Medford mail tribune., March 22, 1959, Image 46

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fortunate aftermath of corporate giv
ing: the boycotting of products by
vocal minorities. That sort of thing,
unhappily, acts as a considerable
deterrent among people and corpora
tions who have much to give.
In the case of the Fords, such feel
ings is unfair on two counts. First,
the Ford Foundation cannot directly
control the activities to which it con
tributes. It must assess the aims,
needs, and leadership of such pro
grams, and then expect that these
things will be earned through. Usu
ally they are in a way that brings
great credit to the foresight of the
Foundation. Sometimes they aren't or
are badly misunderstood and the
Foundation reaps criticism.
The announcement, for example,
that the Foundation had allocated
$250,000 to the American Council of
Learned Studies for the study of a
language called Telugu inspired all
sorts of heavy-handed scorn from
people who didn't know or didn't
bother to find out that Telugu is the
language spoken by more than 30
million people in a very sensitive part
of India and Indo-China. This is an
area in which the Russians are mak
ing political hay, partly because they
know the language. .
Secondly, the Ford family and the
Ford Company have no control over
the activities of the Ford Foundation.
Henry and Benson have individual
voices on the Foundation's 15-man
board of trustees which ultimately
rules on the projects undertaken by
the Foundation; but the Fords have
no special influence or power of veto.
Neither of these factors, however,
prevented hundreds of gas-station
operators from once refusing to serv
ice Ford automobiles because they
didn't approve of an activity to which
the Foundation contributed.
"A company entering public affairs
always runs the risk of offending
customers," says Benson philosoph
ically. "We have to sell our products
to all kinds of people. But I guess
corporations are going to have to live
with this problem if they expand their
usefulness in outside activities."
This conflicting allegiance to stock
holders, employees, and customers on
the one hand and to the community,
state, nation, and the world on the
other is a vexing problem. Only in
creased public understanding of the
problem and recognition that the pri
vate giving of corporations and cor
porate officials should be separated
from the products they manufacture
can guarantee that we will receive the
greatest possible good from these fi
nancial and intellectual resources.
Fabulous Ford brothers, Henry (stand
ing), William (seated right), and Ben
son, pose beneath portraits of father
Edsel (left) and grandfather Henry I.
How big are the stakes? The Ford
Foundation today has an annual in
come of about $100 million and a net
worth of almost $2 billion all dedi
cated to discovering and eliminating
the basic causes of human problems.
The foundation was established in
1936 by Henry and Edsel Ford as
an orderly means of contributing
family money to charitable interests.
At first, its activities were limited, but
large gifts of Ford stock to the tax
free Foundation in subsequent years
swelled its income and its activities.
In its early years, the Foundation
was controlled by the family. "But as
its assets increased," says Henry II,
"we felt the public interest should be
dominant and we sought the leader
ship of outstanding men of varied
backgrounds for our board. I feel
their decisions reflect a cumulative
wisdom and experience equalled in
few other organizations."
Present Foundation activities in
clude, among many others, programs
to encourage registration and voting,
promote careers in public service,
study correctional institutions for
juveniles, study adjustment problems
of elderly people, aid Hungarian refu
gee scholars, develop new teaching
methods for Americans to learn
Oriental languages, and exchange
scholars with Asian and Near Eastern
nations. The Foundation is also spend
ing more than $24 million for the
Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship
Foundation to attract more able col
lege students into teaching careers.
Ford philanthropy doesn't stop with
the Foundation. A second charity
known as the Ford Fund organized
in 1948 "to discharge our obligations
as a corporate citizen" operates in
areas closer to the immediate affairs
of the Ford Company. For example,
between 70 and 80 college scholar
ships are given each year to children
of Ford employees.
The scholarships, available to all
employees making $12,000 a year or
less, pay full tuition and four-fifths
of the student's living costs at any
college he selects for four years. If
the college is privately endowed, the
Fund also contributes $500 per year
per student to the school. Hundreds
of talented young people have used
these Ford scholarships to launch
careers in which they will contribute
much to their fellow countrymen.
In 1956 the Ford Motor Company
gave Henry Ford's fabled home, Fair-
(Continaed on page 9)
Family Weekly, March 11, 1S59
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