Henry Ford: An Interpretation

VII. "Just Kids"

CHAPTER VII "JUST KIDS" HENRY FORD was born July 30, 1863, and is still a boy. Along with the amazing shrewdness in him there is a charming simplicity. " How did he impress you?" I asked a wellknown writer after she had an interview with Mr. Ford. "He is a mixture," she replied, "of sweetness and steel, of vision and practical shrewdness, of humor and authority, and of belief — belief in men, in nature." The steel is there — I have witnessed it strike and cut with the sparks flying from it — and also the sweetness. Children especially call forth the sweetness, the gentleness, the spirit of youth, the love of nature which are present in him. As between youth and age, he seems to prefer the company of youth. Introduce him to a group of people in which there are ninety58 "JUST KIDS" nine adults and one child, and the one child will receive the major portion of his attention and besidesthat will have a bully good time. I have known him to spend the better part of a day in the woods with a boy of ten, and both were apparently having the time of their lives. "Come with me, boy," he said; "I want to show you some of my friends." We were in a little cottage in the edge of the woods on the banks of the Rouge just above Mr. Ford's residence at Dearborn. He slipped a pair of opera glasses into his pocket and he and the boy started out on a "hike." I was not included in the invitation but decided to join what I knew would be an interesting expedition of exploration. A few rapid strides and then a pause. "Listen, boy. Hear it? Hear it? Hear that song? Quiet, now! Don't move. He's right there in that tree somewhere." And out came the opera glasses. "Ah, there he is! I found him. Take the glasses, boy, and look at him. He's on the very tip of that limb. He's a beauty, isn't he?" There were feathered friends everywhere. He protects 59 HENRY FORD them the year round, feeds them in winter, knows their song, and calls them by name. He loves the birds. How much, I oncediscovered on going to his home for dinner. The front door was locked. From the inside he called to us, informing us that it would be necessary to go to a rear entrance to gain admittance . Later the manner of our reception was explained. A robin had built her nest on the veranda over the front door. Entrance through that portal disturbed Mrs. Robin so much that Henry had nailed up the screen and locked the door until the Robin family had moved to other quarters. But to return to my story. As we passed through the fields I noticed what I thought were the foundations of numerous haystacks. Rails had been laid down on the ground several feet apart. Across these and close together other rails had been placed. On these, grass had been piled up to the depth of two or three feet. " You must have had a wonderful crop of hay onthisfield,"I remarked, "judging from the number of foundations for the stacks." 60 "JUST KIDS" A merry twinkle came into his eye and he laughed as he said: " Those are not foundations for haystacks. I had those built as shelters for the rabbits. It makes a nice warm place for them in which to live in the winter." But his friends the rabbits abused hishospitality and came to a sad end. For once in his life, Henry Ford had to declare war and take up arms. It was a war to extermination. The increase of the rabbit population on the Ford farms taxed the agility and capacity of the multiplication table to its limit. To the saying " Pigs is pigs " may be added the further statement, " So is rabbits." After two or three years, orchards young and old were being destroyed by Friend Rabbit to such an extent that friendly relations were broken off and hostilities begun. Down to the last rabbit, bunny remained a pacifist; but somehow that did not stop the war. And perhaps this might be made into a parable. After passing the rabbit shelters we came, a little farther on, to a cornfield in which the 61 [13.58.151.231...