GIVING MILLIONS

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 149, 21 December 1936, Page 6

GIVING MILLIONS

RICH MEN'S GENEROSITY

CARNEGIE AND ROCKEFELLER

PUBLIC HOSTILITY

It has been announced that Lord Nuffield, the chairman of several motor manufacturing companies, has increased to £2,000,000 his gift to Oxfor-j University for the promotion of medical research, says a writer in the Mcl bourne "Age." The gift of such a large sum for philanthropic purposes has not often been made by English millionaires; but in the United States,\ where, multi-millionaires are numerous, more than £200,000,000 have been given away during the past forty years by wealthy men for the purpose of financing schemes for the welfare of mankind. "The modern foundation in its present form is distinctly a twentiethcentury affair," wrote Mr. Edwin L. Schuman in discussing American philanthropy in an article in "Current History." "It resembles its parent, charity, no more than an aeroplane resembles the stage coach; and it reaches out to tne end 01 the earth. The credit for much of the pioneer thinking that created it belongs to Andrew Carnegie, and the credit for its greatest development belongs to the two John D. Rockefellers, father and son.'" LARGE FOUNDATIONS. Among the largest American foundations mentioned by Mr. Schuman in his article are the following:— Rockefeller Foundation (well bciiic of mankind) 20,400,000 Carnegie Corporation (diffusion of knoivledge) 27,000,000 General Mutation Board (meilloal and other education) ... 9,-100,000 Duke Endowment (education in the southern States) 5,000,000 Hersliey Kund (education o£ orphan boys) .•.,. 8,000,000 Commonwealth Fund (child welfßr(,j i ,-.:..,.... 7,600,000 Kr«sge Foundation (education) . ",500,000 Carnegie Institute of Washington • ■ (research) ■ G. 600,000 Carnegie Foundation (annuities for teachers) n,400,000 Julius Rosenwald Fund (echtcation of negroes) 4.000,000 Russell Sage Foundation (social ibettcrmont) ,-2,..IK/i,. Cranbrool; Foundation (education') 2,M)0,000 Curtis Institute of Music (nwsical education) .rJ/SXnnX JuilHard Foundation (music) .. 2,400,001! SuMJTound.Uo^ _ (Publlc_ _ w.cl- mm) , Carnegie Endowment for liitcrnational Peace .OUU.UUii Children's Fund of Michigan- „„„„„„. (child welfare) • 2,000,001) MUbai* Memorial Fund (oocml mm nrS^^"^'- -''.000-000 ' i' OU!,ne"!outla Otio l lr.".t: V: £^^00U Mr. Andrew Carnegie, who died in 1919 devoted the latter part of his life 'to putting into c-fiEcct his gospel of wealth. He declared that the duty Of the man of wealth is to set an example of modest living, shunning display and extravagance, to provide, moderately for the wants of those, dependent on him, and, after doing so, to consider all surplus revenues which come to him simply as trust_ funds. which he is called upon to administer. The man of wealth thus becomes the mere trustee and agent of his poorer brethren." PERMANENT FUNDS. Before he died he distributed the greater part of his wealth in countless gifts, including 3000 library build ings 8000 church organs, the Peace Palace at The Hague, and appropriations to 500 universities and colleges. Two-thirds of his total distributions- of £70 000,000 went, towards the creation of eight large permanent funds, beginning with the Carnegie Institute ot Pittsburg, U.S.A., in 1896, and ending with the Carnegie -United Kingdom Trust in 1916. All are national or international in scope. The largest in scope and size is the Carnegie Corporation of New York, established in 1911, with ,a gilt of £27,000,000. .It was created for "the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and industry among the people of the United States. In 1917 its scope was extended to Canada the British Isles, and British colonies It has aided many American college and universities by grants, endowments, and buildings, and has established 3000 libraries, of which about 2000 are in the United States. When Andrew Carnegie died his gifts had reduced his huge fortune to £5 000,000. His will contained many generous bequests. He left Mr. Lloyd George an annuity of £2000, which is still being paid, and a similar annuity to Lord Morley, who died in 1923. Mr. | John Burns, the first Labour member of the House of Commons to be promoted to Cabinet rank, was left an annuity of £1000, which he still enjoys. The various benefactions of Mr. John D. Rockefeller and his son reach a total of more than £140,000,000. Most of this vast sum has been used in the creation of five great foundations, beginning with the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in 1901, and ending with the International Education Board in 1923. The five have now been practically merged in the two larger ones—the Rockefeller Foundation and the General Education Board. SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH. "Probably the most dramatic chapter in the book of the deeds of American philanthropy," states Mr.' Schuman, "is that -of scientific research, especially in the fields of biology and medicine, in which, fourteen foundations are specialising. As the Rockefeller Foundation is the largest o£ these, its work may be taken as representative of the group. Its scene of action is tne whole earth. At the expense of £600,000 a year this organisation is carrying on a medical science campaign that is directed mainly against three widespread diseaseshookworm, yellow fever, and malaria. The battle against hookworm disease stretches from China to Africa and from Italy to the South Seas. Yellow fever has apparently been driven from every tropical country except Brazil

