Quoted often on matters of motion, famed Henry Ford has seldom if ever before made extensive statements in regard to religion. Last week in an interview with Journalist George Sylvester Viereck which was later printed in Hearst newspapers he revealed his theories about his own soul and those of other men. Views:
"Somewhere there is a Master Mind which sends brain waves or messages to us—the Brain of Mankind, the Brain of the Earth.
"There is a Great Spirit. Call it Creative Evolution or World Mind. Call it Collective Intelligence or call it God. It is this Spirit which determines our actions and our thoughts. . . .
"I adopted the theory of reincarnation when I was twentysix. I got the idea from a book by Orlando Smith. Until I discovered this theory, I was unsettled and dissatisfied—without a compass, so to speak.
"If you preserve a record of this conversation, write it so that it puts men's minds at ease. I would like to communicate to others the calmness that the long view of life gives to us. ...
"I am interested in people and in nothing else. People are the latest, newest things on earth. I am interested in the newest thing. . . .
"Life on earth, as scientists recently assured us, is twenty-three thousand million years old. In twenty-three thousand million years the soul goes through many experiences. . . .
"I look upon the Bible as a record of experience. No matter what knocks we receive in life, we find, reading the Bible, that others have received similar knocks. It is a true book of experience. . . .
"I don't know anything about the end of the road—we are a long way from any ending. But we shall get what we deserve. We all get what we deserve."
It seemed possible that the "record of this conversation'' which Journalist Viereck had preserved had not been preserved quite perfectly. Its major facts were not hard to believe, though it was no doubt a revelation to many scrupulous Ford owners that they were riding about in cars made by a reincarnationist. It was interesting to remember that another, though less famed, meteoric U. S. millionaire, Oil-tycoon Edgar B. Davis, believes in reincarnation. How instructive it would be, many persons reflected, if other tycoons could be persuaded or compelled to give out accurately and truthfully their religious theories, if any.