HARDING, Warren G. Typed letter signed ("Warren G. Harding"), as President, to Charles C. Fisher, Washington, 19 May 1923. 2 pages, 8vo, White House stationery, with original envelope, stamp removed . HARDING VERSUS HENRY FORD IN '24? THE PRESIDENT REFUSES TO TAKE ON THE CAR MOGUL Harding answers Fisher's suggestion that in the face of a growing "political following for Mr. Ford," the President go to Ann Arbor and deliver a speech "in the hope of offering an antidote." Harding declines, saying: "I doubt if any address that I could make at Ann Arbor would tend to check the popular feeling for Mr. Ford. If he is willing to consider the Democratic nomination I think he will be a very likely contender in the convention and I do not pretend at this time to make a prediction as to the support which he would enlist at the polls." Harding claims that he has "had less anxiety and perturbation concerning presidential nominations and the election than probably anybody else in all the country. It has been my philosophy that if the present administration makes good there can not possibly be any doubt about re-nomination. If it does not make good there ought to be no renomination...I am not prepared to say at the present time whether the administration has made good as it ought, but I do know that it has been doing the very best that it can. It has not been an easy task." The President decided to make it a bit easier this day as he closes the letter by saying: "It just occurs to me as I dictate that your nephew, Harry J. Fisher is to lunch with me today and play golf in the afternoon. I need not tell you that I am hoping to trim him." Today many modern Americans look back at Ford and see a great innovator, but also an anti-Semite and crank. But in the 1920s many saw him as a "liberator," comparable to Lincoln. His $5-a-day wages and 8-hour shifts freed the working man from low wages and long hours. The automobile opened up broad possibilities for leisure and suburban commuting. His production methods were avidly studied by Europeans who embraced the philosophy of "Fordism." So too were his anti-Semitic tracts like, The International Jew , which went through 29 editions in Nazi Germany, and drew praise from the author of Mein Kampf . In the U. S., however, "Ford-for-President" clubs sprang up across the country between 1920 and 1923. Just a few months after this letter, Collier's magazine ran a poll showing Ford besting Harding in a presidential face-off. But after Harding's death, Ford announced that he would back Coolidge on a prohibitionist platform.
HARDING, Warren G. Typed letter signed ("Warren G. Harding"), as President, to Charles C. Fisher, Washington, 19 May 1923. 2 pages, 8vo, White House stationery, with original envelope, stamp removed . HARDING VERSUS HENRY FORD IN '24? THE PRESIDENT REFUSES TO TAKE ON THE CAR MOGUL Harding answers Fisher's suggestion that in the face of a growing "political following for Mr. Ford," the President go to Ann Arbor and deliver a speech "in the hope of offering an antidote." Harding declines, saying: "I doubt if any address that I could make at Ann Arbor would tend to check the popular feeling for Mr. Ford. If he is willing to consider the Democratic nomination I think he will be a very likely contender in the convention and I do not pretend at this time to make a prediction as to the support which he would enlist at the polls." Harding claims that he has "had less anxiety and perturbation concerning presidential nominations and the election than probably anybody else in all the country. It has been my philosophy that if the present administration makes good there can not possibly be any doubt about re-nomination. If it does not make good there ought to be no renomination...I am not prepared to say at the present time whether the administration has made good as it ought, but I do know that it has been doing the very best that it can. It has not been an easy task." The President decided to make it a bit easier this day as he closes the letter by saying: "It just occurs to me as I dictate that your nephew, Harry J. Fisher is to lunch with me today and play golf in the afternoon. I need not tell you that I am hoping to trim him." Today many modern Americans look back at Ford and see a great innovator, but also an anti-Semite and crank. But in the 1920s many saw him as a "liberator," comparable to Lincoln. His $5-a-day wages and 8-hour shifts freed the working man from low wages and long hours. The automobile opened up broad possibilities for leisure and suburban commuting. His production methods were avidly studied by Europeans who embraced the philosophy of "Fordism." So too were his anti-Semitic tracts like, The International Jew , which went through 29 editions in Nazi Germany, and drew praise from the author of Mein Kampf . In the U. S., however, "Ford-for-President" clubs sprang up across the country between 1920 and 1923. Just a few months after this letter, Collier's magazine ran a poll showing Ford besting Harding in a presidential face-off. But after Harding's death, Ford announced that he would back Coolidge on a prohibitionist platform.
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
