ხინოთი house
WHO CARES ABOUT STUDENT OPINION?
BUSINESSMEN DO.
Three chief executive officers—The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company's Chairman, Russell DeYoung, The Dow Chemical Company's President, H. D. Doan, and Motorola's Chairman, Robert W. Galvin—are responding to serious questions and viewpoints posed by leading student spokesmen about business and its role in our changing society through
means of a campus/corporate Dialogue Program.
Here, Arthur M. Klebanoff, a senior at Yale, who plans graduate studies and a career in government, is exchanging views with Mr. Galvin.
In the course of the Dialogue Program, Arnold Shelby, a Latin American Studies major at Tulane, also will explore issues with Mr. Galvin; as will David M. Butler, Electrical Engineering, Michigan State, and Stan Chess,
Journalism, Cornell, with Mr. Doan; similarly, Mark Bookspan, Pre-Med, Ohio State, and David G. Clark, Political Science MA candidate at Stanford, with Mr. DeYoung.
These Dialogues will appear in this publication and other campus newspapers across the country, throughout this academic year. Campus comments are invited, and should be forwarded to Mr. DeYoung, Goodyear, Akron, Ohio; Mr. Doan, Dow Chemical, Midland, Michigan; or Mr. Galvin, Motorola, Franklin Park, Illinois, as appropriate.
CLEAN HOUSE BUSINESS... EARN CAMPUS RESPECT
Dear Mr. Galvin :
Arthur M. Klebanoff, Yale
Student reaction to business is conditioned by what appears in newspapers and magazines. And what appears concerns investigations more frequently than innovations.
We read of industries with
We read of industries with across-the-board product unreliability, and watch the nation's largest corporations attack Ralph Nader for defending the public against such frauds. Many of us have had our own bad experiences with mis-filled orders or short-lived products more expensive to repair than to replace.
We read of industries raping the countryside in the Redwood forests of California, the strip mines of Kentucky, and the oil fields of Oklahoma while preserving their malicious advantage with a peculiar and depressingly traditional brand of legislative log-rolling. We see the regulators co-opted by the regulated, and the future of an industry sacrificed to the short-run advantage of a single firm.
And we read of concerts of industries defining their own public interest, and calling it progress. Some of us have trouble seeing progress in hundred foot long trailer trucks, brand-name drugs, and supersonic airplanes and the congested airports from which they are meant to fly.
This is a college generation deeply concerned with personal honesty. To many college students business appears unreliable and destructively self-interested. Only the most positive actions by the business community can change this reaction, and create any significant degree of interest on the campus.
My question Mr. Galvin is what will business do to police itself?
Sincerely yours,
Cathrin Klebanoff
Arthur Klebanoff
Government, Yale
Dear Mr. Klebanoff:
A newspaper that ran stories such as "120 Million People Committed No Murders Yesterday"... "Thousands of Officials Found Corruption-Free"... "Very Few Students Are Sex-Crazed Dope Addicts." would lose readership. Newspapers must, by definition, report the news"-including factual occurrences, but putting emphasis on extraordinary events. Crimes, wars, and corruption, are unusual happenings, and are thus reported in our news media.
A report that a "New Drivemobile Sedan is Found Unsafe" is of greater importance to the motoring public than, say, "Fifty Makes of Autos Pass Safety Tests."
Most newspaper reports of fraudulent practices by business firms are accurate. However, newspapers are sometimes guilty of subjective interpreting and reports of entire industries with "across-the-board product unreliability" can only be described in those terms.
A single corporation (much less an entire industry) would not survive long by producing inferior goods. Competition is self-regulating for one thing, and most corporations are bound to meet certain standards specified by various trade associations and institutes. Government regulations, too, must be met, and finally, the buying public has the last word.
Business is policing itself, Mr. Klebanoff. Consider some of the positive aspects of modern, responsible corporations while you weigh the shortcomings and malpractices. You have read of industries "raping the countryside," but apparently you haven't read reports of businesses and industries involved in conservation an involvement in which billions of dollars are being expended, and will continue to cost many billions more.
An important conservation activity by industry is the building of huge lakes by the nation's investor-owned electric power companies. Although these water masses are essential to the companies' operations, they create valuable and much-needed reservoirs of fresh water. Power companies usually open these lakes to the public for recreational purposes. An example of this is Commonwealth Edison's latest watershed which provides the public with over 100-miles of newly reclaimed shoreline.
Lumber companies, far from "raping" our forestlands, are in fact responsible for their growth. A lumber company would
not stay in business if it did not operate on the principle of "sustained yield" growing at least as many trees as it harvests.
Boise-Cascade Lumber Company is one of many that conducts multi-use forestry programs-the company's timber lands are open to the public for recreational purposes such as camping. fishing, hunting, hiking. Logging roads allow public access into these areas and are also invaluable in forest fire control. It is a fact that game increases in wellmanaged forests...this again is a contribution to conservation.
The National Association of Manufacturers estimates that American corporations are currently spending in excess of $500 million annually on air pollution control research and methods. Many millions more are being poured into water pollution control by business.
Slum clearance and renovation currently claim the energies and financial resources of a number of corporations; others are working on improved sewage and garbage disposal systems.
Yes, there is some legislative "log-rolling", lobbying, and other questionable practices, just as there are some unscrupulous doctors, students who cheat, corrupt people in government, criminals roaming our streets, traitors and deserters in the Armed Forces. Like you, I believe that unethical practices in business—as well as in other fields—are intolerable.
Efforts by business to "clean house" are increasing, just as business' involvement in society's problems is more evident. Hopefully, students will be more willing in the future to examine both sides of the ledger before passing final judgments. If more of the brighter, talented students, with the high ideals and personal integrity that you mentioned would join business, the self-policing process that you and almost all business leaders seek, would advance more rapidly.
Sincerely. Robert W. Selman
Robert W. Galvin
Robert W. Gavin
Chairman, Motorola Inc.