Despite — or perhaps exactly because Henry Ford lived through the first world war, he became an avowed pacifist. Yet his ardent dreams were being dashed to bits by 1941. Hitler invaded Poland, and Britain and France declared war as a result. The U.S. was still officially neutral (at least until the December 7th attacks) but was already sending materiel to the Continent and switching production to war time. Ford desperately resisted the beating of plowshares into swords, and saw his beacon of hope in Mahatma Gandhi’s civil disobedience campaign against British rule in India. So Ford sat down at his desk and composed a letter of praise to the civil rights leader.

On this day, July 25, in 1941, Henry Ford wrote to Gandhi “I want to take this opportunity of sending you a message…to tell you how deeply I admire your life and message. You are one of the greatest men the world has ever known. May God help you and guide your lofty work.” Ford considered Gandhi’s leadership and unwavering commitment to peace an example the rest of the world could follow.

Gandhi was overjoyed with receiving such a heartfelt missive from the great industrialist, considering it a good omen for his work. He decided to respond in kind, fetching a machine most associated with Gandhi’s campaign, the cloth-spinning wheel, autographing it in Hindi and English, and sending it across the world, over submarine-infested waters, back to the U.S. Ford kept it in his home as a good-luck charm, as well as a powerful token of self-sufficiency through simple work that both men espoused.