Webb S&B
Webb, Sidney James (later Baron Passfield, of Passfield Corner) and
ACHIEVEMENT(S): Early members of the Socialist Fabian Society, and
co-founders of the London School of Economics and Political Science;
Pioneers in social and economic reforms; distinguished historians.
NICKNAME/ALIAS: None
DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH: Webb: July 13, 1859, London, England.
Potter: January 22, 1858, Gloucester, England
DATE/PLACE/AGE AT DEATH: Webb: October 13, 1947, Liphook, England. Aged 88; Potter: April 30, 1943, Liphook, England. Aged 85
DISCIPLINE: Economists, historians, Socialists
FIELD: Politics
LANGUAGE: English
PARENTS: Sidney: Charles Webb; Elizabeth Mary Stacey
Martha: Richard Potter; Laurencina Heyworth
SIBLINGS: Charles Webb; Ada Webb; 8 elder Potter sisters
SPOUSE: Each other
CHILDREN: None
EDUCATION: Webb: school in St Martin's Lane, London; City of London College;
Birkbeck College, University of London
Potter: private tutors and self-taught
MAJOR WORK: London School of Economics
LIFE AND TIMES:
1) At 17, Sidney Webb took a job as a colonial broker and began intensive studies at night school. At 21, he met the then young journalist, Shaw*, with whom he formed a close friendship. A year later, with his formidable scholastic achievements he won admission to the Colonial Office of the Civil Service, and during the next three years, while working full-time, he studied law at London University and passed his bar examinations in 1884. Soon after, he set out on a freelance career insocial research and reform.
In May, 1885, Shaw persuaded Webb to join a small, newly founded Socialist group, the Fabian Society. Shaw believed Webb's extensive knowledge was exactly what the Society needed as a foundation for its theoretical advocacy of Socialism. In 1887, Webb wrote the first edition of the "Fabian Tract Facts for Socialists".
As executive member of the Fabian Society, Webb, in 1889, delivered one of the public lectures that made up "Fabian Essays in Socialism" and brought the Society widespread recognition. In 1890, he met Beatrice Potter, who had been greatly impressed by his contribution to "Fabian Essays".
2) Potter educated herself by reading extensively and discussing intellectual matters with her father's visitors, one of whom was philosopher Spencer*, who exerted a huge influence on her. During her teens and early 20s, Potter began to question the assumptions of her father's business world, becoming concerned about what she perceived as the "imbalances of society".
In 1883, while visiting relatives in the Lancashire town of Bacup, Potter became acquainted with the blue-collar Co-operative Movement, and became convinced it was in such communities that a new basis of society could be found. The same year, she was introduced to the brilliant Radical politician Joseph Chamberlain, then 47 and twice widowed. Beatrice was at first attracted to the idea of being married to a charismatic and famous politician, but changed her mind when Chamberlain made it clear he would not tolerate any variance in views from a wife, and they broke up in 1894.
Potter learned more of the realities of working-class life while helping her cousin (by marriage]) Charles Booth, a shipowner and social reformer, to research his monumental study of "The Life and Labour of the People in London". In 1891, at 33, she published "The Co-operative Movement in Great Britain", a small volume based on her experiences in Lancashire, which later became a classic. She concluded that the solution to poverty would have to lie in the labor unions, and she decided to study them. She was advised to apply to a "mine of information," Sidney Webb, whom she first met in January, 1890.
Webb fell in love at once with the handsome, intellectual Potter. She took a little longer to warm to the scruffy, rather ugly little man in the shiny suits. Married in 1892, they spent their honeymoon investigating trade union records in Glasgow and Dublin. Potter's father had died a year earlier, and left her an inheritance of 1,000 pounds a year. They decided to live on this and what they could make from writing, to devote more time to social research and political work. Webb quit his job with the Civil Service and they set up house in London (furnished with William Morris* hangings), in which they lived until the 1920s. Webb maintained his position on the London County Council, to which he was first elected in 1892, and his association with the Fabian Society. The first six years of married life were occupied, first, with their monumental inquiry into the British trade union movement (Beatrice doing much of the research, Sidney writing the text),which led to two important books: "The History of Trade Unionism" (1894) and "Industrial Democracy" (1897).
