HES: Re: All pre-1936 economists were laissez faire advocates?

[Victoria Chick]

Roy Weintraub and Robert Leeson suggest that Keynes was the chief 
promoter of the idea that he was the first economist against laissez 
faire, but they surely can't suppose that he was unaware of  the 
widespread support of his 'classical' contemporaries for public works 
in the Depression. For example, speaking of Pigou and Robertson he 
wrote (to Kahn, 10 Oct 1937) : '... when it comes to practice, there 
is really extremely little between us. Why do they then insist on 
maintaining theories from which their own practical conclusions 
cannot possibly follow?' (CW XIV, p 259). See Also CW XIII, 495ff. 
(Thanks to Geoff Tily for finding the quote for me.)

Victoria Chick