by Bryan Whitledge
The Clarke Historical Library and the Central Michigan University Libraries are pleased to announce that we now carry the historic Detroit Free Press. This database, provided by ProQuest, contains digitized copies of every issue of the Free Press published between May of 1831 and December of 1922 -- 90 years of Michigan history!
Showing posts with label Ford Henry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ford Henry. Show all posts
Friday, July 26, 2013
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Senator William Alden Smith and the Sinking of the Titanic
by Bryan Whitledge
In a previous posting, we highlighted how the local media in Mid-Michigan reported the sinking of the RMS Titanic to reflect on the 100th anniversary of the ill-fated voyage. Six weeks after the sinking, on May 28, 1912, U.S. Senator William Alden Smith of Michigan spoke in front of Senate regarding his subcommittee’s findings regarding the Titanic disaster. In his speech, Senator Smith, pulling from testimony that was given before his subcommittee, recounted the events as they unfolded from the time passengers boarded the ship to the rescue by the Carpathia. The focus of his speech was the lessons to be learned from the tragedy. At the Clarke Historical Library, we maintain a presentation copy of this speech printed by Government Printing Office.
We also hold other materials related to Senator Smith, including the guest book from his time as a U. S. Senator. Signatories in his guest book include constituents, friends and associates from Grand Rapids, and notable individuals in higher education, politics, and business. Some famous names in Senator Smith’s guest book are Woodbridge N. Ferris, founder of Ferris State University and 28th Governor of Michigan; J. L. Snyder, President of Michigan Agricultural College; Frank B. Kellogg, Minnesota Senator and Nobel Peace Prize laureate; Arthur Vandenberg, a Grand Rapids newspaperman who would later be elected to the U. S. Senate; Thomas R. Mitchell, Vice President of the United States; Senator Warren G. Harding, who would later be the 29th President of the United States; and Henry Ford (pictured above - click to enlarge).
These documents are just two of the items dealing with American politics held in the Clarke Historical Library, which include a large U. S. presidential campaign biography collection, the multi-volume Messages of the governors of Michigan, and the papers of Senator Robert P. Griffin. The role played by Michigan politicians in the events that have shaped the world can be found at the Clarke Historical Library.
We also hold other materials related to Senator Smith, including the guest book from his time as a U. S. Senator. Signatories in his guest book include constituents, friends and associates from Grand Rapids, and notable individuals in higher education, politics, and business. Some famous names in Senator Smith’s guest book are Woodbridge N. Ferris, founder of Ferris State University and 28th Governor of Michigan; J. L. Snyder, President of Michigan Agricultural College; Frank B. Kellogg, Minnesota Senator and Nobel Peace Prize laureate; Arthur Vandenberg, a Grand Rapids newspaperman who would later be elected to the U. S. Senate; Thomas R. Mitchell, Vice President of the United States; Senator Warren G. Harding, who would later be the 29th President of the United States; and Henry Ford (pictured above - click to enlarge). These documents are just two of the items dealing with American politics held in the Clarke Historical Library, which include a large U. S. presidential campaign biography collection, the multi-volume Messages of the governors of Michigan, and the papers of Senator Robert P. Griffin. The role played by Michigan politicians in the events that have shaped the world can be found at the Clarke Historical Library.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Author D. E. Johnson Speaks at the Library
By Frank Boles
On April 11, 2011 D. E. Johnson spoke at the library. Author of The Detroit Electric Scheme: A Mystery (New York Minotaur Books, 2010), Mr. Johnson was among those honored this year by the Library of Michigan as a recipient of the Michigan Notable Book Award.
Mr. Johnson’s presentation began with a short reading from his book in which he swiftly and surely dispatched the novel’s victim inside of the Detroit Electric Company, and framed the chief suspect. Having set the stage for his mystery, Mr. Johnson then shared with the audience the background to his book.
Although the murder and many of the characters are fiction, the book is rooted in extensive research done by Mr. Johnson about the auto industry and the city of Detroit around 1910. As Mr. Johnson noted, in 1910 Detroit’s leading industry was not automobiles but the manufacture of cooking stoves. Somehow, though, publishers doubted that contemporary readers would be much interested by a murder set in the city’s then booming “oven industry.” Automobiles had more cache.
The Detroit Electric was a real car made in Detroit. It began production in 1907. In 1910, the year in which Mr. Johnson sets his book, electric, steam, and gas powered automobiles were all still all being made and sold. The vehicle was the product of a successful Detroit carriage manufacturing firm which understood that the future lay in automobiles and which was seeking to diversify its products. The Detroit Electric reflected the refined tastes of firm’s top-of-the-line opera carriage. The car featured beautiful interior leather work and amenities such as a bud vase as standard equipment.
Mr. Johnson’s book benefited not only from his research about the Detroit automotive industry and the Detroit Electric but also the city’s personalities and character. Johnson’s research revealed that one of the Detroit Electric’s most devoted customers was Mrs. Henry Ford. She owned three Detroit Electrics, a fact that likely did not much please her husband as he worked to perfect his gasoline-powered Ford. Then again, Mr. Johnson suggested that Mrs. Ford’s choice of cars many may have been a bit of payback for her husband’s treatment of his family. Ford was a brutal competitor who knew few if any bounds. He went so far as to exploit his and Clara’s only son to obtain his business goals.
At the age of twenty-five, Edsel Ford became president of the car company his father had founded. Rather than a vote of confidence in his son, the promotion was part of Henry’s nefarious business plan to buy out minority stockholders in the firm. Henry Ford wanted sole control of the company. However, the stockholders, to whom he had sold stock in the early days when he desperately needed money and who were now profiting handsomely from Henry’s genius, were not willing to sell.