and West Africa. Fellowships art; given by the international health section of the foundation to men and women in foreign countries, on the understanding that they shall be trained for definite posts in the health services of the Governments requesting their appointment. More than 650 men and women from forty nations have received fellbwships of one kind or another in a single year from this one foundation. These young specialists come from all the civilised lands of the globe, and they study in schools of eighteen countries besides the United States at the expense of the Rockefeller Foundation. "TAINTED MONEY." It is a remarkable fact that when Mr. John D. Rockefeller was giving away millions of dollars to universities, colleges, churches, and hospitals in America, lie was the most abused man in the country. Mr. John T. Flynn, in his unauthorised .biography of America's richest man, states: "For 4U years—lß72 to 1914—the name of John b. Rockefeller was the most execrated name in American life. It was associated with greed, rapacity, cruelty, hypocrisy, and corruption. Upon it was showered such odium as had stained the name of no other. American. The Attorneys-General of half a dozen States clamoured for his imprisonment. La Follette called him the greatest criminal of his age. Tolstoi said no honest man could work for him.. Ministers of the Gospel called the money he showered upon churches and colleges tainted. For years no man spoke a good word for John D. Rockefeller, save the sycophant and the timeserver." The reason for this abuse was that Rockefeller, as the head of the Standard Oil Company, from which he derived the bulk of his wealth, was regarded as an unscrupulous business man. who had never hesitated to adopt dishonest means to ruin his rivals in the oil business, and to exploit the public. It was .said that his career was marked by ruined homes, ruined businesses, and wrecked and ruined lives. In order to gain advantages over business rivals he had bribed politicians, corrupted Legislatures, subsidised railway officials, and bought newspapers outright in order to attack public officials who in their loyalty to the interests of the public were . obstacles to his plans. GREAT INCREASES. In 1907 his gift of 32,000,000 dollars (£6,400,000) to the General Education Board he founded, "to promote education in the United States of America without distinction of race, creed, or sex," was described at the time as "the largest sum ever given by one man in the history of the world." Since then he has increased his gifts 'to the board to 130,000,000 dollars (£26,000,000) and has made gifts of large single sums of 50,000,000 dollars, 80,000,000 dollars, aijd 100,000,000 dollars to his Foundations. But when his gift of 32,000,000 dollars was made to the -General Education Board in 1907 it divided opinion in America on the question whether churches, colleges, universities, hospitals, and other institutions ought to accept gifts of "tainted money" from Rockefeller. Mr. Flynn in his biography of Rockefeller states that people who had publicly denounced Rockefeller's business .methods as a menace to industry and democracy, adopted such view's as the'following: "If there is any taint in the money it is in the getting, not in the giving." "There is no better way of removing the taint than by giving it back to the people." "It is not the money that is tainted but the man." "Receiving money does not honour the donor." :::..[.. In reply to the contention that taking Rockefeller's money meant cither believing it was' gained worthily.'Vorbeing indifferent .to its source, charities and churches and colleges ; declared, "We must separate the method of making from the method of using." The "Outlook," edited then by Dr. Lyman Abbott, declined "to condemn Rockefeller's good deeds because of his evil deeds," and continued: "Christ would not call Mr. Rockefeller befoz-e Hii. ;olf as judge. He would condemn the national .sins .of our ..time; ;He would/not select special sinners to be the subject of His special condemnation." On another occasion the "Outlook" declared "that the trustees of higher education, and philanthropic and religious work, "are; riot fitted" to investigate the source of: gifts, and ought not to be asked to pass judgment on the totality of ah individual's character. God alone cari;-judge the saint and sinner." "A CONSCIENCE FUND." To this Professor Vida Scudder, of Wellesley College, replied: "It is not judging a man to let his money alone." Other people laid down that "money gained by fraud should be accepted unless it can be returned to those defrauded, or unless taking it implies: approval of the methods b"- which it was' gained; but it should not be solicited." More than 1000 editorial articles on Rockefeller's gift of 32,000,000 dollars were published in American newspapers in 1907, and most of them expressed I.ostility to the giver. It was said by some of the papers that, hs had become weary of being the; most disliked and abused man in the United States, and, therefore, had made "th~ most splendid contribution to-con-science fund ever made by, any buccaneer lof modern commerce." The 32.000,000 dollars were a peace offering bid for more kindly consideration by his fellow-mortals.' Other papers declared that the magnitude of the gift was a measure of the giver's sense of the depth in public estimation to which he had sunk. They said it would take more than 32,000,000 dollars to purchase a halo, and establish Rockefeller as anything other than the most gigantic exploiter of his age. After Mr. Rockefeller retired from business the papers found less opportunity for abusing him, and as his benefactions increased the public became impressed with his generosity. HIS SIMPLE LIFE A publicity expert was employed to supply.the newspapers with flattering paragraphs about Mr. Rockefeller, and to contrast his munificence in giving away : millions of dollars, with the simple life he led in his home at Pocantico Hills, near New York. People could read "nothing-but good of Mr. Rockefeller, and they changed their opinion of him. And now the American newspapers make a feature each year of the birthday festivities of the aged owner of Pocantico Hills, who is now in his DBth year, and they publish photographs of him giving nickels to little children he meets on his walks. As a result of the persistent efforts of his publicity expert, John D. Rockefeller is now regarded not only as one of the greatest men America has produced,' but as almost a saint.