Lincoln

[highbeams]

.....

[mercman from oz]

I believe that this is a 1922 Lincoln Phaeton?

[mercman from oz]

1923 Lincoln Model L Sedan that calls Australia home.

[DavidG]

Not to be a wet blanket, but some fact checking is in order here. The Willow River (aka Willow Creek) is located in Huron county in the Michigan 'thumb' area, 130 miles distant from Dearborn. The only river that runs through Dearborn is the Rouge River.

Willow Run is in Ypsilanti Township and the site for the famous Ford plant that produced B-24s during WWII. It is 22 miles west of Dearborn and the name of the river that runs through it is the Huron (whose source is near the Willow Run plant).

With factual errors such as these, you diminish the believability of your story.

[rotorwrench]

I concur with David G on this about facts. Henry Ford knew Henry Leland very well and likely harbored some resentment toward him for the end game on Mr. Fords first foray into automotive manufacturing in 1902. After the share holders booted Mr Ford from his start up, they hired Mr Leland to change over to the Cadillac Motor Company in the new plant that had been built for the purpose of manufacturing Ford cars. Needless to say Mr Ford wasn't real happy about all that.

Fast forward to post WWI time frame when Mr. Leyland's Lincoln plant was faltering from poor sales and both Edsel and Henry were kicking around the idea of a luxury marque in the fold. Henry wanted something that would keep Edsel busy so that he would not want to concentrate too much energy in changing Model T production. It was a win win for Henry Ford. He could get some measure of pay back in his dislike for Henry Leland and keep Edsel busy designing new Lincoln cars.

Ford Motor Company felt the pain of the depression as much as any motor company did but they never went insolvent. Henry was against the New Deal, specifically the National Industrial Recovery Act, and refused to cooperate with the Roosevelt administration on that act. The US Supreme Court also disagreed with that part of the new deal and struck it down as unconstitutional in 1935. Mr Ford was dead set against automotive unions as well and nearly died from a stroke in 1938 due to all that was taking place on the union front in that time frame.

There are a few good first hand account authored books on the subject of Henry Ford and most are still available for research on the subject. I like Charles Sorenson's book about his 40-year career at Ford Motor Company. I tend to shy away from many of the modern books on the subject since many of them show less than adequate research on their subject matter. The first hand accounts of many employees are also available on "The Henry Ford" web site.

As for Willow Run, Edsel ran the start up on that endeavor and it likely hastened his demise due to the shear amount of work involved in starting up a bomber plant to build airplanes like cars while still trying to run an automotive manufacturing conglomerate. Henry Ford was declining in mental health in the immediate prewar time frame due to his first stroke and another one that happened not long afterward. When he took over after Edsel's death in 1943, he was in no condition to run the company so the War Department heads and the Ford family brought Henry Ford II in to run things.

[russcc]

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Charley Soresnon's "My 40 Ford Years at Ford" has to be the best source of straight talk about the Ford operation. "Cast Iron Charley" or "Ford's Man" was the 2nd guy behind Henry. Henry wished it and Charley made it happen. One the principal reason Ford was so successful, is both himself and Charley believed that banks were no good, and best place for earned income was right back into the plant, or in 1 instance investing in the employees with a significant increase in weekly pay, both of which continued to boosted productivity, the holly grail of a good business.

[highbeams]

I should have printed CORECTIONS WELCOME as I've done in the past re other subjects.

This is good, though, as it brings about sage fact(s) by those sage Ford'ers. Thank you.

highbeams

[VeryTangled]

highbeams, Starting a new thread as you did, returning four days later and basically deleting the OP (original post, which was a real interesting story!) is not something I've seen before in the ten years I've been reading and posting. Well played sir.

[highbeams]

I apologize.