In my letter to Mr. Rockefeller of June third, 1905, I outlined, as we saw in Chapter XLVI, a series of specific trusts, for the promotion of civilization, each with its independent charter, Board of Trustees, and endowment. This idea of several independent foundations was later laid aside for a time for a single central holding company which was to finance annually all the other organizations, and thus necessarily to subject them to its general supervision. We were to call this the Rockefeller Foundation, and to secure a charter from Congress, giving it thus a national character and locating its principal office nominally in the District of Columbia. Its charter was to be perpetual, subject only to repeal by Congress. We thought repeal by Congress would be difficult, if not practically impossible. The Congressional charter as planned by us was to permit limitless capital, to be national and international in scope, with its Board of Trustees to be wholly self-perpetuating, and authorized to do anything whatever, anywhere in the world, within the legal definition of philanthropy as interpreted by our courts. It was true that such a charter would confer vast powers, but if they were abused it could be revoked. It is true that no government at any time had conferred on corporations privileges so limitless, even for philanthropic purposes. But, on the other hand, no fortune so great as Mr. Rockefeller’s had ever before been accumulated by a private person, nor had any philanthropist ever arisen with aims so comprehensive in scope. What we proposed, moreover, conferred on Mr. Rockefeller personally nothing which he did not already possess. As a private American citizen he could use his means in any amount anywhere in the world for any lawful purpose. Indeed, the charter, in so far as he used it, would restrict his liberty rather than enlarge it, for it would take away from him altogether and place in the hands of an independent and self-perpetuating board the distribution of the funds contributed to it. But, on the other hand, Mr. Rockefeller personally was mortal; the charter would be immortal, and confer on his philanthropies the priceless boon of perpetuity, besides securing for them through competent Trustees a higher and broader efficiency than any single intelligence, however able, could compass.
A bill chartering the Rockefeller Foundation was introduced into Congress in 1910, and attracted wide public attention. There was general public approval. Many old friends wrote congratulatory letters.
I cannot more succinctly outline the origin and purpose of the Foundation than I did in a memorandum made at the time:
“Mr. Rockefeller has always said that he held his wealth simply as a trustee for humanity. As such trustee he has been a large and continuously increasing giver to nearly every form of philanthropy at home and abroad. He is advancing in years. He must provide for that personal release from trusteeship which time will render inevitable. He must place a portion of his remaining fortune in a trusteeship which shall be endowed by law with the same liberty of action in aiding philanthropy at home and abroad as he has himself personally exercised hitherto. In other words, it will be necessary to incorporate a fund which, passing on from generation to generation, may do for the philanthropies of each generation, so long as organized society shall exist, what he has tried personally to do in his own life for the philanthropies of his own generation.
“The fund should be large and it should be permanent. To limit it to any specific charities or lines of charity which could now be named would be to imperil its future usefulness. Rapid progress in civilization leaves old needs and old charities behind, and opens up new needs and new opportunities, and it is the new needs and the new opportunities which will always be the most important, exigent, and imperative. The charities of the Christian centuries, from the fifth to the fifteenth, were confiscated before the twentieth in nearly all lands, and where not confiscated have wrought paralysis and stagnation. Each generation will know its needs and opportunities better than we can foresee them. Specific limitations tend to place the dead hand of the past upon the beneficent activities of the future.
It is true that there are lines of philanthropy which must be permanent, and we may safely treat them as such. Education will improve in method, while it must be permanent in essence. Scientific and philosophical research, with new directions and ever improving methods, will be permanent. Medical research will undoubtedly be permanent. Indeed, all the elements of civilization are, as we hope, permanent. But, while this is true, there will be convenience and safety in establishing at least one great fund so flexible and elastic as to meet the varying needs of advancing humanity from decade to decade, from generation to generation, from century to century, as those needs shall disclose themselves to wise and thoughtful men then living.”
Our bill easily passed the House, but hung fire in the Senate, for discreditable reasons I will not rehearse. We preferred to withdraw our bill after it had passed the House, rather than yield personal and local advantages to certain Senators and their party leaders, secretly demanded. We presented it to the Legislature of New York where, with all its powers and privileges unimpaired, it was readily passed without amendment.
The administration of the Foundation, while not wholly faultless, has been marked by circumspection, insight, and wisdom. It has merited and received general praise. I cannot forbear reproducing here an editorial which appeared in the London Times in its issue of September twelfth, 1921:
‘‘The United States has no more effective ambassadors than the representatives of the Rockefeller Foundation, who, year after year, afford their guidance and help in the great fight against disease. The Foundation itself, as the report of its work during 1920 shows, is an inspiration. Planned on international lines and possessed of great resources, it has come to occupy a position of universal trust. Wherever the struggle with the enemies of our species is most severe, there its assistance is given freely, no matter under what flag the victims of pestilence may live. More than that, preparations to ward off disease, to prevent its coming, and to destroy its breeding places are part of the work of this body. Last year we recorded a gift of One Million Pounds to our own University College Hospital. Canada has recently benefited by a sum no less munificent. At the same time surveys have been carried out in West Indian Islands and other British possessions with the object of attacking the dreaded hookworm disease. Nor is our country alone in fee to the Foundation. France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, the smaller nations of Europe and China have all received assistance of the most practical and valuable kind. The Foundation, indeed, is one of the strong places of the new commonwealth of science. In addition it reveals the depth and sincerity of American good will towards ourselves and all peoples. Not with words of comfort only, but with rich and lasting benefits have these emissaries of the New World set out upon their great mission.”
But we hoped too much from the Foundation in framing its great charter. No single board of men can be got together who can cover all human philanthropy and do it wisely. To me, at least, it soon became clear that the subordinate boards of the Foundation, such as the China Medical Board, the International Health Commission, the Medical Education Funds, and perhaps others, might better have been incorporated and endowed independently. The perpetuity even of this and all the other Rockefeller philanthropic charters is now seen to be of doubtful value. Mr. Rockefeller has wisely withdrawn his early restrictions on expending the principal sums.
The several later philanthropies of the Messrs. Rockefeller, father and son, have been directed to specific objects, independently incorporated and controlled by a self-perpetuating Board of Trustees chosen for their fitness for their specific purpose. In personnel I have long urged that all the boards should be wholly independent, or nearly so.
Next Section:
Mr. Rockefeller and My Personal Relations with Him
Chapters In My Life 