Philanthropy and the quest for Civic Competence | HistPhil
▻http://histphil.org/2015/12/11/philanthropy-and-the-quest-for-civic-competence
n 1910, Rockefeller’s request for a federal charter for his new general-purpose foundation, which the Standard Oil founder would soon endow with gifts of $100 million, met with a chorus of opposition. Rockefeller, a particularly ruthless entrepreneur, was one of the most hated men in America, and some resisted giving a federal imprimatur to his philanthropic efforts, which were assumed to be a ruse to distract from his nefarious business practices. Others worried that the Foundation would amass immense power and would soon be able to counter the federal government itself.
The debate was heated; during a discussion of the charter on the House floor, one representative jumped up and down and shouted repeatedly, “Viper!” But Devine, in the pages of the journal he edited, The Survey, offered one of the more measured, thoughtful considerations of Rockefeller’s charter request, and of the “record-breaking philanthropy” behind it. He praised Rockefeller’s generosity and assumed his good-intentions. But he also made clear that “the brutal power of concentrated wealth, even when embodied in a philanthropic foundation, may not always work on the side of the real public welfare.” And he reminded his readers that the endowment established by Rockefeller would create, in perpetuity, a reservoir of funds not subject to taxation and thus a permanent siphon upon the federal treasury.