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Several sites claim that Henry Ford said the following:

It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.

Members in Wikiquote claim that it is unsourced. Does anyone have a source for it?

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  • Not proof by any means, but google book results consistently attribute it to Henry Ford, Sr. and these date back to 1959.
    – called2voyage
    Feb 5, 2014 at 20:06
  • Google book results for the Andrew Jackson version don't date back before 1973. 1959 is a lot closer to Henry Ford's life than 1973 is to Andrew Jackson's life, but again this isn't really proof.
    – called2voyage
    Feb 5, 2014 at 20:11
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    From what I could find, all instances of the quote with a reference trail could be traced back to "The Federal Reserve Hoax" by Wickliffe Vennard (who attributes Ford with the quote) in 1959 except for one instance of the quote in The American Mercury in 1957 also attributed to Ford.
    – called2voyage
    Feb 5, 2014 at 22:24

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The supposed quote was really a paraphrase originally by Charles Binderup 19 March 1937 in the House of Representatives (Congressional Record—House 81:2528):

It was Henry Ford who said in substance this: 'It is perhaps well enough that the people of the nation do not know or understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning'.

The above was also published in the 19 April 1938 Social Justice on page 10 where it is attributed to "Representative Charles G. Binderup of Nebraska"

The 1957 opinion article by Russell Maguire "How Internationalists Gain Power" in the American Mercury volume 85 pages 79-80 states:

It was Henry Ford, Sr., who said in substance, "It is perhaps well enough that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning."

Later sources may make this sound like an exact quote, but "in substance" makes clear it is not an exact quote.

What Henry Ford definitely did write in his 1922 book My Like and Work at page 179 is:

The people are naturally conservative. They are more conservative than the financiers. Those who believe that the people are so easily led that they would permit the printing presses to run off money like milk tickets do not understand them. It is the innate conservation of the people that has kept our money good in spite of the fantastic tricks which financiers play-and which they cover up with high technical terms. The people are on the side of sound money. They are so unalterably on the side of sound money that it is a serious question how they would regard the system under which they live, if they once knew what the initiate can do with it.

In summary, it seems that a paraphrasing of Henry Ford has been mistakenly identified as an exact quote.

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  • Do you know the context of the quote in the GPO publication? From the title it looks like it might be a transcript of a congressional hearing; if so, who was speaking?
    – Nate Eldredge
    Apr 11, 2015 at 4:34
  • @NateEldredge actually, I have new information that earlier it was Charles Binderup (March 19, 1937), Congressional Record—House 81:2528. en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Conspiracy I will try to verify and find who was saying it 1958 also.
    – DavePhD
    Apr 11, 2015 at 11:12
  • Related: This famous Rothschild quote was never really said by Rothschild
    – user11643
    Apr 11, 2016 at 15:39

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