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A library that never wasPeter Biskupa

a School of Communication, Canberra College ofAdvanced EducationPublished online: 28 Oct 2013.

To cite this article: Peter Biskup (1989) A library that never was, Australian Academic& Research Libraries, 20:2, 53-70, DOI: 10.1080/00048623.1989.10754647

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A library that never was

The National Research Library of Economics, Finance and Banking

PETER BISKUP School of Communication, Canberra College of Advanced Education

ABSTRACT In 1932 the then Commonwealth National Librarian, Kenneth Binns, con­ceived the idea of a National Library of Economics, Finance and Commerce, which was to form a part of the Commonwealth National Library and was to be financed by a one-off grant from Australian banks. Nothing came of it, but the episode is of more than passing interest: it reminds us, first, that the so­called information explosion is not a post-1945 phenomenon, and second, that information is not intrinsically valuable but becomes such only when someone wants it.

In July 1932, in the midst of the depression- when perhaps as many as one million Australians, in a total workforce of just over two million, lacked full-time employment and almost two-thirds of all breadwinners were receiving less than the basic wage- the Commonwealth National Librarian, Kenneth Binns, forwarded to the Professor of Commerce at the University of Melbourne, Douglas Copland, a confidential document headed "Proposal for the Establishment of a National Research Library of Economics, Finance and Banking", with a covering letter in which he asked the professor for the "benefit of his criticism and advice" and, above all, his "definite support" for the scheme. I propose, wrote Binns, to send the document- through A. B. Dickinson, the manager of the Can­berra branch of the Bank of New South Wales- to the bank's general manager, A. C. Davidson, together, "I hope, with supporting letters from yourself and Professor Giblin". The local manager, added Binns, believed that the proposal would be received favourably, and "I am the more hopeful because of the lead which that Bank has taken in promoting the study of recent economic and financial problems. I know that it is spend­ing large sums of money in distributing copies of outstanding works on finance and exchange." 1

The proposal is an interesting mixture of high-flown rhetoric and hard­headed realism. One of the effects of the world depression, wrote Binns, had been to highlight the importance of economic research and the need for expert advice, not only to the state and federal governments but es­pecially to

our great banking and financial institutions. During the past two years, more literature has been published on these subjects than in a decade previously, and it is essential that our professors, research students, senior Treasury officials and statisticians, who are now frequently called upon to advise our Govern­ments, should be kept up to date and fully informed of the ideas and develop­ments in economic thought throughout the world ... If, therefore Australia is to keep abreast of other countries in her appreciation of the advances which are being made in economics ... it is essential that she should have a specialised library of economic literature and one adequately endowed so that it may always be able to meet every demand put upon it. Our geographical isolation from the great centres of economic thought and literature makes this absolutely

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mandatory. At the present time it is not possible to look to our Governments to undertake this task, nor do I think this attitude, though so often accepted, a right one, especially in this instance. So I venture to place before our great Banking Institutions the following proposal, because I believe they will at once recognize the value which such a library would have for them as well as for our Governments and people. 2

The proposed library, which was to form an integral part of the Com­monwealth National Library, was to be created by a special act of parlia­ment and financed, in part, from the income derived from a trust fund created by "mutual arrangement" by Australia's leading private and gov­ernment banks. The Commonwealth National Library would be respon­sible for "housing and all administrative expenses" but the overall control of the library would be exercised by a committee consisting of three repre­sentatives of the banks (to be selected from their Canberra managers), the chairman of the Commonwealth National Library Committee, the Secre­tary of the Department of the Treasury, the Commonwealth Statistician, and the Commonwealth National Librarian who would act as a non-vot­ing secretary. The collection was to be available for "reference and research" to any citizen of the Commonwealth, either directly or through "any public or University Library of Australia". The minimum size of the trust fund was to be £ l 0,000; "in the event of the full amount being available", the library would "appoint and pay an assistant with special training and qualifications in economics as cataloguer and research officer". 3

Although the library, as the reader has no doubt guessed, never eventu­ated, its history- if a non-event can be said to have one- is well worth recounting, for several reasons. To start with, it was Australia's first attempt to provide an in-depth information service of the kind which today is taken for granted. The Australian librarian, up to the second world war and beyond, was essentially a custodian, doing everything, as a librarian had written in 1929, "in the way of caring for the volume except use it".4 The first dent in this quasi-monastic attitude occurred in 1919, with the establishment of a research department within the Public Library of New South Wales. Although the war had had a generally detrimental effect on Australian economy - gross domestic product had fallen by l 0% by the end of I 918 - many Australian manufacturers benefited from the stimulus given to production for military purposes and the new opportunities for import substitution. Hampered by insufficient knowledge, recalled the same librarian,

they met with all kinds of troubles- where could they get any help? It was then we realized how very poorly equipped we were to help them. We gathered what we could, searched our journals through and did our best to help them. But our best was not good enough. Mr Ifould, our Principal Librarian, at once realized that if we were to be of any service to the community we must widen our efforts and purchase scientific and technical works extensively ... 5

