JOSEPH AND SEEBOHM ROWNTREE Ian Packer analyses the interwoven careers of two committed Liberals: Joseph Rowntree(–), founder of the family confectionary firm and the Trusts that still bear his name; and his son, Seebohm Rowntree (–), the businessman and social investigator, best known as the author of Poverty: a Study of Town Life (Macmillan, ). Unique and many- sided individuals, there was nobody else quite like them – though their enthusiasm for the collection and analysis of statistics helped to usher in a time when social investigation would be professionalised and impossible to combine with running a major industrial enterprise.
Joseph Rowntree, on the cliffs at Scarborough, c. 1918; Seebohm Rowntree in his study, 1930s. All pictures accompanying this article kindly supplied by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
4 Journal of Liberal History 45 Winter 2004–05 JOSEPH AND SEEBOHM ROWNTREE
he name Rowntree A family firm learning to master and refine the was familiar in two Joseph Rowntree was born at production process. contrasting places for York on May . He was Joseph was obsessive about the much of the twenti- the second son of another Joseph quality of his products, urging eth century. The first Rowntree, a relatively wealthy his office staff to ‘Have a nibble, Twas as the manufacturer’s name and well-respected wholesale now and again’ to test them. The on some of Britain’s best-selling grocer in the city, and Sarah turning point for the firm was sweets and drinks, such as Elect Stephenson, whose family came the decision to manufacture fruit cocoa, Rowntree’s pastilles and from Manchester. Both of young pastilles in – then a novelty fruit gums and, from the s, Joseph’s parents were Quakers and in Britain. By the late s the well-known chocolates like Kit he was brought up in their faith, The two business was expanding rapidly Kat, Aero and Smarties. The sec- attending the Quaker institution, men’s and a new site on the outskirts ond place was on the covers of Bootham School in York, until of York was purchased in . serious-minded investigations he was fifteen, when he became multi-sided The s proved to be boom of social conditions in weighty an apprentice in his father’s busi- years for Joseph, and his business books and reports. The two were ness. Joseph and his elder brother activities started to compete in some of the linked together by the remark- inherited this concern on their biggest consumer markets, espe- able figures of Joseph Rowntree father’s death in , but Joseph touched cially through its promotion of and his son, Seebohm. Joseph was left ten years later to go into busi- some of Elect cocoa as a quality product the effective founder of the fam- ness with his younger brother for the masses. In the firm ily firm of cocoa, chocolate and Henry, who had bought the the most had over two thousand workers sweet manufacturers and of the cocoa and chocolate manufactur- and was becoming a well-known Joseph Rowntree Trusts that have ing side of another firm of York important brand name throughout Britain. become well known for their Quakers, Tuke & Co., in . By this time Joseph was sharing charitable and political donations Henry’s business was small- areas of the control of the business with and contributions to social policy scale and concentrated on mak- twentieth- a younger generation of Rown- and research. His son, Seebohm, ing Rowntree’s Prize Medal trees. He had married twice. His succeeded him as chairman of the Rock Cocoa. He employed only century first marriage, on August , firm and became one of the most a dozen or so workers, plus a tem- was to Julia Seebohm, the daugh- famous pioneers of social inves- peramental donkey for deliveries life and ter of a German Quaker who tigation, particularly in the field and a parrot, whose duties were had settled in England. She died of poverty. Lady Megan Lloyd unspecified. Henry also seems thought in , leaving a daughter who George even called him ‘the Ein- to have been in some financial and inter- did not survive childhood. When stein of the Welfare State’ in a trouble when Joseph agreed to Joseph married again, on broadcast on March . But sink his capital in the firm and sected November , it was to Julia’s these are only the best known of become a partner. Joseph was cousin, Emma Antoinette See- the two men’s multi-sided activi- soon the driving force in the closely bohm (–). In contrast to ties, which touched some of the business, even before the easy- her cousin, Emma only became most important areas of twenti- going Henry’s death in . He with devel- a Quaker on her marriage and eth-century life and thought and gradually built the firm up, rely- opments in was entirely German by birth intersected closely with develop- ing on his formidable accounting and upbringing. She and Joseph ments in Liberalism. skills to control costs and slowly Liberalism. had four sons and two daughters.
