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Pease.</title> +<style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + } + HR { width: 33%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .note {margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} /* footnote */ + .blkquot {margin-left: 3em; margin-right: 3em;} /* block indent */ + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding-left: 1em; font-size: smaller; float: right; clear: right;} + + .poem {margin-left:5%; margin-right:5%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i3 {display: block; margin-left: 3em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + .poem .caesura {vertical-align: -200%;} + .center {text-align: center;} + .centerdiv {width: 19em; margin: auto;} + .centerdiv2 {width: 30em; margin: auto;} + .right {text-align: right;} + + ul li { padding-top: 1em ; } + ul ul ul, ul li ul li { padding: 0; } + ul { list-style: none; } + ul, ul ul ul li { display: inline; } + .subitem { display: block; padding-left: 2em; } + + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + +</style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13715 ***</div> + +<h1><a name='Page_3'></a>The History of the Fabian Society</h1> + +<h3>By</h3> + +<h2>Edward R. Pease</h2> + +<h4>Secretary for Twenty-five Years</h4> + +<h3>With Twelve Illustrations</h3> + +<p class="center"><img src="images/image01.png" style= +"width: 100px; height: 140px; border: 0" alt= +"Publisher's logo" /></p> + +<h3>NEW YORK</h3> + +<h3>E.P. DUTTON & COMPANY</h3> + +<h3>PUBLISHERS</h3> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h2><a name='Preface'></a><a name='Page_5'></a>Preface</h2> + +<p>The History of the Fabian Society will perhaps chiefly interest +the members, present and past, of the Society. But in so far as +this book describes the growth of Socialist theory in England, and +the influence of Socialism on the political thought of the last +thirty years, I hope it will appeal to a wider circle.</p> + +<p>I have described in my book the care with which the Fabian +Tracts have been revised and edited by members of the Executive +Committee. Two of my colleagues, Sidney Webb and Bernard Shaw, have +been good enough to revise this volume in like manner, and I have +to thank them for innumerable corrections in style, countless +suggestions of better words and phrases, and a number of +amplifications and additions, some of which I have accepted without +specific acknowledgment, whilst others for one reason or another +are to be found in notes; and I am particularly grateful to Bernard +Shaw for two valuable memoranda on the history of Fabian Economics, +and on Guild Socialism, which are printed as an appendix.</p> + +<p>The MS. or proofs have also been read by Mrs. Sidney Webb, Mrs. +Bernard Shaw, Sir Sydney Olivier, <a name='Page_6'></a>Graham +Wallas, W. Stephen Sanders, and R.C.K. Ensor, to each of whom my +cordial thanks are due for suggestions, additions, and +corrections.</p> + +<p>To Miss Bertha Newcombe I am obliged for permission to reproduce +the interesting sketch which forms the frontispiece.</p> + +<p class="right">E.R.P.</p> + +<p>THE PENDICLE,<br/> + LIMPSFIELD,<br/> + SURREY,<br/> + <i>January</i>, 1916.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h2><a name='Page_7'></a>Contents</h2> + +<h3 class="center"><a href='#Chapter_I'>Chapter I</a></h3> + +<h3 class="center">The Sources of Fabian Socialism</h3> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>The ideas of the early eighties—The epoch of +Evolution—Sources of Fabian +ideas—Positivism—Henry George—John Stuart +Mill—Robert Owen—Karl Marx—The Democratic +Federation—"The Christian Socialist"—Thomas +Davidson</p> +</div> + +<h3 class="center"><a href='#Chapter_II'>Chapter II</a></h3> + +<h3 class="center">The Foundations of the Society: 1883-4</h3> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>Frank Podmore and Ghost-hunting—Thomas Davidson and his +circle—The preliminary meetings—The Fellowship of the +New Life—Formation of the Society—Th career of the New +Fellowship</p> +</div> + +<h3 class="center"><a href='#Chapter_III'>Chapter III</a></h3> + +<h3 class="center">The Early Days: 1884-6</h3> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>The use of the word Socialism—Approval of the Democratic +Federation—Tract No. I—The Fabian Motto—Bernard +Shaw joins—His first Tract—The Industrial Remuneration +Conference—Sidney