Henry Ford with Thomas Edison and Harvey Firestone. Ft. Myers,
The secret to eternal youth may come in the form of stem cell injections, U.S. scientists claimed.
Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh made the discovery after breeding mice with progeria syndrome, which causes rapid aging, and injecting them with stem-cell-like cells derived from young, healthy rodents.
You never know when a healthy rodent might come in handy!
This Ron Paul newsletter scandal reminded me of something that occurred almost a century ago.
In 1918 Henry Ford took over a newspaper called the Dearborn Independent.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Ford#Mental_collapse_and_World_War_II
Wiki provides a nice neat rundown of this fiasco.
It would be funnier if certain Germans did not embrace many of the articles appearing in that newspaper—most of which were authorized by Ford, personally if not written by him. Then the newspaper got into the book business.
The newspaper published The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which was discredited by The Times of London as a forgery during the Independent’s publishing run. The American Jewish Historical Society described the ideas presented in the magazine as “anti-immigrant, anti-labor, anti-liquor, and anti-Semitic.” In February 1921, the New York World published an interview with Ford, in which he said: “The only statement I care to make about the Protocols is that they fit in with what is going on.” During this period, Ford emerged as “a respected spokesman for right-wing extremism and religious prejudice,” reaching around 700,000 readers through his newspaper …
Later the most anti-Semitic articles were republished in another book that the Germans really liked.
In a letter from 1924, Heinrich Himmler described Ford as “one of our most valuable, important, and witty fighters.”[59] Ford is the only American mentioned in Mein Kampf
By 1927 Henry was attempting to disavow the most terrible articles printed in his paper:
At a libel trial in 1927 he claimed he neither wrote nor had knowledge of the content of those articles Sound familiar?
http://www.trutv.com/conspiracy/in-the-shadows/overthrow-fdr/gallery.html?curPhoto=8
Ford was being sued in Federal Court under a libel/slander theory.
http://www.americanbarfoundation.org/research/project/19
Within a year of this trial the Dearborn Independent was no more!
Many great writers have noted over the centuries that there never was and never would be an innocent man.
Ford was a violently dogmatic conservative and hater of unions but he invented the five dollar day for his workers.
His company eventually cut workers’ hours and established benefits.
He was also a big employer of Black Americans. He saw characteristics in the Black Man that most white employers ignored.
From a strictly capitalistic perspective, Henry I wanted to keep his trained work force. He was upset when he saw his managers having to train in new workers because his trained workers were quitting to make better money elsewhere.
It appears that although he was a pacifist/isolationist like Ron Paul, his factories geared up for the First World War. (Wiki notes that Wilson wished Ford to run as Senator to help him out with his League of Nations idea)
He kind of lost command of his faculties during the 1930’s following a few heart attacks, handing over formal executive powers to others.
I get on my high horse much too often; being prone to hyperbole and judgmental-ism; not that I am the only one with these afflictions!
Henry I made a vehicle to replace the horse. Oh he did not invent the car you might say.
But he did invent a manner of manufacturing that ultimately led to making a vehicle available to the masses; using laborers who could afford to actually purchase a vehicle they had a hand in manufacturing.
Just as an aside, the current epic television series about the building of the transcontinental railroad following the Civil War lays out all the terrible issues facing a new America including the Indian Wars and the abuse of minorities in the budding labor force.
I have to stand back and put things into context. And I must compare our new nation’s sins to the sins of other nations during the same time period.
The Russian Tsar might have freed the serfs in 1863, but it was surely a freedom granted in name only.
People were living in the sewers of London and Paris during this time period and needless battles were fought throughout Europe for no apparent logical reason.
I must conclude that Henry Ford was a great man of his time and this nation was better off with his insights and his ability to build an international manufacturing business.
I mean Edison was a prick from everything I have read but this nation was better off as a direct result of his inventions and his visions. He was terrible to his laborers.
I do not feel that Ron Paul in this day and age has accomplished anything compared with the masters of American Industry of yesteryear.
But his voice is a voice that must be heard.
And regardless of newsletters printed under his name and label a couple of decades ago, this nation is better off that he has had the opportunity to be heard amongst the cacophony of lies perpetrated by most of the other candidates running for the repub nomination.
Once Upon a Paradigm 