Today -100: November 23, 1918: Of hoards of gold and Henry Ford’s definite ideas and ideals

200 sacks of former kaiser Willy Hohenzollern’s gold coins arrive in the Netherlands. It is not clear where it’s now being stored. It’s also not clear if he ever actually abdicated. NYT reporters are frantically making calculations trying to figure out how much real money 200 sacks of coins amounts to.

Secretary of the Treasury and Director-General of the Railroads William Gibbs McAdoo, Pres. Wilson’s son-in-law, resigns, because he wants to make more money. That’s the only reason he gives; his resignation letter complains of the “inadequate compensation” for cabinet officers and the “very burdensome cost of living in Washington.”

Henry Ford hands over the reins of Ford Motor to his son Edsel to devote himself to making The Dearborn Independent into a wide-circulation national newspaper so he can spread his “definite ideas and ideals.” Some of those ideas will be about The Jews.

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