The American Conservative,February 27, 2006
Henry Ford famously said that "history is bunk," but if the news coming out of Detroit these days is any indication, Motor City U.S.A. will soon be history. GM lost $8.6 billion last year, largest loss since 1992, when the company went down for $23.5 billion, and Ford is doing just as badly. The latter announced that it would close 14 factories over the next six years and eliminate 30, 000 jobs. An industry analyst called it " a sad story of two armies in retreat, a retreat that is feeling more and more like a rout." Just as well old Henry isn't around to see his company on the brink.
The Henry Ford I knew was the founder's grandson, Henry Ford II, or the "Deuce," as his cronies called him. I met when I was quite young, when I occasionally dated his two daughters, charlotte and Anne. Back the, ford was referred to as American's number one capitalist. He was quite friendly and pleasant, but once he had a drink in him, he would turn loud and become obnoxious. Back in 1963-64, he was married to Anne McDonnell, the mother of his three children, a well-bred lady and a devout Catholic. Although based in Detroit, Ford traveled a lot and let his hair down when abroad, especially in Europe.
In the fateful summer of 1964, the Deuce arrived on the French Riviera aboard his new boat, a gin palace by the name of Santa Maria. As they used to say in Brooklyn, he shoulda stood in bed. The uncrowned king of the Riviera then was Gianni Agnelli, the Fiat supremo, who sort of took Henry under his wing and showed him the wicked ways of European High living. Although Gianni was very much married-and remained married to the same woman until his death two years ago-he had a string of mistresses to go along with his boats, houses, and private airplanes. Agnelli played hard, and gambled even harder, and it soon became obvious that Mr. Agnelli's lifestyle was having a very bad effect on Mr. Fords puritan ethic.
The following winter saw the Deuce divorce his wife, marry an Italian woman of dubious provenance, and proceed on an unending string of parties and trips. I had a falling out with him because of the crude way he spoke to a woman one night in a club. But truth be told, Henry the Deuce was a hell of a businessman.
For starters, he noticed the way we Europeans zipped in out of the chaotic traffic with our tiny cars, and I remember how proud he was of the first Ford Cortina his company produced. In fact, I once tried to follow him going all out at 4a.m. in Monte Carlo with my more powerful machine but could not over take his road-hugging Cortina. He also went to Le Mans, watched European cars do their winning stuff, and vowed to win with an American car and driver. If memory serves, Fords won with Carroll Shelby at the wheel soon after.
What I'm driving at is simple. Ford may have lacked social graces among us sophisticated Euros, but he had smarts where cars were concerned. Unlike those at the helm in Detroit today, Henry the Deuce knew how to build a winner. The buck stopped with the Deuce, and the Deuce delivered what people wanted before the people knew it. Towards the end of his life, Ford divorced the Italian, and married a nice working class girl from Detroit, who became his widow, and now lives in a spectacular house in Palm Beach. I believe his son Edsel is involved in the company, and I sometimes run into his two daughters, who both live in New York.
I don't have any fond memories of him, except for the good cars he built for awhile, cars that were built by engineers, not marketing executives.
Restructuring and job cuts are sound bites, not sound business. If Detroit wants to survive, it has to do something very simple. It has to produce better quality cars. Eliminating jobs won't help build cars. If it did, Toyota, Nissan, Honda, and others wouldn't be building factories in Texas, Alabama, and Ohio. Sure, American carmakers are shutting down factories because of high pension costs, but whose fault is that? Cowardly executives refused to face the problem for decades and now have been hit by a double whammy: bad cars and enormous pensions.
If the old Deuce were still around, I'm sure he'd see that what he should be offering the American people are more cars that can run on fuels other than gasoline-fewer gas-guzzling SUVs for Hollywood types who like to act tough behind the wheel and better designed cars that don't fall apart at the first speed bump. You may have been a slob, Henry, but you knew a good car when you saw one, and that's more than I can say for those who are building the Titanic cars of today.
