Spencer Heath Archive

Item 1660

Carbon of a letter from Heath to 0. A. Ohmann, The Standard Oil Company of Ohio,

Midland Building, Cleveland, Ohio

April 10, 1957.

 

 

 

Dear Dr. Ohmann:

     It is in some ways painful, or at least disturbing, to me, that I feel obliged to take some serious exception to your extraordinary article, “Skyhooks”, as re­printed from the May-June, 1955, issue of the Harvard Business Review.

     A spiritual approach to, and a spiritual understanding of commonplace and customary things is exceedingly dear to me. Your apparent effort to deal with free-enterprise relationships from that point of view makes a very happy impression. But it seems to carry some very negative implications with respect to the needs of the human personality and the free and voluntary cooperative relationships through which alone its spirit can be fulfilled.

     So much was I impressed by the apparent spirit of your article, that I took the trouble to go over it carefully and set down what appeared to me to be causes of the unrest which it stirred, as well as the causes of the “frustrations and insecurity” to which it so poignantly refers. I am enclosing a copy of my comments in the form of a letter to the editor of the Harvard Business Review.

     I feel that there must be points of profound agreement between us, and should be most happy to see them brought out.

     With all good wishes, I am

                       

                            Sincerely yours,

 

SH/m

Enc: Statement of Purposes

     The Christian Doctrine of Man

     Letter to Harvard Business Review