The Daily Signal - Ford, Mellon, Rockefeller Made Their Fortunes Thanks to Capitalism. Now, Their Foundations Seek to Undermine It.

Episode Date: June 14, 2021

Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, and Andrew Mellon flourished because of America's free-enterprise system. Yet, the foundations that bear their names are today pursuing a much different agenda, warns Rick Graber, president and CEO of the Bradley Foundation and chairman of the Philanthropy Roundtable. "These foundations exist with their massive endowments because of these gentlemen that believed in free markets, took risks, and created just some incredible, incredible companies," Graber says. "It's hard to make the case that any of these foundations—Ford, Rockefeller, Mellon—are honoring donor intent. The founders would not be pleased." Graber recently wrote about the topic for The Daily Signal, "Woke Foundations Use Dollars Acquired Through Capitalism to Undermine Free Market Principles," warning about the implications for America's future. He joined me on "The Daily Signal Podcast."  Also on today's show, we also read your letters to the editor and share a good news story about a Waffle House manager who went out of his way to make sure one of his youngest employees could attend his high school graduation. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Monday, June 14th. I'm Robert Blewey. And I'm Virginia Allen. On today's show, Rob talks with Rick Graber, president and CEO of the Bradley Foundation, about his recent Daily Signal commentary about woke foundations undermining free market values. We also read your letters to the editor and share a good news story about a Waffle House manager who went out of his way to make sure one of his youngest employees could attend his high school graduation. Before we get to today's show,

We want to tell you about the most reliable source for global economic data, the Heritage Index of Economic Freedom. The Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom ranks nearly every nation in the world according to its level of economic freedom. Whether for personal or professional research, the index is a wealth of information. Learn why it's easier to start a business in Switzerland than it is in France and where America falls on the ranking. Visit heritage.org slash index to explore the 2012. 21 Index of Economic Freedom, which features interactive maps, country rankings, graphs of data, and much, much more. Now stay tuned for today's show coming up next. We are joined on the Daily Signal podcast today by Rick Graber.

He's the president and CEO of the Bradley Foundation and chairman of the Philanthropy Roundtable. Rick, thanks so much for joining us. Great to be with you, Rob. Great pleasure. Thanks for having me. You are a return visitor to the Daily Signal podcast, so we certainly appreciate that. you bring experience, having worked for Honeywell International, you're a former U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic, and you've also recently written a piece which we published at The Daily Signal about philanthropic

wokeism. Tell our listeners what you mean by this term. Well, there's just been an incredible amount of dollars invested by certain foundations in this country. The Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Mellon, all come to mind in social justice causes. whether it be funding in and around the Black Lives Matter movement, the 1619 project, and so-called ESG, environmental social governance, which really is an effort to have our business community, have our corporations behave in a way that's different

than it has been pretty much forever. I know as a young corporate lawyer, and then certainly with my time with Honeywell, that we were always under the impression and the way things truly did operate is that corporations were reporting to their shareholders and their fiduciary duty was to their shareholders to generate a profit because then good things happen. Jobs get created, opportunity gets created. A strong economy means good things for more and more people. But that seems to be changing. And these foundations are really at the leading edge of this effort,

to change the way corporations behave and to adhere to a worldview that isn't necessarily consistent with the best interests of their shareholders. So I think it's a big concern. Well, and when you talk about the contributions, I mean, I just want to give people an understanding of the scale here. The Ford Foundation announced plans to provide $1 billion in funding. This is already, as I understand it, on top of a previous announcement where they were spending a billion dollars. The Rockefeller Foundation was also committing one billion dollars over the course of three years. So, I mean, we are talking about a significant sum of money that is going toward these causes. What do you see as driving or motivating their decision?

I think it's really trying to undermine in many ways our free market system, our capitalistic system. There is a fundamental philosophical perspective that these foundations are bringing and obviously have staggering amounts of money to spend on it. And, you know, really, there's been very little scrutiny of it. Is it working? Are we talking about dramatic changes that have happened such that it makes sense to change our free market system? Our free market system has taken billions of people, two billion people,

since the 1970s out of poverty. And to reverse that and to look at the world in a different sort of way. It just doesn't seem to make sense to it to me. And it's something that we need to push back a little harder on from those of us that believe that free markets and opportunity, really the core principles that have made this country, the greatest country on earth, the most prosperous country on earth, an effort to undo that, I think, is really tearing up the fabric of the country. And as I said, a massive concern. Well, in the piece, you'd call it a miracle, frankly, the fact that so many people have been lifted out of poverty and starvation as a result of the free market. You even, quote, former President Barack Obama in the piece who said, quote, we don't dispute that the free market is the greatest producer of wealth in history. It has lifted billions of people out of poverty.