Journal of Liberal History 45 Winter 2004–05 5 JOSEPH AND SEEBOHM ROWNTREE
All four sons eventually joined tended to assign the younger Joseph Rowntree shared his father’s unobtrusive their father in the business, as Rowntrees to particular areas of in 1862 and 1878 Quaker commitment and, as the did three of Joseph’s nephews the business and he intended See- first head of the firm’s labour and both his sons-in-law, allow- bohm to take charge of research department, a post he kept until ing him to keep its expanding and development. Seebohm his retirement, he was closely operations strictly under family started work for his father in this involved in all these develop- control. When Joseph turned his capacity in and became a ments. In themselves they were firm into a limited company in director in when the firm not unique. Many confection- , Rowntree & Co. had only became a limited company. In the ary manufacturers in Europe and one non-family director. Joseph’s latter year he married Lydia Potter North America (like the Rown- heir was expected to be his eld- (–), a member of a well- trees’ rivals and fellow-Quakers, est son, John Wilhelm Rowntree known family of Middlesbrough the Cadburys) had reputations (–), but ill-health forced Quakers. She and Seebohm had as ‘good’ employers because it his retirement in , leaving his four sons and a daughter, though made economic sense to develop second son, Benjamin Seebohm only the eldest son, Peter (– an experienced and committed Rowntree, as his father’s deputy ), followed the family tradition workforce in a consumer indus- and heir-apparent – though and became a director of Rown- try that produced for the domes- Joseph did not finally retire until tree & Co. tic market and was not subject to , at the age of eighty-seven. Joseph was always known as violent fluctuations of demand. He died two years later, on an employer whose deeply felt Joseph and Seebohm contin- February , at his home in Quaker faith motivated him to ued to develop their welfare poli- York. show a genuine concern for his cies to adapt to changing times. Seebohm (as he was always employees and their welfare. As Works councils were introduced known) was born in York on the firm grew he could no longer in , a form of unemployment July . He followed his father maintain a personal interest in all insurance in and profit-shar- to Bootham School between his workers and his beliefs were ing in . These policies were and , and then spent translated into an early form of maintained despite increasing five terms (though he did not corporate welfare. An eight-hour financial difficulties for Rowntree take a degree) studying chemistry day was introduced in , a & Co. in the depression of the at Owen’s College, the forerunner works doctor in and a pen- s. The company did not turn of Manchester University. Joseph sion scheme in . Seebohm the corner until the development
6 Journal of Liberal History 45 Winter 2004–05 JOSEPH AND SEEBOHM ROWNTREE of new lines of chocolate bars in and crime.5 At this time Joseph and was a leading light of the the next decade. got no further than blaming the National Anti-Gambling League. Seebohm did not keep devel- Established Church for social ills, In one of his later publications he opments in the firm’s welfare but he returned to the questions inveighed against the cinema and policies to himself. During the he had raised when he had more the dance hall as part of ‘a new inter-war period, as well as run- time on his hands in the s. social problem which urgently ning Rowntree & Co. from Joseph, like many late Victo- calls for solution’. until his retirement as managing rian Nonconformists, had gradu- Both Joseph and Seebohm director in , he became one ally become a total abstainer from believed, in a way typical of Non- of the first and foremost expo- alcohol (probably in the s) conformists of their era, that lei- nents of theories of management and a passionate believer that sure should be used for moral and labour relations. His most Many con- drink was an important cause of and practical improvement, not important publication in this field poverty and misery. This opin- wasted on harmful self-indul- was The Human Factor in Business fectionary ion was widely shared in the late gence. Joseph’s home contained a (Longmans, ), which urged nineteenth century Liberal Party, great many books, but very few the importance not just of good manufac- which became closely associated pictures, and he had no interest wages and conditions, but atten- turers had with the attempt to impose leg- in music. His only known recrea- tion to the aspirations and status islative restrictions on drinking. tion was to take a walk along the of a firm’s workers in promoting reputations To propagate his views, Joseph coast at Scarborough on Satur- efficiency and industrial concili- embarked on a programme of day afternoons, with some apples ation. Seebohm tirelessly propa- as ‘good’ research with a well-known and ginger biscuits for his lunch. gandised against wage cuts as social investigator called Arthur Seebohm only relaxed his father’s the response to depression and employers Sherwell (later Liberal MP for austere standards to the extent of in favour of a more ‘scientific’ because Huddersfield) and together they taking an active interest in the approach to management which produced The Temperance Prob- theatre in later life. concentrated on lowering other it made lem and Social Reform (Hodder & But Joseph’s temperance views costs of production, through cost Stoughton, ), the first of five also contained the seeds of See- accounting, business research economic books they co-wrote in seven bohm’s work on poverty, first and forward planning. This work years on the drink issue. Joseph and most famously demonstrated effectively updated and gener- sense to argued against prohibition and in in his book, Poverty: a Study of alised his father’s approach to develop favour of restricting alcohol sales Town Life (Macmillan, ). This business and proved one of the to a state-run monopoly (the struck out in a new direction by first major contributions to man- an experi- ‘Gothenburg system’), together analysing the extent and some agement studies in Britain. His with the creation of alcohol-free of the causes of poverty in York. emphasis on labour–management enced and ‘people’s palaces’ as alternatives Seebohm often said that he was co-operation gained Seebohm a to pubs. These plans contradicted inspired by Charles Booth’s sur- widely respected reputation as a commit- the more common views in tem- vey of poverty in London, but the conciliator in industrial relations, ted work- perance and Liberal circles that research for the book overlapped and he played a part behind the local authorities should be able to with the writing of Joseph’s work scenes in trying to end such major force in a ban alcohol sales in their area, or on temperance, and Seebohm and disputes as the railway strike that magistrates should concen- Joseph probably influenced each and the coal strike. consumer trate on reducing the number of other’s work profoundly. One of public houses. Joseph’s arguments in The Tem- industry This strain of puritanism was perance Problem was that drinking Drink and poverty that pro- reflected in policies at Rowntree was the result of the narrowness Joseph Rowntree, like his son, & Co., which severely discour- and deprivations of urban living was a man whose interests ranged duced for aged drinking, gambling and and that policies were needed to far beyond his firm. His Quaker- illicit sex among employees. ‘dry up the springs from which ism led him into various forms of the domes- This was not entirely successful, intemperance flows’, as well as to social service and contact with though, and Joseph discontin- control the drink trade. York’s poor, especially through tic market ued the firm’s outing to Whitby The public needed to be teaching in the Society’s adult and was for some years, after an inci- impressed with a ‘vivid realisa- schools, but his flair for account- dent when many of his workers tion of these conditions’, and this ancy was part of a passion for sta- not subject became incapable with drink and is just what Seebohm’s book did, tistics and he also began to collect had to be escorted to the train by demonstrating that he was quite figures about the wider context to violent the police at the end of the day. as obsessed with the meticu- of social conditions. In – Seebohm, too, was a cam- lous presentation of statistics he wrote two lengthy unpub- fluctua- paigner against alcohol, though as his father. Poverty estimated lished papers which gathered tions of he was better known as an oppo- how many people in York were together and analysed existing nent of gambling – he edited in want on the basis of a visit to statistics on pauperism, illiteracy demand. a book on the subject in every working-class household
Journal of Liberal History 45 Winter 2004–05 7 JOSEPH AND SEEBOHM ROWNTREE in the city by one of Seebohm’s Both were in the form of a ‘scientific’ large- being influential in the nearby researchers. Seebohm then calcu- scale survey that was accessible Thirsk & Malton, Scarborough lated wage levels throughout York committed to the non-specialist made an and Darlington Liberal associa- for every working-class occupa- impact on public debate and on tions. Several Edwardian Liberal tion and compared these with his Liberals, rising young politicians like Win- MPs, including James Hogge own tabulation of the cost of food, ston Churchill and David Lloyd and Hamar Greenwood, owed rent and clothing needed to keep with an George. Above all, the book made their start in politics to Joseph a family in what he described as intense Seebohm’s reputation as a social and Seebohm’s patronage. It was ‘physical efficiency’. His con- investigator and analyst. But not unusual