User:Ottre/Henry Ford peace expedition

The peace expedition of Henry Ford (also known as the Ford Peace Ship) was an unofficial American anti-war delegation to Europe in December 1915, at the height of the First World War, to try and entice the soldiers "out of the trenches before Christmas". The expedition was organised, financed and briefly led by the American automobile magnate Henry Ford at the behest of Jewish pacifist Rosika Schwimmer.

The party planned to organise a general strike on Christmas Day, prepared for by propaganda among the soldiers, which would be used to broker a ceasefire agreement. Several of the more influential delegates were to arrange for this ceasefire to be drawn up by lobbying foreign dignitaries in the neutral states of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

The expedition traveled to Europe on Ford's "peace ship," the steamship Oscar II; Ford not only chartered the ship but also paid the expedition's travel expenses. The ship departed New York on December 4th, arriving in Christiana, Norway on

The party
Ford was introduced to Rosika Schwimmer, the young sufragette and pacifist, by one of her followers, a prodigious young member of the Neutral Conference for Continuous Mediation named Louis P. Lochner. Together they sold him on the idea of a peace expedition to Europe. As has been noted by several people who knew him well, Ford was a committed isolationist and supported the philosophy of peace building.

Ford said his "self-appointed mission" was to "get the boys out of the trenches by Christmas", an ambitious deadline that was reported on skeptically by newspapers around the world. He believed that with all his money he was the right man to lead the expedition, no matter how many diplomatic challenges it faced, and was said to have repeatedly declared his "faith in the people" to European reporters.

The party numbered some one hundred and forty people from various peace organisations and the press. They included several well-known pacifists: Ford's Episcopalian pastor, Reverend Samuel S. Marquis; Alfred Bryan, the crusading anti-war composer; May Wright Sewall; and Lloyd Bingham, eccentric husband of the silver screen actress Amelia Bingham.

Also on board were fifty-four reporters, three Hollywood men who were making a film about the expedition, and twenty clerks. No politicians or diplomats are believed to have joined.

Departure
The ship set sail for Europe from the Hoboken docks on December 4th, shortly after Ford celebrated the building of his one-millionth automobile. Its departure was marked by scenes which The Times described as rather "absurd" and "confusing." While the ship backed into the river, to the tune of "I Didn't Raise My Boy to be a Soldier", a film actor reportedly "dived into the icy waters crying 'Take me with you!'" and a lone German critic shouted out "Gott strafe Henry Ford!"

For some reason, Ford decided to let the crowd come on board at the last moment. In the commotion that ensued, a boy playing pranks managed to get through to Ford's cabin with a package he "insisted on delivering to him personally." In his cabin, closeted away from the crowd with Alfred Bryan, Ford opened the package to discover a squirrel eating nuts in a cage, with a placard bearing the words: "To good ship nutty."

Trip
Many of the delegates saw the expedition as a holiday until they landed in Europe, and the press had a field day proving it was just "one huge party" for the pacifists.

Aftermath
In the years following the excursion, Ford purchased a fleet of ships for exporting cars to the booming Japanese market. After the United States entered World War II, he was happy to use them to transport military supplies and even leased his private yacht to the Navy for $1.

Although Schwimmer was equally disappointed by the expedition's failure, she continued with her pacifism and organised the International Committee for Immediate Mediation in June 1916.