GREAT SOCIOLOGIST

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 684, 8 June 1929, Page 9

GREAT SOCIOLOGIST

NEW SECRETARY OF STATE FOR DOMINIONS Tha new Secretary of State for the Dominions, the Rt. Hon. Sidney Webb, P.C., LL.B., Ph.D., one of England’s greatest living sociologists, was formerly Labour member of the House of Commons for Seahain, Durham, the seat which his leader Mr. Ramsay MacDonald now holds. Born in London just 70 years ago, he was educated there and in Switzerland and Germany. He entered the Civil Service in 1878, and was a surveyor of taxes and in the Colonial Office, resigning in 1891. In 1892 he entered the London County Council, of which he was a Progressive member for 18 years. He became a leading authoritj r on economics, sociology, and municipal affairs, and founded the London School of Economics. One of the original members of the Fabian Society, he became a member of the Faculty and Board of Studies in Economics, London University, and professor of public administration. He has served on many Royal and departmental commissions, including those on Trade Union Law, 1903-06, Census of Production, 1907-08, Coal Industry, 1919. He was president of the Board of Trade in the first Labour Government. His principal works are: “Socialism in England,” 1890: “The London Programme,” 1892; “Toward Social Democracy,” 1920. In collaboration with his wife, Beatrice Webb, he wrote, “The History of Trade Unionism,” 1894, “Industrial Democracy,” 1897, and "A Constitution for the Socialist Commonwealth of Great Britain.” Mr. W. A. Jowitt has been Liberal member of Parliament since 1922. He is a prominent King’s Counsel, with one of the largest practices at the [ Bar. His acceptance of a post in the Labour Administration is an interestI ing development.