Webb and Sydney Olivier become +members—Mrs. Annie Besant—Shaw's second Tract—The +Tory Gold controversy—"What Socialism Is"—The Fabian +Conference of 1886—Sidney Webb's first contribution, "The +Government Organisation of Unemployed Labour"</p> +</div> + +<h3 class="center"><a href='#Chapter_IV'>Chapter IV</a></h3> + +<h3 class="center">The Formation of Fabian Policy: 1886-9</h3> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>The factors of success; priority of date; the men who made +it—The controversy over policy—The Fabian Parliamentary +League—"Facts for Socialists"—The adoption of the +Basis—The seven Essayists in command—Lord +Haldane—The "Essays" as Lectures—How to train for +Public Life—Fabians on the London School Board—"Facts +for Londoners"—Municipal Socialism—"The Eight Hours +Bill"</p> +</div> + +<h3 class="center"><a href='#Chapter_V'>Chapter V</a></h3> + +<h3 class="center">"Fabian Essays" and the Lancashire Campaign: +1890-3</h3> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>"Fabian Essays" published—Astonishing success—A new +presentation of Socialism—Reviewed after twenty-five +years—Henry Hutchinson—The Lancashire +Campaign—Mrs. Besant withdraws—"Fabian News"</p> +</div> + +<h3 class="center"><a href='#Chapter_VI'>Chapter VI</a></h3> + +<h3 class="center">"To your tents, O Israel": 1894-1900</h3> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>Progress of the Society—The Independent Labour +Party—Local Fabian Societies—University Fabian +Societies—London Groups and Samuel Butler—The first +Fabian Conference—Tracts and Lectures—The 1892 Election +Manifesto—The Newcastle Program—The Fair Wages +Policy—The "Fortnightly" article—The Intercepted Letter +of 1906</p> +</div> + +<h3 class="center"><a href='#Chapter_VII'>Chapter VII</a></h3> + +<h3 class="center">"Fabianism and the Empire": 1900-1</h3> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>The Library and Book Boxes—Parish Councils—The +Workmen's Compensation Act—The Hutchinson Trust—The +London School of Economics—Educational +Lectures—Electoral Policy—The controversy over the +South African War—The publication of "Fabianism and the +Empire"</p> +</div> + +<h3 class="center"><a href='#Chapter_VIII'>Chapter VIII</a><a name= +'Page_9'></a></h3> + +<h3 class="center">Education: 1902-5, and the Labour Party: +1900-15</h3> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>Housing—"The Education muddle and the way +out"—Supporting the Conservatives—The Education Acts of +1902 and 1903—Feeding School Children—The Labour +Representation Committee formed—The Fabian Election +Fund—Will Crooks elected in 1910—A Fabian Cabinet +Minister—Resignation of Graham Wallas—The younger +generation: H.W. Macrosty, J.F. Oakeshott, John W. +Martin—Municipal Drink Trade—Tariff Reform—The +Decline of the Birth-rate</p> +</div> + +<h3 class="center"><a href='#Chapter_IX'>Chapter IX</a></h3> + +<h3 class="center">The Episode of Mr. Wells: 1906-8</h3> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>His lecture on administrative areas—"Faults of the +Fabian"—The Enquiry Committee—The Report, and the +Reply—The real issue, Wells <i>v</i>. Shaw—The women +intervene—The Basis altered—The new Executive—Mr. +Wells withdraws—His work for Socialism—The writing of +Fabian Tracts</p> +</div> + +<h3 class="center"><a href='#Chapter_X'>Chapter X</a></h3> + +<h3 class="center">The Policy of Expansion: 1907-12</h3> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>Statistics of growth—The psychology of the +Recruit—Famous Fabians—The Arts Group—The +Nursery—The Women's Group—Provincial Fabian +Societies—University Fabian Societies—London Groups +revived—Annual Conferences—The Summer School—The +story of "Socialist Unity"—The Local Government Information +Bureau—The Joint Standing Committee—Intervention of the +International Socialist Bureau</p> +</div> + +<h3 class="center"><a href='#Chapter_XI'>Chapter XI</a></h3> + +<h3 class="center">The Minority Report, Syndicalism and +Research:<br /> +1909-15</h3> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>The emergence of Mrs. Sidney Webb—The Poor Law +Commission—The Minority Report—Unemployment—The +National Committee for the Prevention of Destitution—"Vote +against the House of Lords"—Bernard<a name='Page_10'></a> +Shaw retires—Death of Hubert Bland—Opposition to the +National Insurance Bill—The Fabian Reform Committee—The +"New Statesman"—The Research Department—"The