Business in Politics

In every election year, businessmen in variably begin urging one another to be come more active in politics. This year is no exception. But this year there is evidence of more action to go with the talk: an increasing number of executives are mounting campaigns to "educate" employees in the vagaries of politics and to stimulate at least some to get out on the stump themselves.

At Houston's Continental Oil Co., President Leonard F. McCollum has initiated workshops to teach employees and their wives how to participate in party politics, grants time off with pay for work in either political party. At American Cyanamid, Personnel Vice President Anthony McAuliffe (who won fame as the brigadier general who said "Nuts" to the Nazis at Bastogne) has hired Don Scott, former mayor of Bloomfield, N.J., to run employee seminars on practical politics from wards to Washington. Cyanamid now requires all branch managers at least to introduce themselves to local politicians. Other companies with political instruction programs range from Ford, General Electric and U.S. Steel to Monsanto Chemical, Gulf Oil, Koppers and Champion Papers.

A Ford in Their Future. Without exception, the firms that run political programs insist that their courses are nonpartisan. But some, like Monsanto, concede that they are out to resist increasing Government control over industry. A few say that their purpose is to counter organized labor's grass-roots politicking.

Here and there, the new political activity has hurt companies. When it first began its political education program three years ago, Gulf was hit with a flurry of credit-card cancellations from staunch Democrats who feared a bias toward the G.O.P. Subsequently the company dropped plans to publish Congressmen's voting records on legislation affecting business. Reason: Washington Democrats interpreted the idea as a pressure tactic and set up a howl.

Most firms, however, profess to be highly gratified with the results of their new campaigns. Thanks largely to company encouragement, auto executives are popping up in local political offices throughout the Detroit suburbs. Ford Vice President Benson Ford got elected a trustee, i.e., selectman, of the village of Grosse Pointe Shores. At the Koppers Co., one vice president (Republican) ran against -and beat -a draftsman (Democratic) for a Pennsylvania township commissioner's post.

Boring from Within. Not all businessmen welcome the new trend. Chicago's Arnold H. Maremont, president of muffler-making Maremont Corp., believes that the business viewpoint is already adequately presented to politicians by industry lobbyists. Says Ardent Democrat Maremont: "The argument that corporations can conduct classes in politics without influencing the personal views of their employees is naive." Another Democrat, Inland Steel's Richard J. Nelson, who managed the company's civic affairs division before it was scrapped to cut costs, insists that "most of the businessmen who are promoting this type of program cannot conceive of 'the party of your choice' as being other than the Republican Party."

But some businessmen argue that company political programs do not influence employee views nearly enough. Says a Pittsburgh steel executive: "Usually the programs attract the younger employees -who then go out and register Democrat." But another steelman holds that this offers business an ideal opportunity for boring from within. His thesis: industry's best bet politically is to encourage businessmen to participate in Democratic politics and help to elect pro-business candidates in the Democratic primaries.

The most prominent businessman to get deep into politics this year -Republican George Romney, former American Motors president, who is running for the Michigan governorship -has long preached what he is practicing. His acid description of businessmen who shy away from politics: "Political eunuchs."

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