46 MONOPOLY CAPITAL ~-
related negatively, if at all, with productive efficiency; yet no ;",
l
corporation with serious claims to Big Business standing would
dream of neglecting this aspect of its operations. Size, success,
strength the desiderata of corporate policy must be not only
achieved but also displayed for all the world to see. The need
to dazzle and overawe is as great as ever, and the costs which it
entails have certainly grown along with the growth of capital.
What have changed are the form and method of conspicuous
waste, not the purpose or content.
Much the same can be said about philanthropy. This too is
being institutionalized, and though up to now foundations
have taken the lead, the corporations themselves are playing an
increasingly important role, especially in the field of providing
private support for institutions of higher learning. 28 Doubtless
those observers are right who see here a trend that will con-
tinue into the indefinite future; the end may well be that the
cost of nearly all private philanthropy will be directly borne by
corporations.
It is in this area of philanthropy, and the public-relations
efforts which accompany it and are closely related to it, that
figure of speech and men pierce the ocean depths as blithely as they cross
the street-a bench mark in architectural history-a staggering complex
of machinery-an art gallery u11like any other in the world-a towering
symbol of Chase Manhattan's confidence in the future of the storied
financial district." All America11s can share a legitimate pride in this
monument to what man holds dearest, the more so since as taxpayers
they pay about half its cost.
28
One should not assume that this is all pure philanthropy. ''Business
corporations," writes William M. Compton, President of the Council for
Financial Aid to Education, ''are not benevolent institutions. But they
can be 'benevolent' when considered benevolence is in the interests of
their owners." Association of American Colleges Bulletin, March 1954.
Presumably Mr. Compton knows from personal experience how corpora-
tions feel about these matters. Or to cite again Crawford Greenewalt,
President of Du Pont: the continued progress of American industry
depends on the nation's having "a balanced research program, which
means that it must supplement its applied research with an amount of
fun~amental research sufficient to provide the basic information upon
which all scientific progress depends . . . . A substantial amount of such
TllE GIANT CORPORATION 47
we find a genuine kernel of truth in the ''soulful corporation''
idea. In criticizing this notion earlier, we rejected the view in
Kaysen's paper ''The Social Significance of the Modem Corpo-
ration'' that profit maximization has ceased to be the guiding
principle of corporate conduct. But when Kaysen says that the
modem corporation's ''responsibilities to the general public are
widespread'' and lists among them ''leadership in local charit-
able enterprises, concern with factory architecture and land-
scaping, provisi0n of support for higher education, and even
research in pure science," there is no reason to cavil. Having
maximized their profits, corporations do feel called upon to
engage in activities of this sort and almost certainly will do so
to an increasing extent. If these are emanations of the corpo-
rate soul, then the existence of that metaphysical entity can be
taken to be a fact. But it is a familiar soul, not a new one.
Escaping from the dying body of the capitalist philanthropist,
it has migrated to the capitalist corporation. For the system as
a whole, there has been no net increase of soulfulness.
8
\Ve have tried to show that the giant corporation of today is
an engine for maximizing profits and accumulating capital to at
least as great--aI:(extent as the individual enterprise of an earlier
period. But it is not merely an enlarged and institutionalized
version of the personal capitalist. There are major differences
between these types of business enterprise, and at least two of
them are of key importance to a general theory of monopoly
capitalism: the corporation has a longer time horizon than the
individual capitalist, and it is a more rational calculator. Both
research is now being done by industry. The major responsibility, how-
ever, must rest with our universities, for only they can provide the atmo-
sphere in which truly fundamental scientific inquiry can flourish. The
~roblem is not so much one of persuasion as of finance; it is here that
1i_idustry, by supporting academic fundamental research, can at the same
time serve its stockholders and supply a public need." The Uncommon
Man, pp. 137-138.