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The Commonwealth National Library, after its 1927 move to Canberra - which coincided with the replacement of the lacklustre Arthur Wadsworth by Kenneth Binns as Commonwealth National Librarian -was also moving in a similar direction (while in Melbourne, the library was little more than a well-appointed, "sleepy"6 gentlemen's club provid­ing light reading and the occasional high-sounding quotation for honour­able members but little else). Since it could no longer call upon the collections of the Public Library of Victoria, it started to build up its own resources and- to use the phraseology first coined in 1929- to provide "specialised information on subjects of vital interest to Australia ... in addition to regular work of the library". 7 Thus in 1928 it compiled an annotated bibliography on conciliation and arbitration, with special reference to Australia, and a reading list on national insurance to provide for the sick, the widows, the aged and the unemployed, for the use of members while the two subjects were being debated in parliament - the latter after a four-year investigation by a royal commission whose work turned out to be wasted. The bibliography on arbitration and conciliation proved highly popular (some fifty requests had been received from over­seas libraries, including the US Department of Labor and the Interna­tional Labor Organization in Geneva), and set the pattern for later lists, such as a bibliography on super-tax, compiled for the cabinet in 1930, and a "Select List of Books, Pamphlets and Magazine Articles on the Financial Crisis, with Special Reference to Australian Conditions". In 1931 a sen­ator asked for information on external debts of Great Britain, France, Italy, the US and Germany. 1932 saw a record number of literature searches on such diverse topics as the names of the archbishops of Can­terbury during the reign of Richard II, critical studies of Sir Walter Scott, value of Australian wool clip during the last decade, information on the cause and course of previous trade slumps, works on medical aspects of social insurance, the Douglas Credit Scheme, communism, business ethics, world wheat production 1885-1910, and retail price indexes. But when a Tasmanian M.P. sought information on the subject of"decadence of the State under government by women", the library could not help. "I am afraid", replied Binns, "it is not so much a case of our not having any work on the subject ... as that history provides no outstanding case for serious consideration . . . Ethnologically, government by women is unknown; and, thank goodness, the extension of franchise has not yet brought it about. "8

While most of the specialized reference work just described fell clearly within the field of economics and related areas, it would be wrong to con­clude that the proposal to launch a National Research Library of Econ­omics, Finance and Banking was a natural outgrowth of these activities. Although I could not find any conclusive evidence of this point, it seems that the impetus had come from sources outside the library or, indeed, parliament itself - the economic profession. The 1920s, Stuart Macintyre has written, were the age of the up-and-coming expert:

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The species came late to prominence in this country, yet by the 1920s there were unmistakable signs that it had done so. Advances in technologies employed in the secondary industries were one indication, the growing importance attached to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research another. While the socio­logists could not sustain their ambitious claims, other social sciences stamped their influence on public policy, so that anthropologists, for example, shaped Australia's administration of New Guinea from the 1920s onwards. Above all, there was the establishment of the economics profession. 9

The discipline, perhaps somewhat surprisingly in view of the impor­tance with which Australians and their governments had always regarded economic issues, had an inauspicious start in Australian universities where it was taught (as political economy) with "less than an outstanding success"IOusually in conjunction with such subjects as modern- as dis­tinct from ancient- history and moral philosophy. The University of Sydney was the first to create a separate chair of economics, in 1912, and a faculty of economics in 1920. In 1913 the newly established University of Western Australia appointed E. 0. G. Shann as foundation professor of history and economics. The University of Tasmania started a school of commerce in 1918 and two years later appointed the "brilliant New Zea­lander", 11 D. B. Copland, mentioned above, as foundation professor of economics. In 1922 the University of Queensland named its first profes­sor of history and economics, and in 1924 the University of Melbourne enticed Copland to accept the foundation chair of commerce. The last university to create a chair of economics was Adelaide, in 1929: it went to L. G. Melville, a former government actuary and lecturer in statistics. In the same year the University of Melbourne created a second chair, the Ritchie Research Chair of Economics, endowed by R. B. Ritchie in memory of his son who was killed in France during the first world war. It was taken up by L. F. Giblin, "Kingsman, Yukon adventurer, Labor poli­tician and decorated soldier" 12 who, at the age of fifty-six, resigned his job as Tasmanian government statistician to start a new career as an acad­emic.

In retrospect, the creation of a school of commerce at Melbourne and the subsequent appointment of Copland turned out to be a watershed in the history of the discipline. The new course proved an instant success, attracting an initial enrolment of over three hundred students. In 1925 economics became a subject in Victorian secondary schools for the leav­ing examination. In the same year, largely through Copland's enthusiasm, the Economic Society of Australia and New Zealand was formally launched, with nine branches by mid-1925 and a membership which included not only academics but also politicians, public servants and businessmen. The Melbourne branch was particularly active, managing to attract such striking figures as E. C. Dyason, a mining engineer turned stockbroker, widely read and "politically neutral for a businessman of that time, and perhaps even this", 13 and the mining metallurgist and executive H. W. Gepp whose wartime stint in the US, while investigating the manufacture of munitions on behalf of the government, made him a

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"fervent admirer of American business efficiency" .14 Copland himself became senior editor of the Economic record, the official journal of the Economic Society which he had helped to launch. He exuded an almost "evangelical" 15 faith in economic principles, and believed that econo­mists should take an active part in the discussion of public affairs. He was, as C. B. Schedvin put it, the "spokesman" for the profession- a role for which he was well suited with his flair for publicity and his position as the doyen of academic economists. 16

The second member of the economic fraternity with similar qualities of leadership was Giblin, who had joined the Melbourne group in 1929. "The son of a Tasmanian premier, Giblin's reputation for brute strength as a Rugby international and for hardiness in living largely on barrels of ships' biscuits and beer at Cambridge, was confirmed in the years he later spent in the mining and lumber camps of the Klondyke" .17 Subsequently he ran a coconut plantation in the Solomons and an orchard in Tasmania, won a seat in the Tasmanian House of Assembly in 1913, fought in France where he was twice decorated for valour, and in 1919 became Tasmanian government statistician. He was the unchallenged "intellectualleader"18

of Australian economists, and politically the most influential: his asso­ciation with the Tasmanian Labor Party brought him in close contact with J. A. Lyons when the latter became state premier, and the friendship and respect which developed between them continued well after they had both moved to the mainland.

