Funding Father

John Olin, the money man behind the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy.

By Amye Greene, Wesleyan University
Friday December 2, 2005

In 1958 when John M. Olin, a sixty-six year old white male millionaire, graced the November 17 cover of Sports Illustrated in a three-piece suit while holding a gun, his foundation was in its infancy, a mere five years old. In the following decade, the image of the Anglo-American dream that Olin’s image represented was threatened by progressives who were determined to challenge the tradition of conservative pedagogy in the nation’s universities.

John Olin was born on November 10, 1892 in Akron, Illinois, a seventh generation American. In A Gift of Freedom: How the John M. Olin Foundation Changed America, John J. Miller, a conservative writer for National Review, illustrates how Olin utilized capitalism and free markets to continue his family’s legacy of wealth and hard work, characterizing Olin as the paragon of American values. Founded on December 29, 1953, the Olin Foundation made its first contribution to Cornell (Olin’s alma mater) in 1954 in the amount of $18,000. Twenty-three years after John Olin’s death, the Olin Foundation closed on November 29, 2005, honoring Olin’s wish for the foundation to last no more than a generation after his demise. Olin’s wish that the foundation eventually terminate its operations was due to his incessant fear that the Olin Foundation would become divorced from its original objective and eventually be corrupted by leftist ideology and individuals.

A Gift of Freedom is commemorative and unapologetically biased. It celebrates the death of the Olin Foundation by narrating the history of conservatism, and the Olin Foundation’s role in creating environments that nurtured the conservative minds of today. Miller writes that the conservative ideology of a predominately white upper-middle class was “arising from the intellectual ghettos,” during the 1960s, as persons of color were arising from urban ghettos into the country’s prestigious universities; compromising university standards, in his opinion. Miller writes, “Olin also seemed concerned that recruiting ill prepared minority students from cities and placing them in an elite university far from home was a recipe for trouble.”

Olin found it necessary to invest his efforts in the educational and political arena if he was going to ensure the survival of capitalism, “dead white men,” dog breeding, duck hunting and apple pie. The Olin Foundation was giving away over $1 million annually by 1977, when Bill Simon became president of the Olin Foundation and sported a slogan of “grants grants and more grants in exchange for books.” Olin gave to conservative think tanks like the Heritage Foundation, publications like Commentary, The American Spectator and The New Criterion. Under Simon’s influence, the Olin Foundation would engage in ideological battle against liberals by broadening conservative exposure in the academic arena by creating a “counter-intelligentsia.”

Olin and other conservatives felt that the intelligentsia in need of countering was irredeemably left-leaning. Thus they turned their attention to universities. To win the battle of ideas they not only sponsored conservative intellectuals, but created a whole conservative counter-culture on college campuses. They sponsored student publications like Dartmouth Review that have served as a breeding ground for right-wing pundits. And the training and internship programs they fund, like the Collegiate Network, integrate those rising conservative stars into the ranks of the elite conservative and mainstream media.

America ’s most infamous conservatives all make cameos in A Gift of Freedom as they all have Olin connections. David Horowitz, Dinesh D’Souza, Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham have all been associated with Olin-funded organizations or publications. Funding conservative student publications not only served to increase the voice of conservatives on campus, it provided students with skills and connections to continue in punditry and activism upon graduation.

In addition, the Olin Foundation realized that if it were going to change the political climate on college campuses, it would have to provide financial incentives for conservatives to assume teaching positions in higher education. The Olin Foundation established programs that offered financial support to young professors so that they could reduce their teaching load and focus on getting published to improve their chances for tenured positions.

John Miller undoubtedly regards the Olin Foundation and the conservative movement as victorious, declaring that the United States is in a “conservative moment.” With millions of dollars from the Olin Foundation alone (not to mention its affiliates) funding educational programs, research organizations and print media, Olin’s legacy is enormous. It is not limited to seeing his name on college libraries across the country. Olin and the conservative movement that he supported were fiercely dedicated to creating strong networks that would create a climate for the conservative minds of tomorrow to flourish. While some would contest the notion that America is in a “conservative moment” and more would take issue with Miller’s belief that conservative ideas are “inherently ascendant,” it is clear that the myriad conservative victories of the last twenty-five years owe an enormous debt to the Olin Foundation.

And there is nothing wrong with that. The challenge is for progressives to counter the influence of Olin and his philanthropic allies in the Coors and Scaife families. The Center for American Progress and Campus Progress were founded in part for that very reason. Miller, in a New York Times op-ed, wrote: “is it possible to create a liberal version of the John M. Olin Foundation? I have my doubts… in the end, not all ideas are equal. Some are simply better than others.” He’s right about that, but he’s wrong about which ideas are the better ones. If progressives push their ideas as strategically and untiringly as conservatives have pushed theirs, then we will win. But it’s OK to take notes from the other team, especially on their best strategies that are discussed in this book.

Amye Greene is an intern at Campus Progress.