A tribute to Sidney Weintraub Eulogy JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH Nothing leaves one with such a sense of sadness as that Sidney Weintraub is no longer with us. A little is redeemed by joining with others to remember this wonderful friend and source of guidance for so many years. Of few men could first impressions be so wrong. He seemed a quiet, gentle man, the perfect example of the pliable, accommodating scholar, who, if he ventures an independent opinion, can soon be relied upon to retreat into acceptable orthodoxy. As I've said, how wrong! Sidney was aman of powerfully original mind, who, from a superior understanding of conventional belief, was an unrelenting critic of its errors and its weaknesses and an untiring advocate of what he believed to be right. 1 cannot think that ever in his life did he make a concession to what he thought might be fashionable, popular, or would bring applause. Alfred Marshall, who warned against economists who cultivated their audi- ence, would have approved of Sidney Weintraub. But neither was Sidney subject to the equal and opposite tendency—he was never a dissenter for the sake of dissent. His service was to what he believed in economic thought and policy. Nor, I venture, will his contribution in this regard be forgotten. When the day comes that we restrain the interacting dynamic of prices and wages by means more benign than unemployment, idle plants, and general hardship, it is Sidney's name that will be cited on both policy and the theoretical underpinning of the need. He will also be remembered, with Paul Davidson his greatly admired and admiring collaborator, as one of the two founding parents of the Journal of Post Keynesian Economics. It was my happy privilege to be ‘The author is Professor Emeritus. Harvard University. S08 urn of Post Kesmesian Fevmumnics Summer 1S, Vol. 7. No. 4EULOGY 509 present, in a general way, at the beginning of this enterprise. It has always been my hope, when in association with such good and worthy efforts, that there will be someone who will take the initiative, assume the responsibility, and, above all, do the work. Never has that wish— some will call it an escapist instinct—been so well served as in the case of the JPKE. Sidney and Paul did all the work; within the space of a few short years they led in making it one of the most progressive and policy-relevant journals in our field. I charge those who take up Sidney's task that they ensure it continue to be so. I talked with Sidney only a few hours before his death. When I asked him how he was, he gave in matter-of-fact fashion an appalling ac- counting of his disabilities. These he then dismissed as he turned to the present state of economic policy, or what is so designated, going on to observations on recent and forthcoming issues of the Journal. Let us all be grateful that our profession yields us such devoted scholars, our lives such devoted friends.Copyright © 2002 EBSCO Publishing