Business funding of libertarian academia was contested over membership composition

Evidence

In a sharp departure from his 1952 position, Crane agreed to take a leading role in fund-raising for the meeting, assuring Hayek, “I will be ready to make an active effort to secure the necessary financial aid for such a meeting.” He urged Hayek to invite J. Howard Pew (“a sound libertarian and a most generous supporter of worthwhile activities”) to join the Society, especially since Pew would be able to raise and donate money to make the meeting possible, and he again mentioned Sterling Morton, who Crane thought “might be a large financial supporter of the Mont Pelerin Society.” Crane’s suggestions of business supporters reflected a larger desire to change the composition of the Society’s membership and to encourage exchange between businessmen and scholars. It also likely reflected his earliest concerns about the ideological consistency of the group. He concluded his note with a prominent postscript that seemed targeted at Hayek’s early reluctance to include executives in the organization: “While the membership of the Mont Pelerin Society is and should be predominantly academic, I believe a small admixture of dedicated businessmen is desirable. As the European members get to know them, or I suppose I should say us, they may lose some of their distrust of capitalists.” — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1457

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader historiography of business-funded intellectual networks (e.g., the Volker Fund, foundation financing of American think tanks) and to how ‘capture’ debates recur across movements. — connects to: Industry groups rent university prestige to launder paid advocacy as academic scholarship — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 573; Philanthropic funders controlled the political composition of academic advisory committees — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 756; The Volker Fund bankrolled FEE as a libertarian propaganda outlet — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 758 (+2 more)
• SEED: An essay angle: the deliberate ‘small admixture of dedicated businessmen’ as an early design decision in how academia and capital interlock — how curated funding preserved academic prestige while securing money.
• ADDENDUM: Relates to the funding/infrastructure theme in ‘Grafting & Growth’: business support as the grafting of financial capital onto an intellectual movement.

Broader Connections

• Business conservatives funding the postwar right were not cleanly neoliberal #qualifies (0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1478