A Private Peace Corps

Important names abounded, flood lights glared, TV cameras panned in, and the street outside was cluttered with Mercedes, Cadillacs and Rolls-Royces. A night out for Venezuela's big rich? Not exactly. In Caracas' Chamber of Commerce auditorium, the heads of the country's 130 biggest businesses were gathered to charter an enterprise unique for Latin America -- the "Voluntary Dividend for the Community." Through it the businessmen will donate from 2% to 5% of their profits to help fight poverty in Venezuela.

"Dividend" is the brain child of Eugenio Mendoza, 56, Venezuela's leading industrialist and philanthropist, who made a fortune in lumber, paper products, cement and construction (TIME, April 12). When Mendoza first suggested his Dividend idea several years ago, only a few businessmen warmed to it. But enthusiasm grew as far-leftist terrorists stepped up their attacks on business. "You either solve the problems of the masses," Mendoza warned, "or they solve them for you."

Dividend will have its own president, executives and trademark (a D crossed by an arrow); it already has a board of directors second to none in Venezuela, from Mendoza and Gustavo Vollmer (sugar mills) to Henry Lord Boulton (shipping, Avensa Airlines, wholesale food), and Jesus Calvo Lairet, president of the Banco de Comercio. Initial capital, based on projected earnings of members for 1964, is $7,000,000. More funds will be raised from UNESCO, the Alianza and other national and international loan agencies.

The money, which the companies can deduct from taxes, will go into welfare projects, community improvement, pri mary, technical and university education, teacher training, health education. The organization will also organize an Institute for the Economic and Social Development to study national needs and how to cope with them. Says Mendoza: "I believe that we are living in a deep-seated social evolution in Latin America, and that we businessmen --with all of our economic capacity and our influence -- should collaborate with that evolution."

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