One day last summer Norman Dodd, research director for the House Committee to Investigate Tax-Exempt Foundations, labelled the Fund for the Republic as "a huge slush fund for a full-scale war on all organizations and individuals who have ever exposed and fought Communists."

If Dodd's attack on this Ford Foundation subsidiary were valid, Henry Ford's empire would have turned full circle from the early 1900's when "Old Henry" and ultra-Americanism were synonymous.

Cures Causes, Not Symptoms

The founder of the Ford Motor Company tried to settle the Great War and impose order on the powers of Europe. Today, the same spirit of humanitarianism impels his heirs in their huge educational and philanthropic venture, "the world's greatest helping hand." The aims are the same--to bring peace and to make the world a better place for all--but the Ford Foundation has set out to accomplish these ends in a realistic manner which may bring far more success than ever greeted Henry Ford. Where the man sought to cure symptoms, the institution attacks fundamental causes.

From research in the behavior of children to extensive programs of education, the nation's largest private philanthropy has allocated its funds for "scientific, educational, and charitable purposes, all for public welfare."

But undertaking humanitarian programs is not the concern of the Ford Foundation alone. The American people donate an average of $5,600,000,000 annually to charitable organizations. Less than 3 per cent of this money comes from Ford and other big foundations like it--Rockefeller, Carnegie, Russell Sage, Guggenheim, and approximately sixty others with more than $10,000,000 in capital. Still more comes from small endowments and outright gifts from individuals.

With the expenses of American colleges continually increasing, more and more emphasis is placed on private charitable support for educational institutions. Faced with problems of expansion, our universities have three major sources of income: tutition, alumni gifts, and foundation support.

The income from private charitable endowments is strictly limited; where it is spent must be carefully calculated. Generally, large foundations have chosen research grants and fellowships as the most advantageous way of supporting education. Colleges are enabled to expand their facilities while doing useful research and while training future scientists and teachers.

In 1874, long before the establishment of the first charitable foundation, President Eliot said that "the citizens of a free State must be accustomed to associated action in a great variety of forms; they must have many local centers of common action, and many agencies and administrations for public objects, besides the central agency of government."

Today, in an era when foundations grow increastingly important in education and scientific research, Eliot's words point to the role which large foundations have established for themselves.

Breaking Down Complacency

Compared to the resources of federal and state governments, the capital of private foundations is meager. But there are legitimate areas of giving in which foundations can make a great contribution. While government action may be bound by considerations of public policy, foundations can often risk unpopularity by undertaking necessary research. Where popular complacency could bind government to inaction, studies by private groups like the Fund for the Republic can break down some of this complacency.

Further, foundations can begin research in projects that seem too lengthy for government support. But, as was the case in cancer research, Foundation progress in early stages of research can stimulate government interest in a program. Far from useless do-gooders, private philanthropic groups play a legitimate and highly important role in the support of public projects.

The Ford Foundation was originally established in 1936. Until 1948 it gave about $1,000,000 a year to colleges in Michigan. In the fall of 1948, however, Henry Ford and Edsel Ford willed almost $500,000,000 to the Foundation.

With this capital, now more than half a billion dollars, the Ford Foundation is in a unique position--how can it spend its money to the maximum benefit of mankind. Its major problem is not lack of funds, but rather where to spend its money to yield the greatest return.