By the time Giblin took up the Ritchie Chair in Melbourne, the econ­omists had established firm links with business and especially the gov­ernment. Because the profession had come of age at a time -the second half of the 1920s - of growing concern with the direction of Australia's affairs, it was only natural that they should be found on various commit­tees of inquiry (between 1923 and 1928 58 royal commissions, boards and committees had been appointed 19) where they found much to criticize. "Seized by the zeal of the neophyte, convinced of the urgency of their insights, they loosed their jeremiads in all directions. The recurring theme, however, was that their advice was based on a higher wisdom that could not be gainsaid ... Economic science transcended the passipns of politics ... and it was therefore imperative that politicians defer to the economists' superior and disinterested advice".20 In a sense, they spoke the same, or at least similar language as the prime minister, S.M. Bruce, whose "propensity to argue from first principles"21 made him anything but a typical politician and limited his patience with the democratic pro­cess. Bruce, too, believed in a "scientific" approach to Australia's econ­omic problems and in making scientific and technical skills the assistants of government policy. Two notable examples of this approach were the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (today's CSIRO), launched in 1926 by upgrading the old Institute of Science and Industry, and the Migration and Development Commission, established in the same year - with Gepp as chairman - to investigate all developmental schemes proposed by the state governments or by the Commonwealth itself, and to

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"advise the government in relation to all questions of developmental pol­icy, in order to ensure the best utilization of our resources and the most effective and rapid method of dealing with them"22 - a brief which put it largely in control of the direction of Australia's development.

In March 1929 the government took this "scientific" approach a step further, by passing legislation for a Bureau of Economic Research to carry out investigation and research into an extremely wide range of specific economic issues as well as all "such other matters as may be prescribed"; to provide financial assistance for the promotion of economic research; and to cooperate in such investigation with academic and other bodies. 23

"Unless we establish economic research on well defined lines", said the prime minister when introducing the legislation, "our future problems will be more difficult than those which confront us today. " 24

He could have hardly known how painfully accurate his prognosis would turn out to be by the year's end, or that his government would be voted out of office- in an election which no one could have foreseen­and that he himself would lose his seat. "My own deepest regret", said Bruce on his retirement from public life, "is that the day I went they kicked to death my Development and Migration Commission"25 - and he might have added the Bureau of Economic Research, for that, too, was aborted by the Labor government after it had been swept into office by the landslide of October 1929.

II

In July 1932, when Binns first floated his plan for a National Research Library of Economics, Finance and Banking, the economic difficulties with which Bruce had threatened the country way back in March 1929 had very much come to pass- with no relief in sight. Following the adoption of the so-called Premiers' Plan in June 1931 (based, incidentally, partly on recommendations by a group of economists which included Giblin, Copland and Dyason), all "adjustable" government expenditure was reduced by 20%, taxes were put up, and internal interest loans were reduced by an even larger margin. About the same time, the Australian pound was devalued by 30% in relation to sterling, making Australian exports more competitive but imports (and most books bought by Aus­tralians before the war came from abroad) more expensive. This had a doubly crippling effect on the Commonwealth National Library. Writing to Copland towards the end of August, exactly one month after he had taken him into his confidence, Binns complained:

Confidentially I may mention that the government is pressing for still further economies in spite of the fact that the Library has gone to the very limit, i.e. a 50o/o cut in its vote, so that today, with the increased cost of books, we are able to buy one book as against three which we were able to buy in 1930.26

This is the first point to note in relation to Binns's plan: since there was absolutely no chance that the government would contribute, even in part,

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towards the cost of the proposed library, he hit upon the expedient of selling the idea to the banks, hoping that they would see the intrinsic value of the scheme. Significantly, he did so behind the back of the Joint Library Committee - the body which, until the passing of the 1960 National Library Act, had been responsible for running the Commonwealth National Library. "At this stage I cannot but think", he wrote to Copland on 29 July, "that it would be a mistake to wait until I could refer the matter to my Committee, for I do not see how it could take any action ... it is important that the offer should come from the Banks and that the library should not appear to go cap in hand to them."27

The second point to note is the timing of Binns's proposal. By July 1932 the library had not only "shed every financial feather it ever had", 28 but was fighting for its very survival. In August 1932 the presiding officers of parliament (the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate) had asked the Public Service Board to report on the operations of the "Par­liamentary Department", with a view to recommending drastic econom­ies. Binns's initial approach to Copland, it is true, predated the inquiry by almost one month, but there is every reason to believe - after all, the mills of the public service have always ground slowly - that the inves­tigation had been "on" for some time before it was officially announced, and that Binns knew what was in store when he first wrote to Copland. In view of the report's (largely foreseeable) findings- it concluded that the activities of the so-called national section of the library were "in whole or in part a duplication ofthe activities carried out by other National Insti­tutions throughout Australia" and recommended the suspension of its operations "until financial conditions permit of its development", or, alternatively, "if the time is regarded as opportune", a formal separation of the national section from the rest of the library29 - it is not unrea­sonable to assume that Binns saw the new library as a means of safeg­uarding both his library's and his own position. His insistence, mentioned earlier, that it was important for the banks to be seen to come to the Commonwealth National Library rather than the library going "cap in hand" to them lends considerable support for this interpretation.