In 1893, Webb was appalled by a report that London children were getting a poorer education than children in other cities abroad or elsewhere in England. As an elected official on the London County Council and chairman of its Technical Education Committee, Webb created a system of secondary state schools and a scholarship system for elementary school pupils. His aim was to provide opportunities for all working class children. By 1904, well over 2,000 scholarships had been made available to London children.
In 1894, the Webb’s' biggest single enterprise began to take shape. A bequest of 10,000 pounds was left to the Fabian Society. As chief trustee, Webb, in consultation with his wife and Shaw, decided to found a London School of Economics* and Political Science. Once the School was set up in 1895, Webb decided it ought to become part of a reformed London University. Liberal statesman R.B. (later Lord) Haldane, had been proposing that London University become a collegiate university, involved in teaching and research. Sidney supported this plan and suggested his School become one of the colleges.
In March 1898, the Webb’s took a year's sabbatical to travel to the United States, Australia and New Zealand. In the U.S., they met future presidents Theodore Roosevelt* and Woodrow Wilson*. Their intent was to study the workings of about 40 governing bodies. They returned to London in 1899. The London School of Economics opened in 1900. The first BSc degree was introduced in 1901 and the new college buildings were ready in 1902.
In 1906, the Webb’s published the first volume of "English Local Government from the Revolution to the Municipal Corporations Act." The work was published in 11 volumes, the last in 1927. It firmly established the Webb’s as eminent historical researchers. Webb helped provided the blueprint for the Education Acts of 1902 and 1903, which set the pattern of English public education for generations. In 1902, the Webb’s met author H.G. Wells*, with whom they were immediately impressed. The Conservative Government in 1905 invited Potter to sit on the Royal Commission on the Poor Law, which she did until 1909, during which time, she produced her remarkable "Minority Report", anticipating by 35 years the "Beveridge Report" that advocated universal social insurance, and spelling out the structure of the welfare state.
In 1912, after returning from several months in the Far East, the Webb’s decided to commit themselves to the Labour movement which, unlike the Liberal Party, had backed Potter's "Minority Report". They abandoned their usual strategy of "permeating" political parties, that is seeking support of any politician who would listen regardless of his political affiliation, and, from 1912, worked almost exclusively with Labour. They founded a new forum for themselves, the independent journal, "New Statesman", and in 1914, joined the Labour Party, soon rising high in its counsels.
Webb became a member of the executive committee and drafted the party's first and -- for a long time -- its most important policy statement, "Labour and the New Social Order" (1918). Shortly after, he was chosen by the Miners' Federation to sit on the Sankey Commission on the Coal Mines (1919).
In the election of 1922, Webb won the constituency of Seaham Harbour, in Durham with an enormous majority. He had Cabinet offices in both Labour governments, in 1924 as president of the Board of Trade, and as Colonial Secretary in 1929, with a seat in the House of Lords as Baron Passfield.
In 1932, disillusioned with the Labour party and holding out little hope for its prospects, the Webb’s visited the U.S.S.R. and "fell in love", as they said, with what they found. Back in England, the Webb’s wrote their last big book, "Soviet Communism: A New Civilisation?", in which they seemed to abandon their belief in gradual social and political evolution. The last 10 years of their partnership were marred by ill health.
ASSESSMENT: The Webb’s deeply affected social thought and institutions in England.
EXTRA CONNECTIONS: Knew writer Virginia Woolf*, politician Balfour* , philosopher Russell* and Indian politician Nehru*.
Met US writer Harte*
Physicist Lodge* helped them
Holidayed with strategist Mackinder*
They influenced the work of Rauschenbusch*
Their work was translated by Lenin*
They knew Morrell*
ONELINER: Beatrice & Sidney Webb, founders of the London School of Economics
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
EB, DNB
Radice, Lisanne, Beatrice and Sidney Webb: Fabian Socialists, London: Macmillan, 1984