for constituency Lib- clusions were startling – per loyalty to while he continued to publish eral parties to be dominated by cent of York’s population were extensively in this field he never important local businessmen at in ‘primary poverty’, receiving the party repeated the impact of Poverty. this time, but Rowntree influ- inadequate incomes to maintain Further surveys of poverty in ence was more widespread than themselves, and a further . as the rep- York which he published in most before . per cent were in ‘secondary pov- resentative and only confirmed social However, unlike many other erty’, theoretically able to avoid changes that were already being wealthy Liberal businessmen, want on the basis of their income, of Noncon- widely reported and discussed. Joseph did not give large sums to but unable to do so (possibly, See- But Seebohm remained fascinated the party’s central organisation bohm suggested, through drink formity, by all aspects of society and had – probably because he was not and gambling). interesting things to say in many interested in securing any honours Joseph’s work foreshadowed temper- of his later reports, especially Old for himself or his family. Joseph’s these conclusions. He had used ance and People (Oxford University Press, most substantial political dona- Charles Booth’s figures on Lon- ) and English Life and Lei- tions were at one remove, through don, together with his own work social sure (Longmans, ). However, the three trusts he set up in to on expenditure on alcohol and while Seebohm lost his unique- administer his wealth, in the firm calculations of the minimum reform, ness, he retained his reputation belief that this should be spent on necessary weekly budget, to con- as a pioneer and his name is still projects of social use, rather than clude that ‘a large proportion of and they commonly linked with Charles for one man’s benefit. And, ini- the working class do not receive were Booth’s as the men who ‘proved’ tially, the trustees were Joseph’s sufficient nourishment for efficient the extent of poverty in Edward- family and friends, who could be subsistence; and secondly, that important ian England and so laid the foun- relied on to follow his lead. a much larger proportion have dations of the welfare state. The Joseph Rowntree Chari- absolutely no margin in their weekly back- table Trust was the most tradi- incomes for expenditure upon alco- tional of the three, and mainly holic drinks’. ground Politics and the Rowntree concerned itself with grants to Both Joseph’s and Seebo- figures in Trusts various Quaker activities. But the hm’s books sold very well and Neither Joseph nor Seebohm Joseph Rowntree Social Service associated the Rowntree name Liberalism. ever considered entering poli- Trust was explicitly designed to with major controversies. When tics – after all, they had enough buy up and support ailing Lib- Seebohm’s older brother, John to do running Rowntree & Co. eral newspapers – it was deliber- Wilhelm, was asked ‘Which and pursuing their many other ately not made into a charity so Rowntree are you?’ he was able interests. But both were com- it could pursue this goal. Joseph to reply unhesitatingly, ‘Oh, the mitted Liberals, with an intense was especially grieved by the way brother of Poverty and the son loyalty to the party as the rep- popular Tory papers, especially of Drink.’ But while any need resentative of Nonconformity, the Daily Mail, had whipped up for a state monopoly of alcohol temperance and social reform, jingoistic fervour during the sales was bypassed by the restric- and they were important back- Boer War of – – a con- tions on licensing laws that were ground figures in Liberalism. flict he, as a Quaker, had heartily introduced during the First They were especially influential disliked. He was determined that World War, Seebohm’s work was in their home city, where Joseph the high-minded Liberal press an important contribution to was a sometime president of, and should not be squeezed out by the growing climate of opinion major donor to, the York Lib- its Tory rivals. This attitude was that a good deal of poverty was eral Association and his nephew, shared by Joseph’s fellow Liberal, as much structural as the fault Arnold Rowntree, was Liberal Quaker and chocolate manu- of individuals and required state MP for York –.12 Various facturer, George Cadbury, who action to remedy – a conclusion members of the extended Rown- bought the Daily News in . that Seebohm argued extensively tree clan and their friends and It was also welcome news to the in pamphlets, speeches and letters associates effectively control- Liberal Whips’ Office, which still to the press in the s. led the local association and the attached great importance to try- Not all of the ideas in Poverty Liberal group on York council ing to persuade wealthy Liberals were new, but their presentation in the Edwardian era, as well as to support the Liberal press.