Rural +Problem"—"The Control of +Industry"—Syndicalism—The Guildsmen—Final +Statistics—The War</p> +</div> + +<h3 class="center"><a href='#Chapter_XII'>Chapter XII</a></h3> + +<h3 class="center">The Lessons of Thirty Years</h3> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>Breaking the spell of Marxism—A French +verdict—Origin of Revisionism in Germany—The British +School of Socialism—Mr. Ernest Barker's summary—Mill +<i>versus</i> Marx—The Fabian Method—Making Socialists +or making Socialism—The life of propagandist +societies—The prospects of Socialist Unity—The future +of Fabian ideas—The test of Fabian success</p> +</div> + +<h3 class="center"><a href='#Appendix_I'>Appendix I</a></h3> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>A. On the History of Fabian Economics. By Bernard Shaw<br /> +B. On Guild Socialism. By Bernard Shaw</p> +</div> + +<h3 class="center"><a href='#Appendix_II'>Appendix II</a></h3> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>The Basis of the Fabian Society</p> +</div> + +<h3 class="center"><a href='#Appendix_III'>Appendix III</a></h3> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>List of the names and the years of office of the ninety-six +members of the Executive Committee, 1884-1915</p> +</div> + +<h3 class="center"><a href='#Appendix_IV'>Appendix IV</a></h3> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>Complete List of Fabian publications, 1884-1915, with names of +authors</p> +</div> + +<h3 class="center"><a href='#Index'>Index</a></h3> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h2><a name='Page_11'></a>Illustrations</h2> + +<p class="center"><i>Frontispiece, from a drawing by Miss Bertha +Newcombe in 1895</i></p> + +<p class="center">The Seven Essayists</p> + +<p><a href='#image05'>Mrs. Annie +Besant</a> <i>From a photograph</i></p> + +<p><a href='#image03'>Hubert +Bland</a> <i>From a photograph</i></p> + +<p><a href='#image06'>William +Clarke</a> <i>From a photograph</i></p> + +<p><a href='#image04'>(Sir) Sydney +Oliver</a> <i>From a photograph</i></p> + +<p><a href='#image07'>G. Bernard +Shaw</a> <i>From a photograph</i></p> + +<p><a href='#image08'>Graham +Wallas</a> <i>From a photograph</i></p> + +<p><a href='#image10'>Sidney +Webb</a> <i>From a drawing</i></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> +<p><a href='#image12'>Edward R. +Pease</a> <i>From a photograph</i></p> + +<p><a href='#image02'>Frank +Podmore</a> <i>From a photograph</i></p> + +<p><a href='#image11'>Mrs. Sidney +Webb</a> <i>From a photograph</i></p> + +<p><a href='#image09'>H.G. Wells</a> <i>From +a photograph</i></p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h1><a name='The_History_of_the_Fabian_Society'></a>The</h1> + +<h1><a name='Page_13'></a>History of the Fabian Society</h1> + +<h3><a name='Chapter_I'></a>Chapter I</h3> + +<h2>The Sources of Fabian Socialism</h2> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>The ideas of the early eighties—The epoch of +Evolution—Sources of Fabian +ideas—Positivism—Henry George—John Stuart +Mill—Robert Owen—Karl Marx—The Democratic +Federation—"The Christian Socialist"—Thomas +Davidson.</p> +</div> + +<p>"Britain as a whole never was more tranquil and happy," said the +"Spectator," then the organ of sedate Liberalism and enlightened +Progress, in the summer of 1882. "No class is at war with society +or the government: there is no disaffection anywhere, the Treasury +is fairly full, the accumulations of capital are vast"; and then +the writer goes on to compare Great Britain with Ireland, at that +time under the iron heel of coercion, with Parnell and hundreds of +his followers in jail, whilst outrages and murders, like those of +Maamtrasma, were almost everyday occurrences.</p> + +<p>Some of the problems of the early eighties are with us yet. +Ireland is still a bone of contention between political parties: +the Channel tunnel is no nearer completion: and then as now, when +other topics are <a name='Page_14'></a>exhausted, the "Spectator" +can fill up its columns with Thought Transference and Psychical +Research.</p> + +<p>But other problems which then were vital, are now almost +forgotten. Electric lighting was a doubtful novelty: Mr. +Bradlaugh's refusal to take the oath excited a controversy which +now seems incredible. Robert Louis Stevenson can no longer be +adequately described as an "accomplished writer," and the +introduction of female clerks into the postal service by Mr. +Fawcett has ceased to raise alarm lest the courteous practice of +always allowing ladies to be victors in an argument should perforce +be abandoned.