United States House Select Committee to Investigate Tax-Exempt Foundations and Comparable Organizations

This article is about the 1952-1954 investigation into non-profits. For the 80s and 90s report on the People's Republic of China's covert operations within the United States, see Cox Report.

The Select Committee to Investigate Tax-Exempt Foundations and Comparable Organizations was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives between 1952 and 1954.^[1] The committee was originally created by House Resolution 561 during the 82nd Congress. The committee investigated the use of funds by tax-exempt organizations (non-profit organizations) to see if they were being used to support communism.^[2][3] The committee was alternatively known as the Cox Committee and the Reece Committee after its two chairmen, Edward E. Cox and B. Carroll Reece.

History

In April 1952, the Select Committee to Investigate Tax-Exempt Foundations and Comparable Organizations (or just the Cox Committee Investigation), led by Edward E. Cox, of the House of Representatives began an investigation of the "educational and philanthropic foundations and other comparable organizations which are exempt from federal taxes to determine whether they were using their resources for the purposes for which they were established, and especially to determine which such foundations and organizations are using their resources for un-American activities and subversive activities or for purposes not in the interest or tradition of the United States."

In the fall of 1952 all foundations with assets of $10 million or more received a questionnaire covering virtually every aspect of their operations. The foundations cooperated willingly. In the committee's final report, submitted to Congress in January 1953, endorsed the loyalty of the foundations. "So far as we can ascertain, there is little basis for the belief expressed in some quarters that foundation funds are being diverted from their intended use," the report said.^[4]

Unhappy with the Cox Committee's conclusions, Rep. Reece pushed for a continuation of its work. In April 1954, the House authorized the Reece Committee. Unlike its predecessor, which limited its attention to generalities, the Reece Committee mounted a comprehensive inquiry into both the motives for establishing foundations and their influence on public life. The investigative inquiry was headed by Norman Dodd, a former banker and bank manager and business man.^[4]

Members

Edward "Eugene" Cox of Georgia served as chairman of the committee until his death on December 24, 1952. Brooks Hays of Arkansas served as acting chairman after Chairman Cox's death.^[5]

Majority	Minority
Euguene Cox, Georgia, Chairman Brooks Hays, Arkansas Aime J. Forand, Rhode Island Donald L. O'Toole, New York	Richard M. Simpson, Pennsylvania, Ranking Member Angier L. Goodwin, Massachusetts B. Carroll Reece, Tennessee

Dodd report

The final report was submitted by Norman Dodd, and because of its provocative nature, the committee became subject to attack. He began by listing criticisms of the Cox Committee, and then moved on to content.

In the Dodd report to the Reece Committee on Foundations, he gave a definition of the word "subversive", saying that the term referred to "Any action having as its purpose the alteration of either the principle or the form of the United States Government by other than constitutional means." He then proceeded to show that the Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and Carnegie Endowment were using funds excessively on projects at Columbia, Harvard, Chicago University and the University of California, in order to enable oligarchical collectivism. He stated, "The purported deterioration in scholarship and in the techniques of teaching which, lately, has attracted the attention of the American public, has apparently been caused primarily by a premature effort to reduce our meager knowledge of social phenomena to the level of an applied science ." He stated that his research staff had discovered that in "1933-1936, a change took place which was so drastic as to constitute a "revolution" . They also indicated conclusively that the responsibility for the economic welfare of the American people had been transferred heavily to the Executive Branch of -the Federal Government ; that a corresponding change in education had taken place from an impetus outside of the local community, -and that this "revolution" had occurred without violence and with the full consent of an overwhelming majority of the electorate ." He stated that this revolution "could not have occurred peacefully, or with the consent of the majority, unless education in the United States had been prepared in advance to endorse it ."^[6]

He stated that the grants given by the Foundations had been used for:

“

"Directing education in the United States toward an international view-point and discrediting the traditions to which, it [formerly) had been dedicated. Training individuals and servicing agencies to render advice to the Executive branch of the Federal Government. Decreasing the dependency of education upon the resources of the local community and freeing it from many of the natural safeguards inherent in this American tradition . Changing both school and college curricula to the point where they sometimes denied the principles underlying the American way of life. Financing experiments designed to determine the most effective means by which education could be pressed into service of a political nature."

”

He cited a book called The Turning of the Tides, which documented the literature from various tax-exempt foundations and organizations like UNESCO showing that they wished to install World Government and collectivism along the lines of Plato's Republic.^[7]

He then listed various policy organizations that had been supported by the Foundations, noting in particular the American Historical Association. He said the following about the association:

“

"The American Historical Association was established in 1889 to promote historical studies . It is interesting to note that after giving careful consideration, in 1926, to the social sciences, a report was published under its auspices in 1934 which concluded that the day of the individual in the United States had come to an end and that the future would be characterized, inevitably, by some form of collectivism and an increase in the authority of the State."