So, I mean, here you have a situation where it seems that, and you go through several statistics in the piece, where you outline the benefits. And yet it seems the prevailing narrative in the media from left-wing politicians and others is to really tarnish the reputation of the free market. I'm just wondering in your role, what are some of the things that we can do to push back on this really, I think, troubling trend that we see across our society? I think those of us that have a different perspective have to speak up. And I would include foundations such as ours at the Bradley Foundation, where for 35 years, we have supported free markets and we have supported our constitutional order and we have focused on a strong civil society. These are the things that have made this country great. There is no evidence whatsoever that any government program or any social justice program has made a difference in this country. And why is the conversation in this country not about education?

Why is it not about stronger families, for instance? And the pandemic has really brought this home. Why are the kids in this country sitting at home? Why are the large city public school systems in this country failing to provide an adequate education? When we talk about equality of opportunity, it's issues like that, like strong families. like great educations that are going to make a difference. It's not some government program. It's not defunding police.

It's not undoing the capitalist system that has worked so well in this country since it's founding. One of the things that you discuss in the piece and you reference is Senator Tim Scott's response to President Joe Biden's recent congressional. Great response. We were big fans of it. And one of the things that I think he touched on, which you also get into, is that, So many of these foundations seem to be driven by this notion that the free market system is doing a disservice to minorities or to women. What can you tell us about the free market and the success that African Americans, women, other minority groups may have had over the last, particularly four years of President Trump's presidency with regard to free market successes? Right. I mean, the statistics are pretty clear.

It would be pre-pendemic, I don't think anyone can argue that we had a pretty strong economy in this country, that unemployment was down and particularly down for the African-American community, for the Hispanic community, for women. And we're seeing tremendous growth. And again, this is fact. It's not just made up statistics about you see increasing numbers of women-owned businesses. You see Hispanics generating income and wealth at a level really unprecedented around the world. And you see many more African-American entrepreneurs. The percentage rate of black-owned businesses, small businesses that are thriving continues to increase. And why is that?

It's because of the opportunity of free markets, in theory, limited government, less regulation, getting out of the way and rewarding initiative and innovation as opposed to one skin color or gender. We have so much in this country that we have in common. The bind that holds this country together, the glue that holds this country together is so very important. And what you see these organizations on the left doing, both the foundations, the funders and the grant recipients is trying to divide us, trying to divide us by race, trying to divide us by gender, and in the course, are doing tremendous damage to this country. Yes, there have been stains in the past, and no one is going to deny that, but we have also made incredible progress as a country.

And President Barack Obama was right. Freedom and free enterprise have made a difference. They have created progress they have created opportunity it created a scenario where he was a two-term president and we can't lose sight of these things we got we've got to focus on what binds us as a nation not what divides us and what is going on in this country right now is is concerning and we have to push back we have to talk to our legislators we have to talk to our businesses we have to talk to people at the community level, local governments, school boards, all of this. People who have a different view have to speak up and make our feelings known. Because I believe a majority of the Americans agree that this is the greatest country on earth,

and it's something that is certainly worth fighting for. Well, Rick, I appreciate you giving us that perspective and some of the places where we need to focus our attention. I think one thing that stood out in my mind recently was to see so many corporations or, in some cases, professional athletes or celebrities speaking out on political issues where in the past, that's probably not an area they would have focused. But particularly when it comes to businesses, which seem to be setting aside the great Milton Friedman and his thinking and philosophy about shareholders and profits and now focusing on those other areas of social responsibility. and other things. What does that tell you? And have you seen success stories where Americans have been able to get those corporations to focus less on the political debates of the day and more on the core function that they exist to serve? I mean, I totally agree that Major League Baseball, moving the All-Star game from Atlanta to Denver, Delta Airlines CEO, speaking out Coca-Cola, horrible.

