Harry Bradley was one of the original charter members of the far right-wing John Birch Society, along with another Birch Society board member, Fred Koch, the father of Koch Industries’ billionaire brothers and owners, Charles and David Koch.[5]
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “from 2001 to 2009, it [Bradley] doled out nearly as much money as the seven Koch and Scaife foundations combined.”[6]
The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is an American conservative foundation with about half a billion US dollars in assets. According to the Bradley Foundation 1998 Annual Report, it gives away more than $30 million per year. The Foundation has financed efforts to support federal institutes, publications and school choice and educational projects. Since the 1980s and today the Bradley Foundation funds organizations which dismantle enviornmental regulations and funds educational programs directed to promote US military expenditures and actions. The Bradley for the “enviornment” foundation funds legal actions to block newly recognized endangered species from being registered.
And more “free/private market” types (now deceased) who made most of their money courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer…
In 1944, the various Olin companies were organized under a new corporate parent, Olin Industries, Inc.[2] At the time, Olin Industries and its subsidiary companies ran the St. Louis Arsenal; and contributed to the war effort with manufacturing roles at the Badger Army Ammunition and Lake City Army Ammunition Plants. Olin’s New Haven and East Alton plants employed about 17,000 workers each—producing the guns and small-caliber ammunition needed during World War II. The war production helped the Olins to become one of the wealthiest American families of the time.