8 Journal of Liberal History 45 Winter 2004–05 JOSEPH AND SEEBOHM ROWNTREE
Joseph’s trust made an impor- tant contribution to promot- ing not just Liberalism in the press, but the New Liberal reo- rientation towards social reform in the Edwardian period that Joseph and Seebohm supported. Its most famous acquisition was the weekly, the Nation, which it owned from to . Under H. W. Massingham, the editor the Trust recruited, it became the house journal of New Liberal intellectuals such as L. T. Hobhouse and J. A. Hobson � something that was only possible because of the substantial subsi- dies which the Trust poured into the paper to cover its losses. The Trust also bought and supported regional Liberal newspapers, such as the Northern Echo and Yorkshire Gazette, though a foray into Fleet Street was less happy. In Joseph reluctantly acquired joint ownership with the Cadbury family of the Morning Leader and evening Star papers to save them from the Tories, only to find himself horrified by the costs and by the controversy caused by the racing tips in papers owned by staunch opponents of gambling. He turned the papers over to the Cadburys in with some relief. This episode was a harbin- ger of trouble ahead in World War One. The Nation became a bone of contention when Massing- ham fell out with Seebohm over the editor’s continual criticism of the Lloyd George coalition and the regional press empire started to rack up heavy losses. Joseph agreed to merge the Trust’s news- papers into the Westminster group, headed by Lord Cowdray, in and disposed of the Nation in after further rows with Massing- ham. The Social Service Trust remained a major shareholder in the Westminster group, but after Seebohm became chairman of the Trust in , he scaled down its subsidies to the papers and initi- ated direct grants to the ailing Lib- eral Party, starting a tradition that
Poverty in the York slums, c. 1900; Carnival at New Earswick, c. 1907; Chestnut Grove, New Earswick
Journal of Liberal History 45 Winter 2004–05 9 JOSEPH AND SEEBOHM ROWNTREE continues to this day and making bankrupt sentenced to three years’ to adopt these measures volun- the Trust the Party’s largest long- imprisonment for forgery, a self- tarily. The job involved consider- term benefactor in the post-Sec- proclaimed German agent during able frustrations and bureaucratic ond World War era. the First World War, a participant conflicts and Seebohm was glad The final trust, the Joseph in the proto-Nazi Kapp putsch in to move, in March , to a new Rowntree Village Trust, took over Germany in , an arms sales- appointment on the government’s a plot of land at New Earswick man in China and finally a self- Reconstruction Committee, that Joseph had bought near his styled Buddhist abbot with the which was producing ideas for factory and had been developing name Chao Kung. the post-war world. Here See- since . He intended it to be Seebohm was not the only bohm returned to land and hous- an ideal community of all classes person to be taken in by Lincoln. ing issues and produced a draft and proof that high-standard Certainly, their association did report which identified the scale housing could be built cheaply not prevent Seebohm’s interest of the post-war housing short- and let at a rent that would allow in land reform catapulting him to age and the need for emergency a return on the capital invested, the centre of politics when Lloyd subsidies to local authorities to but also which the poor could George persuaded him to over- undertake a programme of build- afford. In this Joseph was follow- see his land enquiry of –, ing. In effect, Seebohm recognised ing the example already set by which was entrusted with prepar- that the New Earswick model Liberal entrepreneurs such as Wil- ing a programme of land reform would no longer be sufficient in liam Lever at Port Sunlight and to sweep the Liberals to victory the new post-war world and his George Cadbury at Bournville at the next election. Seebohm draft pointed the way to the in providing ‘model’ housing, but was the main figure behind two Housing Act and the beginnings New Earswick was never meant weighty Land Reports produced Joseph’s of large-scale council housing. to be just for Joseph’s employees. by the enquiry in –. His New Ear- However, when the reconstruc- By the s it had grown into an belief in the importance of low tion committee was wound up in attractive estate of over six hun- wages in producing poverty led swick July , Seebohm was not given dred houses, but the idea of pro- him to support Lloyd George’s another major job and he drifted viding houses the poorest could initial idea for a minimum wage experiment out of central government. afford to rent was abandoned in for agricultural