Corporate Philanthropy

Your editorial “Giving Labels” (March 9) misrepresents our recent book, “Patterns of Corporate Philanthropy: Public Affairs Giving and the Forbes 250,” by Clemson University Profs. Roger E. Meiners and David N. Laband. You suggest that the book is a simplistic analysis that labels corporations and public policy groups as “left” or “liberal” on no basis other than the whim of the authors.

In fact, the ratings are very carefully defined in the book. A more complex system would have done nothing to alter the results of our survey and would have been unwieldy and impractical; hence the nine categories ranging from “radical left” to “radical right.”

Although, as you say, no “radical right” groups--defined, in part, as “fascist or hate groups” that are “outside the American political consensus”--are listed in our survey, this does not mean no such groups exist. It only means none of them received contributions from the 122 corporations we analyzed. Also, we would never have suggested--as your editorial does--that otherwise unnamed “conservative” (or “liberal”) groups should be redefined as “radical right” (or “radical left”).

We have no quarrel with the notable and exemplary role American business has played in supporting traditional charity, the arts, and education. Our warning is to those corporations that give money, perhaps without sufficient thought or analysis, to public advocacy groups that want to restructure American society so that the prosperity that makes corporate philanthropy possible would be harder, if not impossible, to achieve.

These include groups that are unabashedly socialist, those advocating greater government interference in business practices, and those calling for increasing the tax burden for businesses. It also includes those groups that support Third World and communist dictatorships that close their markets to American business and to entrepreneurs among their own people, shutting down the possibilities of greater prosperity and freedom around the globe.

A third edition of “Patterns of Corporate Philanthropy” is currently in preparation. If the editors or readers of The Times have any specific criticisms that they would like us to take into account, we will be happy to hear from them.

WILLIAM T. POOLE

Director of Research

RICHARD E. SINCERE

Research Associate

Capital Research Center, Washington, D.C.