The Rise of the Fourth Reich - ThereAreNoSunglasses

298 THE RISE OF THE FOURTH REICHFoundation, whose sole beneficiary was the University of Chicago, in accordancewith the wishes of its namesake, Senator William Benton, aformer vice president of the university.A former senator from Connecticut, Benton graduated from YaleUniversity in 1921, then worked in advertising until becoming a part-timevice president of the University of Chicago in 1932. During World WarII, he served as assistant secretary of state in Washington, D.C., until1947, during which time he was active in organiz ing the United Nations.He served as a member of and delegate to numerous United Nations andinternational conferences and commissions. A declared Democrat, hewas U.S. senator from 1949 until 1953. From 1943 until his death in1973, Benton was chairman of the board and publisher of EncyclopaediaBritannica.It was announced in 1996 that 100 percent of the company’s stock waspurchased for an undisclosed amount by an investment group led by JacobSafra, who headed the Swiss bank of his name, which in 1955 opened abranch in Brazil. Bank Jacob Safra Switzerland is part of the Safra Group,a far- flung chain of financial institutions. Some conspiracy researchers seethe private ownership of the world’s premier encyclopedia as the perfectmeans for controlling public knowledge, particularly in the areas of historyand science.“The creation and funding of the University of Chicago had donemuch to enhance Rocke feller’s public relations profile among Baptists andeducators. . . . The only difficulty was that education, on the whole, wasn’tin bad shape,” explained Paolo Lionni, author of The Leipzig Connection,his 1993 book that traced the deleterious effects of experimental psychologyon the education system back to German professor of philosophyWilhelm Max Wundt, the founder of experimental psychology. “The indigenousAmerican educational system was deeply rooted in the beliefsand practices of the Puritan Fathers, the Quakers, the early American patriotsand philosophers. Jefferson had maintained that in order to preserveliberty in the new nation, it was essential that its citizenry be educated,what ever their income. Throughout the country, schools were establishedalmost immediately after the colonization of new areas.” These schoolsystems included ones established by the Quakers in Pennsylvania and the