Sie sind auf Seite 1von 2

August 22, 2017

Having read both Mr. Wolfingers statement to the University of Utah Academic
Senate and Mr. Hiltziks recent article in the LA Times, I believe it is time for one
Eccles family member to express agreement on a number of your positions.

I rarely involve myself in Utah politics since I am a resident of California and have no
authority over any of the various Utah Eccles Foundations. This guardianship was
created decades ago by their founders, which established authority through senior
partners of a local family law firm and executive members of the First Security Bank
of Utah.

I am, however, familiar with Marriner S. Eccles, the principal in question regarding
most of the issues discussed by you and recent attempts to fund an institute bearing
his name. Marriner was my grandfather and until his death in 1977, we shared a
close bond and friendship few people get to have with someone of his historical
importance. He raised me as his son when my father, his eldest son, died in 1960. I
also have a relationship with the University of Utah. After graduating from Stanford
in 1971, I returned to Utah and graduated from both the Business School and the
Department of Economics with degrees in finance and economics in 1976. I
returned to California and worked with Bank of America in the Asset and Liability
Division of the World Banking Division. I am now retired and as mentioned earlier,
living in the Bay Area.

Both of you are undoubtedly well-versed in Marriners history and


accomplishments: from his New Deal proposals before Congress in 1933, to the
1951 Treasury Accord, to recognition of China, Population Issues, and later as the
first business leader to oppose the Vietnam War in 1964.

None of these positions or accomplishments throughout his life remotely resonate


with any policies or positions advanced by Charles Koch. To attempt to name an
institute in Marriners name, partially and conditionally funded by Charles Koch,
may advance the standing of the Koch Family, but is antithetical to what Marriner
stood for his entire public life. Aside from perhaps a shared belief that private
economic markets are the most efficient mechanism for allocating scarce resources
among competing needs, Charles Koch and Marriner Eccles have nothing in
common.

The University of Utah Academic Senate should renounce the offer of funding this
institute based on the conditional 8-year grant from the Charles Koch Foundation,
and secondly, should the Koch Foundation rescind its conditional support in favor of
a one-time no strings offer, the name of the institute should be The University of
Utah Institute for Economics and Quantitative Analysis with reference to Marriner S.
Eccles omitted from the title.

I have attached a redacted speech Marriner delivered to the Economic Club of New
York over 75 years ago when he was Chairman of the Federal Reserve. Try to see if
you can imagine Charles Koch in front of this audience reading these words today.

Marriner C. Eccles
Economic Club of New York, May, 1940

It is imperative to meet now the needs of those who, through no fault of


their own, have no jobs, no security, no tangible stake in the society we
wish to preserve. As a democracy we cant afford to take the position
that because economic conditions are satisfactory for many of us, others
who are less fortunate can be shunted aside, or merely kept alive by hand
outs, until economic revival develops at some unpredictable future time.
Aside from humane considerations, it is not good government, good democracy,
or good economics to lose the productivity of millions of workers. Those of
us fortunate enough to have property sometimes forget that for millions of
our people their only possession is a job. When that is gone, they have but
slight reason to remain loyal to our institutions and our economic system.
You and I know very well that fine phrases about the inalienable right to
work are a meaningless mockery to a man who cannot find a job.

Democracy cannot survive half free and half slave with millions
of people enslaved to poverty, unemployed, and in misery, on the one side,
and great wealth and affluence, with idle money and idle resources, on the
other side.

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen