Politics at Ford

The old-style businessman often urged his workers to vote--the way he wanted them to. The new trend in business is to urge employees to take a more active role in the political party of their choice--even when that choice makes the boss gag. Last week, with the approval of the U.A.W., Ford Motor Co. sent letters to some 152,000 employees urging them to make political contributions through the company under a plan that guaranteed secrecy for the donor. Ford will pass out two envelopes to each worker, one with spaces for checking his choice of either Republican or Democratic Party. He places his contribution and a signed card in the checked envelope, puts it inside the second envelope, and drops it in a box in his plant for mailing to the party of his choice. Says Republican Henry Ford II: The middle-income worker must be urged to take a bigger part in politics "to provide a solid and wholesome buffer to extremes of either the right or the left and broaden the base of participation in politics."

Ford, which under Henry II's grandfather spent a lot of time and money trying to foist Ford's singular economic and political views on employees and the general public, has become a leader among U.S. industries in its nonpartisan efforts to stir more interest in politics. Its Civic and Governmental Affairs Office, set up in 1950, was one of the first of a series of political-education programs established by such firms as General Electric, American Can Co., Aerojet-General and Gulf Oil. The company not only urges its workers and executives to run for public office, but grants a leave of absence with continued fringe benefits for any employee elected to fulltime office. Ford has made plain that no worker need fear company reprisal for his political activities. One employee was worried because her husband planned to run on the Democratic ticket. Henry Ford phoned her personally to urge her husband to run, wished him good luck besides.

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