Was the National Library of Economics Binns's own idea, or did it come from someone else? To answer this question, we must retrace our steps back to 1926, the year the Carnegie Corporation of New York dis­covered Australia. Established in 1911, with an endowment of US $135 million, by the steel tycoon turned philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie -whose "firm conviction of the value of the books and the belief that they should be freely available had its main origin in its own good fortune during his youth in being given access to the library of a resident of Pitts­burgh by the name of Colonel Anderson"30- the corporation's main object was the advancement and diffusion of knowledge by aiding tech­nical schools, institutions of higher learning, libraries, and other worthwhile causes. Its impact on the Australian cultural scene, both before and after the well-known Munn-Pitt survey of Australian libraries in 1934, has been described in minute detail in a Ph.D. thesis by Norman

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Horrocks;3 1 what concerns us here are the beginnings of the corporation's "good works" in Australia, since they involve none other than Copland who spent most of 1926 inspecting American, Canadian, British, French and German universities. In May 1926 Copland, who happened to be in New York, accompanied by K. S. Cunningham, a lecturer in experimental education at Melbourne then following graduate studies at Columbia University, met several times with the corporation's president, Dr Fred­erick Keppel, to discuss adult education in Australia and to consider "what approach might be ·made officially to the Carnegie Corporation on behalf of adult education bodies in Australia" ,32 The upshot of these discussions was the grant- in January 1927- of US $5,000 each to the Workers' Educational Association of New South Wales and the Univer­sity of Sydney, and US $10,000 to the University of Melbourne (the remaining universities received US $20,000 between them in October 1928), followed by a visit from the corporation's emissary, a Dr J. E. Russell of New York, to check on how the money had been spent and to report on Australian education in general. Russell was in Melbourne in March 1928; "he met the leaders of the educational world, made in­numerable speeches which were widely reported in the local press"33 -and left for New York to write up his report, which ultimately led to the creation, in 1930, of the Australian Council for Educational Research and a generous subsidy for that body amounting to £120,000 during the next twelve years. But Dr Russell's visit had one unexpected spin-off. In April 1928 Sir John McFarland, the former Master of Ormond College and since 1918 the Chancellor of the University of Melbourne, had written to Bruce about the need to strengthen Australian libraries with adequate resources for the study of economics. He reminded the prime minister of his recent public statements regarding the importance of economic research to Australia - an importance generally recognized by "respon­sible leaders of commerce and industry"- and of the recent endowment by his university of research chair in economics, and went on to say:

It has been suggested to me that the Carnegie Corporation of New York would support any efforts that may be made in Australia to equip libraries with ade­quate facilities for economic research and the study of economics. In recent years the development of economic research abroad has made striking progress. As a consequence the literature on economics has grown so rapidly that no library in Australia has been able to purchase more than a fraction of the large number of important books and periodicals that have been published on the many branches of the subject ... If the Commonwealth Government would provide a capital sum of £10,000 on condition that a similar amount were granted by the Carnegie Corporation, a fund sufficient for these purposes [equipment of libraries with economic literature] could be established. If you are prepared favourably to consider such a proposal I shall be glad to take steps to have the matter brought before the corporation in the way in which it is considered would be most likely to secure their support. 34

The letter - after the usual shuffle from office to office - eventually

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ended up on the desk of the chairman of the Development and Migration Commission H. W. Gepp, who gave the proposal his full support. "The provision of a library or libraries upon Economics is a most important matter", he wrote to the chairman of the Executive Council, Sir George Pearce, in late January 1929, adding that the prime minister ought to be advised that the Commonwealth "should favourably consider contribut­ing directly or indirectly thereto". 35 Two weeks later John MacLaren, the secretary of the Prime Minster's department, finally replied to MacFar­land's suggestion: the proposal would be given a "sympathetic consider­ation upon the appointment of the personnel of the Economic Research Organisation" [read Bureau] which the government was proposing to establish in the near future. 36 But the bureau, as already mentioned, had been shelved by Labor after the 1929 election; and even though the Uni­ted Australia Party was back in office by December 1931, the prevailing economic conditions ruled out any initiatives involving even a modicum of funding. This is where Binns's National Library of Economics comes in. Not only was his proposal similar to the one floated by MacFarland four years earlier (both had in mind a trust fund to finance the acquisition of economic literature), but it specifically referred to -by way of a post­script- the Bureau of Economic Research that never was. "The services which such a Bureau could render to Australia were never greater than they are today", wrote Binns, but it was unlikely that it would see the light of the day for years to come. It will be recognized, he concluded,

that the present proposal for the establishment of an Economic Research Library is inseparably associated with such a Bureau, and opens up the way for its establishment in the near future. In any case the Research Library would go a long way to accomplish the end for which the Bureau was intended. 37

If, as seems likely, the proposed National Library of Economics was part of a larger plan to launch a Bureau of Economic Research through the back door, who was the eminence grise behind it all? One of the obvious candidates is Copland, for it is inconceivable that he would not have met Dr Russell while the latter was in Melbourne, or that he did not know about MacFarland's approach to the prime minister. Moreover, he was on genuinely friendly terms with Binns: their correspondence is sprinkled with references to Kenneth Binns Jr., the future Tasmanian Under-Treas­urer and Commissioner for Taxes (who was completing his commerce degree at Melbourne), his academic progress, and the bank "position" Copland was endeavouring to find for him. As against that, it would seem that Copland, for all his interest in adult education and libraries in general (he was foundation president of the Library Association of Victoria in 1927), had an ambivalent attitude towards the nexus between economic research and the provision of economic literature. There is a curious pas­sage bearing on this point in his report on his, already mentioned, 1926 world trip, published in 1927 as Studies in economics and social science; while greatly impressed by the work done by the American graduate

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schools, he thought it was imperative to "distinguish between research and re-search [original italics]. One got the impression that the excellent library facilities available in some institutions had the effect of keeping students of social science too much within the university."38 Nor is there any hint in Binns's initial letter to Copland, no matter how hard one tries to read between the lines, that the two may have discussed the library beforehand. Which only leaves Giblin - "reposed, vastly commonsen­sical" and blessed with a "keen sense of the politically possible", 39 who had spent most of 1931 and all of 1932 in Canberra, as acting Com­monwealth Statistician, first under Theodore and later under his old friend Lyons who decided to keep the Treasury portfolio after he became prime minister. As we shall see, it was Giblin who made the Bureau of Statistics responsible for economic advice to the Treasury, which hap­pened to be one of the main objects of the original Bureau of Economic Research. One can easily see the hand of Giblin behind the proposed National Library of Economics; indeed Binns was quick to let Copland know, when he first got in touch with him, that he had "seen Professor Giblin and discussed it [the library] with him, and he is quite enthusiastic and ready to help". 40 The fact that Giblin, as far as we can tell, did not play any part in subsequent events does not disprove the above hypothesis; after all, he could hardly lobby openly, as a public servant (albeit a tem­porary one), for something concocted within the service- all the more so since he was not exactly persona grata with most of those whom Binns was trying to influence.41

