Henry Ford's Empire of Lies

An Industrialist Against America

Henry Ford receives the Grand Cross of the German Eagle , Nazi Germany’s highest medal a foreign civilian could receive, from the German consul in Cleveland, 1938

Most educated people are probably at least dimly aware that Henry Ford, inventor of the Model T and founder of Ford Motor Company, was an antisemite. Some might be aware of his purchase of the Dearborn Independent newspaper, which he used to promulgate a series of articles called “The International Jew: The Worlds Foremost Problem” as well as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. And still some others, might recall that Ford was sued for libel by a Jewish plaintiff as a result of the Independent and eventually shuttered the newspaper and publicly apologized, apparently ending the matter. (Ford’s signature on the letter of apology was forged by an aide and he privately expressed interest in resuming publication when circumstances allowed.)

What people might not know is what an integral part the Independent was of Ford’s business enterprise. The Independent was printed on the premises of a Ford tractor plant. It was distributed at Ford dealerships, where salesmen were instructed to push subscriptions. This made the newspaper one of the country’s widest circulated weeklies by 1925. The editor and the principle author of the International Jew series, William J. Cameron, was also essentially the chief of public relations at Ford. He ate lunch daily with Henry and his son, Edsel. As Ross Barkun writes:

…by about 1920, Cameron had also begun to serve in a broader capacity as Henry Ford's link with the media. He remained in complete charge of Henry Ford's personal press relations from the mid-1920s until the early 1940s. Since Ford spoke little and was often incomprehensible when he did speak, Cameron became the indispensable interpreter and intermediary, bringing the great man's thoughts to a public hungry for the wisdom of its premier industrial statesman.

The antisemitic content of the Independent attracted the interest of the Nazis, who tried to hit up Ford for a financial contribution, which he apparently didn’t make. But the Nazi representative memorialized conversations with Cameron where the Ford exec assured him of the boss’s continued antisemitic beliefs despite his disappointing public turn.

Outside of work, Cameron was a leading member of the Anglo-Saxon Federation of America, an organization dedicated to promoting Anglo-Israelism, the belief that the Anglo-Saxons were the real Israelites of the bible. In 1933, he gave a series of lectures at the Dearborn Inn where he described the Bible as a “racial book” that portrayed the struggle of the race of Israel with the darker race of Esau, which had “amalgamated with the Jews, and began their terrible work of corrupting the Jewish religion from within.” Barkun again:

Cameron brought substantial assets with him into the federation, including the prestige of his close and continuing association with Henry Ford, his public-relations savvy, and his network of contacts in the Detroit business community. He also had access to financial resources in a time of stringency…

It’s impossible to believe that this did not happen with Henry Ford’s knowledge and blessing. Ford had an unusually close and controlling relationship with Cameron, personally monitoring his alcoholism:

[Ford] provided Cameron with an attendant when necessary, as well as medical care at Henry Ford Hospital. During Prohibition, Cameron was necessarily dependent upon bootleggers and speakeasies. Whenever Ford discovered a Cameron source, he had it closed down. This seems to have engendered a certain suspiciousness in Cameron, so that when he once met another Ford employee at a bootlegging source, he became enraged, certain the man had been sent by Henry Ford to spy on him.

In the Depression years, the Anglo-Saxon Federation spread across the country, and met with particular interest in Los Angeles, where Anglo-Israelites, migrant fundamentalist preachers from the South, and former members of William Dudley Pelley’s failed fascist Silvershirts, combined to create Christian Identity, the ideological basis and organizational stem for the American extreme right, including groups like Aryan Nations, the terrorist group The Order, Posse Comitatus, and by extension, the modern militia “Patriot” movement involved in January 6th.

One hundred years later, the poison that Ford spilled still flows through the country.