Men and Things

Abstract

Pity poor Henry Hutchinson. There is not a room in his honour in these buildings, nor as far as I can recall a portrait of him anywhere in the LSE. But in some sense he had as much to do with the foundation of the school as others whose names are more easily recalled as founders. Hutchinson was the lonely unknown man who shot himself in 1893 and in his will left a large sum to the Fabian society so that they might apply the money 'to the propaganda and other purposes of the said society and its socialism and towards advancing its objects in any way they deem advisable.. .. Sidney Webb was the person trusted, along with some others, to administer the bequest. Webb was casting around at that time for some money to start his favourite School of Economics. The delicate question of course was, Could the teaching of economics be said to have anything to do with the propaganda for socialism? It was obviously necessary to fudge the issue. So Webb extended the interpretation of the donor's wishes to cover 'the promotion of the study of socialism, economics, or any other branch or branches of social science or political science, or towards the propagation or advocacy of socialistic or economic or political teaching'. Despite this nice turn of phrase, the school was not called the 'London School of Socialism, Economics and any other Branch or Branches of Social Science or Political Science'. The 'Economics and Political Science' survived and social sciences were duly taught. The bit about socialism was just an embarrassment. Bernard Shaw clearly saw that this was a fudge. He thought that what Sidney Webb wanted to do was 'an atrocious malversation of the ... bequest'. He wanted W. S. Hewins, the person nominated to be the director, 'to speak as a collectivist and make it clear that the school of Economics will have a collectivist bias .... The collectivist flag must be waved and the Marseillaise played if necessary to attract fresh bequests.' Shaw tried his best to change the Fabian Society's mind on this, but he did not win. Webb assured Haldane, who had confronted him with some legalistic queries, that (a) he remained a socialist and (b) he believed that, the more that social conditions were studied scientifically and impartially, the stronger the case for socialism became. That seemed to settle the legal problem. There were a couple of snags. No economists could be found initially (or dare one say since) who could make obvious the connection between a scientific study of economics and socialism. It was difficult to find teachers, as Beatrice Webb said, of 'a science that does not yet exist'. But, though the science did not exist, it had to be taught. It was also going to be taught without the socialist connection being pressed too far, as Hewins as the first director made clear in his fund-raising visit to the London Chamber of Commerce. He promised