</p> + +<p>But in September of the same year we find a cloud on the +horizon, the prelude of a coming storm. The Trade Union Congress +had just been held and the leaders of the working classes, with +apparently but little discussion, had passed a resolution asking +the Government to institute an enquiry with a view to relaxing the +stringency of Poor Law administration. This, said the "Spectator," +is beginning "to tamper with natural conditions," "There is no +logical halting-place between the theory that it is the duty of the +State to make the poor comfortable, and socialism."</p> + +<p>Another factor in the thought of those days attracted but little +attention in the Press, though there is a long article in the +"Spectator" at the beginning of 1882 on "the ever-increasing +wonder" of that strange faith, "Positivism." It is difficult for +the present generation to realise how large a space in the minds of +the young men of the eighties was occupied by the religion invented +by Auguste Comte. Of this however more must be said on a later +page.</p> + +<p>But perhaps the most significant feature in the periodical +literature of the time is what it omits. April, 1882, is memorable +for the death of Charles <a name='Page_15'></a>Darwin, incomparably +the greatest of nineteenth-century Englishmen, if greatness be +measured by the effects of his work on the thought of the world. +The "Spectator" printed a secondary article which showed some +appreciation of the event. But in the monthly reviews it passed +practically unnoticed. It is true that Darwin was buried in +Westminster Abbey, but even in 1882, twenty-three years after the +publication of the "Origin of Species," evolution was regarded as a +somewhat dubious theorem which respectable people were wise to +ignore.</p> + +<p>In the monthly reviews we find the same odd mixture of articles +apposite to present problems, and articles utterly out of date. The +organisation of agriculture is a perennial, and Lady Verney's +"Peasant Proprietorship in France" ("Contemporary," January, 1882), +Mr. John Rae's "Co-operative Agriculture in Germany" +("Contemporary," March, 1882), and Professor Sedley Taylor's +"Profit-Sharing in Agriculture" ("Nineteenth Century," October, +1882) show that change in the methods of exploiting the soil is +leaden-footed and lagging.</p> + +<p>Problems of another class, centring round "the Family," present +much the same aspect now as they did thirty years ago. In his +"Infant Mortality and Married Women in Factories," Professor +Stanley Jevons ("Contemporary," January, 1882) proposes that +mothers of children under three years of age should be excluded +from factories, and we are at present perhaps even farther from +general agreement whether any measure on these lines ought to be +adopted.</p> + +<p>But when we read the articles on Socialism—more numerous +than might be expected at that early date—we are in another +world. Mr. Samuel Smith, M.P., writing on "Social Reform" in the +"Nineteenth Century" for May, 1883, says that: "Our country is <a +name='Page_16'></a>still comparatively free from Communism and +Nihilism and similar destructive movements, but who can tell how +long this will continue? We have a festering mass of human +wretchedness in all our great towns, which is the natural hotbed of +such anarchical movements: all the great continental countries are +full of this explosive material. Can we depend on our country +keeping free from the infection when we have far more poverty in +our midst than the neighbouring European States?" Emigration and +temperance reform, he thinks, may avert the danger.</p> + +<p>The Rev. Samuel (later Canon) Barnett in the same review a month +earlier advocated Free Libraries and graduated taxation to pay for +free education, under the title of "Practicable Socialism." In +April, 1883, Emile de Lavelaye described with alarm the "Progress +of Socialism." "On the Continent," he wrote, "Socialism is said to +be everywhere." To it he attributed with remarkable inaccuracy, the +agrarian movement in Ireland, and with it he connected the fact +that Henry George's new book, "Progress and Poverty," was selling +by thousands "in an ultra popular form" in the back streets and +alleys of England. And then he goes on to allude to Prince +Bismarck's "abominable proposition to create a fund for pensioning +invalid workmen by a monopoly of tobacco"!