labourers, but also Seebohm was invited to speak the s as being impossible to persuade him to extend it to was also a to some of the Liberal Summer without a subsidy. the towns. Seebohm also drew on reflection Schools in the s and the Lloyd Joseph’s New Earswick experi- his experience of New Earswick George–Rowntree partnership ment was also a reflection of his to produce a massive scheme of of his anti- was renewed in – when anti-landowner views and his town planning and high-qual- Seebohm sat on the executive belief that their refusal to provide ity suburban development that landowner committee of the Welshman’s Lib- enough reasonably priced land for was meant to transform Britain’s eral Industrial Inquiry. This body development was behind hous- housing stock. These plans were views and produced the ‘Yellow Book’, Brit- ing shortages and slum conditions. being accepted by the cabinet his belief ain’s Industrial Future (Ernest Benn, Seebohm shared this animus and when they were abandoned with ), a bold plan to solve unem- took up his father’s suggestion the onset of World War One. This that their ployment with the aid of a national to investigate land reform as his destroyed Seebohm’s one chance loan to finance a programme of next major topic after Poverty. The to make a major direct impact refusal to economic development. These result was Land and Labour: Lessons on national politics. Though he ideas fitted in well with Seebo- from Belgium (Macmillan, ), an remained one of Lloyd George’s provide hm’s preference for industrial effi- exhaustive, if one-sided, demon- favourite advisers, his later roles enough ciency rather than wage cuts, but stration that Belgian agriculture in the Welshman’s schemes were the plan was not his initiative. It was more productive than that of much less central. reasonably was very much the brainchild of Britain and its town rents lower As Quakers both Joseph economists like Keynes, though because that fortunate country and Seebohm were profoundly priced land Seebohm’s handiwork can possi- was a land without great aristo- depressed by the outbreak of war bly be seen in some of the report’s crats. Much to Seebohm’s later in , but Lloyd George was still for devel- sections, such as those on ‘Business embarrassment, one of his main keen to make use of Seebohm’s opment Efficiency’ and ‘The Status of the researchers on this project was an skills. He first appointed Seebohm Worker’. It was probably Seebohm, extraordinary man called (among director of a new welfare depart- was behind though, who suggested that the many other subsequent aliases) ment in the Ministry of Munitions main ideas in the plan should be Ignatius Trebitsch Lincoln. Lincoln in –. His main task was to housing published as a sixpenny pamphlet, already had an interesting back- set standards for the employment entitled We Can Conquer Unem- ground as a Hungarian Jew who conditions of women and boys in shortages ployment, in time for the had become an Anglican curate government-owned factories and and slum election. Lloyd George selected and he was to go on to be, vari- to try to persuade the owners of Seebohm as one of his team of ously, Liberal MP for Darlington, a firms undertaking war contracts conditions. advisers to meet representatives of
10 Journal of Liberal History 45 Winter 2004–05 JOSEPH AND SEEBOHM ROWNTREE Ramsay MacDonald’s minority Their lives transformed into Seebohm’s the- Fitzgerald, Rowntree, pp. –; See- Labour government in – orising about labour relations and bohm Rowntree (ed.), Betting and to try, without success, to press the industrial efficiency. The Rown- Gambling: A National Evil (Macmillan, are an ); Vernon, Quaker Business Man, report’s ideas on them. But the col- trees exhibited the same evolu- pp. –, ; Seebohm Rowntree, lapse of MacDonald’s government interesting tion of moral reform into social Poverty and Progress: A Second Social in August ended this brief reform, and then an attempt to Survey of York (Longmans, ), p. taste of high politics for Seebohm example resuscitate the economy, that ; Briggs, Social Action, pp. –. – though he emerged from as characterised Liberalism’s chang- These issues are convincingly explored of how in Alan Gillie, ‘Rowntree, Poverty a Companion of Honour, the only ing priorities from the s Lines and School Boards’ in Jonathan state honour he ever accepted. progres- through to the s. But they Bradshaw and Roy Sainsbury (eds.), His partnership with Lloyd also represented a time when it Getting the Measure of Poverty: The Early George finally foundered in sive Liberal was not unusual for a business- Legacy of Seebohm Rowntree (Aldershot: when Seebohm collabo- man to be interested in far more Ashgate, ), pp. –. thought Joseph