III

All that remains to relate is the actual story of Binns's unsuccessful attempt to launch his National Library of Economics from which, it seems, he expected so much. His initial plan, we know already, was to approach A. C. Davidson, since 1929 the general manager of the Bank of New South Wales and a close friend of Copland. Davidson was something of a maverick among the "rugged bankers"42 of the interwar years. Although largely self-educated, he had a keen interest in economics and -as Binns had noted in his first communication to Copland -his bank had taken a lead in promoting the study of recent economic and financial problems, and was spending "large sums of money" distributing econ­omic literature. He was in regular contact with a number of economists, particularly Shann, Copland, Giblin and Melville, and his "exchange of ideas with them by correspondence and not infrequent meetings were unique for a businessman or banker at this time".43 He also started, halfway through 1931, an Economic Department in his bank with a func­tion of "research, information and advice". 44 On the national scene, his career was one of considerable controversy. The two main issues on which he crossed swords with his fellow bankers were the exchange rate and the interest rate policy, with Davidson advocating, quite early in the depres­sion, the abandonment of parity with sterling as well as a general lowering

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of interest rates. Little wonder that most top bankers, as W. A. Watt (of whom more later) told Binns, were not "cousins with friend Davidson, of the Wales".45

Binns, we know, outlined his general plan of attack to Copland in July 1932. The latter replied by return of mail: he would do all in his power to push forward "this valuable project" but thought that the proposed stra­tegy needed modification. 46 His reply also introduced several new dra­matis personae into the plot: Sir Robert Gibson, a banker with whom Davidson had had many a bitter argument; E. H. Wreford, another banker; Sir Lennon Raws, a Melbourne businessman; H. J. Sheehan, a public servant; and the New South Wales senator Walter Massy Greene. The most important of these was the chairman of the board of the Com­monwealth Bank, the Scottish-born Sir Robert Gibson, a self-made busi­nessman and financier who "disliked speculation, waste, [and] indul­gence for its own sake" and whose economic philosophy "placed a high value on thrift".47 As a banker, he believed in strict separation of mon­etary management and government policy. During the depression he sought stubbornly to retain the exchange parity between the Australian pound and the pound sterling and to maintain the gold standard, but lost on both counts. By 1932 he was already a sick man, and he died in January 1934.

The second banker who needs introduction is E. G. Wreford, the son of an Adelaide draper who joined the National Bank in 1882 and became chief manager in 1912. No longer -like Gibson - in his prime, he was "fearless and domineering", 48 and a conservative in matters of economic policy. He figures in the story largely in his capacity as chairman of the Associated Banks of Victoria, a consultative body going back to colonial times and consisting originally of those banks - both Australian and Anglo-Australian - which shared in the government banking business. The three non-bankers about to enter the plot -all with a minor walk-on role - were Sir Lennon Raws, the English-born chairman and managing director oflmperial Chemical Industries, Nobel Australasia Pty. Ltd. and a score of other companies; the secretary to the Treasury, H. J. Sheehan, who was to advise Bruce at the World Economic Conference in 1933; and the former New South Wales state politician senator Walter Massy­Greene, minister assisting the prime minister and treasurer J. A. Lyons.

Copland's reply, as already noted, warned Binns that while his general plan was sound, it needed minor adjustments. It would be unwise, he told Binns on 4 August, to let it be known to other banks, and in particular the Commonwealth Bank, that he had approached the Bank of New South Wales. It might be advisable to establish contact with the former bank first, either through Sheehan or Massy-Greene, for Sir Robert Gibson

would, I believe, be troubled if you approached Davidson before you approached him ... If you can make it clear to Gibson that this Library is to be available for members of Parliament and civil servants so that they can eman-

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cipate themselves from the grip of the Economists, you are backing almost a certainty. I suggest, therefore, that you put the matter up candidly to Sheehan, who might indicate to Gibson the difficulties in which the Treasury has found itself in not having specially trained men. If such a Library were available these men might also be available from the Treasury staff, and they would have the great advantage from Gibson's point of view that they would not be too highly theoretical. 49

With regard to the local Melbourne banks, concluded Copland, the best man to tap would be Sir Lennon Raws, whom he knew well and who had the "confidence of the Banks in an unusual degree". Sir Lennon could approach Wreford, the chairman of the Associated Banks, but "it should be very desirable that W reford should not know of my connection with the proposal ... You will gather from this that I think the Economists should be well in the background." He would talk to Davidson when in Sydney on 15 August, and was prepared to do anything possible behind the scenes, but without anyone knowing that he was interested in the proposal at all. 50

The events of the next five months can be summarized as follows. Early in August Dickinson, the Canberra manager of the Bank of New South Wales, sent Binns's proposal to Davidson, with a covering letter suggest­ing that the bank might perhaps undertake the project alone, as this would generate "publicity of the very best kind". 51 On 15 August Copland spoke to Davidson, according to plan. The result was not encouraging. "Mr Davidson was interested in the project. He is spending a great deal upon economic study and research himself and I think feels that it will not be possible for him to make any special effort to help you", Copland told Binns on 2 September, adding that he thought the time had come to approach the chairman of the Commonwealth Bank- possibly through a member of the House who knew him well - since Gibson "might be influenced by a suggestion that it would be a very noble action on his part to help the library under the specially severe conditions now ruling". 52

