A LONGWORTH-FORD STORY.

The New York Times
November 27, 1922

Congressman Tells Why He Declined to Do a Political Errand.

Special to The New York Times.

CINCINNATI, Ohio, Nov. 26.—While engaged in recent political manoeuvring in Southwestern Ohio, Congressman Nicholas Longworth engaged in considerable story-telling among his constituents, and in doing so revealed certain incidents in his political career. According to Longworth, it became known in the East in 1920 that Henry Ford had fallen out with President Wilson and was a possible convert to the Republican way of thinking. Longworth's story is that he was called upon by the Republican National Committee and requested to act as messenger to the stronghold of Ford with an offer to exchange certain favors for Ford's support of Harding for the Presidency.

The Ohioan, while expressing himself as very anxious to aid the Republican Party and the candidacy of Harding, demurred. His hesitation caused decided curiosity on the part of several National Committeemen, and this anxiety took the form of a question as to why he feared success in bearding Ford in his den. Longworth's answer was:

"Well, it's this way, gentlemen. It so happens that during the war a speech was made by a member of Congress, who said that there were seven, and only seven, persons in the whole world who were not to be injured by the fighting. These were the six sons of the Kaiser and Edsel Ford, and, gentlemen, I am the Congressman and, gentlemen, Henry knows it."