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<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=tanstl@hotmail.com href="mailto:tanstl@hotmail.com">David Sladky</A>
</DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, November 22, 2012 1:18 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> The Powell Memo: 1971 blueprint for today's plutocratic
politics (Reclaim Democracy)</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><BR><BR><FONT color=black size=2 face=arial><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent"
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"></FONT><BR> <BR>
<DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: arial,helvetica; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 3px"><BR><BR> </BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT-FAMILY: arial,helvetica; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">Subject:The
Powell Memo: 1971 blueprint for today's plutocratic politics (Reclaim
Democracy)<BR><BR>
<DIV id=ecxAOLMsgPart_2_f5dd707e-50f4-4fc2-825f-ebb50fa7f256>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #fff; FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; COLOR: #000; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">
<DIV>
<DIV><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; FONT-SIZE: 13px">(The memo's
defense of capitalism is really a manifesto for concentration of wealth &
power among corporate elites. The results of the movement that it helped spawn
-- deregulation, globalization & international trade cabals, public
subsidies & crony contracts for top corporations, dismantling of the social
safety net, impunity for corporate crime, etc. -- haven't created more free
enterprise & general economic prosperity. Instead, it enabled more corporate
consolidation & monopoly (which kill business competition) and led to
erosion of the middle class & end of financial security for working people.
-- Scott)</SPAN><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">The Powell Memo (also
known as the Powell Manifesto)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Reclaim
Democracy</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><A
href="http://reclaimdemocracy.org/powell_memo_lewis/"
target=_blank>http://reclaimdemocracy.org/powell_memo_lewis/</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">The Powell Memo was first
published August 23, 1971</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Introduction</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">In 1971, Lewis F. Powell,
then a corporate lawyer and member of the boards of 11 corporations, wrote a
memo to his friend Eugene Sydnor, Jr., the Director of the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce. The memorandum was dated August 23, 1971, two months prior to Powell’s
nomination by President Nixon to the U.S. Supreme Court.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">The Powell Memo did not
become available to the public until long after his confirmation to the Court.
It was leaked to Jack Anderson, a liberal syndicated columnist, who stirred
interest in the document when he cited it as reason to doubt Powell’s legal
objectivity. Anderson cautioned that Powell “might use his position on the
Supreme Court to put his ideas into practice…in behalf of business
interests.”</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Though Powell’s memo was
not the sole influence, the Chamber and corporate activists took his advice to
heart and began building a powerful array of institutions designed to shift
public attitudes and beliefs over the course of years and decades. The memo
influenced or inspired the creation of the Heritage Foundation, the Manhattan
Institute, the Cato Institute, Citizens for a Sound Economy, Accuracy in
Academe, and other powerful organizations. Their long-term focus began paying
off handsomely in the 1980s, in coordination with the Reagan Administration’s
“hands-off business” philosophy.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Most notable about these
institutions was their focus on education, shifting values, and
movement-building — a focus we share, though often with sharply contrasting
goals.* (See our endnote for more on this.)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">So did Powell’s political
views influence his judicial decisions? The evidence is mixed. Powell did
embrace expansion of corporate privilege and wrote the majority opinion in First
National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti, a 1978 decision that effectively invented a
First Amendment “right” for corporations to influence ballot questions. On
social issues, he was a moderate, whose votes often surprised his
backers.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Confidential Memorandum:
Attack of American Free Enterprise System</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">DATE: August 23,
1971</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">TO: Mr. Eugene B. Sydnor,
Jr., Chairman, Education Committee, U.S. Chamber of Commerce</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">FROM: Lewis F. Powell,
Jr.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">This memorandum is
submitted at your request as a basis for the discussion on August 24 with Mr.
Booth (executive vice president) and others at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The
purpose is to identify the problem, and suggest possible avenues of action for
further consideration.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Dimensions of the
Attack</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">No thoughtful person can
question that the American economic system is under broad attack. This varies in
scope, intensity, in the techniques employed, and in the level of
visibility.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">There always have been
some who opposed the American system, and preferred socialism or some form of
statism (communism or fascism). Also, there always have been critics of the
system, whose criticism has been wholesome and constructive so long as the
objective was to improve rather than to subvert or destroy.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">But what now concerns us
is quite new in the history of America. We are not dealing with sporadic or
isolated attacks from a relatively few extremists or even from the minority
socialist cadre. Rather, the assault on the enterprise system is broadly based
and consistently pursued. It is gaining momentum and converts.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Sources of the
Attack</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">The sources are varied and
diffused. They include, not unexpectedly, the Communists, New Leftists and other
revolutionaries who would destroy the entire system, both political and
economic. These extremists of the left are far more numerous, better financed,
and increasingly are more welcomed and encouraged by other elements of society,
than ever before in our history. But they remain a small minority, and are not
yet the principal cause for concern.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">The most disquieting
voices joining the chorus of criticism come from perfectly respectable elements
of society: from the college campus, the pulpit, the media, the intellectual and
literary journals, the arts and sciences, and from politicians. In most of these
groups the movement against the system is participated in only by minorities.
