They decided to devote part of the funds to initiating
the London School of Economics and Political Science, because they
considered that a thorough knowledge of these sciences was a necessity
for people concerned in social reconstruction, if that reconstruction
was to be carried out with prudence and wisdom: and in particular it was
essential that all classes of public officials should have the
opportunity of learning whatever can be known of economics and politics
taught on modern lines. Our old Universities provided lectures on
political science as it was understood by Plato and Aristotle, by Hobbes
and Bentham: they did not then--and indeed they do not now--teach how
New Zealand deals with strikes, how America legislates about trusts, how
municipalities all over the world organise tramways.
The trustees, as I have said, originated the London School of Economics,
but from the first they associated others with themselves in its
management, and they made no attempt to retain any special share in its
control. Their object was to get taught the best science that could be
obtained, confident that if their own political theories were right,
science would confirm them, and if they were wrong, it was better that
they should be discredited. The London School of Economics, though thus
founded, has never had any direct or organic connection with the Fabian
Society, and therefore any further account of its successful career
would be out of place in this volume.
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