Unbeknown to Copland, Binns had done just that, several days before the former had interviewed Davidson. On 11 August he had written toW. A. Watt, a former Victorian premier (1912-14) and federal treasurer ( 1920-23) who, as Speaker of the House (and chairman of the Library Commit­tee) from 1923 to 1926 had shown an unusual degree of interest in the Commonwealth National Library. Watt, now a successful businessman, advised Binns to wait. "I am doubtful as to whether the time is as yet opportune to place your scheme before the Banks by any of the channels suggested", he replied on 5 September, adding, virtually out of the blue: "Perhaps I should tell you that I am not at all in love with the 'Professional Economists', although Copland is probably the best of the lot." He did not think Sheehan had much weight with Gibson, and he would not pick him, or Sir Lennon Raws, to sound him out. Instead, he offered to approach Gibson himself: "I have known the old man since his arrival in Australia, and if you would like me to tap him on the question, I will do it."53

That was early in September. On 20 October Watt had written to Binns

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again. He had finally managed to interview Gibson and to convey to him the impression that

his approval was essential for the proper launching of the proposition, which seemed to please him somewhat ... I got him to promise that if he could see his way clear to take the initiative, he would put the scheme before the Banks as a whole, and recommend it ... I am inclined to think that he looks in a kindly way at the proposal, and I expect to hear from him in the course of say- a week, as to his conclusions. 54

But a week had passed - indeed six weeks -without a word from Sir Robert. On 6 December Watts sent a brief note to Binns; he had had no reply from the chairman, even though he had written to him again to remind him of his promise. Two days later Binns played his last trump: he asked Copland to "launch" the proposal on the Associated Banks at once. "I am afraid this is not a very suitable time for you", he wrote on 8 December, "with University examination papers on hand, but do you think you could see Sir Lennon Raws and arrange to put the proposal before Mr Wreford, with the request that he bring it officially before the Board [of the Associated Banks] at a convenient meeting?" 55 As far as we can tell, Copland had not managed to interview Wreford; at any rate, there is nothing in Binns's correspondence files- and Binns was a most orderly person- to indicate that the professor had ever replied. What we do know, however, is that Copland was unwell during the second half of December; "I am only afraid that your recent illness", wrote Binns in his belated congratulations on the C.M.G. conferred on Copland in the 1933 New Year's honours list, "indicates that you gave too generously and seriously overtaxed your health".56 The new year also brought some encouraging news for Binns, in the form of a note from Watts. Sir Robert, wrote the former on 16 January, had finally committed himself in writing. He liked the proposal in principle but

the nature of his reply indicates that he had forgotten some of the arguments which I employed to win his attention. He apparently believes that his difficulty is one of finance, and he suggests that postponement of the undertaking is advisable, in view of the difficulties which the Banks would find, in existing circumstances, in providing enough money to launch it on a practical basis ... I think I can remove that objection from his mind, but I would like some data from you ... Can you give me an approximate budget estimate for say the next three, or five years, showing clearly as possible how much money would be required altogether by private or institutional contributions, to inaugurate the Library?57

Armed with that information, Watt interviewed Gibson some time in the last week of January. There is no record of what was said, but Watts, it would seem, had somehow persuaded Sir Robert that finance was not an insurmountable problem; at any rate, when Binns was in Melbourne -early in February- Watts advised him that instead of asking for the

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immediate creation of a trust fund, it might be more realistic to push for a grant spread over a period of, say, five years, sufficient not only "for immediate purchases but also with a reserve of approximately £I ,000 to build up the endowment within the period. Such an arrangement would involve each of the Associated Banks in an equal contribution of probably not more than £200 to £300 per annum for five years ... ".58 While in Melbourne, Binns also tried to contact Copland. He had advised him well in advance of his arrival, but the latter happened to be on holidays in the country, and the two missed each other by the proverbial eat's whisker. Binns returned to Canberra, while Copland would soon be on his way to England where he would deliver the Marshall Lectures at Cambridge; they were later published under the title Australia in the world crisis: 19 29-19 33 (1934). By the time he had returned, the worst of the depression was over, and the National Library of Economics was not heard of again.

To his credit, Binns fought for his library to the very end. In late June 1933- in circumstances which remain unexplained- he sent, through an intermediary, a copy of his "Proposal" to Associate Professor G. L. Wood, Acting Dean of the Faculty of Commerce at the University of Melbourne. The time to launch the scheme was now ripe, wrote Binns, and it was "just a matter of finding the right person, for we already have the sympathetic support ofboth Sir Robert Gibson and Mr Davidson".59 Wood needed little persuasion -he himself had advocated a Bureau of Economic Research back in 192860 - but somehow the lines of commu­nication between the two remained permanently crossed. The result was a minor comedy of misunderstanding which, in a sense, started back in February when Binns, while in Melbourne, had phoned Wood and "we twice endeavoured to arrange an interview but he was going out of Mel­bourne on holiday just at that time".6 1 When Binns approached Wood the second time, in July, he did so in the mistaken belief that Copland had briefed him before leaving Australia. A flurry of correspondence followed, with Wood confiding in Binns that he had discussed the library, in strict confidence, with Professor Giblin who, "of course", was greatly inter­ested in the proposal. 62 The last written item of evidence relating to the library is a letter from Binns to Wood, dated 28 July 1933, outlining at some length the details of the scheme and the "progress made so far". It adds nothing to what we already know, except for one minor snippet of information: in November Binns had "mentioned the matter to the Assis­tant Commonwealth Treasurer (Senator Sir Walter Massy-Greene), who received it favourably, so that I have no doubt" -he told Wood-that as far as the Government and the Commonwealth are concerned, the pro­posal would be warmly welcomed if the Bank Board were prepared to make an offer. "63

