In 1953 a Report on Carnegie Foundation was ordered by a Resolution passed by
the House of Representatives on Tax Exempt Foundations known as the Reece Committee. Norman
Dodd was the staff
director of the Congressional Special Committee, which reported
on the un-American concepts of the
Carnegie Endowment within a taped interview . The
following are excerpts from that interview with Norman Dodd:
Dodd: Well, Mr.
Griffin, in that report, I specifically -- number one -- defined what was, to
us, meant by the phrase “un-American.” And, we defined that, in our way, as
being a determination to effect changes in
the country by un-Constitutional means.
“Griffin:
How would you describe the motivation of the people who created the
foundations -- the big foundations -- in the very beginning? What was their motivation?
Dodd: Their motivation was, well, let's take Mr.
Carnegie, as an example. His
publicly declared and steadfast interest was to counteract the departure of the colonies from Great
Britain. (Documented in Congressional Records from the 1940) He was devoted
just to putting the pieces back together again.
Griffin: Would that
have required the collectivism to which they were dedicated?
Dodd: No. No. No. These policies are the foundations'
allegiance to these un-American concepts;
these policies are all traceable to the transfer of the funds over into the
hands of Trustees, Mr. Griffin.
Those Trustees were not the men who had a hand in the creation of the
wealth that led to the endowment, or the use of that wealth for what we would
call public purposes.
Griffin: It was a
subversion of the original intent, then?
Dodd: Oh, yes!
Completely so. We got into the worlds,
traditionally, of bankers and lawyers.
Griffin: How have the purpose and direction of
the major foundations changed, over the years, up to the present? What are their purposes and directions
today?
Dodd:
100% behind meeting the cost of education, such as it is presented
through the schools and colleges of this United States, on the subject of our
history -– to prove that our original ideas are no longer practical. The future belongs to collectivistic
concepts. There is just no
disagreement on this.”
Mr. Griffin, that direction was to utilize this
investigation to uncover the fact
that this country had been the victim of a conspiracy. That was Mr. Reece's conviction. I eventually agreed to carry out that
direction.
Griffin:
Can you tell us what the Reece Committee was attempting to
do?
Dodd: Yes, I can tell
you. It was operating and carrying
out instructions embodied in a Resolution passed by the House of
Representatives, which was to investigate the activities of foundations as to
whether or not these activities could justifiably be labeled “un-American” --
…
Griffin:
What were some of the details, the specifics, of what you told the
committee at that time?
Dodd: Well, Mr.
Griffin, in that report, I specifically -- number one -- defined what was, to
us, meant by the phrase “un-American.”
And, we defined that, in our way, as being a determination to effect
changes in the country by un-Constitutional means.
We have plenty of Constitutional
procedures, assuming that we wished to effect a change in the form of
government, and that sort of thing.
And therefore, any effort in that direction, which did not avail itself
of the procedures authorized by the Constitution, could be justifiably called
“un-American.” That was the start
of educating them, up to that particular point. The next thing was to educate them as to
the effect on the country, as a whole, of the activities of large, endowed
foundations over the then past forty years.
Griffin:
What was that effect, Sir?
Dodd: That affect was to orient
our educational system away from
support of the principles embodied in the Declaration of Independence, and
implemented in the Constitution;
and to educate them over to the idea that the task now was to effect an orientation of
education away from these briefly
stated principles and self-evident truths.
And,
that’s what had been the effect of the wealth which constituted the endowments
of those foundations – foundations that had been in existence over the largest
portion of the span of fifty years -- and holding them responsible for this
change. What we were able to bring
forward was -- what we had uncovered was -- the determination of these large
endowed foundations, through their trustees, actually to get control over the
content of American
education.