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6 Oo Henry Ford and Anti-Semitism The United States in the 1920s was introspective, isolationist, and seeking to assign blame for its own entry into World War I as well as for the conduct of the war itself. As chairman of the powerful War Industries Board and, unquestionably, the most renowned Jew in the country, Bernard Baruch found himself the target of speculation and a primary victim of Henry Ford’s vicious anti-Semitic attacks. Henry Ford Sr., the great industrialist who first developed the assembly line, personified the American dream and was a folk hero to the common man. Often called “the man who put a continent on wheels,” he was mentioned often as a viable candidate for the presidency. Unfortunately for the nation’s Jews, Ford was a vocal and bitter anti-Semite. Historians and sociologists speculate as to the root of his virulent antiSemitism and exactly what inspired him to launch his infamous Paper Pogrom. In May 1920 Ford, who owned his own newspaper, the Dearborn Independent, wrote a series of anti-Semitic articles blaming Jews for all the world’s problems , including—but not limited to—war, strikes, and conspiracies against the United States and, indeed, the world. According to Ford, Jews were orchestrating an international conspiracy to control the world. As Margaret Coit noted, Ford considered Jews to be “responsible for liquor, short skirts, white slavery and the failing banks in the farm areas. Jews, Ford claimed, controlled the movie industry, sugar, cotton, the packing and shoe industries, grain, jewelry, loan companies and the theaters.”1 Bernard Baruch, Ford railed, was the “Jew of super-power” and the “proconsul Henry Ford and Anti-Semitism 35 of Judah in America.” He implied that Baruch had profited from his position as head of the War Industries Board in World War I. Rebuttals to Ford’s prejudice were many. In his book Henry Ford, “Ignorant Idealist,” David E. Nye wrote: “It is clear that Ford entertained a conspiracy theory of history.” Author William C. Richards said that through the written word, Ford did to Jews “what Nazi Germany was to do a decade later.”2 In December 1920 Ford accused Baruch, along with the Lewisohns, Guggenheims , and “many a lesser son of Judah” of controlling the copper market on both sides of the Atlantic. He claimed that the Jews, with their Gentile fronts, had sold sixteen-cent copper for twenty-seven cents and made enormous profits on the surplus after the armistice. He specifically cited Bernard Baruch as an “instrumentality in the effort of Judah to control the United States and the world.” In all, Ford sponsored 191 such articles, which he later had bound into a book. It was the vilest anti-Semitic attack the Baruch family had experienced. Baruch had a tough hide and supreme confidence in his own judgment and integrity, but to Anne Baruch it was devastating. Because of their father’s wealth and power, the Baruch children seldom encountered such overt anti-Semitism. After reading the charges, Baruch left his office and gathered his family about him. Anne and Renee were in tears, but Belle and Junior were furious and protective of their father. “It’s a damned scurrilous lie and Ford knows it!” Baruch told his family. “Just stay calm and it will all blow over. No comments to the press, no talking about it to your friends.” Baruch’s younger daughter, Renee, said that is was a dark period in the life of the family. “And,” she added dryly, “don’t forget Father Coughlin.” (Father Charles Coughlin, a Roman Catholic priest who had a popular radio program, launched a bitter anti-Semitic attack just over a decade later when Bernard Baruch was counseling war preparedness. “Jewish War Monger” was one of the kinder epithets he cast against Baruch when Baruch attempted to warn the United States that World War II was imminent and the country must prepare itself. The rabid anti-Semite accused Baruch of being part of an international Jewish conspiracy and claimed that Jewish money financed the Russian Revolution of 1917. He insisted that Baruch was one of the key leaders of the alleged conspiracy.) Baruch briefly considered suing Ford, but the only public comment he ever made was in response to clamoring newspaper reporters asking about Ford’s charges: “Now, boys,” he said, “you wouldn’t expect me to deny them would you?” With that he laughed and went on...

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