Kicking the Philip Morris Habit

THE ISSUE of University investment ethics has for so long been synonymous with the propriety of Harvard's South Africa-related holdings that its other potentially questionable investments have often gone unexamined. In recent months, however, the Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility (ACSR) has begun raising questions about the ethics of the University's ownership of nuclear and other stock. This new examination deserves high praise--and warrants a serious response from the Corporation.

Most recently, the ACSR has turned its attention to Harvard's approximately $20 million of shares in Philip Morris, Inc., a major cigarette manufacturer. The committee informally concluded that, barring a significant change in the company's practices, the Corporation should sell its stock.

The ACSR's advice makes sense, and so do the complaints with Philip Morris on which it was based. Those complaints include:

* the "unique magnitude of the health hazard constituted by cigarette smoking":

* the inherent, rather than potential, harmfulness of smoking:

* the company's aggressive promotion, through advertisements, of smoking; and

* the fact that there "is realistically no chance that Philip Morris will abandon the production and sale of tobacco products."

The Corporation, of course, has consistently dismissed arguments for divestiture--on the grounds that it is backed only by extremists and that it could foreclose University leverage on the company in question. In this case, it would do well to listen to ACSR alumni member Herbert P. Gleason '50. Gleason, no extremist, recently said that there is "no possible justification for making money out of tobacco." The Corporation should also realize that its chances of persuading Morris to abandon cigarette production are about as slim as the chances that its cigarettes will be found to be good for the lungs. Unless either of those unlikely scenarios develops, we think it's best that the managers of Harvard's portfolio kick the Philip Morris habit.