That is not your role. and it is not the CEO's role to tell me or anyone else how we should think. And particularly with respect to this Georgia election law, if anyone takes a hard look at the law and really reads the law, and I doubt if any of these CEOs or the Commissioner of Baseball ever took a hard look at it, you would see that it is a very common sense, fair approach to conducting elections, a cornerstone of a fundamental part of who we are as Americans, are having free and fair elections and that's exactly what that was intended to do. So I think it was just terribly unfortunate and terribly misguided that those comments were made.

You know, and there are other organizations like the Business Roundtable and the United States Chamber of Commerce that have to some extent tried to embrace these principles or at least appease certain elements of this ESG concept that I think are unfortunate. We have to organize new groups to serve as counters to this. We have to attend our own shareholder meetings. We have to resist. We have to talk about it. Frankly, we're way behind.

We've had very few organizations on the right that have fought back against this. The person by the name of Justin Danhoff, an author by the name of Stephen Socup, the organization, Alec, a few others have started to weigh in on this. But we've got a lot of catching up to do. And again, while it's more comfortable to keep your head down and not talk about it, I think to coin an old phrase, the silent majority has got to speak up and start making our feelings known. That's certainly true. In the piece, you focus on three of the foundations, the Ford Foundation, Rockefeller,

Mellon, all of which are namesakes for Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, and Andrew Mellon, who I think it's safe to say, all embraced free market principles in their own work. What does it mean that these foundations have taken such a radically different approach than the namesakes probably would have really wanted them to go in this direction? I'm certain that they are all spinning, that this is not what they would have wanted. And in fact, the grandson of Henry Ford resigned from the Ford Foundation Board of Directors because he just did not believe in what we were doing. These foundations exist with their massive endowments because of these gentlemen that believed in free markets took risks and created just some incredible, incredible companies. It's something at the Bradley Foundation that we take very seriously.

And we have a similar story of two brothers in City of Milwaukee, Lined and Harry Bradley, who grew up in the early 1900s, built their business in the early 1900s, and believed very strongly in limited government, in as little regulation as possible in free markets, in a strong civil society. And at the Bradley Foundation, we've tried very hard over the years of the Foundation's existence to honor donor intent. And it's hard to make the case that any of these foundations, Ford, Rockefeller, Mel, and others are honoring donor intent. The founders would not be pleased. Probably would have sunset the foundations had they known what would happen. And it's something that foundations have to work very hard on it, to maintain that donor intent to constantly focus on what would the founders have done, were they sitting at the table today, not what the people who are actually sitting at the table want to do. I think we've done a good job of that at Bradley. I think Ford Rock, Feller, and Mellon and others have done a very poor job.

Well, Rick, let's talk a little bit about Bradley. I want to give our listeners some perspective on the work that you do. The Bradley Foundation, as I understand it, has awarded over a billion dollars in grants to over 2,000 nonprofit organizations. What is your mission statement? What are the priorities that you are focused on at your foundation? Our mission statement is really pretty simple. Our mission is to protect, restore, and strengthen the principles. institutions that have made this country exceptional.

And we have defined that in a way that we will support organizations that promote our constitutional order, federalism, separation of power, the freedoms in our bill of rights, freedom of speech, freedom of religion. We focus a lot on free markets. We've talked about that a lot today, on limited government, on promoting an environment where entrepreneurs have an opportunity to fail and succeed, Linden Harry Bradley had a lot of stops and starts along the way until the Allen Bradley came in into its into its heyday. And then ultimately when the Allen Bradley company was sold in the mid-1980s to Rockwell, that is the cash that generated the money that is today the Bradley Foundation. Linden Harry Bradley cared a lot about people being able to self-govern themselves and they believe that in education

deeply, which is why the Bradley Foundation has been so engaged in the school choice movement. Wisconsin was at the forefront of the school choice movement in the mid-1980s and has been ever since. And we continue to support some fantastic schools in Milwaukee and Wisconsin around the country. And then a strong civil society. We've also talked about that today. It's not government programs that make us who we are as Americans. It's its neighborhoods, it's churches, it's schools. It's the local stuff that is the glue of America that we worry about. And it's those organizations that are making a difference. And it's true in Milwaukee, and it's true in organizations,

small, unsung organizations all over the country that are making a difference in people's lives and restoring in those cases where it's necessary, the dignity of each and every person and the dignity that comes from war. work. So those are the core areas. We look for strong leaders in organizations. We like to say we fund chefs and not restaurants. And it really is true. And I think, find and Harry Bradley, were they still around, would look back and say, wow, this is pretty neat. What a great legacy. Well, Rick, thank you for giving us that explanation and also for the tremendous work that the Bradley Foundation does. You wear another hat as chairman of the Philanthropy Roundtable, and I wanted to ask a