That offer, of course, never came, and by the end of the year the whole affair had been overtaken by events - as Binns himself had foreseen, in September 1932, when he warned Watts: "Financial conditions are already brightening, and ... if we postpone too long the Banks might be inclined to forget the important place which economic research should

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play in our business and economic life. "64 But the story did not end there. As we have remarked, Giblin, while acting as Commonwealth Statistician from April 1931 to December 1932, made the Bureau of Statistics res­ponsible for economic advice to the Treasury, thereby starting the process of "internalizing" economic expertise65 - another, less colourful phrase for Copland's "emancipating the civil servants from the grip of the econ­omists". His first recruit was none other than the future "formidable Secretary to Treasury",66 Roland Wilson, a Rhodes scholar who did his post-graduate work at Oxford and the University of Chicago, and taught briefly at the University of Tasmania before being appointed Govern­ment Economist in 1932. He was followed by others, in the wake of a 1933 amendment of the Public Service Act designed to ease the way for grad­uates (other than specialists) into the public service. 6 7 This gradual shift in the composition of the Commonwealth bureaucracy brought correspond­ing changes in the role of the Commonwealth National Library, which were given official sanction in November 1935 when Parliament pro­vided an additional vote (on the estimates of the Prime Minister's Depart­ment) to enable it to furnish the "fullest information on all subjects dealt with by the Government and the Commonwealth department". This was, it is true, only one of the library's new, "extra-parliamentary functions" enumerated for the benefit of the Senate by the minister for defence, Arch­dale Parkhill, but a quick perusal of the full list of the library's responsibilities supplied by the minister will show that the provision of information for the government and its departments had a definite prior­ity.68 The event itself has become, rightly, regarded as a watershed in the library's history, but the actual reason behind it is not generally appre­ciated: it was the need for specialized information by its public servants, rather than regard for the library's cultural mission, that led the Treasury to loosen its purse-strings. As the professionalization and diversification of the public service grew and gained strength, so did the resources which the government made available to the library, making it possible for it to become a national institution not only in name (which it had appro­priated, somewhat prematurely, in 192369) but also in reality, and to "extend and intensify those services which", as Binns told the heads of department on the occasion of their collective visit to the library in Sep­tember 1935 - an event which, in retrospect, may well have been the catalyst for the financial windfall of November 1935 - "so far as its limited resources could permit, it has been giving the Commonwealth departments since the transfer to Canberra since 1927. " 70

REFERENCES

BINNS to Copland, 29 July 1932. National Library of Australia, Copland papers, MS 3800, Box 6, F42.

2 PROPOSAL for the establishment of a National Research Library of Economics, Finance and Banking, p. I, ibid.

3 Ibid., pp. 2-3. 4 KIBBLE, N. "Notes on the work of the research department of the Public Library", p. I.

State Library of New South Wales, NPL 94, Letters received 1928-9.

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5 Ibid., p. 2. 6 This is how the library had been described by Dr Andrew Osborn, who starte<

faceted career in the Commonwealth Parliamentary Library, resigning just move to Canberra (Dr Andrew Osborn. De Berg Tapes, NLA, 1962, p. 54

7 REPORT on the work of the library for July-September 1929. NLA, CP Seri, Minister's Department 1929-35.

8 BINNS to G. T. Bell, 17 May 1929. NLA A3900, Box 6, Reference resea examples of reference inquiries also from A3900 Box 6.

9 MACINTYRE, S. The succeeding age. Melbourne, Oxford University Pre~ 238 (The Oxford History of Australia, vol. 4, 1901-1942).

10 GOODWIN, D. W. Crauford. Economic enquiry in Australia. Durham, Du sity Press, 1966, p. 567.

II BLAINEY, G. A centenary history of the University of Melbourne. Melbo bourne University Press, 1957, p. 157.

12 CAIN, N. "Economics between the wars: a tall poppy as seedling". Australi history, 3:79, 1984.

13 Ibid. 14 AUSTRALIAN dictionary of biography, vol. 8. Melbourne, Melbourne

Press, 1982 p. 641. 15 CAIN, Op. Cit., p. 86. 16 SCHEDVIN, B. C. Australia and the great depression: a study of economic d1

and policy in the 1920s and 1930s. Sydney, Sydney University Press, 197( 17 BLAINEY, Op. cit., pp. 157-8. 18 SCHEDVIN, Op. cit., p. 218. 19 EDWARDS, C. Bruce of Melbourne: man of two worlds. London, Heinem;

p. 156. 20 MACINTYRE, Op. cit., p. 240. 21 Ibid., p. 222. 22 GREENWOOD, G., ed. Australia: a social and economic history. Sydney,,

Robertson, 1954, p. 307. 23 ECONOMIC research act, no. 9 of 1929. 24 AUSTRALIA. Parliament. House of Representatives. Parliamentary del

1020-1, 1929. 25 EDWARDS, Op. cit., p. 440. Although the commission was formally abc

forty-two officers were transferred to the newly created Development Bra Prime Minister's Department; its principal function was to "conduct speci gat ions into economics of existing and projected new industries, but under Sc general advice was solicited" ("HISTORY of the Department of the Prim and the Cabinet", in Australia. Department of Prime Minister and Cabin· Report 1978-79, Canberra, Australian Government Publishing Service, 19

26 BINNS to Copland, 29 August 1932. NLA, MS 3800, Box 6, F39. 27 BINNS to Copland, 29 July 1982, ibid., F42. 28 BINNS to Copland, II August 1932, ibid., F39. 29 REPORT to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House ofR

tives by the Public Service Board commissioners in compliance with request in letter of 25th August 1932, pp. 46-50 (held by Parliament House Archi·

30 CUNNINGHAM, K. S. The Australian Council for Educational Research £

services in Australia. Melbourne, Australian Council for Educational Resea p. 6.