”

The text he was referring to, the American Historical Association’s Report on the Commission on Social Studies,^[8] supports these claims. Excerpts follow:

“

“The Commission is under special obligation to its sponsor, the American Historical Association. Above all, it recognizes its indebtedness to the Trustees of the Carnegie Corporation, whose financial aid made possible the whole five-year investigation of social science instruction in the schools, eventuating in the following Conclusions and Recommendations.” – p. xi “the Commission could not limit itself to a survey of textbooks, curricula, methods of instruction, and schemes of examination, but was impelled to consider the condition and prospects of the American people as a part of Western civilization now merging into a world order.” – p. 1 “The Commission was also driven to this broader conception of its task by the obvious fact that American civilization, in common with Western civilization, is passing through one of the great critical ages of history, is modifying its traditional faith in economic individualism, and is embarking upon vast experiments in social planning and control which call for large-scale cooperation on the part of the people.” – pp. 1-2 “the Commission recognizes the further fact of the inter-relationship of the life of America with the life of the world. In all departments of culture-intellectual, aesthetic, and ethical – the civilization of the United States has always been a part of European, or “Western,” civilization . To ignore the historical traditions and usages which have contributed, and still contribute, to this unity is to betray a smug and provincial disregard of basic elements in American life and to invite national impoverishment, intolerance, and disaster . Moreover, the swift development of technology, industry, transportation, and communication in modern times is obviously merging Western civilization into a new world civilization and imposing on American citizens the obligation of knowing more, rather than less, of the complex social and economic relationships which bind them to the rest of mankind.” pp. 11-12 “there are certain clearly defined trends in contemporary technology, economy, and society of the utmost importance in creating new conditions, fashioning novel traditions, reorienting American life, and thus conditioning any future program of social science instruction.” – p. 13 “Under the molding influence of socialized processes of living, drives of technology and science, pressures of changing thought and policy, and disrupting impacts of economic disaster, there is a notable waning of the once widespread popular faith in economic individualism; and leaders in public affairs, supported by a growing mass of the population, are demanding the introduction into economy of ever-wider measures of planning and control.” – p. 16 “Cumulative evidence supports the conclusion that in the United States as in other countries, the age of laissez faire in economy and government is closing and a new age of collectivism is emerging.” – p.16 “As to the specific form which this “collectivism,” this integration and interdependence, is taking and will take in the future, the evidence at hand is by no means clear or unequivocal. It may involve the limiting or supplanting of private property by public property or it may entail the preservation of private property, extended and distributed among the masses. Most likely, it will issue from a process of experimentation and will represent a composite of historic doctrines and social conceptions yet to appear. Almost certainly it will involve a larger measure of compulsory as well as voluntary co-operation of citizens in the conduct of the complex national economy, a corresponding enlargement of the functions of government, and an increasing state intervention in fundamental branches of economy previously left to individual discretion and initiative-a state intervention that in some instances may be direct and mandatory and in others indirect and facilitative. In any event the Commission is convinced by its interpretation of available empirical data that the actually integrating economy of the present day is the forerunner of a consciously integrated society, in which individual economic actions and individual property, rights will be altered and abridged.” – p. 17 “While stressing the necessity of recognizing the emergence of a closely integrated society in America and the desirability of curbing individualism in economy, the Commission deems highly desirable the conscious and purposeful employment of every practicable means to ward off the dangers of goose-step regimentation in ideas, culture, and invention, of sacrificing individuality, of neglecting precious elements in the traditional heritage of America and the world, and of fostering a narrow intolerant nationalism or an aggressive predatory imperialism.” – p.23 “The Commission deems possible and desirable an enlightened attitude on the part of the masses of the American people toward international relations, involving informed appreciation of the cultural bonds long subsisting among the nations of Western civilization and now developing rapidly among all the nations of the world, and special knowledge of the increasing economic interdependence of politically separate areas and peoples, and of the emerging economic integration of the globe.” – p. 25 “The Commission, under the frame of reference here presented, deems desirable the vitalizing of the findings of scientific inquiry by the best social thought of the present and of the past, and the incorporation into the materials of social science instruction in the schools of the best plans and ideals for the future of society and of the individual.” – p. 27 “The implications for education are clear and imperative: (a) the efficient functioning of the emerging economy and the full utilization of its potentialities require profound changes in the attitudes and outlook of the American people, especially the rising generation-a complete and frank recognition that the old order is passing, that the new order is emerging.” – pp. 34-35 “Organized public education in the United States, much more than ever before, is now compelled, if it is to fulfill its social obligations, to adjust its objectives, its curriculum, its methods of instruction, and its administrative procedures to the requirements of the emerging integrated order.” – p. 35 “If the school is to justify its maintenance and assume its responsibilities, it must recognize the new order and proceed to equip the rising generation to cooperate effectively in the increasingly interdependent society and to live rationally and well within its limitations and possibilities….” – p. 35 “The program of social science instruction should not be organized as a separate and isolated division of the curriculum but rather should be closely integrated with other activities and subjects so that the entire curriculum of the school may constitute a unified attack upon the complicated problem of life in contemporary society.” – p. 48

