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, loc. 1457