</p> + +<p>Thirty years ago politics were only intermittently concerned +with social problems. On the whole the view prevailed, at any rate +amongst the leaders, that Government should interfere in such +matters as little as possible. Pauperism was still to be stamped +out by ruthless deterrence: education had been only recently and +reluctantly taken in hand: factory inspection alone was an accepted +State function. Lord Beaconsfield was dead and he had forgotten <a +name='Page_17'></a>his zeal for social justice long before he +attained power. Gladstone, then in the zenith of his fame, never +took any real interest in social questions as we now understand +them. Lord Salisbury was an aristocrat and thought as an +aristocrat. John Bright viewed industrial life from the standpoint +of a Lancashire mill-owner. William Edward Forster, the creator of +national education, a Chartist in his youth, had become the gaoler +of Parnell and the protagonist of coercion in Ireland. Joseph +Chamberlain alone seemed to realise the significance of the social +problem, and unhappily political events were soon to deflect his +career from what then seemed to be its appointed course.</p> + +<p>The political parties therefore offered very little attraction +to the young men of the early eighties, who, viewing our social +system with the fresh eyes of youth, saw its cruelties and its +absurdities and judged them, not as older men, by comparison with +the worse cruelties and greater absurdities of earlier days, but by +the standard of common fairness and common sense, as set out in the +lessons they had learned in their schools, their universities, and +their churches.</p> + +<p>It is nowadays not easy to recollect how wide was the +intellectual gulf which separated the young generation of that +period from their parents. "The Origin of Species," published in +1859, inaugurated an intellectual revolution such as the world had +not known since Luther nailed his Theses to the door of All Saints' +Church at Wittenberg. The older folk as a rule refused to accept or +to consider the new doctrine. I recollect a botanical Fellow of the +Royal Society who, in 1875, told me that he had no opinions on +Darwin's hypothesis. The young men of the time I am describing grew +up with the new ideas and accepted them as a matter of course. +Herbert Spencer, then <a name='Page_18'></a>deemed the greatest of +English thinkers, was pointing out in portentous phraseology the +enormous significance of Evolution. Professor Huxley, in brilliant +essays, was turning to ridicule the simple-minded credulity of +Gladstone and his contemporaries. Our parents, who read neither +Spencer nor Huxley, lived in an intellectual world which bore no +relation to our own; and cut adrift as we were from the +intellectual moorings of our upbringings, recognising, as we did, +that the older men were useless as guides in religion, in science, +in philosophy because they knew not evolution, we also felt +instinctively that we could accept nothing on trust from those who +still believed that the early chapters of Genesis accurately +described the origin of the universe, and that we had to discover +somewhere for ourselves what were the true principles of the then +recently invented science of sociology.</p> + +<p>One man there was who professed to offer us an answer, Auguste +Comte. He too was pre-Darwinian, but his philosophy accepted +science, future as well as past. John Stuart Mill, whose word on +his own subjects was then almost law, wrote of him with respectful +admiration. His followers were known to number amongst them some of +the ablest thinkers of the day. The "Religion of Humanity" offered +solutions for all the problems that faced us. It suggested a new +heaven, of a sort, and it proposed a new earth, free from all the +inequalities of wealth, the preventable suffering, the reckless +waste of effort, which we saw around us. At any rate, it was worth +examination; and most of the free-thinking men of that period read +the "Positive Polity" and the other writings of the founder, and +spent some Sunday mornings at the little conventicle in Lamb's +Conduit Street, or attended on Sunday evenings the Newton Hall +lectures of Frederic Harrison.