”

He said, on p. 11 of the report:

“

In summary, our study of these entities and their relationship to each other seems to warrant the inference that they constitute a highly efficient, functioning whole . Its product is apparently an educational curriculum designed to indoctrinate the American student from matriculation to the consummation of his education . It contrasts sharply with the freedom of the individual as the cornerstone of our social structure . For this freedom, it seems to substitute the group, the will of the majority, and a centralized power to enforce this will-Presumably in the interest of all . Its development and production seems to have been largely the work of those organizations engaged in research, such as the Social Science Research Council and the National Research Council. [...] The result of the development and operation of the network in which Foundations have played such a significant role seems to have provided this country with what is tantamount to a national system of education under the tight control of organizations and persons unknown to the American public. Its operations and ideas are so complex as to be beyond public understanding or control. It also seems to have resulted in an educational product which can be traced to research of a predominantly empirical character in the inexact or social sciences. [...] it has been difficult for us to dismiss the suspicion that, latent in the minds of many of the social scientists was lain the belief that given sufficient authority and enough funding, human behavior can be controlled and that this control can be exercised without risk to either ethical principles or spiritual values and that therefore, the solution to all social problems should be entrusted to them. In the light of this suspicion and the evidence which supports it, it has been difficult to avoid the conclusion that if social scientists of the persuasion I have been discussing have been accepted by Foundations, Government and education as though their claims were true, this flies in the face of the fact that their validity has been disputed by men well trained in these same disciplines. In spite of this dispute within his own ranks, the social scientist is gradually becoming dignified by the title "Social Engineer" . This title implies that the objective viewpoint of the pure scientist is about to become obsolete in favor of an increased focus on techniques of control. It also suggests that our traditional concept of freedom as the function of natural and constitutional law has been abandoned by the "social engineer" and brings to mind our native fear of controls -however well intended.

”

The end of the report, following the Transcript of Dodd's address, contains the following message:

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The effect of the Dodd Report was electric. Moves were launched within a matter of hours to block an effective probe. On Capitol Hill, the Committee found itself confronted with obstacles at every turn. The Nation itself was deluged with stories which openly or by inference suggested that the investigation was futile, if not worse. The national board of Americans for Democratic Action (the A .D .A .) formally urged the House to disband the Committee, stating it was conducting "a frontal attack on learning itself." Many citizens, on the other hand, believe that such a committee should be made a permanent Standing Committee of the House -"to gather and weigh the facts."

”

References

1. ^ Walter Stubbs (1985), Congressional Committees, 1789-1982: A Checklist, Greenwood Press, pp. 133 
2. ^ http://www.2facts.com.wylproxy.minlib.net/Archive/temp/76987temp1954020050.asp?DBType=News World News Digest: Foundations Probe: Reece Unit vs. Foundations; Other Developments (subscription required)
3. ^ http://www.jstor.org/pss/1978168
4. ^ ^{a b} J. Steven Ott, ed (2000). The Nonprofit Sector: An Overview. University of Utah: Westview Press. pp. 114–115. ISBN 0813367859. http://books.google.com/?id=9IydzatK1C0C&pg=PA115&vq=reece&dq=House+Special+Committee+to+Investigate+Tax-Exempt+Foundations+and+Comparable+Organizations. 
5. ^ U.S. House of Representatives (1953). Hearings Before the Select Committee on Tax-Exempt Foundations and Comparable Organizations. Hearings, 82nd Congress. 97. Government Printing Office. http://books.google.com/?id=b7BIPQAACAAJ. 
6. ^ "Dodd Report to the Reece Committee on Foundations (1954)". http://www.scribd.com/doc/3768227/Dodd-Report-to-the-Reece-Committee-on-Foundations-1954. 
7. ^ "The Turning of the Tides". http://americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=PDFsml_AD2/The_Turning_Of_The_Tides-Paul_Shafer-John_Snow-1953-191pgs-SOC-POL-EDU.sml.pdf&id=515. 
8. ^ "Report On The Commission On Social Studies". http://americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=PDFsml_AD2/Report_On_The_Commission_On_Social_Studies-Krey-Counts-Kimmel-Kelley-1934-179pgs-EDU.sml.pdf&id=395.