at least Henry Ford had a son with some redeeming social qualities.

Ah, well. I suppose there's yet still some hope for Barron.