Ernest Benn

Sir Ernest John Pickstone Benn, 2nd Baronet,

CBE (25 June 1875 – 17 January 1954) was a British publisher, writer and political publicist. His father, John Benn, was a politician, who had been made a baronet in 1914. He was an uncle of the Labour politician Tony Benn

.

Biography

Benn was born in

civil servant in the Ministry of Munitions and Reconstruction during the First World War he came to believe in the benefits of state intervention in the economy. In the mid-1920s, however, he changed his mind and adopted "the principles of undiluted laissez-faire".^[2]

From his conversion to

labour theory of value

and argued that wealth is a by-product of exchange.

Benn admired Samuel Smiles and in a letter to The Times Benn claimed ideological descent from leading classical liberals:

In the ideal state of affairs, no one would record a vote in an election until he or she had read the eleven volumes of
Morley's Life of Cobden.^[4]

Benn was also a member of the Reform Club and a founder of what would become the Society for Individual Freedom.^{[citation needed]}

Family

Benn married at the parish church, Edgbaston, on 3 January 1903 Gwendoline Dorothy Andrews.^[5] Their son John Andrews Benn (1904–1984) succeeded as 3rd Baronet.

Ernest Benn Limited

Benn was also a principal and manager of the publishing firm Benn Brothers, later Ernest Benn, Ltd.

Quotes

"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies."^[6]

This quote is often misattributed to Groucho Marx, with slightly different wording ("Politics is the art of looking for trouble; finding it everywhere, diagnosing it wrongly, and applying unsuitable remedies").^[7]

Books

The Trade of To-morrow, (London: Jarrolds Publishers (London) Limited, 1917; New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1918)
The Trade as a Science (London: Jarrold & Sons, ca. 1917)
Trade Parliaments and their Work (London: Nisbet & Co. Ltd., 1918)
The Confessions of a Capitalist (London: Hutchinson, 1925; London: Ernest Benn Limited, 1948)
If I Were a Labour Leader (New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1926)
The Return to Laisser Faire (New York: D. Appleton & Company, 1929)
About Russia (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1930)
Debt (London: Ernest Benn Limited, 1938)
Happier Days: Recollections and Reflections (London: Ernest Benn Limited, 1949)
Governed to Death (London: Society of Individualists, 1948; New York: National Economic Council, 1949)
The State, the Enemy (London: Ernest Benn Limited, 1953)

Notes

^ "Alumni". Central Foundation Boys' School. 2013. Archived from the original on 3 October 2015. Retrieved 9 October 2015.
^ Deryck Abel, Ernest Benn: Counsel for Liberty (London: Benn, 1960), p. 11.
^ W. H. Greenleaf, The British Political Tradition. Volume II: The Ideological Heritage (London: Methuen, 1983), p. 302.
^ Ernest Benn, The Letters of an Individualist to The Times, 1921-1926 (London: Benn, 1927), p. 13.
^ "Marriages". The Times. No. 36969. London. 5 January 1903. p. 1.
^ Henry Powell Spring, What is Truth?, Orange Press, 1944, p. 31
^ Gyles Brandreth, Word Play: A cornucopia of puns, anagrams and other contortions and curiosities of the English language, Coronet, 2015.

External links

Ernest Benn- biography and quotations
Catalogue of Benn's papers, held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
Ernest J. P. Benn at Library of Congress, with about 40 library catalogue records

Honorary titles
Preceded by The Hon. Alexander Shaw	High Sheriff of the County of London 1932–1933	Succeeded by Charles Hambro
Baronetage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by John Benn	Baronet (of Old Knoll) 1922–1954	Succeeded by John Benn

[cfbs-1] "Alumni". Central Foundation Boys' School. 2013. Archived from the original on 3 October 2015. Retrieved 9 October 2015.

[2] Deryck Abel, Ernest Benn: Counsel for Liberty (London: Benn, 1960), p. 11.

[3] W. H. Greenleaf, The British Political Tradition. Volume II: The Ideological Heritage (London: Methuen, 1983), p. 302.

[4] Ernest Benn, The Letters of an Individualist to The Times, 1921-1926 (London: Benn, 1927), p. 13.

[5] "Marriages". The Times. No. 36969. London. 5 January 1903. p. 1.

[6] Henry Powell Spring, What is Truth?, Orange Press, 1944, p. 31

[7] Gyles Brandreth, Word Play: A cornucopia of puns, anagrams and other contortions and curiosities of the English language, Coronet, 2015.

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