(See Cover) In the folklore of American capital ism, the rich boy sometimes seems to have less chance of success than the poor boy. Americans build fortunes, but sel dom dynasties. And enough fortunes have been wasted away by the sons of rich men to give truth to the saying: "From shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three gen erations." No one had a better chance to make this saying come true again than the Ford brothers, Henry, Benson and William, grandsons of the unpredictable, profound ly radical genius who began the age of mass production and created a billion-dollar empire out of a simple idea : "A car for the masses." By its balance sheet alone, the empire left at the end of World War II by Old Henry Ford to Henry, Ben and Billy-made them perhaps the richest young men in the world. It comprised 150,000 work ers and 48 plants in 23 countries. In the till was $680 million in cash and bonds.
But the statistical evidence of wealth was deceiving; the vast empire was actu ally as shaky and ready to col lapse as a 25-year-old model T trying to make its way through deep sand. Once the world's biggest automaker. Ford had seen its share of U.S. auto sales drop from 40% in 1930 to 21% in the first postwar year of car production. What was more, in 1946, Ford was losing money at such a clip—$55 million in six months—that even its vast reserves might soon be exhausted.
None of the three rich young men really knew whether the empire could be saved. But in a wry twist of the old saw, Henry, the eldest, took off his coat, rolled up his shirtsleeves and decided to try. Was he frightened by the responsibility? Says Henry: "I didn't know enough to be frightened."
"We Want to Be First." Actually young Henry II had grown up learning about the auto business as other children learn about baseball or stamp collecting. And, as it turned out, he knew what to do about the failing company. He swept out all the old, tired policies and corporate deadwood, brought in new, young ideas and a new, young team to put them into effect. As a result, the company was on the comeback road when brother Benson Ford joined him at the Rouge plant in 1947-Billy Ford joined his brothers three years later. Henry helped teach them their jobs and, like an elder brother, bore down to see that they did them—and was frequently told to "go to hell" for his pains.
Like all brothers, they bickered and fought—over how many cars to make, and how the cars should look. "We do a lot of needling among ourselves," says Billy.