Yet, these often are the most articulate, the most vocal, the most prolific in
their writing and speaking.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Moreover, much of the
media-for varying motives and in varying degrees-either voluntarily accords
unique publicity to these “attackers,” or at least allows them to exploit the
media for their purposes. This is especially true of television, which now plays
such a predominant role in shaping the thinking, attitudes and emotions of our
people.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">One of the bewildering
paradoxes of our time is the extent to which the enterprise system tolerates, if
not participates in, its own destruction.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">The campuses from which
much of the criticism emanates are supported by (i) tax funds generated largely
from American business, and (ii) contributions from capital funds controlled or
generated by American business. The boards of trustees of our universities
overwhelmingly are composed of men and women who are leaders in the
system.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Most of the media,
including the national TV systems, are owned and theoretically controlled by
corporations which depend upon profits, and the enterprise system to
survive.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Tone of the
Attack</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">This memorandum is not the
place to document in detail the tone, character, or intensity of the attack. The
following quotations will suffice to give one a general idea:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">William Kunstler, warmly
welcomed on campuses and listed in a recent student poll as the “American lawyer
most admired,” incites audiences as follows:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">“You must learn to fight
in the streets, to revolt, to shoot guns. We will learn to do all of the things
that property owners fear.”2 The New Leftists who heed Kunstler’s advice
increasingly are beginning to act — not just against military recruiting offices
and manufacturers of munitions, but against a variety of businesses: “Since
February, 1970, branches (of Bank of America) have been attacked 39 times, 22
times with explosive devices and 17 times with fire bombs or by arsonists.”3
Although New Leftist spokesmen are succeeding in radicalizing thousands of the
young, the greater cause for concern is the hostility of respectable liberals
and social reformers. It is the sum total of their views and influence which
could indeed fatally weaken or destroy the system.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">A chilling description of
what is being taught on many of our campuses was written by Stewart
Alsop:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">“Yale, like every other
major college, is graduating scores of bright young men who are practitioners of
‘the politics of despair.’ These young men despise the American political and
economic system . . . (their) minds seem to be wholly closed. They live, not by
rational discussion, but by mindless slogans.”4 A recent poll of students on 12
representative campuses reported that: “Almost half the students favored
socialization of basic U.S. industries.”5</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">A visiting professor from
England at Rockford College gave a series of lectures entitled “The Ideological
War Against Western Society,” in which he documents the extent to which members
of the intellectual community are waging ideological warfare against the
enterprise system and the values of western society. In a foreword to these
lectures, famed Dr. Milton Friedman of Chicago warned: “It (is) crystal clear
that the foundations of our free society are under wide-ranging and powerful
attack — not by Communist or any other conspiracy but by misguided individuals
parroting one another and unwittingly serving ends they would never
intentionally promote.”6</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Perhaps the single most
effective antagonist of American business is Ralph Nader, who — thanks largely
to the media — has become a legend in his own time and an idol of millions of
Americans. A recent article in Fortune speaks of Nader as follows:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">“The passion that rules in
him — and he is a passionate man — is aimed at smashing utterly the target of
his hatred, which is corporate power. He thinks, and says quite bluntly, that a
great many corporate executives belong in prison — for defrauding the consumer
with shoddy merchandise, poisoning the food supply with chemical additives, and
willfully manufacturing unsafe products that will maim or kill the buyer. He
emphasizes that he is not talking just about ‘fly-by-night hucksters’ but the
top management of blue chip business.”7</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">A frontal assault was made
on our government, our system of justice, and the free enterprise system by Yale
Professor Charles Reich in his widely publicized book: “The Greening of
America,” published last winter.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">The foregoing references
illustrate the broad, shotgun attack on the system itself. There are countless
examples of rifle shots which undermine confidence and confuse the public.
