The Hawera Star. THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 1928. MR FORD IN ENGLAND.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 12 April 1928, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 1928. MR FORD IN ENGLAND.

Delivered every evening by 5 o'olook in Kawera Itanaic,, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham. llangatoki. Kapon&a. Alton, Hurleyville Patea. Waverley. Mokoia, Whakamara, Ohangai, Meremere. Fraser Road, and Ararata.

Mr Henry Ford is visiting England and many? Britishers are wondering—curious, but not apprehensive—what he will think of the Old Country, its people and its conditions. It is not because Mr Ford is a motor car manufacturer, or because he is a millionaire many times over that his visit to England is of special interest. Next to the President of the Republic, he is looked upon as America’s most important man. Millions of his own countrymen listen to him with respect, and it is hoped on the English side of the Atlantic that as o result of what he sees and learns in Great Britain he .will use his undoubted influence towards the improvement of Anglo-American relations. The fact that Mr Ford does not know England so well at first, hand as many thousands of his lesser countrymen do seems strange, but he, like many other industrial magnates, has devoted an energetic life to business first and, later, to business and affairs American. Only once has he ventured to interest himself deeply in the larger affairs which concern the world outside America, and that occasion, when he sailed in his Peace Ship to Europe during the war, cannot have left him any pleasant memories. That farcical expedition demonstrated in a large-scale manner just how deeply the American business genius can get out of his depth when he leaves the sphere of industry in the New World for the realm of politics in the Old. Now that the heat and clamour of those times have largely died away, England will bo in a. mood to give him a more cordial and discriminating welcome. He will see a great deal that will displease him, and the question is, How much? The answer to the question will be a measure of his education, for Henry Ford is very typical of a class that is produced in larger numbers in America than anywhere else—the highly successful but uncultured business man who is supremely competent in his own line, but at once very ignorant of outside matters and dogmatic in his opinions about them. Ford is the personification of the American gospel of industrial efficiency. He has no hesitation in telling the world through an interviewer What we humans are on earth for. It is, in his own words, “to gain experience.” He believes that a man dies after gaining his experience and is then born again into another life which gives him more experience of which he stands in need. That is said by a reputable writer to be the essence of the Ford philosophy, and the reader can see “hundred per cent, efficiency” as its 1 ideal and its foundation. But we gather that there are a good many things beyond the Ford business in all its ramifications that Mr Ford does not understand. Evidently, he does not think much of Europe, and we suspect that he thinks he could reorganise it on mass’ production lines. With all its faults, however, and they are many and serious, Europe has something to teach America. England, with fewer murders thanl are committed in Chicago, can especially instruct in the importance of law and order as a foundation of civilisation. Mr Ford is said to have denied the reports of American unemployment. There may be five in fifty million unemployed, he says, but “they don’t want to find work.” If he did say this he said something both foolish and ungenerous. There is a great deal of enforced unemployment in America, but relatively it has been left in the background by the American habit of judicious window-dressing. There is also a great deal in England, but -no attempt is made to hide it. It is to be hoped his visit will be profitable not only for his own sake,- but for that of Anglo-American friendship, for a few words from him in praise of England in explanation of her peculiar difficulties would’ correct misconception and soften prejudice.