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Robert S. Brookings: The Man, the Vision and the Institution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Abstract

Contrary to those social scientists who posit a close relationship between corporate interests, the capitalist state, and the nonpartisan research establishment, this paper challenges the linkage thesis through an examination of the early history of the Brookings Institution. As the nation's oldest and most prestigious “think tank,” the Brookings Institution played a multidimensional role in the public policy process. Robert S. Brookings, the capitalist who founded the institution in the aftermath of World War I, played little role in the subsequent history of the institution. Instead, the less reform-minded professional social scientists who staffed the organization shaped the character of the institution. In their defense of the market economy, Brookings economists emerged as leading opponents of the new liberal state.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1984

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References

Notes

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11 For Carnegie see Wall, Joseph Frazier, Andrew Carnegie (New York, 1970).Google Scholar The following discussion of Robert S. Brookings is drawn from two unpublished autobiographies, one dated 1920 and the other 11 April 1932, found in the Chancellor Files, Washington University Archives. Also, see Hagedorn, Herman, Robert S. Brookings: A Biography (New York, 1937).Google Scholar

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19 “Proposal to the Carnegie Foundation,” quoted in full in Board of Trustees, Minutes, 5 January 1922, BIF.

20 John D. Rockefeller to Jerome P. Green, 8 November 1920, BIF.

21 Harold G. Moulton to Robert S. Brookings, 21 January 1922 and Moulton to Brookings, 8 May 1922, BIF.

22 Saunders, , The Brookings Institution, p. 39;Google ScholarLyon, Leverett, “Report to the Trustees,” in Memorandum on the Early History of the Brookings Institution, BIF.Google Scholar

23 Brookings, Robert S., Industrial Ownership: Its Economic and Social Significance (New York, 1925).Google Scholar

24 Ibid., pp. 58–64

25 Ibid., pp. 54–55

26 Quoted, in Hagedorn, Brookings, p. 310.Google Scholar

27 Robert S. Brookings to Harold G. Moulton, 26 March 1932, BIF.

28 Berle, Adolph A. and Means, Gardner C., The Modern Corporation and Private Property (New York, 1932).Google Scholar

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For the Brookings Institution's work with Indians see Meriam, Lewis et al. , The Problem of Indian Administration in the United States (Washington, D.C., 1927).Google Scholar

30 Lyon, Leverett et al. , The National Recovery Administration: An Analysis and Appraisal (Washington, D.C., 1935);Google ScholarLyon, Leverett, The Economics of Free Deals: With Suggestions for Code-Making Under the NRA (Washington, D.C., 1933);Google ScholarMoulton, Harold G., The Recovery Problem in the United States (Washington, D.C., 1938).Google Scholar

31 Moulton, Harold G. and Schlotterbeck, Karl T., Should Price Controls Be Retained? (Washington, D.C., 1945);Google ScholarBachman, George W. and Meriam, Lewis, The Issue of Compulsory Health Insurance (Washington, D.C., 1948);Google Scholar and Meriam, Lewis and Schlotterbeck, Karl, The Cost and Finances of Social Security (Washington, D.C., 1950).Google Scholar

32 Harold G. Moulton to Frederic Delano, 21 April 1935, BIF.

33 Moulton, Harold G., Controlling Factors in Economic Development (Washington, D.C., 1949).Google Scholar

34 Delano in fact resigned from the board of trustees after prolonged confrontations with Moulton.

35 Standard works on government reorganization in the Roosevelt administration include Polenberg, Richard, Reorganizing Roosevelt's Government: The Controversy Over Executive Reorganization, 1936–1939 (Cambridge, 1966);CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Karl's, Barry Dean excellent Executive Reorganization and Reform in the New Deal (Cambridge, 1963).Google Scholar

Also see President's Committee on Government Administration and Management, The Reorganization of the Executive Branch of Government (Washington, D.C. 1937).Google Scholar

36 The Brookings Institution's relations with the Brownlow Committee are found in Moulton, H. G., “Memorandum to Louis Brownlow,” (24 March 1937);Google Scholar and Brownlow, Louis, “Memorandum for Moulton,” (11 March 1937) in President's Reorganization Committee Files, FDR Library, Hyde Park, New York.Google Scholar Also, Seiko, Daniel, Memorandum, “Financial Administration of the Federal Government,” (n.d.) in the Brookings Institution Archives, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar

37 Senator Byrd to W. F. Powell, 25 February 1937; H. G. Moulton to Senator Byrd, 2 March 1937; and Moulton to Senator Byrd, 23 March 1937, in the Brookings Institution Archives, Washington, D.C.

38 Memorandum, “State and County Surveys Made by the Institute for Government Research, 1929–1941,” (n.d.) in the Brookings Institution Archives.

39 U.S. Congress, Hearings Before the Joint Committee on Government Organization (Washington, D.C., 1937), pp. 276–94, 307310.Google Scholar

40 Edwin Gay to Harold G. Moulton, 3 August 1943.

41 See Harold G. Moulton's speeches to the Foreign Policy Association, Philadelphia, 16 December 1944; American Finance Conference, 17 November 1943; American Institute of Real Estate Appraisers, 18 November 1940; the Ohio Public Expenditures Conference, 3 November 1949, BIF.

42 Quoted in Alexander, , Theoretical Logic in Sociology, 2: 93.Google Scholar