Favorite current targets are proposals for tax incentives through changes in
depreciation rates and investment credits. These are usually described in the
media as “tax breaks,” “loop holes” or “tax benefits” for the benefit of
business. As viewed by a columnist in the Post, such tax measures would benefit
“only the rich, the owners of big companies.”8</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">It is dismaying that many
politicians make the same argument that tax measures of this kind benefit only
“business,” without benefit to “the poor.” The fact that this is either
political demagoguery or economic illiteracy is of slight comfort. This setting
of the “rich” against the “poor,” of business against the people, is the
cheapest and most dangerous kind of politics.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">The Apathy and Default of
Business</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">What has been the response
of business to this massive assault upon its fundamental economics, upon its
philosophy, upon its right to continue to manage its own affairs, and indeed
upon its integrity?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">The painfully sad truth is
that business, including the boards of directors’ and the top executives of
corporations great and small and business organizations at all levels, often
have responded — if at all — by appeasement, ineptitude and ignoring the
problem. There are, of course, many exceptions to this sweeping generalization.
But the net effect of such response as has been made is scarcely
visible.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">In all fairness, it must
be recognized that businessmen have not been trained or equipped to conduct
guerrilla warfare with those who propagandize against the system, seeking
insidiously and constantly to sabotage it. The traditional role of business
executives has been to manage, to produce, to sell, to create jobs, to make
profits, to improve the standard of living, to be community leaders, to serve on
charitable and educational boards, and generally to be good citizens. They have
performed these tasks very well indeed.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">But they have shown little
stomach for hard-nose contest with their critics, and little skill in effective
intellectual and philosophical debate.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">A column recently carried
by the Wall Street Journal was entitled: “Memo to GM: Why Not Fight Back?”9
Although addressed to GM by name, the article was a warning to all American
business. Columnist St. John said:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">“General Motors, like
American business in general, is ‘plainly in trouble’ because intellectual
bromides have been substituted for a sound intellectual exposition of its point
of view.” Mr. St. John then commented on the tendency of business leaders to
compromise with and appease critics. He cited the concessions which Nader wins
from management, and spoke of “the fallacious view many businessmen take toward
their critics.” He drew a parallel to the mistaken tactics of many college
administrators: “College administrators learned too late that such appeasement
serves to destroy free speech, academic freedom and genuine scholarship. One
campus radical demand was conceded by university heads only to be followed by a
fresh crop which soon escalated to what amounted to a demand for outright
surrender.”</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">One need not agree
entirely with Mr. St. John’s analysis. But most observers of the American scene
will agree that the essence of his message is sound. American business “plainly
in trouble”; the response to the wide range of critics has been ineffective, and
has included appeasement; the time has come — indeed, it is long overdue — for
the wisdom, ingenuity and resources of American business to be marshalled
against those who would destroy it.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Responsibility of Business
Executives</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">What specifically should
be done? The first essential — a prerequisite to any effective action — is for
businessmen to confront this problem as a primary responsibility of corporate
management.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">The overriding first need
is for businessmen to recognize that the ultimate issue may be survival —
survival of what we call the free enterprise system, and all that this means for
the strength and prosperity of America and the freedom of our
people.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">The day is long past when
the chief executive officer of a major corporation discharges his responsibility
by maintaining a satisfactory growth of profits, with due regard to the
corporation’s public and social responsibilities. If our system is to survive,
top management must be equally concerned with protecting and preserving the
system itself. This involves far more than an increased emphasis on “public
relations” or “governmental affairs” — two areas in which corporations long have
invested substantial sums.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">A significant first step
by individual corporations could well be the designation of an executive vice
president (ranking with other executive VP’s) whose responsibility is to
counter-on the broadest front-the attack on the enterprise system. The public
relations department could be one of the foundations assigned to this executive,
but his responsibilities should encompass some of the types of activities
referred to subsequently in this memorandum. His budget and staff should be
adequate to the task.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Possible Role of the
Chamber of Commerce</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">But independent and
uncoordinated activity by individual corporations, as important as this is, will
not be sufficient. Strength lies in organization, in careful long-range planning
and implementation, in consistency of action over an indefinite period of years,
in the scale of financing available only through joint effort, and in the
political power available only through united action and national
organizations.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Moreover, there is the
quite understandable reluctance on the part of any one corporation to get too
far out in front and to make itself too visible a target.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">The role of the National
Chamber of Commerce is therefore vital. Other national organizations (especially
those of various industrial and commercial groups) should join in the effort,
but no other organizations appear to be as well situated as the Chamber. It
enjoys a strategic position, with a fine reputation and a broad base of support.
