William Volker Fund

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The William Volker Fund, which was active from 1932 to 1965, was a charitable foundation established to subsidize the promotion and dissemination of free market economics and libertarian ideas. During most of this period, the William Volker Fund was the only libertarian organization with significant amounts of money at its disposal, and, for this reason, it played a key role in developing the modern libertarian movement in the United States.

The William Volker Fund was founded in 1932 by the William Volker & Company of Kansas City, Missouri, manufacturers of window shades, shade cloth, and rollers. The company's head, William Volker himself, organized the project at the suggestion of Loren Miller, a Missouri-based critic of the New Deal.

Under the administration of William Volker's nephew Harold Luhnow from 1944 onwards, the Fund pursued a number of strategies for increasing the acceptance of libertarianism and Austrian economics thought in the U.S. The Fund was instrumental in bringing Friedrich Hayek to the University of Chicago. It also helped support many other libertarian scholars who at the time could not obtain positions in American universities, such as Ludwig von Mises and Aaron Director. Through a front organization, the National Book Foundation, the Volker Fund gave away libertarian books, such as Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk's, to college libraries.

The Fund helped the then small minority of libertarian scholars to meet, discuss, and exchange ideas. Milton Friedman's Capitalism and Freedom, Bruno Leoni's Freedom and the Law, and Hayek's Constitution of Liberty were all influenced by the ideas discussed at such meetings. William Volker also put up the funds that enabled the North Americans to have such a strong presence at the first Mont Pelerin Society meeting in 1947.

Under the directorship of "master recruiter" F. A. Harper, the fund also directed itself towards the systematic recruitment of young libertarian scholars. Although Harper was fired by Luhnow in 1962, he continued this work at the Institute for Humane Studies. Harper was replaced by Ivan Bierly, an ex-Foundation for Economic Education senior staffer, who in turn hired Rousas John Rushdoony.

A young Murray Rothbard began working for the Volker Fund in 1951 and wrote book reviews for the Fund until 1962. Rose Wilder Lane also contributed book reviews. Staffers included Herb Cornuelle and Leonard Liggio.

In addition to its own activities, the Volker Fund helped fund the formation of various complementary institutions, including the Intercollegiate Society of Individualists (ISI), which was later renamed Intercollegiate Studies Institute; the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE); the Earhart Foundation; and the Relm Foundation.

According to observers such as John Blundell of the Mont Pelerin Society, the William Volker Fund's strategic successor on its expiration was the F.A. Harper's Institute for Humane Studies. In 1963, most the Volker Fund's activities were transferred to a new Center for American Studies (CAS), which proved short-lived and closed late in 1964[1]. A decade later, the Volker Fund's remaining money, amounting to about seven million dollars, went to the Hoover Institution. [2]

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This article uses content from the SourceWatch article on William Volker Fund under the terms of the GFDL.
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