Report on the Foreign Language Program

Extract

There are fords in the scholar's stream of consciousness and I can prove it. For the benefit of future historians I report to you a phenomenon of our time. Last year the Rockefeller Foundation made a grant of $120,000 to this Association and I have ever since been getting letters from people referring to our Ford Foundation grant of $200,000 or $250,000 (the sum is always larger than what we got). Several times I have even seen the Ford generosity to us mentioned in print. Only once has anybody congratulated me on shaking down the Carnegie Corporation. It is all very confusing, and I wouldn't mention the matter at all if it did not seem to me significant. From the moment the Ford Foundation started giving away millions like crazy, the whole teaching profession has been smiling in its sleep, dreaming of plump subsidies or fellowships with few strings attached. Today there is only one Maecenas in the scholar's mind. It makes me feel rather sad for our good friend the Rockeford Foundation. I want to take this occasion publicly to assure our benefactors that they are still our favorite Fordation.