Also — and this is of immeasurable merit — there are hundreds of local Chambers
of Commerce which can play a vital supportive role.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">It hardly need be said
that before embarking upon any program, the Chamber should study and analyze
possible courses of action and activities, weighing risks against probable
effectiveness and feasibility of each. Considerations of cost, the assurance of
financial and other support from members, adequacy of staffing and similar
problems will all require the most thoughtful consideration.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">The Campus</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">The assault on the
enterprise system was not mounted in a few months. It has gradually evolved over
the past two decades, barely perceptible in its origins and benefiting (sic)
from a gradualism that provoked little awareness much less any real
reaction.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Although origins, sources
and causes are complex and interrelated, and obviously difficult to identify
without careful qualification, there is reason to believe that the campus is the
single most dynamic source. The social science faculties usually include members
who are unsympathetic to the enterprise system. They may range from a Herbert
Marcuse, Marxist faculty member at the University of California at San Diego,
and convinced socialists, to the ambivalent liberal critic who finds more to
condemn than to commend. Such faculty members need not be in a majority. They
are often personally attractive and magnetic; they are stimulating teachers, and
their controversy attracts student following; they are prolific writers and
lecturers; they author many of the textbooks, and they exert enormous influence
— far out of proportion to their numbers — on their colleagues and in the
academic world.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Social science faculties
(the political scientist, economist, sociologist and many of the historians)
tend to be liberally oriented, even when leftists are not present. This is not a
criticism per se, as the need for liberal thought is essential to a balanced
viewpoint. The difficulty is that “balance” is conspicuous by its absence on
many campuses, with relatively few members being of conservatives or moderate
persuasion and even the relatively few often being less articulate and
aggressive than their crusading colleagues.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">This situation extending
back many years and with the imbalance gradually worsening, has had an enormous
impact on millions of young American students. In an article in Barron’s Weekly,
seeking an answer to why so many young people are disaffected even to the point
of being revolutionaries, it was said: “Because they were taught that way.”10
Or, as noted by columnist Stewart Alsop, writing about his alma mater: “Yale,
like every other major college, is graduating scores’ of bright young men … who
despise the American political and economic system.”</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">As these “bright young
men,” from campuses across the country, seek opportunities to change a system
which they have been taught to distrust — if not, indeed “despise” — they seek
employment in the centers of the real power and influence in our country,
namely: (i) with the news media, especially television; (ii) in government, as
“staffers” and consultants at various levels; (iii) in elective politics; (iv)
as lecturers and writers, and (v) on the faculties at various levels of
education.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Many do enter the
enterprise system — in business and the professions — and for the most part they
quickly discover the fallacies of what they have been taught. But those who
eschew the mainstream of the system often remain in key positions of influence
where they mold public opinion and often shape governmental action. In many
instances, these “intellectuals” end up in regulatory agencies or governmental
departments with large authority over the business system they do not believe
in.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">If the foregoing analysis
is approximately sound, a priority task of business — and organizations such as
the Chamber — is to address the campus origin of this hostility. Few things are
more sanctified in American life than academic freedom. It would be fatal to
attack this as a principle. But if academic freedom is to retain the qualities
of “openness,” “fairness” and “balance” — which are essential to its
intellectual significance — there is a great opportunity for constructive
action. The thrust of such action must be to restore the qualities just
mentioned to the academic communities.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">What Can Be Done About the
Campus</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">The ultimate
responsibility for intellectual integrity on the campus must remain on the
administrations and faculties of our colleges and universities. But
organizations such as the Chamber can assist and activate constructive change in
many ways, including the following:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Staff of
Scholars</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">The Chamber should
consider establishing a staff of highly qualified scholars in the social
sciences who do believe in the system. It should include several of national
reputation whose authorship would be widely respected — even when disagreed
with.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Staff of
Speakers</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">There also should be a
staff of speakers of the highest competency. These might include the scholars,
and certainly those who speak for the Chamber would have to articulate the
product of the scholars.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Speaker’s
Bureau</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">In addition to full-time
staff personnel, the Chamber should have a Speaker’s Bureau which should include
the ablest and most effective advocates from the top echelons of American
business.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Evaluation of
Textbooks</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">The staff of scholars (or
preferably a panel of independent scholars) should evaluate social science
textbooks, especially in economics, political science and sociology. This should
be a continuing program.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">The objective of such
evaluation should be oriented toward restoring the balance essential to genuine
academic freedom. This would include assurance of fair and factual treatment of
our system of government and our enterprise system, its accomplishments, its
basic relationship to individual rights and freedoms, and comparisons with the
systems of socialism, fascism and communism. Most of the existing textbooks have
some sort of comparisons, but many are superficial, biased and
unfair.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">We have seen the civil
rights movement insist on re-writing many of the textbooks in our universities
and schools. The labor unions likewise insist that textbooks be fair to the
viewpoints of organized labor. Other interested citizens groups have not
