The UNCOMMON BENEVOLENCE of Henry Ford

"He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation.

Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property. Society may give an exclusive right to the profits arising from them, as an encouragement to men to pursue ideas which may produce utility, but this may or may not be done, according to the will and convenience of the society, without claim or complaint from anybody."

-- Thomas Jefferson, http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/winter2000/jefferson.html

The following is sourced from Chrysler: The Life and Times of an Automotive Genius by Vincent Curcio -

Henry Ford SHARED HIS DISCOVERIES, opening up his plant and methods to ALL who wanted to COPY them. His system spread like wildfire, first through the automobile business and then into other businesses as well. Wherever it spread, the previously UNDREAMED-OF PROSPERITY for the COMMON MAN that went with it spread also.... The population of the great cities exploded, and after nearly 150 years AMERICA TURNED from an AGRARIAN civilization into an URBAN one practically overnight.

Indeed, what Henry Ford invented was not really mass production but MASS PROSPERITY, a state of being never before within mankind's reach.

Henry Ford extended his offer of employment and PROSPERITY to any capable person who wanted it, including women, blacks, the handicapped, ex-criminals, and JEWS.

Ford never employed fewer than 3,000 Jews in his business. His architect, Albert Kahn, his butcher, and his antiques dealer were both Jews. Every year, he gave a new Model T to Rabbi Leo Franklin, an old friend and neighbor.

There are Jews who deem Henry Ford an unforgivable bigot. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Ford -

"The articles explicitly condemned pogroms and violence against Jews (Volume 4, Chapter 80)... Ford's 1927 apology was well received. "Four-Fifths of the hundreds of letters addressed to Ford in July of 1927 were from Jews, and almost without exception they praised the Industrialist."

In January 1937, a Ford statement to the Detroit Jewish Chronicle disavowed "any connection whatsoever with the publication in Germany of a book known as the International Jew.

Distribution of International Jew was halted in 1942 through legal action by Ford, despite complications from a lack of copyright."

Henry Ford helped win World Wars I & II. He developed mass production for the B-24 Liberator bomber.

Ford produced tractors very cheaply, which staved off famine during the wars. The Ford tractors were the first to be produced on a massive scale and the first farm tractors to be affordable by average farmers and rural citizens. Ford held that his tractors were the key to eliminating war and improving the human condition.

From http://www.antiquefarming.com/farm-tractor.html -

"In World War One, American farmers fed ALL of Europe. Even a few years after the war, American farming saved Europe from starvation as countries tried to rebuild....
In this critical period, Henry Ford brought out his first farm tractor the Fordson. The Fordson was the first tractor to be built on a modern assembly line using all the mass production techniques Ford learned producing automobiles.... More important, it sold for considerably less, and brought tractors within the buying range of thousands of farmers..."

In 1907, Edison-worshipper Henry Ford declared, "I will build a motor car for the great multitude. It will be large enough for the family, but small enough for the individual to run and care for. It will be constructed of the best materials, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise. But it will be so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one – and enjoy with his family the blessings of hours of pleasure in God’s great open spaces."

"Before Henry Ford built the Model T, it was generally believed that automobiles were luxury products that should only be sold at high prices to wealthy people. Ford’s vision was different: He foresaw a cheap ($450 - $650) reliable car that could dominate the mass market." - Dr. Edwin Locke, author of The Prime Movers

A revolutionary innovator, Mr. Ford stood alone against a mountain of criticisms. “He was the first man to discover the advantages of mass production and the first to use an assembly line. To achieve his visions, he hired the best of men, offering an unsolicited raise in workers’ wages, higher than any union scale at the time – he was the first to refute in practice the theory of ‘class-warfare’.”

“Ford announced his $5-per-day program on January 5, 1914, raising the minimum daily pay from $2.34 to $5 for qualifying workers. (Using the consumer price index, this was equivalent to $111.10 per day in 2008 dollars.) It also set a new, reduced workweek…”

Actions speak louder than words. One who employed thousands of Jews could not have been a bigot. Some hold that his apology was not sincere. Since he opened his discoveries to ALL, his apology, most certainly, was not purposed to earn more money.

Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson strongly denounced organized religions. These glorious men of reason were not bigots. Neither was a man who employed thousands of women, blacks, the handicapped, ex-criminals, and JEWS. 

It takes UNCOMMON BENEVOLENCE to think and labor, and then share the fruits of one’s labors to the WORLD, without exceptions. Kudos, many thanks, and much respect and love to the INVENTOR of MASS PROSPERITY: Henry Ford.

"The man who builds a factory builds a temple, that the man who works there worships there, and to each is due, not scorn and blame, but reverence and praise." -- Calvin Coolidge