Notes
| Published date | 01 October 1932 |
| Author | Graham Wallas |
| Date | 01 October 1932 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1932.tb01862.x |
Notes
Graham
Wallas‘
MONG
those out of whose ideas and aspirations the Institute of
A
Public Administration was created, and who gave it counsel
and guidance in
its
early days, three names stand out pre-eminent-
Haldane,
John
Lee, and Graham Wallas, whose loss we mourn
to-day.
The grounds of their several interests in the formation
of
such an
institution were not the same.
To
Lord
Haldane
it
was to be, before
everything else,
an
instrument for what he would call
‘I
staff work
”
in
the
business
of government-for promoting calm
,
dispassionate,
and realistic thought and study
of
the problems of government and
governmental organisation which he saw arising in the post-war
world. In
John
Lee’s fertile and fervid mind
it
took shape as
a
means by which the public services could teach all that they knew
about the organisation and management of human activity to any
who would listen. Always he was possessed by the conviction that
the
public
in
general, and industrialists in particular, could learn much
from the experience, the achievements, and the failures and omissions
of those services.
It
was to be above all a clearing house of ideas:
a
source of information about the problems of management.
Wallas’ interest
in
the Institute sprang from somewhat different
considerations. His various contacts with the Civil Service, espe-
cially those which he had gained at the London School of Economics
and
as
a
member of the MacDonnell Commission, had brought to his
mind
a
deep conyiction that there was in the middle and lower ranks
of the Service, especially among the younger men, a large fund
of
creative ability-f capacity for constructive work and thought-
which under the prevailing traditions failed to get any opportunity
to make the contribution
of
which it was capable.
It
was not,
as
he would say,
“
paid to think.” He saw
in
the Institute, in alliance
with
the Universities-London University
in
particular-an educa-
tional instrument in the fullest sense: one which should fund and
correlate the mass of practical experience which the public services
possess but cannot publish, should deduce and elaborate principles,
and
by
doing
so
should give opportunity, scope, and assistance to all
1For
an
appreciation
of
Professor
Graham
Wallas’
We
and work the reader
is
referred
to
the issue of
Economicn
(published
by
,the
London
School
of Economics) for
November, which
will
contain
a
full
report of the speeches made by
Sir
Arthur Steel
Maitland.
Sir
Josiah
Stamp,
Lord Passfield, Sir William
H.
Bevcridge and Professor
Harold
J.
Laski,
at
the Commemoration Ceremony which
will
take place at the London
School
of
Economics
on
Wednesday, 19th October.
409
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