hesitated to review, analyze and criticize textbooks and teaching materials. In
a democratic society, this can be a constructive process and should be regarded
as an aid to genuine academic freedom and not as an intrusion upon
it.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">If the authors, publishers
and users of textbooks know that they will be subjected — honestly, fairly and
thoroughly — to review and critique by eminent scholars who believe in the
American system, a return to a more rational balance can be
expected.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Equal Time on the
Campus</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">The Chamber should insist
upon equal time on the college speaking circuit. The FBI publishes each year a
list of speeches made on college campuses by avowed Communists. The number in
1970 exceeded 100. There were, of course, many hundreds of appearances by
leftists and ultra liberals who urge the types of viewpoints indicated earlier
in this memorandum. There was no corresponding representation of American
business, or indeed by individuals or organizations who appeared in support of
the American system of government and business.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Every campus has its
formal and informal groups which invite speakers. Each law school does the same
thing. Many universities and colleges officially sponsor lecture and speaking
programs. We all know the inadequacy of the representation of business in the
programs.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">It will be said that few
invitations would be extended to Chamber speakers.11 This undoubtedly would be
true unless the Chamber aggressively insisted upon the right to be heard — in
effect, insisted upon “equal time.” University administrators and the great
majority of student groups and committees would not welcome being put in the
position publicly of refusing a forum to diverse views, indeed, this is the
classic excuse for allowing Communists to speak.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">The two essential
ingredients are (i) to have attractive, articulate and well-informed speakers;
and (ii) to exert whatever degree of pressure — publicly and privately — may be
necessary to assure opportunities to speak. The objective always must be to
inform and enlighten, and not merely to propagandize.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Balancing of
Faculties</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Perhaps the most
fundamental problem is the imbalance of many faculties. Correcting this is
indeed a long-range and difficult project. Yet, it should be undertaken as a
part of an overall program. This would mean the urging of the need for faculty
balance upon university administrators and boards of trustees.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">The methods to be employed
require careful thought, and the obvious pitfalls must be avoided. Improper
pressure would be counterproductive. But the basic concepts of balance, fairness
and truth are difficult to resist, if properly presented to boards of trustees,
by writing and speaking, and by appeals to alumni associations and
groups.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">This is a long road and
not one for the fainthearted. But if pursued with integrity and conviction it
could lead to a strengthening of both academic freedom on the campus and of the
values which have made America the most productive of all
societies.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Graduate Schools of
Business</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">The Chamber should enjoy a
particular rapport with the increasingly influential graduate schools of
business. Much that has been suggested above applies to such
schools.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Should not the Chamber
also request specific courses in such schools dealing with the entire scope of
the problem addressed by this memorandum? This is now essential training for the
executives of the future.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Secondary
Education</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">While the first priority
should be at the college level, the trends mentioned above are increasingly
evidenced in the high schools. Action programs, tailored to the high schools and
similar to those mentioned, should be considered. The implementation thereof
could become a major program for local chambers of commerce, although the
control and direction — especially the quality control — should be retained by
the National Chamber.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">What Can Be Done About the
Public?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Reaching the campus and
the secondary schools is vital for the long-term. Reaching the public generally
may be more important for the shorter term. The first essential is to establish
the staffs of eminent scholars, writers and speakers, who will do the thinking,
the analysis, the writing and the speaking. It will also be essential to have
staff personnel who are thoroughly familiar with the media, and how most
effectively to communicate with the public. Among the more obvious means are the
following:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Television</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">The national television
networks should be monitored in the same way that textbooks should be kept under
constant surveillance. This applies not merely to so-called educational programs
(such as “Selling of the Pentagon”), but to the daily “news analysis” which so
often includes the most insidious type of criticism of the enterprise system.12
Whether this criticism results from hostility or economic ignorance, the result
is the gradual erosion of confidence in “business” and free
enterprise.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">This monitoring, to be
effective, would require constant examination of the texts of adequate samples
of programs. Complaints — to the media and to the Federal Communications
Commission — should be made promptly and strongly when programs are unfair or
inaccurate.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Equal time should be
demanded when appropriate. Effort should be made to see that the forum-type
programs (the Today Show, Meet the Press, etc.) afford at least as much
opportunity for supporters of the American system to participate as these
programs do for those who attack it.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Other Media</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Radio and the press are
also important, and every available means should be employed to challenge and
refute unfair attacks, as well as to present the affirmative case through these
media.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">The Scholarly
Journals</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">It is especially important
for the Chamber’s “faculty of scholars” to publish. One of the keys to the
success of the liberal and leftist faculty members has been their passion for
“publication” and “lecturing.” A similar passion must exist among the Chamber’s
scholars.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Incentives might be
devised to induce more “publishing” by independent scholars who do believe in