COVID-related question because so many foundations, I think, have struggled to adapt in this unusual period we found ourselves in for the past 14 months. What are you hearing out there among philanthropic organizations as they hopefully recover from COVID and look to this next phase? What are some of the things that are on your radar and some of the areas where you think there will be a renewed focus, whether it be on civil society or education or other issues in the future. At the Bradley Foundation, we've been back in the office since last June. So we didn't take too much of a pause. Philanthropy Roundtable is doing some fantastic things.

New leadership there, at least Westhoff, is a great young leader of the Roundtable. And if my calendar is any indication of what's going on, especially come fall, I think there's just going to be an incredible remitting, if you will. I mean, the number of events going on, the number of opportunities to get together and to network is just incredible. I'm going to be on the road most of the fall

from what it looks like. And I think that's important. I think people want to do that. I think we're going to be conducting our business in different ways. I think people will continue to meet in sessions such as this. and we've all become quite adept at Zoom calls.

But I think people meeting people and networking with each other is very, very important. I think that will continue to happen. And I think it'll just ramp up our activity and the opportunity for the groups that we're able to fund to enhance. I mean, people like being with people. We've come through a tough time here with this pandemic. I think we're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, at least in this country. And I think it's something to look forward to. Rick, any closing words you want to leave our audience with, particularly at a time when I think we can be so pessimistic or depressed about the state of the world or politics here in America.

Do you have a word of encouragement that you can give our listeners as they look to the future? I always like to look at the glass as half full. We are all fortunate to be citizens of this great country and this great country. and this great country has accomplished incredible things. And we have all had opportunities because we are citizens of this country. It doesn't guarantee success, doesn't guarantee a certain standard of living, but it does offer opportunity. It's not perfect, never will be perfect.

But if we think more about what binds us as a nation, if we think more about what it means to be an American and celebrate that, as opposed to trying to divide us, this country's going to be just fine. Elections come and go, the politicians come and go. So that pendulum will once again swing in a different direction. In the meantime, those of us that are not on the forefront of the political world, got to just keep doing what we're doing. But speak up, talk about what's important, and I think we'll have a very bright future.

Rick Rayber, thank you for the work that you are doing. at the Bradley Foundation. It is a great honor to have you back on the Daily Signal podcast. We appreciate you joining us today. Thanks so much. Great to be with you. Virginia Allen here. I want to tell you all about a great way you can stay in the know on all the news the Daily Signal covers. Social media. The Daily Signal has an active presence on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. We are constantly posting news stories, clips from interviews, videos, and more across all our social platforms. Follow the Daily Signal on social media so you can get all the latest content from Reels on

Instagram to video clips on Facebook and political commentary on Twitter. Thanks for sending us your letters to the editor. Each Monday we feature our favorites on this show. Virginia, who's up first? In response to Han Von Zbakovsky's piece, another bill in Congress to give partisan bureaucrats control over state election laws, Conrad Masterson writes, The last thing we need is federal laws governing elections. One of the interesting outcomes of having state laws is that we have some experimentation.