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_19'></a>Few could long endure the absurdities of a +made-up theology and a make-believe religion: and the Utopia +designed by Comte was as impracticable and unattractive as Utopias +generally are. But the critical and destructive part of the case +was sound enough. Here was a man who challenged the existing order +of society and pronounced it wrong. It was in his view based on +conventions, on superstitions, on regulations which were all out of +date; society should be reorganised in the light of pure reason; +the anarchy of competition must be brought to an end; mankind +should recognise that order, good sense, science, and, he added, +religion freed from superstition, could turn the world into a place +where all might live together in comfort and happiness.</p> + +<p>Positivism proposed to attain its Utopia by moralising the +capitalists, and herein it showed no advance on Christianity, which +for nineteen centuries had in vain preached social obligation to +the rich. The new creed could not succeed where the old, with all +its tremendous sanctions, had completely failed. We wanted +something fresh, some new method of dealing with the inequalities +of wealth.</p> + +<p>Emile de Lavelaye was quite correct in attributing significance +to the publication of "Progress and Poverty," though the seed sown +by Henry George took root, not in the slums and alleys of our +cities—no intellectual seed of any sort can germinate in the +sickly, sunless atmosphere of slums—but in the minds of +people who had sufficient leisure and education to think of other +things than breadwinning. Henry George proposed to abolish poverty +by political action: that was the new gospel which came from San +Francisco in the early eighties. "Progress and Poverty" was +published in America in 1879, and its author visited England at the +end of 1881. Socialism hardly <a name='Page_20'></a>existed at that +time in English-speaking countries, but the early advocates of land +taxation were not then, as they usually are now, uncompromising +individualists. "Progress and Poverty" gave an extraordinary +impetus to the political thought of the time. It proposed to +redress the wrongs suffered by the working classes as a whole: the +poverty it considered was the poverty of the wage workers as a +class, not the destitution of the unfortunate and downtrodden +individuals. It did not merely propose, like philanthropy and the +Poor Law, to relieve the acute suffering of the outcasts of +civilisation, those condemned to wretchedness by the incapacity, +the vice, the folly, or the sheer misfortune of themselves or their +relations. It suggested a method by which wealth would correspond +approximately with worth; by which the reward of labour would go to +those that laboured; the idleness alike of rich and poor would +cease; the abundant wealth created by modern industry would be +distributed with something like fairness and even equality, amongst +those who contributed to its production. Above all, this tremendous +revolution was to be accomplished by a political method, applicable +by a majority of the voters, and capable of being drafted as an Act +of Parliament by any competent lawyer.</p> + +<p>To George belongs the extraordinary merit of recognising the +right way of social salvation. The Socialists of earlier days had +proposed segregated communities; the Co-operators had tried +voluntary associations; the Positivists advocated moral suasion; +the Chartists favoured force, physical or political; the Marxists +talked revolution and remembered the Paris Commune. George wrote in +a land where the people ruled themselves, not only in fact but also +in name. The United States in the seventies was not yet dominated +by trusts and controlled by millionaires. <a name= +'Page_21'></a>Indeed even now that domination and control, +dangerous and disastrous as it often is, could not withstand for a +moment any widespread uprising of the popular will. Anyway, George +recognised that in the Western States political institutions could +be moulded to suit the will of the electorate; he believed that the +majority desired to seek their own well-being and this could not +fail to be also the well-being of the community as a whole. From +Henry George I think it may be taken that the early Fabians learned +to associate the new gospel with the old political method.