the system.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">There should be a fairly
steady flow of scholarly articles presented to a broad spectrum of magazines and
periodicals — ranging from the popular magazines (Life, Look, Reader’s Digest,
etc.) to the more intellectual ones (Atlantic, Harper’s, Saturday Review, New
York, etc.)13 and to the various professional journals.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Books, Paperbacks and
Pamphlets</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">The news stands — at
airports, drugstores, and elsewhere — are filled with paperbacks and pamphlets
advocating everything from revolution to erotic free love. One finds almost no
attractive, well-written paperbacks or pamphlets on “our side.” It will be
difficult to compete with an Eldridge Cleaver or even a Charles Reich for reader
attention, but unless the effort is made — on a large enough scale and with
appropriate imagination to assure some success — this opportunity for educating
the public will be irretrievably lost.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Paid
Advertisements</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Business pays hundreds of
millions of dollars to the media for advertisements. Most of this supports
specific products; much of it supports institutional image making; and some
fraction of it does support the system. But the latter has been more or less
tangential, and rarely part of a sustained, major effort to inform and enlighten
the American people.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">If American business
devoted only 10% of its total annual advertising budget to this overall purpose,
it would be a statesman-like expenditure.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">The Neglected Political
Arena</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">In the final analysis, the
payoff — short-of revolution — is what government does. Business has been the
favorite whipping-boy of many politicians for many years. But the measure of how
far this has gone is perhaps best found in the anti-business views now being
expressed by several leading candidates for President of the United
States.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">It is still Marxist
doctrine that the “capitalist” countries are controlled by big business. This
doctrine, consistently a part of leftist propaganda all over the world, has a
wide public following among Americans.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Yet, as every business
executive knows, few elements of American society today have as little influence
in government as the American businessman, the corporation, or even the millions
of corporate stockholders. If one doubts this, let him undertake the role of
“lobbyist” for the business point of view before Congressional committees. The
same situation obtains in the legislative halls of most states and major cities.
One does not exaggerate to say that, in terms of political influence with
respect to the course of legislation and government action, the American
business executive is truly the “forgotten man.”</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Current examples of the
impotency of business, and of the near-contempt with which businessmen’s views
are held, are the stampedes by politicians to support almost any legislation
related to “consumerism” or to the “environment.”</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Politicians reflect what
they believe to be majority views of their constituents. It is thus evident that
most politicians are making the judgment that the public has little sympathy for
the businessman or his viewpoint.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">The educational programs
suggested above would be designed to enlighten public thinking — not so much
about the businessman and his individual role as about the system which he
administers, and which provides the goods, services and jobs on which our
country depends.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">But one should not
postpone more direct political action, while awaiting the gradual change in
public opinion to be effected through education and information. Business must
learn the lesson, long ago learned by labor and other self-interest groups. This
is the lesson that political power is necessary; that such power must be
assidously (sic) cultivated; and that when necessary, it must be used
aggressively and with determination — without embarrassment and without the
reluctance which has been so characteristic of American business.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">As unwelcome as it may be
to the Chamber, it should consider assuming a broader and more vigorous role in
the political arena.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Neglected Opportunity in
the Courts</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">American business and the
enterprise system have been affected as much by the courts as by the executive
and legislative branches of government. Under our constitutional system,
especially with an activist-minded Supreme Court, the judiciary may be the most
important instrument for social, economic and political change.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Other organizations and
groups, recognizing this, have been far more astute in exploiting judicial
action than American business. Perhaps the most active exploiters of the
judicial system have been groups ranging in political orientation from “liberal”
to the far left.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">The American Civil
Liberties Union is one example. It initiates or intervenes in scores of cases
each year, and it files briefs amicus curiae in the Supreme Court in a number of
cases during each term of that court. Labor unions, civil rights groups and now
the public interest law firms are extremely active in the judicial arena. Their
success, often at business’ expense, has not been inconsequential.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">This is a vast area of
opportunity for the Chamber, if it is willing to undertake the role of spokesman
for American business and if, in turn, business is willing to provide the
funds.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">As with respect to
scholars and speakers, the Chamber would need a highly competent staff of
lawyers. In special situations it should be authorized to engage, to appear as
counsel amicus in the Supreme Court, lawyers of national standing and
reputation. The greatest care should be exercised in selecting the cases in
which to participate, or the suits to institute. But the opportunity merits the
necessary effort.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Neglected Stockholder
Power</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">The average member of the
public thinks of “business” as an impersonal corporate entity, owned by the very
rich and managed by over-paid executives. There is an almost total failure to
appreciate that “business” actually embraces — in one way or another — most
Americans. Those for whom business provides jobs, constitute a fairly obvious
class. But the 20 million stockholders — most of whom are of modest means — are
the real owners, the real entrepreneurs, the real capitalists under our system.