To change their opinion, Henry put the inexperienced Edsel in charge, knowing that rumors would circulate that the young man wasn’t up to the job and that profits would fall. Henry then added fuel to the fire by suggesting that he was so unhappy with the arrangement he planned to abandon the firm and start a new company. Stockholders aware of this readily-leaked “inside information” were happy to sell what they “knew” would soon be worthless paper while they could still make a profit.
Edsel would remain part of the firm for the rest of his relatively short life. Henry, who outlived Edsel and personally held the firm’s real power regardless of what title his son might have had, would often ignore his son’s often very sound advice and occasionally publicly humiliate him.
Vito Adamo, Detroit’s early mob boss, also finds his way into Mr. Johnson’s book. Adamo was an enterprising fellow who took Detroit’s turn-of-the-century protection racket to new heights. The “Black Hand” regularly circulated among small businessmen and offered, for a fee, to “protect” the business from “accidents” such as arson or some other calamity. Adamo and his “White Hand” also made the rounds, offering protection to the same businessmen for an additional fee, but including in their list of guarantees that they would prevent the Black Hand from causing trouble. This, it turned out, was not the beginning of a mob war but a clever marketing scheme -- Adamo controlled both organizations and was twice shaking down the same businesses.
It was a fascinating evening that discussed a dynamic Detroit, where in 1910 only ten percent of its approximately 450,000 residents had been born in Michigan, in which entrepreneurs were on the verge of inventing a new national industry, and in which there were just enough low-lifes to populate an intriguing murder mystery novel. The presentation was made possible in part the Michigan Notable Books Author tour, sponsored by the Library of Michigan, the Michigan Department of Education, Cooley Law School, the Library of Michigan Foundation, Auto-Owners Insurance, the Michigan Center for the Book and the Michigan Humanities Council. Media sponsors include WKAR, City Pulse and Queue Advertising and Gennara Photography.
Mr. Johnson’s presentation began with a short reading from his book in which he swiftly and surely dispatched the novel’s victim inside of the Detroit Electric Company, and framed the chief suspect. Having set the stage for his mystery, Mr. Johnson then shared with the audience the background to his book.
Although the murder and many of the characters are fiction, the book is rooted in extensive research done by Mr. Johnson about the auto industry and the city of Detroit around 1910. As Mr. Johnson noted, in 1910 Detroit’s leading industry was not automobiles but the manufacture of cooking stoves. Somehow, though, publishers doubted that contemporary readers would be much interested by a murder set in the city’s then booming “oven industry.” Automobiles had more cache.
The Detroit Electric was a real car made in Detroit. It began production in 1907. In 1910, the year in which Mr. Johnson sets his book, electric, steam, and gas powered automobiles were all still all being made and sold. The vehicle was the product of a successful Detroit carriage manufacturing firm which understood that the future lay in automobiles and which was seeking to diversify its products. The Detroit Electric reflected the refined tastes of firm’s top-of-the-line opera carriage. The car featured beautiful interior leather work and amenities such as a bud vase as standard equipment.
Mr. Johnson’s book benefited not only from his research about the Detroit automotive industry and the Detroit Electric but also the city’s personalities and character. Johnson’s research revealed that one of the Detroit Electric’s most devoted customers was Mrs. Henry Ford. She owned three Detroit Electrics, a fact that likely did not much please her husband as he worked to perfect his gasoline-powered Ford. Then again, Mr. Johnson suggested that Mrs. Ford’s choice of cars many may have been a bit of payback for her husband’s treatment of his family. Ford was a brutal competitor who knew few if any bounds. He went so far as to exploit his and Clara’s only son to obtain his business goals.
At the age of twenty-five, Edsel Ford became president of the car company his father had founded. Rather than a vote of confidence in his son, the promotion was part of Henry’s nefarious business plan to buy out minority stockholders in the firm. Henry Ford wanted sole control of the company. However, the stockholders, to whom he had sold stock in the early days when he desperately needed money and who were now profiting handsomely from Henry’s genius, were not willing to sell.
To change their opinion, Henry put the inexperienced Edsel in charge, knowing that rumors would circulate that the young man wasn’t up to the job and that profits would fall. Henry then added fuel to the fire by suggesting that he was so unhappy with the arrangement he planned to abandon the firm and start a new company. Stockholders aware of this readily-leaked “inside information” were happy to sell what they “knew” would soon be worthless paper while they could still make a profit.
Edsel would remain part of the firm for the rest of his relatively short life. Henry, who outlived Edsel and personally held the firm’s real power regardless of what title his son might have had, would often ignore his son’s often very sound advice and occasionally publicly humiliate him.
Vito Adamo, Detroit’s early mob boss, also finds his way into Mr. Johnson’s book. Adamo was an enterprising fellow who took Detroit’s turn-of-the-century protection racket to new heights. The “Black Hand” regularly circulated among small businessmen and offered, for a fee, to “protect” the business from “accidents” such as arson or some other calamity. Adamo and his “White Hand” also made the rounds, offering protection to the same businessmen for an additional fee, but including in their list of guarantees that they would prevent the Black Hand from causing trouble. This, it turned out, was not the beginning of a mob war but a clever marketing scheme -- Adamo controlled both organizations and was twice shaking down the same businesses.
It was a fascinating evening that discussed a dynamic Detroit, where in 1910 only ten percent of its approximately 450,000 residents had been born in Michigan, in which entrepreneurs were on the verge of inventing a new national industry, and in which there were just enough low-lifes to populate an intriguing murder mystery novel. The presentation was made possible in part the Michigan Notable Books Author tour, sponsored by the Library of Michigan, the Michigan Department of Education, Cooley Law School, the Library of Michigan Foundation, Auto-Owners Insurance, the Michigan Center for the Book and the Michigan Humanities Council. Media sponsors include WKAR, City Pulse and Queue Advertising and Gennara Photography.
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