How John Olin and William Simon helped create the conservative counterintelligentsia. Recent reports of gloominess besetting conservatives may be exaggerated, but there is one real reason for them to shed a tear: Last month, the trustees of the John M. Olin Foundation met to approve its final grants. After a half-century of operation, the foundation is closing up shop, following the wishes of its founder, who deliberately limited the organization's lifespan to prevent its one day falling into the hands of directors who were foes of his ideas. (Mr. Olin took comfort in the wisdom of this policy after Henry...
