CREATED 7/13/2010
WARNING:
This site deals only with the corporate corruption of science, and makes no inference about the motives or activities of individuals involved.
There are many reasons why individuals become embroiled in corporate corruption activities - from political zealotry to over-enthusiastic activism; from gullibility to greed.
Please read the OVERVIEW carefully, and make up your own mind.
|
OPINION ONLY
Morgan Reynolds
[ Prof]
— A cash-for-comments academic economist at Texas A&M University who did the tobacco industry's bidding. —
Some key documents
1986 July 5: Reynolds has written on Texas A&M University letterhead to the General Services Administration in Washington registering his "opposition to the proposed anti-smoking regulations in GSA-controlled buildings. A copy of his letter has found its way into Tobacco Institute files and it has then been copied multiple times and distributed to some of the tobacco companies. http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/hgh28b00/pdf
1986 Jul 21: Chilcote of the Tobacco Institute writes to the members of the Executive Committee detailing their successes in generating objections to the proposed GSA anti-smoking bans. They have persauded the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) to have the rules amended, and have turned out their friends and associated companies to generate letters of objection.
Included among the comments received by GSA thus far are thousands generated as a result of contact with TAN [Tobacco Action Network] activists, other tobacco family organizations, key coalitions, organized labor and economists.
The State Activities Division's alert of key contacts in the field, as well as TAN activists, has generated at least 3,100 letters of opposition. These are letters for which copies have been sent to division headquarters; there are no doubt many others.
Among member companies, all have asked their employees to write letters of opposition. In addition, RJ Reynolds reports its phone bank efforts to reach Washington, DC, residents, may have resulted in up to 3,700 opposition letters. Reynolds also sought letters from respondents to an earlier mailing on the federal excise tax issue. Philip Morris initiated a program designed to generate up to 10,000 mailgrams to GSA by the comment deadline.
Letters of objection, remarkably similar in content, from numerous academic economists were also attached. They all seemed to focus on the question of cost-of-implementation — criticizing the GSA's claim that new expenses for no-smoking signs, etc. were unlikely to cost more than $100 million annually. Robert Tollison had circulated a much higher estimate of costs (which some mentioned) ... and all of the letters a completely ignoring any cost savings.
These letters, all written within a few days of each other by university professors spread across the country (and copied to the Tobacco Institute), came from:
- 8th July — Arthur T Denzau, Washington University, St Louis, Mo
- 3rd July — Barry W Poulson, University of Colorado, Boulder
- 10th July — Thomas E Borcherding, Claremont College/Graduate School, California
- 7th July — William F Shughart II, Center for the Study of Popular Choice, George Mason University, Washington DC
- Undated — (joint) Cecil E Bohanon, James E McClure, Stephan F Gohmann, Clarence R Deitsch, Lee C Spector — all PhDs in economics at Ball State University, Muscie, Ind.
- 7th July — John F Militello, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania,
- 7th July — Jean J Boddewyn, Baruch College, The City University of New York
- 5th July — Morgan Reynolds, Texas A&M University
- 8th July — Cliff P Dobitz, North Dakota State University
- 8th July — William C Mitchell, University of Oregon
- 11th July — Arthur C Mead, Economist, Newport RI
- 10th July — D Allen Dalton, Boise State University, Idaho
- 10th July — Henry N Butler, George Mason Univeristy
- 10th July — (joint) S Charles Maurice, Leonardo Auernheimer, Niccie L McKay, John R Hanson II, Lynn Gillette, Gregory Delemeester at Texas A&M University
- 9th July — (joint) Robert B Ekelund, Richard Ault, David Saurman, John Jackson, RG Hebert, JK Watson, Mark Thonton, at Auburn University, Alabama
- 9th July — (joint) Richard K Vedder, Lowell E Gallaway, Jan Palmer, David Klingaman at Ohio University
 
1989 Jan 11: The Tobacco Institute's list of cash-for-comments professors and senior academics who were available to write op-eds and give evidence at Congressional hearings, etc. had grown extensively. Texas now has a list of three:
- Prof S. Charles Maurice, Economics Department, Texas ASM University College Station, Texas 78740
- Professor Michael Davis, Department of Economics, Southern Methodist University Dallas, TX 75275
- Professor Morgan Reynolds, Economics Department, Texas ASM University College Station, Texas 78740
1998 Aug: at National Center for Policy Analysis - welcoming Janet Reno. He is Director of the NCPA's Criminal Justice Center, promoting the prisoner's right to work.
|
WORTH READING
|
