Henry Ford: An Interpretation

VIII. Behind a Chinese Wall

CHAPTER VIII BEHIND A CHINESE WALL ONCE you get to Mr. Ford, you will find him, of all men, most affable and democratic. He is apt to leave upon you the impression that he stands ready to do anything for you, give you anything, even to the half of his kingdom. He makes promises which he sometimes keeps, sometimes forgets, and sometimes fulfills in his own peculiar way. He hates to say "No." He has a way of leaving you with the idea that he is in entire sympathy with your proposition and of delegating the unpleasant task of turning you down to some one else. To turn down a request made of us is embarrassing . To grant a favor is a pleasure. Henry Ford is a man of generous impulses. I think he would prefer on all occasions to do what he is asked to do. This, of course, is impossible . And so, when it is necessary to turn a man down, he seeks to relieve himself of the 70 BEHIND A CHINESE WALL embarrassment of doing so by referring the man to some one else, at the same time indicating just how he would have the man and his request handled. He has sometimes given a man a note to an executive, which was in reality a code letter understood by the official receiving it. That note was always the same with slight variations in the spelling of one word. The fate of the individual joyfully and unsuspectingly bearing that note hung on the spelling of that word. If the note read " Please s-e-e this man," it meant he was to be favorably handled. If it read "Please s-e-a this man," it meant that he was to be let down as easy as possible, — dropped overboard into a sea of uncertainty, so far as obtaining what he wanted was concerned, there to wait and flounder about until, utterly discouraged, he gave up hope of attaining hisend. It alwaysseemed to me that a blunt "No " would have been a much more considerate way of dealing with cases of this kind. Genial, generous and democratic will be found the manner of Henry Ford, once you get to him, but the problem is to get to him. 71 HENRY FORD The approach to him is, I believe, the most guarded and most difficult of that of any man alive. He would have it so. People who do not understand blame his secretary for making this man of the people so inaccessible. But his secretary is to be praised for the thoroughness with which he does the work assigned him. A Chesterfield might suggest that which here and there would add grace and charm to the manner in which the job is handled but he certainly could do nothing to raise the present standard of efficiency. Hardly a week passes that some one does not come to me from a distance with the request that I be kind enough to assist him in obtaining an interview with Mr. Ford. The answer is, "There is but one approach to Mr. Ford and that is through his secretary." And then the question, "How do I get to hissecretary ? " And the answer is, "Make an appointment with him and take your knitting along. You may have to wait." Socially, Henry Ford has preferred to remain in the class in which he was born. He goes occasionally into the drawing-rooms of 72 BEHIND A CHINESEWALL those who have attained social distinction, but he is not at ease there and remains no longer than is necessary. Detroit has three aristocracies of the kind that bears upon its shield the rampant dollar sign. A landed aristocracy, descended from the early French settler whose farms fronted on the river and extended in a narrow strip inland two or three miles; the aristocracy based on the wealth drawn from Michigan's forests and minerals; and in these latter days, an automobile aristocracy, — the product of the automobile industry. Henry Ford has stormed the doors of none of them. People in all walks of life and of all ranks come from near and far to seehim. But the vast majority fail to attain the object of their visit, due to the Chinese Wall about him, erected and guarded by his secretary. Those who do seehim have, as a rule, paid for the privilege in...