
 |
|
May 13, 2013
David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church
May 10, 2013
Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be
May 8, 2013
Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas
Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate
Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility
May 6, 2013
May 3, 2013
Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine
April 29, 2013
Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust
Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?
Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA
April 26, 2013
Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty
April 24, 2013
|
| |
Jewish World Review
April 2, 2007
/ 14 Nissan, 5767
Benefactors must be hardheaded
By
Paul Johnson
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
What would we do without benefactors and the money they leave? I've been reading a new biography of James Smithson, the mysterious English gentleman scientist who died in 1829 and left a half-million dollars to endow a foundation in Washington, D.C. that would create "an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." This munificent gift a little more than 100,000 gold sovereigns was unprecedented in America and aroused suspicion. Smithson had never set foot in the U.S. He was an illegitimate son of the Duke of Northumberland, who had held high office under George III. Smithson detested the monarchy and all it stood for and believed America to be the country of the future, especially if science flourished there. His gift was intended to ensure that it did.
Well, Smithson was right, wasn't he? But, at the time, his gift seemed too good to be true. It took the persuasive powers of former President John Quincy Adams to persuade Congress to accept it and set up the new powerhouse of knowledge. The Smithsonian has proved to be one of the world's great success stories in institution creation. It is indeed a center of advanced technology and science, and it is also the nation's luxury attic, in which such treasures as the original Star-Spangled Banner, Lincoln's top hat, the Spirit of St. Louis and the Mercury Friendship 7 spacecraft are displayed. The delightful castle, which is the museum's core, has spawned many other museums, and as a place to visit, there's nothing like it anywhere else in the world for charm, variety, richness and sheer fun. Smithson's spirit has every reason to be delighted with the success of his scheme and the way in which it has been a model for so many other large-scale benefactions.
MODEL BY EXAMPLE
Andrew Carnegie the man whose blast furnaces produced the first cheap high-quality steel, making him in his day one of the world's richest men clearly had Smithson in mind when deciding what to do with his own money. In his fascinating essay, "The Gospel of Wealth," Carnegie argues that it is morally acceptable to become rich by lawful means but reprehensible to hang on to that wealth: "[The] man who dies rich dies disgraced." Carnegie set up a number of institutions dedicated to the arts, teaching, scientific research and the humanities. He used the bulk of the $480 million he got from the sale of his business to endow Carnegie Corp. of New York, an umbrella body for dispensing cash. In 1919 a volume entitled A Manual of the Public Benefactions of Andrew Carnegie listed a vast number of projects, including 7,689 church organs and 2,811 free public libraries, on which a total of $350,695,653 had been spent.
This set a pattern that other rich men, led by John D. Rockefeller and Henry Ford, followed. These entrepreneurs made their millions by reducing prices Carnegie, steel; Rockefeller, kerosene and other basic products; and Ford by producing cheap, sturdy, reliable cars. Countless millions of housewives, farmers, consumers and manufacturers benefited. And the overwhelming mass of these capitalists' earnings went back to the American public through their charitable foundations.
EFFECTING A POSITIVE CHANGE
The tradition of businessmen leaving their wealth to the nation is a peculiarly American virtue. In Britain and Europe (and, more recently, Asia) the tendency has been to "keep it in the family," but rich, self-made Americans have been loath to give their children much more than a good upbringing and education. As a result the U.S. has more well-endowed universities and more elite scientific and technical institutions and first-class art galleries than the rest of the world put together. This helps to explain why for a quarter of a millennium the U.S. has remained ahead of other countries in the race to give its people a better, richer and fuller life. And, of course, that is exactly what Smithson intended and hoped would happen.
Two of the 20th century's most ingenious wealth creators, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, have decided to follow in the footsteps of Smithson and Carnegie. However, I hope they and those who follow will learn from the past. Corporations that dispense vast sums of money, however benevolent in theory, are not always wise in practice. Clever men and women on the left, whose lives are driven by the lust for power and a taste for social engineering, have a gift for infiltrating charitable institutions and gaining control of their spending programs.
I am often astonished by the way in which corporations that were created by the fruits of capitalism shamelessly finance bodies and individuals whose objectives are to undermine the capitalist system, destroying private enterprise and the free market. I wish some well-endowed institution the Smithsonian, for example would commission a thorough investigation of this kind of philanthropy in the U.S., showing exactly how the money has been used and how far or close that's been to the intentions of the founders. Such a study would provide future benefactors with practical advice on what to avoid when setting up their foundations.
Another equally important purpose would be to gain insight, based on accurate historical experience, into how tax policies have adversely affected philanthropies and how to reshape those policies to effect a positive change. The spirit of generosity in American private enterprise has never been stronger than it is today. But we must ensure that it is not frustrated by legislative folly, administrative barriers and the sinister activities of ideological fanatics burrowing into the warm woodwork of generosity.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
| BUY THE BOOK |
|
Click HERE to purchase it at a discount. (Sales help fund JWR.). |
|
Eminent British historian and author Paul Johnson's latest book is "American Presidents Eminent Lives Boxed Set: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ulysses S. Grant". Comment by clicking here.
Previously:
03/07/07: American idealism and realpolitik
11/28/06: Space: Our ticket to survival
10/24/06: Envy is bad economics
10/11/06: Better to Borrow or Lend? Rethinking conventional wisdom
08/22/06: Don't practice legal terrorism
08/08/06: A summer rhapsody for a pedal-bike
08/03/06: Why is there no workable philosophy of music?
07/11/06: Historically speaking, energy crisis is America's opportunity
07/06/06: The misleading dimensions of persons and lives
06/06/06: First editions are not gold
05/23/06: A downright ugly man need never despair of attracting women, even pretty
ones
04/25/06: Was Washington right about political parties?
04/12/06: Let's Have More Babies!
04/05/06: For the love of trains
03/29/06: Lincoln and the Compensation Culture
03/22/06: Bottle-beauties and the globalised blond beast
03/15/06: Europe's utopian hangover
03/08/06: Kindly write on only one side of the paper
02/28/06: Creators versus critics
02/21/06: The Rhino Principle
© 2006, Paul Johnson
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Christine Flowers
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
A. Barton Hinkle
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ch. Krauthammer
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Greg Schwem
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Lenore Skenazy
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Ben Stein
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
ZeitGeist
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Lisa Benson
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
John Branch
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
Matt Davies
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Walt Handelsman
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
David Horsey
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Jimmy Margulies
Jack Ohman
Michael Ramirez
Rob Rogers
Drew Sheneman
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Scott Stantis
Danna Summers
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters
Dan Wasserman

Tech Q&A
Mr. Know-It-All
Ask Doctor K
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
|