Rowntree and Arthur Sher- rated with Viscount Astor on a than his business. Ironically, their well, The Temperance Problem and Social new report on British agriculture evolved enthusiasm for the collection Reform (Hodder & Stoughton, ), which concluded it could not and analysis of statistics helped to pp. x, ix, . play any significant role in reduc- without usher in a time when social inves- Vernon, Quaker Business Man, p. . ing unemployment. This was tigation would be professionalised Briggs, Social Action, pp. –, –; Randolph Churchill, Winston S. not what Lloyd George wanted any sharp and impossible to combine with Churchill, (Heinemann, ) vol. II, to hear and the two men were running a major industrial enter- pp. –. never close again. Seebohm’s only breaks in prise. But Joseph’s foresight in Poverty and Progress; Seebohm Rown- important reappearance in central the first investing his wealth in the trusts tree and G. R. Lavers, Poverty and the government was when he was that bear his name has meant that Welfare State: A Third Social Survey of York Dealing only with Economic Ques- consulted by Beveridge in half of the the word Rowntree has contin- tions (Longman, ). over his report on the post-war ued to be closely associated with Vernon, Quaker Business Man, pp. , welfare state, but, once again, he twentieth both Liberalism and research into –, –; Ian Packer, ‘Religion was not a major influence on the social policy. and the New Liberalism: The Rown- century. tree Family, Quakerism and Social final conclusions of the famous Reform’, Journal of British History report. Seebohm remained a Dr Ian Packer is Lecturer in History at (Spring ). Liberal, though, and continued the University of Lincoln and author The Joseph Rowntree Social Service to contribute to Liberal policy of a number of works on Edwardian Trust was renamed the Joseph Rown- discussions down to his death Liberalism, including Lloyd George, tree Reform Trust in . For the Rowntrees and the Nation, on October , ironically in Liberalism and the Land: the Land see Alfred Havighurst, Radical Jour- a wing of Disraeli’s old house at Issue and Party Politics in England nalist: H.W. Massingham (Cambridge Hughenden near High Wycombe, – (Woodbridge: Royal Histor- University Press, ), pp. –, to which he had retired. ical Society/Boydell & Brewer, ) –, –, –; Arthur and The Letters of Arnold Stephen- Duncum, The Westminster Press Pro- son Rowntree to Mary Katherine vincial Newspapers (Westminster Press Provincial Newspapers Ltd), pp. Liberals and reformers Rowntree, – (Royal Historical – for the regional papers; Vernon, The obvious thing that impresses Society/Cambridge University Press, Quaker Business Man, pp. – for about the careers of Joseph and ). Fleet Street. Seebohm Rowntree is their The Village Trust was transformed unique many-sidedness. There The best account of Joseph Rown- into the Joseph Rowntree Memorial Trust in and became the Joseph was nobody else quite like them. tree’s early life and family is Anne Ver- non, A Quaker Business Man: the Life Rowntree Foundation for research But their lives are also an interest- of Joseph Rowntree, – (George into housing, employment and social ing example of how progressive Allen & Unwin, ), pp. –. For policy in . Vernon, Quaker Busi- Liberal thought evolved without Rowntree & Co., see Robert Fit- ness Man, pp. – for a summary zgerald, Rowntree and the Marketing of New Earswick’s first fifty years. any sharp breaks in the first half See Bernard Wasserstein, The Secret of the twentieth century. Rather Revolution, – (Cambridge University Press, ). Lives of Trebitsch Lincoln (Yale Univer- than Joseph’s enthusiasm for The classic account of Seebohm’s life sity Press, ). temperance being at odds with is Asa Briggs, Social Thought and Social Briggs, Social Action, pp. –; Ian Seebohm’s interest in tackling Action: A Study of the Work of Seebohm Packer, Lloyd George, Liberalism and Rowntree, – (Longmans, the Land: the Land Issue and Party Poli- poverty, the latter grew out of the tics in England, – (Woodbridge: former. Joseph’s hostility to land ). Briggs, Social Action, pp. –, Royal Historical Society/Boydell & ownership proved the foundation –, –; William Clarence- Brewer, ), pp. –, –. of Seebohm’s contribution to the Smith, Cocoa and Chocolate, – Briggs, Social Action, pp. –. great scheme of social reform (Routledge, ), p. . John Campbell, Lloyd George: the embodied in Lloyd George’s Briggs, Social Action, pp. –, – Goat in the Wilderness (Jonathan Cape, ), pp. –, –, –, abortive land campaign of – , –. Vernon, Quaker Business Man, pp. –; Briggs, Social Action, pp. – . Joseph’s paternal interest in –, –. , –. his employees gradually became
Journal of Liberal History 45 Winter 2004–05 11