June 12, 2010 – “There’s enough alcohol in one year’s yeild of an acre of potatoes to drive the machinery necessary to cultivate the fields for one hundred years.” – Henry Ford

Pioneering automotive engineer Henry Ford held many patents on automotive mechanisms, but is best remembered for helping devise the factory assembly approach to production that revolutionized the auto industry by greatly reducing the time required to assemble a car.

Born in Wayne County, Michigan, Ford showed an early interest in mechanics, constructing his first steam engine at the age of 15. In 1893 he built his first internal combustion engine, a small one-cylinder gasoline model, and in 1896 he built his first automobile.

In June 1903 Ford helped establish Ford Motor Company. He served as president of the company from 1906 to 1919 and from 1943 to 1945.

In addition to earning numerous patents on auto mechanisms, Ford served as a vice president of the Society of Automotive Engineers when it was founded in 1905 to standardize U.S. automotive parts. 1

Ignominy

Shamefully, Ford was an anti-Semitic and Nazi sympathizer. Comparable to Thomas Jefferson having slaves; it is paradoxical that Henry Ford (considered to be one of America’s greatest minds) should also be preoccupied with racism.

Fuel of the Future

When Henry Ford told a New York Times reporter that ethyl alcohol was “the fuel of the future” in 1925, he was expressing an opinion that was widely shared in the automotive industry. “The fuel of the future is going to come from fruit like that sumach out by the road, or from apples, weeds, sawdust — almost anything,” he said. “There is fuel in every bit of vegetable matter that can be fermented. There’s enough alcohol in one year’s yield of an acre of potatoes to drive the machinery necessary to cultivate the fields for a hundred years.”

Ford recognized the utility of the hemp plant. He constructed a car of resin stiffened hemp fiber, and even ran the car on ethanol made from hemp. Ford knew that hemp could produce vast economic resources if widely cultivated.

Ford’s optimistic appraisal of cellulose and crop based ethyl alcohol fuel can be read in several ways. First, it can be seen as an oblique jab at a competitor. General Motors had come to considerable grief that summer of 1925 over another octane boosting fuel called tetra-ethyl lead, and government officials had been quietly in touch with Ford engineers about alternatives to leaded gasoline additives. Secondly, by 1925 the American farms that Ford loved were facing an economic crisis that would later intensify with the depression. Although the causes of the crisis were complex, one possible solution was seen in creating new markets for farm products. With Ford’s financial and political backing, the idea of opening up industrial markets for farmers would be translated into a broad movement for scientific research in agriculture that would be labelled “Farm Chemurgy.” 2

Why Henry’s plans were delayed for more than a half century:

Ethanol has been known as a fuel for many decades. Indeed, when Henry Ford designed the Model T, it was his expectation that ethanol, made from renewable biological materials, would be a major automobile fuel. However, gasoline emerged as the dominant transportation fuel in the early twentieth century because of the ease of operation of gasoline engines with the materials then available for engine construction, a growing supply of cheaper petroleum from oil field discoveries, and intense lobbying by petroleum companies for the federal government to maintain steep alcohol taxes. Many bills proposing a National energy program that made use of Americas vast agricultural resources (for fuel production) were killed by smear campaigns launched by vested petroleum interests. One noteworthy claim put forth by petrol companies was that the U.S. government’s plans “robbed taxpayers to make farmers rich”.

Gasoline had many disadvantages as an automotive resource. The “new” fuel had a lower octane rating than ethanol, was much more toxic (particularly when blended with tetra-ethyl lead and other compounds to enhance octane), generally more dangerous, and contained threatening air pollutants. Petroleum was more likely to explode and burn accidentally, gum would form on storage surfaces and carbon deposits would form in combustion chambers of engines. Pipelines were needed for distribution from “area found” to “area needed”. Petroleum was much more physically and chemically diverse than ethanol, necessitating complex refining procedures to ensure the manufacture of a consistent “gasoline” product.

However, despite these environmental flaws, fuels made from petroleum have dominated automobile transportation for the past three-quarters of a century. There are two key reasons: First, cost per kilometer of travel has been virtually the sole selection criteria. Second, the large investments made by the oil and auto industries in physical capital, human skills and technology make the entry of a new cost-competitive industry difficult.