31 HORROCKS, N. The Carnegie Corporation of New York and its impact development in Australia: a case study in foundation influence. Ph.D. thesi sity of Pittsburgh, 1971.

32 Ibid., p. Ill. 33 Ibid., p. 160. 34 MACFARLAND to Bruce, 12 April 1928. Australian Archives, CRS 46

3341 12. 35 GEPP to Pearce, 21 January 1929, ibid. 36 MACLAREN to MacFarland, 4 February 1929, ibid.

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37 PROPOSAL for the establishment of a National Research Library of Economics, Finance and Banking, p. 4. NLA, MS 3800, Box 6, F42. The 1929 Economic Research Act, providing for the establishment of the Economic Research Bureau, remained on the statute books until 1950 when it was repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act, No. 80 of 1950.

38 COPLAND, D. B. Studies in economics and social science. Melbourne, University of Melbourne Press, 1927, p. 50.

39 AUSTRALIAN dictionary of biography, vol. 8. Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, 1982, p. 64 7.

40 BINNS to Copland, 29 July 1932. NLA, MS 3800, Box 6, F42. 41 Giblin's relations with the country's leading bankers are discussed in MACINTYRE,

Op. cit., SCHEDVIN, Op. cit., and COPLAND, D., ed. Giblin: the scholar and the man. Melbourne, Cheshire, 1960.

42 BLAINEY, G. and HUTTON, G. Gold and paper 1858-1982: a history of the National Bank of Australasia Ltd. Melbourne, Macmillan, p. 250.

43 HOLDER, R. F. Bank of New South Wales: a history, vol. 2. Sydney, Angus and Robert­son, 1970, p. 692.

44 Ibid., p. 648. 45 WATT to Binns, 5 September 1932. NLA, CP 740 Series 4, General Correspondence

1927-40, Economics, Banking and Finance Library, proposals for, 1932-3. 46 COPLAND to Binns, 4 August 1932, ibid. 47 AUSTRALIAN dictionary of biography, vol. 8. Melbourne, Melbourne University

Press, 1982, p. 655. 48 BLAINEY and HUTTON, Op. cit., p. 161. 49 COPLAND to Binns, 4 August 1932. NLA MS 3800, Box 6 F39. 50 Ibid. 51 There is an undated draft of the letter, obviously drawn up by Binns, in NLA, CP 7 40 4,

Proposals 1932-3. From the context it is clear that it was sent in time to reach Davidson by 15 August 1932.

52 COPLAND to Binns, 2 September 1932. NLA, CP 740 4, Proposals 1932-3. 53 WATT to Binns, 5 September 1932, ibid. 54 WATT to Binns, 20 October 1932, ibid. 55 BINNS to Copland, 8 December 1932, ibid. 56 BINNS to Copland, 14 January 1933, ibid. 57 WATT to Binns, 16 January 1933, ibid. 58 BINNS to A. G. WHitlam, Secretary of the University of Melbourne Appointments

Board, 3 July 1933, ibid. Binns's initial correspondence with Wood was through Whitlam.

59 Ibid. 60 PHILLIPS, P. D. and WOOD, G. L., eds. The peopling of Australia. Melbourne,

Macmillan in association with the Melbourne University Press, 1928, p. 6. 61 BINNS to Whitlam, 3 July 1933. NLA, CP 740 4, Proposals 1932-3. 62 WOOD to Binns, 25 July 1933, ibid. 63 BINNS to Whitlam, 28 July 1933, ibid. 64 BINNS to Watt, 27 September 1932, ibid. 65 CAIN, Op. cit., p. 80. 66 Ibid., p. 78. 67 The first to advocate the recruitment of graduates (into a special administrative class)

was the then minister for defence, G. F. Pearce, in 1919. The idea was taken up by the universities in 1925 when they urged the Public Service Board to appoint "non-pro­fessional" graduates. For a discussion of the growth of graduate employment and of the principle of "meritocracy" in the public service see CAIDEN, G. Career service: an introduction to the history of personnel admiflistration in the Commonwealth public service of Australia 1901-1961. Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, 1961, pp. 27-8, 244-5 and passim.

68 AUSTRALIA. Parliament. House of Representatives. Parliamentary debates, 148: 1483-4, 1935. The chief extra-parliamentary functions of the library, enumerated by the minister, were:

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(a) to provide the fullest information on all subjects dealt with by the Government and the Commonwealth departments:

(b) to collect and publish historical records relating to Australia and the Pacific; (c) to act as a depository collection of the more specialized books which other libraries

cannot always purchase and make these books available to scholars through inter­library loans;

(d) to give bibliographic services to other Australian libraries, including the publica­tion of select lists of Australian subjects;

(e) to give full library services to the Canberra University College and the residents of the Federal Capital Territory.

The order in which these functions are listed is not random but, as every lawyer worth his salt will confirm, indicates priorities which, ideally, an institution ought to follow. It is of more than academic interest that the 1960 National Library Act lists the preser­vation of the nation's documentary heritage as the library's number one function.

69 See BISKUP, P. "Captain Cook's Endeavour journal and Australian libraries: a study in institutional one-upmanship". Australian academic and research libraries, 18: 137-49, 1987.

70 BINNS to A. C. Joyce, Department of the Treasury, II November 1935. NLA, CP 4, Proposals 1932-3.

70

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Subscriptions: Bibliotech ANUTECH Pty Ltd GPO Box 4, Canberra, ACT, 2601 Phone 49 2414, Telex AA62700 NATUNI Vols. I-ll, $A8.50 each.

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