The Social and Political Activity of the Cadbury Family: a Study in Manipulative Capitalism
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_________________________________________________________________________Swansea University E-Theses The social and political activity of the Cadbury family: A study in manipulative capitalism. Dowd, Kevin William How to cite: _________________________________________________________________________ Dowd, Kevin William (2001) The social and political activity of the Cadbury family: A study in manipulative capitalism.. thesis, Swansea University. http://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa42781 Use policy: _________________________________________________________________________ This item is brought to you by Swansea University. Any person downloading material is agreeing to abide by the terms of the repository licence: copies of full text items may be used or reproduced in any format or medium, without prior permission for personal research or study, educational or non-commercial purposes only. The copyright for any work remains with the original author unless otherwise specified. The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holder. Permission for multiple reproductions should be obtained from the original author. Authors are personally responsible for adhering to copyright and publisher restrictions when uploading content to the repository. Please link to the metadata record in the Swansea University repository, Cronfa (link given in the citation reference above.) http://www.swansea.ac.uk/library/researchsupport/ris-support/ The Social and Political Activity of the Cadbury Family: A Study in Manipulative Capitalism by Kevin William Dowd Ph.D. Thesis The University o f Wales, Swansea Summer 2001 ProQuest Number: 10807550 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10807550 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 4 8 1 0 6 - 1346 INDEX ABBREVIATIONS II ABSTRACT 1 The Social and Political Activity of the Cadbury Family: A Study in Manipulative Capitalism 3 CHAPTER 1 THE LATE VICTORIAN QUAKER MOVEMENT: Crisis of Non-identity Introduction 9 The Mid-Victorian S.O.F. the End of Isolationism Internal Pressures: The Evangelical Quakers 10 External Pressure: The End of Isolationism and Political Quietism 15 The Nonconformist Movement 1884-1903: Towards A More Cohesive Response 21 S.O.F. 1884-1903: Quakerism Redefined 26 CHAPTER 2 REDEFINING PATERNALISTIC PHILANTHROPY: Cadburys and The Political Arena The Search for a Modern “Radical’ Political/Social Framework 40 National Dimension 52 George Cadbury and the Political Role of the Nonconformist Movement 52 George Cadbury’s Party Political Involvement 58 George Cadbury and the National Press 67 The Cadburys’ Social Crusades 75 CHAPTER 3 THE CADBURYS AND THE HOUSING QUESTION: Embracing a Higher Profile 85 The Bournville Village Trust 87 Bournville: a Model for the Nation 103 Extending New Paternalism Within Birmingham: The Cadbury Influence Through Voluntary Agencies and Municipal Activism 123 CHAPTER 4 THE CADBURYS AND THE PROPAGATION OF SOCIAL DARWINISTIC IDEAS Introduction 137 Towards Nurture and Nature 143 Raising the Profile of the ‘Feeble-minded” Question 151 Towards Legistalion Change: The Royal Commission and Its Aftermath 167 CHAPTER 5 THE CADBURYS AND EDUCATION a) The Cadburys Education Initiatives: A Response to the ‘Social Question’ 179 The Bournville Provision 182 A Note on Genderisation 190 The Impact of Cadbury’s Bournville Education Schemes 195 b) The Widening Cadbury Educational Involvement: Initial Steps - The Cadburys and the A.S. Movement 197 The Cadburys and the Severn Street Adult School Organisation 200 c) The Contemporary Adult School Message: The Role of the Cadbury Educational Settlements 215 d) Increasing the Dissemination of Political Moderacy: The Cadburys, Fircroft College and the W.E.A. - Fircroft College for Working Men & Women 231 The Cadburys, Fircroft and the W.E.A. 240 CONCLUSION 251 REFERENCES 257 BIBLIOGRAPHY 283 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 291 ABBREVIATIONS The writer has used the following abbreviations in the course of this thesis: AS Adult School ASU Adult School Union BHS Birmingham Heredity Society BIHS Birmingham Infants’ Health Society BLU Birmingham Ladies Union BWS Birmingham Women’s Settlement BDCS Bournville Day Continuation School BWG Bournville Women’s Guild BVT Bournville Village Trust BSP British Socialist Party EES Eugenics Education Society FCC Free Church Councils FFDSA Friends’ First Day School Association FSU Friends’ Social Union GCA Garden City Association ILP Independent Labour Party LRC Labour Representation Committee MAS Midland Adult School MASU Midland Adult School Union NAF National Association for the Feeble-minded NASL National Anti-Sweating League NASU National Adult School Union NCOL National Committee of Organised Labour for the Promotion of Old Age Pensions NFCC National Free Church Council NHRC National Housing Reform Council NUWW National Union of Working Women SDF Social Democratic Federation SLP Socialist Labour Party SOF Society of Friends’ SSCC Summer School Continuation Committee WEA Worker’s Educational Association ABSTRACT This study had its origins in my Master of Education dissertation analysing the role of the Cadbury family and their business, Cadbury Bros Ltd., in initiating and supporting post elementary educational schemes in the Bournville area of south Birmingham during the inter-war years, schemes which were implemented either as vocational training for their business work force, or which provided a more general schooling at the local authority’s Bournville Day Continuation School, many of whose students were also Cadbury employees. However, whilst undertaking this research it became evident that, although both the Cadbury family and business had exercised considerable influence in introducing and sustaining these schemes, this was nevertheless, neither the beginning nor the sum of their involvement in social policy and, indeed, social engineering: it was an involvement which embraced a much wider range of social provision and one which required a far more substantial consideration to reveal the full nature and extent of this Cadbury participation and influence. Accordingly, this research project set out to explore the nature and extent of the social involvement of the Cadburys. It draws on late Victorian and early 20th Century material, including the Cadbury Papers held at Birmingham Central Library, together with contemporary documents at both the Selly Oak Colleges they founded and from many agencies with whom the Cadburys collaborated. The central contention of this thesis is that, throughout this period, the Cadbury family and their close associates exercised a considerable influence on Britain’s social and political life. This influence, traditionally either unacknowledged or portrayed as political altruism, had the effect, locally and nationally, of steering both the working class populace and the largest of the newly emerging left wing political parties away from seeking the most radical changes to the existing economic order, in favour of more moderate reforms which left this system not only essentially intact, but even more profitable for industrialists such as the Cadburys. This programme included both establishing their own initiatives and supporting those of other who shared their social and political aims, and had a direct bearing on many areas of the urban populace’s life, including education, housing, public health and recreation. This process was in turn facilitated by the desire of leading members of the Cadbury group to adopt a significantly more prominent public profile, as they accepted positions of power within local voluntary and municipal bodies, all of which promoted moderate political perspectives, encouraged belief in the apolitical nature of the state and frequently sought to amend working class behaviour and manipulate their financial insecurities in the interests of both the nation’s industrial efficiency and industrialists. Specifically, this programme was instigated to counter the ostensibly increasing physical and mental deterioration of Britain’s working class (factory) populace and the apparent weakening of traditional mechanisms of social control, including religion, over this populace, two particularly prevalent perceptions and concerns shared by both the Cadburys and many contemporary social commentators and reformers. Furthermore, this activism had a distinctly national dimension, the Cadbury initiatives being heralded as models for widespread emulation, whilst their financial patronage enabled the policies which formed the essence of their social philosophy to be more effectively pursued, this patronage being of considerable significance in the Liberal Party”s 1906 election victory. Such overt and covert activism effectively established the Cadburys in the vanguard of contemporary social reformers. Indeed, this thesis illustrates the central role and impact of the Cadburys in responding to those developments they perceived as threatening their own and the nation’s industrial