Dearborn is a setting where Henry Ford’s industrial power and public influence converge. Its factories and business networks supported an expanding automobile enterprise, while the locally associated Dearborn Independent gave Ford’s antisemitic propaganda a means to circulate widely. The city also figures in Ford’s early connection with Charles Lindbergh and aviation manufacturing.

Industrial Center

During the 1920s, Ford developed the River Rouge plant and an industrial city in Dearborn as his company grew. The scale of the operation extended beyond automobile production: Ford acquired forests, iron mines, and coal mines to supply the company with raw materials. The concentration of manufacturing and resource supply made Dearborn a focal point of Ford’s industrial system.

The expansion coincided with the growing reach of the Ford name. In 1921, the company produced its five-millionth car, and more than half of the cars sold in the United States were Model T’s. Dearborn’s industrial development thus belonged to an enterprise whose products and public profile had become nationally prominent.

The Dearborn Independent

The Dearborn Independent, described as a local weekly bought by Ford in 1918, became a vehicle for his antisemitic campaign. Beginning in May 1920, it published the first of ninety-one detailed articles about an alleged Jewish conspiracy. In later issues, it serialized the fraudulent Protocols of the Elders of Zion while presenting the document as authentic.

The campaign’s reach was reinforced by the company’s commercial network. Circulation rose to nearly 300,000 by the paper’s second year, and subscriptions were imposed on Ford dealers as a company product. The articles were also gathered into a four-volume edition, The International Jew: The World's Foremost Problem. The paper eventually closed in 1927; it had run at a deficit and cost Ford close to five million dollars. That year, he retracted his attacks on Jews and agreed to discontinue the antisemitic publications.

Ford, Lindbergh, and Aviation

In August 1927, after Charles Lindbergh flew the Spirit of St. Louis to Detroit, he met Ford at Ford Airport and took him up in the plane for his first flight. The meeting connected Dearborn’s automobile enterprise with Ford’s emerging interest in aviation manufacturing. Ford and Lindbergh met numerous times afterward, making the encounter an early point in a continuing association between two prominent figures.

Significance

Dearborn’s importance in these episodes lies in the close relation between place, industry, and influence. The city’s industrial development reflected the reach of Ford’s company, while the Dearborn Independent shows how that reach could extend beyond manufacturing into the distribution of political propaganda. The Lindbergh meeting, in turn, links the industrial center to Ford’s interest in aviation.