That is not to imply that states randomly test various election laws, but that they do have different policies that allow other states to see the benefits or drawbacks of alternative election processes. And in response to Matthew Dickerson's piece, Biden Barry's bad news of a bloated reckless budget and hopes you won't notice, Scott Ward writes to the Daily Signal saying, Increasing the corporate tax is just another tax hike on the American consumer. Seldom do I see it pointed out that no corporation or business in the history of the free market has ever simply absorbed increased taxes into its existing bottom line and price structure. In Economics 101, we learn that you can levy all the taxes you want against a corporation,

but those taxes are passed on to the consumer in the form of higher prices. The taxes are not absorbed by the corporation in some of, altruistic dedication to, quote, paying their fair share, as the socialists are fond of spinning it. It galls me beyond measure that economists and journalists continuously talk about the higher corporate taxes the president is proposing, but fail to enlighten the average American about who is actually going to pay those taxes. Your letter could be featured on next week's show, so send us an email at letters at daily signal.com. I'm Amy Swearer, and I'm Johncarlo Conaparo.

want to understand what's happening at the Supreme Court, be sure to check out Scotus 101, a Heritage Foundation podcast. We take a look at the cases, the personalities, and the gossip at the highest court in the land. It's Scotus 101. Virginia, you have a good news story to share with us today. Over to you. Thanks so much, Rob. This week's good news story takes us down to a waffle house in Birmingham, Alabama. Timothy Harrison just started working at his local Waffle House a few weeks ago, right after he completed his senior year of high school. Shortly after he started work, he asked his boss, Cedric Hampton, if he could take May 27th off for his graduation ceremony. Timothy's boss said yes, of course, but when graduation day rolled around, Timothy showed up for

work at the Waffle House. His boss asked him why he was there and not getting ready for the ceremony. Harrison explained that he didn't have a ride across town to where graduation was taking place, nor did he have his cap and gown. Well, Timothy's Waffle House coworkers were not about to let their team member miss such a memorable day. Cedric and the other Waffle House employees swung into action. One employee drove Timothy over to his high school to pick up his cap and gown, other employees, and even some customers pitched in to help buy him dress clothes to wear, and he got ready for his ceremony right there in the Waffle house. Timothy told WBTV 13 news that dressed in his new clothes and his cap and gown,

he felt ready to graduate. When they bought me the clothes, I was most different. I was kind of surprised. I'm going to be honest. When I put on the clothes, that was a different feeling. I was, I feel like, I don't even know the words to you. No, you know. It was the best feeling.

The cap and gown, that felt like a memorable moment. That was a real good moment. It's a feeling I can't describe it. But like, it was amazing. That day, I would never forget. Another one of his coworkers drove him across town just in time for the ceremony and to receive his diploma. Cedric told WVTV 13 News that this was just one act of kindness, but he plans to continue supporting Timothy,

he decides what he wants to do with his life. We're going to help guide him. This is just the beginning for us. We're not going to just let him graduate. We've been keeping our own and make sure he's still doing what he's supposed to do. And then we're going to, I'm going to mentor him until he figured it out. And we're going to take care of. That's just how we are.

At this, at my story, all of our, all of my team is like one big family. So we just take care of each other. Timothy's graduation story quickly went viral and caught the attention of Lawson State Community College in Birmingham, Alabama. The college has offered Timothy. a full ride. College, man, it happened unexpected.

I really never expected that for that to happen. And how I get to take that chance to go to college, to build my life, to know I got a path to go somewhere in life. Like, that's something new to me, to be on top. That's a new mindset I get to create. I just love how encouraging this story is a huge congratulations. to Timothy, but I think my favorite part of this story is Cedric, just a Waffle House manager who saw a young man who needed support and needed help, and he went out of his way to offer

him that. That's just really truly inspiring. It certainly is Virginia, and you'd like to see other people stepping in, playing that role of a role model and giving a helping hand where it's needed. And congratulations to all those individuals out there who've graduated high school or college this time of year. It's a really special moment. And as they move on to that next phase in their life, we wish them well. We really do. It's certainly a special season and very much so we're celebrating. What we're going to leave it there for today, you can find the Daily

Signal podcast on the Rurcochet Audio Network. All of our shows are available at daily signal.com slash podcasts. You can also subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or find us on IHeartRadio for your favorite podcast app. And be sure to listen every week. by adding The Daily Signal podcast as part of your Alexa Flash briefing. If you like what you hear, please leave us a review and a five-star rating. It means a lot to us and helps us spread the word to other listeners. Be sure to follow us on Twitter at DailySignal and Facebook.com slash the DailySignal News. Have a great week.

The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. It is executive produced by Rob Blewey and Virginia Allen. Sound designed by Lauren Evans, Mark Geine, and John Pop. For more information, visit DailySignal.com.