Chapter 30: John's Dog Fight
At the Ford Motor Company in 1938, Bennett was the real man in charge. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. biquge。 The ambitious, feared former professional boxer sits on a mechanical empire that deprives workers of their human dignity, just like the big capitalist in Fritz Lang's classic film "Metropolis" in 1927. His office is located in the basement of the company's administration building, and the door to the office cannot be opened unless Bennet presses a button under his oak desk. Like John Fledson in the movie, Bennett's office has a large, sci-fi-style six-foot-square control board filled with lights, swap keys and buttons. The control board connects him to his security police stations at various factories and can receive and relay radio signals to the cars of several senior Ford executives.
Relying on the favor of old Henry Ford, Bennet wantonly eliminated dissidents at Ford Motors, and arranged his cronies and eyes and ears to various important positions. In particular, Bennett has appointed a large number of prison releases. These eight or nine hundred so-called Ford factory "service department" employees are almost no different from the underworld, playing the role of thugs and monitors in the factory. The workers in the factory were afraid of Bennett and his men, and they were so worried about their work that they rarely spoke, and the atmosphere in the factory was very uneasy.
Although the Ford workers were afraid of Bennett, John was not afraid of him. Even though Bennett had been Henry Ford Sr.'s personal guard for more than 20 years and had earned Henry Sr.'s trust, John and the others were just a pet dog to please their owners. Don't look at this dog's recent braws and claws, even Edsel has suffered its loss. But this is all the Ford family's housework, and John, everyone in their circle is holding back to watch the Ford family's jokes.
Now that this unbelievable dog dares to provoke John, that's another matter. If he just bared his teeth at him and yelled a few times, John would still not take it seriously for the sake of his master's face. Now that this stupid dog dares to open his mouth to bite him, then John doesn't have to give too much face to old Henry Ford, and it will only be a matter of minutes to clean him up. After all, in the circle of America's top rich, the Vanderbilt family is much bigger and deeper than the Ford family.
John gave the task of dealing with Bennett to Melvin, the former FBI clerk who was best at dealing with this kind of "black boss". Within days, several newspapers controlled by Cornelius Jr. broke the news that Bennett was suspected of instructing his men to beat two Auto Workers officials to death during last year's auto workers' strike. The case was a sensational case in which Walter Ruther and Richard Frankenstine, two Auto Workers Union officials, were beaten by so-called "loyal employees" of Ford before being thrown off an overpass next to the Ford factory and falling to their deaths on the concrete floor. Everyone knew that these "loyal employees" were actually the "service department" thugs hired by Bennett, but no one dared to come forward to identify them.
The media broke the news that it was only the first step in Melvin's plan, and then he used his old connections in the FBI to arrest several thugs involved in the case in one fell swoop before Bennett and his gang could react. Among them, an FBI agent named Bugas contributed a lot. This Bugas is another unlucky guy who was sent by Hoover to pick up Melvinban. Now that he saw Melvin mixing in FedEx, he naturally moved his mind. Interestingly, this Bugas later went to Ford and became the right-hand man of Henry Ford Jr., the grandson of Henry Sr., who assisted Henry Jr. in finally getting Bennett. Unexpectedly, these two rivals are on the bar again in this life, and sometimes John himself has to feel the inertia of history, and he can't accept it.
After paying a considerable settling-in fee, several Ford "service department" employees who were arrested immediately pointed the finger at their boss, and Bennet soon received a police summons. Early the next morning, a photograph of a disheveled Bennett being brought into the gates of the Detroit Police Department appeared in major newspapers in the United States. John was so pleased with the picture that, after admiring Bennett's embarrassment for a while, he called Melvin to inform him that it was time to stop.
This time, he just wanted to vent his evil anger at Bennet, and he didn't even want to shoot him to death at once. After all, if you are bitten by a neighbor's dog, it will be almost the same to take a stick and beat the dog, and if you really take out a gun and break the dog, the neighbors will not look good on face, and you may have to deal with the dog owner in the future. Besides, now that the flame has been lit by him, someone is naturally willing to do the rest for him. For example, John Lewis, president of the Federation of Industrial Workers, who has been in the newspapers for the past two days. If he can't avenge his subordinates this time, how will he be the boss in the future?
For the next few days, John gloated and watched the excitement. Even if Edsel, under the pressure of his father, had to bail Bennett out, it didn't affect his good mood. He believes that after this incident, Bennett's arrogance should be completely defeated, and it will not be so easy for him to suppress the opposition in the company after his prestige is lost.
However, John's good mood did not last long. One day at noon, Adele panicked and called his office. The postman had just delivered home an unsigned mail containing three pistol bullets. John couldn't believe his ears, and with his toes he could think that Bennett must have done it. "Is this old bastard crazy, how dare he do this!" After holding back his anger and patiently comforting Adele, who was scared and crying, John angrily slammed the phone on the table.
In the circle of the richest people in the United States, no matter how deep the contradictions between each other, they must not threaten the personal safety of each other and their families, which is the most fundamental rule of the game. Don't look at the list of assassinated presidents in American history, who has ever seen a monopoly big capitalist assassinated. Bennett's act of breaking the bottom line of the rules is intended to cause public outrage. If you can threaten to kill John's family today, will you be able to do it to everyone else tomorrow? So, this time Bennett is dead. If you don't make an example, the entire rich class will have no sense of security in the future.
After asking Reilly to arrange for the "White Mountain" brigade to protect Adele and Ella from jumping off the wall with an unhealthy brain. John aggressively called Edsel's office. Listening to John's narration, Edsel also panicked. He couldn't care less about being glad that he could bring down Ben Nai once and for all. In the eyes of outsiders, Bennet is a dog of the Ford family. They don't think it's Bennet's brains pumping out of their own hands this time, but they think it's the Fords who are breaking the rules of the game. If it is not handled well, the entire wealthy class of Americans will attack the Ford family.
The incident quickly caused an uproar in the circle of America's top rich. Previously, William and Harold, the leaders of the Vanderbilt family, had been indifferent to the "small contradictions" between John and Ford. Their attitude was clear, neither for nor against, and let John and Ford fight to test the success of the family's rising stars. It is good to win, that is, it trains the younger generations and enhances the prestige of the family. It's not a big deal to lose, after all, John is still young and can't represent the entire Vanderbilt family. In order to avoid the suspicion of bullying the small, the Ford family will not go too far.
Now it was different, and both William and Harold had personally called John and strongly supported him in fighting the battle against the Ford family. Because the Ford family took the lead in breaking through the bottom line of the rules of the game and used the next three indiscriminate means. This has caused public outrage, how can the Vanderbilt family let go of this opportunity. This time, I will not give up until I bite a piece of meat from the Ford family.
Not only the Vanderbilt family, but also the Morgan and DuPont families behind General Motors have also begun to sharpen their knives. The Jewish bankers on Wall Street also jumped out and let your old Henry scold us in the newspapers at every turn, and see if you don't kill you this time. It is said that under the impetus of these Jews, Congress is already considering reopening the investigation into "Ford's huge political donations to Hitler's government." In 1933, the U.S. Congress launched an investigation into the matter, and at that time it was not possible to determine whether donations actually went to Germany. But this time, Henry Ford Sr. may not have passed so easily.