Former President Eisenhower Writes Henry Ford II, Indicating His View That Automation Does Not Cost Jobs, but Encourages Americans to Be Self-Reliant

Ford had taken that position as a member of the President’s Advisory Committee on Labor-Management Policy

“I, too, feel that automation can result in increased productivity if intelligence is applied to the problem, and if we encourage the initiative and self-reliance of the American citizen (instead, as seems to be the case) lulling him into letting the central government take over.”

In the waning days of 1960, President Eisenhower prepared to leave office and hand the presidency to John F. Kennedy. Henry Ford II was a close confidant of Eisenhower’s, and during his presidency provided Ike with important assistance. On three occasions, Ford lent one of his senior executives, Leo Beebe, to the U.S. government to supervise the resettlement of refugees and manage similar projects. Beebe became executive vice chairman of Eisenhower’s Committee for Hungarian Refugees in 1956, a need that resulted from the Hungarian Revolution and subsequent flight from the country of many refugees. In addition to his committee work, during 1956-1957, while working out of Camp Kilmer in northern New Jersey, Beebe oversaw the relocation and resettlement of 35,000 Hungarian refugees in the United States, eventually finding them permanent residences in this country. In 1959-1960, Beebe organized the U.S. Center for Cuban Refugees in Miami, Florida, to help with the mass influx of Cuban refugees that fled Castro’s Cuba in 1960 (and beyond). Ford backed the refugee aid effort all the way, and it was of incalculable importance.

In 1960, Robert McNamara was President of the Ford Motor Company. Kennedy, the President-elect, sought to name McNamara Secretary of Defense. Ford agreed to spare McNamara, yet another example of his Henry Ford II’s largess.

The friendship and collaboration of Eisenhower and Ford continued after Ike left office.

The President’s Advisory Committee on Labor-Management Policy, which was established by President Kennedy in February 1961 to promote free and responsible collective bargaining, industrial peace, sound wage and price policies, higher standards of living, and increased productivity. The Committee also considered policies designed to ensure that American products were competitive in world markets, as well as examine the benefits and problems created by automation and other technological advances. Other topics it took on included pensions, railroads, taxes, collective bargaining, and economic recovery.

Henry Ford II, president of Ford Motor Company, was a member of the committee. The majority report found that automation causes unemployment. Ford dissented, saying “Its major premise is the assumption that automation and technological advance are in and of themselves significant causes of unemployment—an assumption that neither history nor an analysis of current unemployment supports…The factual evidence strongly indicates that, while automation displaces some individuals from jobs they have held, its overall effect is to increase income and expand job opportunities. History teaches us that, by and large, workers displaced by technological advance have moved rapidly into other employment, ultimately to better paying jobs. If…we would help persons displaced by technological advance, we must focus our attention not on relief or even training, though these properties properly conceived and administered, will help – but on creating new jobs for people who seek them and can perform in them.”

Eisenhower wrote Ford expressing his agreement with that dissent.

Typed letter signed, on his letterhead, Palm Desert, January 30, 1962, to Henry Ford II. “Arthur Burns [who would later become Chairman of the Federal Reserve] sent me a copy of the report of the President’s Advisory Committee on Labor-Management Policy, After reading it, I want to congratulate you on your dissent. I, too, feel that automation can result in increased productivity if intelligence is applied to the problem, and if we encourage the initiative and self-reliance of the American citizen (instead, as seems to be the case) lulling him into letting the central government take over.

“And on a brand new, and far different, subject, Mrs. Whitman asked me to tell you how much she is enjoying the car that you put at her disposal. She says that the joy of driving it, with the sun touching the tops of the mountains, is almost compensation for what she claims is the barbaric hour at which I like to do my morning work. She – and I – are most grateful to you. With warm personal regard (and again: are you coming out this way?)”

A very interesting opinion of Eisenhower, expressing that automation is a positive good and helps workers rather than harms them.