Ford planning celebrations for 150th anniversary of Henry Ford’s birth

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Ford planning celebrations for 150th anniversary of Henry Ford’s birth
http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2013/07/26/ford-planning-celebrations-for-150th-anniversary-of-henry-fords-birth/

Gee. He was born in the middle of the Civil War. Love him or hate him, you hate to acknowledge that he was influential.

Born and raised on the family farm in Dearborn, Michigan, Ford left home at 16 to apprentice as a machinist and soon learned to service steam engines. In the early 1890s, he joined the Edison Illuminating Company as an engineer. His talent and drive earned him the title of chief engineer within three years and when he presented his boss, Thomas Edison, with his plans for a car, Edison encouraged him to start his own endeavors. It wasn’t until he had failed twice that he established the Ford Motor Company in 1903 and five years later introduced the Model T.
....

More than just an inventor, engineer and fabulously successful industrialist, Ford was a complicated man, paternalistic with his employees and anti-Semitic to the point of distributing ludicrous propaganda with his cars. He was as admired by Hitler as he was by the average American. Anti-union, he also did care deeply for his employees, instituting a $5 daily wage and a 40-hour work week in the United States long before anyone else. By 1920, more than half the cars on the road in the country were Fords. Ford’s influence on American industry, which experienced exponential growth in the early part of the 20th century, can not be overstated. Henry Ford died in 1947, but the Blue Oval remains.

Workers line up to apply for jobs at Ford after the announcement of five dollar per day wage in 1914.