They provide the capital which fuels the economic system which has produced the
highest standard of living in all history. Yet, stockholders have been as
ineffectual as business executives in promoting a genuine understanding of our
system or in exercising political influence.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">The question which merits
the most thorough examination is how can the weight and influence of
stockholders — 20 million voters — be mobilized to support (i) an educational
program and (ii) a political action program.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Individual corporations
are now required to make numerous reports to shareholders. Many corporations
also have expensive “news” magazines which go to employees and stockholders.
These opportunities to communicate can be used far more effectively as
educational media.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">The corporation itself
must exercise restraint in undertaking political action and must, of course,
comply with applicable laws. But is it not feasible — through an affiliate of
the Chamber or otherwise — to establish a national organization of American
stockholders and give it enough muscle to be influential?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">A More Aggressive
Attitude</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Business interests —
especially big business and their national trade organizations — have tried to
maintain low profiles, especially with respect to political action.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">As suggested in the Wall
Street Journal article, it has been fairly characteristic of the average
business executive to be tolerant — at least in public — of those who attack his
corporation and the system. Very few businessmen or business organizations
respond in kind. There has been a disposition to appease; to regard the
opposition as willing to compromise, or as likely to fade away in due
time.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Business has shunted
confrontation politics. Business, quite understandably, has been repelled by the
multiplicity of non-negotiable “demands” made constantly by self-interest groups
of all kinds.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">While neither responsible
business interests, nor the United States Chamber of Commerce, would engage in
the irresponsible tactics of some pressure groups, it is essential that
spokesmen for the enterprise system — at all levels and at every opportunity —
be far more aggressive than in the past.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">There should be no
hesitation to attack the Naders, the Marcuses and others who openly seek
destruction of the system. There should not be the slightest hesitation to press
vigorously in all political arenas for support of the enterprise system. Nor
should there be reluctance to penalize politically those who oppose
it.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Lessons can be learned
from organized labor in this respect. The head of the AFL-CIO may not appeal to
businessmen as the most endearing or public-minded of citizens. Yet, over many
years the heads of national labor organizations have done what they were paid to
do very effectively. They may not have been beloved, but they have been
respected — where it counts the most — by politicians, on the campus, and among
the media.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">It is time for American
business — which has demonstrated the greatest capacity in all history to
produce and to influence consumer decisions — to apply their great talents
vigorously to the preservation of the system itself.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">The Cost</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">The type of program
described above (which includes a broadly based combination of education and
political action), if undertaken long term and adequately staffed, would require
far more generous financial support from American corporations than the Chamber
has ever received in the past. High level management participation in Chamber
affairs also would be required.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">The staff of the Chamber
would have to be significantly increased, with the highest quality established
and maintained. Salaries would have to be at levels fully comparable to those
paid key business executives and the most prestigious faculty members.
Professionals of the great skill in advertising and in working with the media,
speakers, lawyers and other specialists would have to be recruited.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">It is possible that the
organization of the Chamber itself would benefit from restructuring. For
example, as suggested by union experience, the office of President of the
Chamber might well be a full-time career position. To assure maximum
effectiveness and continuity, the chief executive officer of the Chamber should
not be changed each year. The functions now largely performed by the President
could be transferred to a Chairman of the Board, annually elected by the
membership. The Board, of course, would continue to exercise policy
control.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Quality Control is
Essential</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Essential ingredients of
the entire program must be responsibility and “quality control.” The
publications, the articles, the speeches, the media programs, the advertising,
the briefs filed in courts, and the appearances before legislative committees —
all must meet the most exacting standards of accuracy and professional
excellence. They must merit respect for their level of public responsibility and
scholarship, whether one agrees with the viewpoints expressed or
not.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Relationship to
Freedom</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">The threat to the
enterprise system is not merely a matter of economics. It also is a threat to
individual freedom.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">It is this great truth —
now so submerged by the rhetoric of the New Left and of many liberals — that
must be re-affirmed if this program is to be meaningful.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">There seems to be little
awareness that the only alternatives to free enterprise are varying degrees of
bureaucratic regulation of individual freedom — ranging from that under moderate
socialism to the iron heel of the leftist or rightist dictatorship.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">We in America already have
moved very far indeed toward some aspects of state socialism, as the needs and
