The Season of Giving

President Nixon's disclosure of his personal finances (see page 10) revealed that he has only a faint impulse to contribute to charities. Millions of Americans with incomes far smaller than Nixon's give far more. In 1972, for example, Nixon donated-excluding the worth of his vice-presidential papers--a total of $295 to charities. On an income of $268,777, this amounted to little more than 1/1000th of his earnings. His donations never exceeded $7,512 in any of his years as President; his contributions for the four years averaged only $3,370 a year, or about 0.3% of his total income. That is well below not only the charitable practice of tithing (giving 10%) advocated in the Old Testament, but also the current rate among the President's financial peers. According to the most recent statistics of the Internal Revenue Service, others in Nixon's tax bracket made charitable cash donations averaging nearly $11,000 each in 1970.

Nixon's smallest donation was $12, given on three occasions to the American Legion Auxiliary, once in 1970 and twice in 1971; his largest was $4,500 to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in 1970. Many of the organizations that benefited from a Nixon gift were religious. Besides the Graham donation and a $1,000 donation to the Baptist Community Hospital in 1970, Nixon gave $1,000 to his home-town East Whittier Friends Church in 1971.

Someone else's generosity is a difficult thing to judge. But his countrymen may be forgiven if they regard Richard Nixon--a man who has spoken so much about the importance of voluntary effort and private charities--as exceptionally tightfisted.

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