Until very recently, environmental concerns have been largely ignored. All of that is finally changing as consumers demand fuels such as ethanol, which are much better for the environment and human health.

Source

Here is the link to the original: Source

June 4, 2010 – The answer is simple and can be summed up in three words. RACISM, GREED and LIES.

You see? It was the perfect crime under the auspices of law. ♦ Anslinger  could  justify his new high profile position within the United States Government. ♦ Hearst had the ability to widely disperse scandalous racial propaganda via his own newspaper network. ♦ Dupont wanted to eliminate it’s competition for textiles and automotive fuel. ♦ The pharmaceutical companies couldn’t identify or standardize cannabis dosages. Why would they anyway? If folks could grow their own medicine they wouldn’t have to buy it!

Throughout American history and as far back as the 1600s, hemp farming has been popular and sometimes mandatory. In 1619, the first American Hemp Law was passed at Jamestown colony in Virginia. This law made it mandatory for all farmers to grow hemp seed. In fact, if you lived in Virginia between 1763 and 1767 you could be hauled off to jail for NOT growing hemp during times of shortage. Back in those days it was entirely possible for a man to use hemp as currency and even pay his taxes using the crop. In the 200 years to come hemp remained a popular and profitable crop and wouldn”t even be recognized as a recreational drug until the 1900s.

By the early 1900s, trouble was brewing and times were tense in the American west as the Mexican Revolution was heating up just the other side of the border. This triggered a huge influx of Mexican-Americans which really pissed off a lot of small farmers as the larger farmers consistently employed cheap Mexican labor. Less than a decade later in 1910, the violence from Mexico spilled over onto American soil and created even more racial tension. In 1929, The Great Depression made matters worse. Jobs were hard to come by and there were rumors the Mexicans smoked marijuana and brought it into America via Mexico. The state of California freaked out and passed the first state law banning all preparations of marijuana and what they termed “loco weed”. It’s important to note that there is no distinction between marijuana and hemp,  guilty by association I presume.

About this time the eastern part of the country had it’s own rebellious uprisings to deal with. Authorities conveniently blamed these issues on black jazz musicians since they were known to smoke marijuana. One newspaper editorial written in 1934 states:

“Marijuana influences Negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white men’s shadows and look at a white woman twice.”

In 1930 Harry J. Anslinger was named the director of the newly formed Federal Bureau of Narcotics who soon collaborated with wealthy American newspaper baron William Randolf Hearst who had plenty reason of his own to support the war on marijuana.

First off,  Hearst had sunk tons of dough into the timber industry up to this point and he needed this industry to support his ever-growing newspaper empire. Secondly, there was new machinery designed to process hemp paper cheaply. This was a huge threat and no doubt would be a formidable competitor to Hearst’s  business interests. Finally, Hearst most definitely hated Mexicans since losing almost 1200 square miles of potentially profitable timberline to Pancho Villa in the Mexican Revolution.

DuPont chemical company soon came on-board in support of the marijuana eradication effort. Pierre DuPont happened to be the President of General Motors in 1920 and he knew that the Hemp Breaker had  been patented. This invention would make hemp processing easier and more efficient by cutting, baling, and separating the hemp fiber from the hurd  so like Hearst, DuPont wanted to eliminate marijuana  as a competitor right from the start.

Several powerful pharmaceutical companies quickly followed suit in support of this war on marijuana. So begins the propaganda smear campaign of the century…

The following is an excerpt from the house committee that passed the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937:

Member from upstate New York: “Mr. Speaker, what is this bill about?”

Speaker Rayburn: “I don’t know. It has something to do with a thing called marijuana. I think it’s a narcotic of some kind.”

Member from upstate New York: “Mr. Speaker, does the American Medical Association support this bill?”

Member on the committee jumps up and says: “Their Doctor Wentworth came down here. They support this bill 100 percent.”

…and there you have it! A ridiculous law based on nothing but a lie!  Source

Please enjoy this propaganda film from 1966. I know I did!