complexities of a vast urban society require types of regulation and control
that were quite unnecessary in earlier times. In some areas, such regulation and
control already have seriously impaired the freedom of both business and labor,
and indeed of the public generally. But most of the essential freedoms remain:
private ownership, private profit, labor unions, collective bargaining, consumer
choice, and a market economy in which competition largely determines price,
quality and variety of the goods and services provided the
consumer.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">In addition to the
ideological attack on the system itself (discussed in this memorandum), its
essentials also are threatened by inequitable taxation, and — more recently — by
an inflation which has seemed uncontrollable.14 But whatever the causes of
diminishing economic freedom may be, the truth is that freedom as a concept is
indivisible. As the experience of the socialist and totalitarian states
demonstrates, the contraction and denial of economic freedom is followed
inevitably by governmental restrictions on other cherished rights. It is this
message, above all others, that must be carried home to the American
people.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Conclusion</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">It hardly need be said
that the views expressed above are tentative and suggestive. The first step
should be a thorough study. But this would be an exercise in futility unless the
Board of Directors of the Chamber accepts the fundamental premise of this paper,
namely, that business and the enterprise system are in deep trouble, and the
hour is late.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Footnotes
(Powell’s)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">1 Variously called: the
“free enterprise system,” “capitalism,” and the “profit system.” The American
political system of democracy under the rule of law is also under attack, often
by the same individuals and organizations who seek to undermine the enterprise
system.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">2 Richmond News Leader,
June 8, 1970. Column of William F. Buckley, Jr.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">3 N.Y. Times Service
article, reprinted Richmond Times-Dispatch, May 17, 1971.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">4 Stewart Alsop, Yale and
the Deadly Danger, Newsweek, May 18. 1970.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">5 Editorial, Richmond
Times-Dispatch, July 7, 1971.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">6 Dr. Milton Friedman,
Prof. of Economics, U. of Chicago, writing a foreword to Dr. Arthur A.
Shenfield’s Rockford College lectures entitled “The Ideological War Against
Western Society,” copyrighted 1970 by Rockford College.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">7 Fortune. May, 1971, p.
145. This Fortune analysis of the Nader influence includes a reference to
Nader’s visit to a college where he was paid a lecture fee of $2,500 for
“denouncing America’s big corporations in venomous language . . . bringing
(rousing and spontaneous) bursts of applause” when he was asked when he planned
to run for President.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">8 The Washington Post,
Column of William Raspberry, June 28, 1971.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">9 Jeffrey St. John, The
Wall Street Journal, May 21, 1971.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">10 Barron’s National
Business and Financial Weekly, “The Total Break with America, The Fifth Annual
Conference of Socialist Scholars,” Sept. 15, 1969.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">11 On many campuses
freedom of speech has been denied to all who express moderate or conservative
viewpoints.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">12 It has been estimated
that the evening half-hour news programs of the networks reach daily some
50,000,000 Americans.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">13 One illustration of the
type of article which should not go unanswered appeared in the popular “The New
York” of July 19, 1971. This was entitled “A Populist Manifesto” by ultra
liberal Jack Newfield — who argued that “the root need in our country is ‘to
redistribute wealth’.”</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">14 The recent “freeze” of
prices and wages may well be justified by the current inflationary crisis. But
if imposed as a permanent measure the enterprise system will have sustained a
near fatal blow.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">*One of our great
frustrations is that foundations and funders who prefer a democratic
republic to corporate domination have failed to learn from the success of these
corporate institutions. They decline to invest in long-term education and
culture-shifting that we and a small number of allied organizations work to
achieve. Instead, they overwhelmingly focus on damage control and short-term
goals. This approach stands no chance of yielding the systemic change needed to
reverse the trend of growing corporate dominance.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">We see depressingly little
sign of change. Patient nurturing of movement-building work remains the
exception to the rule among foundations that purport to strengthen democracy and
citizen engagement. The growing movement to revoke corporate personhood is
supported almost entirely from individual contributions.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">ReclaimDemocracy.org
focuses on long-term movement-building and systemic change, striving to shift
energy and funding from reactive work against individual harms caused by
corporations to proactive efforts that seek to revoke corporate power
systemically. Our ultimate goals involve Constitution-level
change. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Addenda:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Washington and Lee
University has created this archive (<A
href="http://law.wlu.edu/deptimages/Powell%20Archives/PowellSpeechResearchAOFESMemo.pdf"
target=_blank>http://law.wlu.edu/deptimages/Powell%20Archives/PowellSpeechResearchAOFESMemo.pdf</A>)
of significant follow-up communications to the Powell Memo.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Bill Moyers’ website
recently added detailed background and commentary on the memo (<A
href="http://billmoyers.com/content/the-powell-memo-a-call-to-arms-for-corporations/"
target=_blank>http://billmoyers.com/content/the-powell-memo-a-call-to-arms-for-corporations/</A>).</FONT></DIV>
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