</p> + +<p>But when we came to consider the plan proposed by George we +quickly saw that it would not carry us far. Land may be the source +of all wealth to the mind of a settler in a new country. To those +whose working day was passed in Threadneedle Street and Lombard +Street, on the floor of the Stock Exchange, and in the Bank of +England, land appears to bear no relation at all to wealth, and the +allegation that the whole surplus of production goes automatically +to the landowners is obviously untrue. George's political economy +was old-fashioned or absurd; and his solution of the problem of +poverty could not withstand the simplest criticism. Taxation to +extinction of the rent of English land would only affect a small +fraction of England's wealth.</p> + +<p>There was another remedy in the field. Socialism was talked +about in the reviews: some of us knew that an obscure Socialist +movement was stirring into life in London. And above all John +Stuart Mill had spoken very respectfully of Socialism in his +"Political Economy," which then held unchallenged supremacy as an +exposition of the science. If, he wrote, "the choice were to be +made between Communism<a name='FNanchor_1' href= +'#Footnote_1'>[1]</a> with <a name='Page_22'></a>all its chances, +and the present state of society with all its sufferings and +injustices, if the institution of private property necessarily +carried with it as a consequence that the produce of labour should +be apportioned as we now see it almost in inverse proportion to +labour, the largest portions to those who have never worked at all, +the next largest to those whose work is almost nominal, and so in +descending scale, the remuneration dwindling as the work grows +harder and more disagreeable until the most fatiguing and +exhausting bodily labour cannot count with certainty on being able +to earn even the necessities of life; if this or Communism were the +alternative, all the difficulties, great or small, of Communism +would be but as dust in the balance."<a name='FNanchor_2' href= +'#Footnote_2'>[2]</a> And again in the next paragraph: "We are too +ignorant, either of what individual agency in its best form or +Socialism in its best form can accomplish, to be qualified to +decide which of the two will be the ultimate form of human +society."</p> + +<p>More than thirty years had passed since this had been written, +and whilst the evils of private property, so vividly depicted by +Mill, showed no signs of mitigation, the remedies he anticipated +had made no substantial progress. The co-operation of the Rochdale +Pioneers had proved a magnificent success, but its sphere of +operations was now clearly seen to be confined within narrow +limits. Profit-sharing then as now was a sickly plant barely kept +alive by the laborious efforts of benevolent professors. Mill's +indictment of the capitalist system, in regard to its effects on +social life, was so powerful, his treatment of the primitive +socialism and communism of his day so sympathetic, that it is +surprising how little it prepared the way for the reception of the +new ideas. But to some of his <a name='Page_23'></a>readers, at any +rate, it suggested that there was an alternative to the +capitalistic system, and that Socialism or Communism was worthy of +examination.<a name='FNanchor_3' href='#Footnote_3'>[3]</a></p> + +<p>The Socialism of Robert Owen had made a profound impression on +the working people of England half a century earlier, but the +tradition of it was confined to those who had heard its prophet. +Owen, one of the greatest men of his age, had no sense of art; his +innumerable writings are unreadable; and both his later excursions +into spiritualism, and the failure of his communities and +co-operative enterprises, had clouded his reputation amongst those +outside the range of his personality. In later years we often came +across old men who had sat at his feet, and who rejoiced to hear +once more something resembling his teachings: but I do not think +that, at the beginning, the Owenite tradition had any influence +upon us.</p> + +<p>Karl Marx died in London on the 14th March, 1883, but nobody in +England was then aware that the greatest figure in international +politics had passed away. It is true that Marx had taken a +prominent part in founding the International at that historic +meeting in St. Martin's Town Hall on September 28th, 1864. The real +significance of that episode was over-rated at the time, and when +the International disappeared from European politics in 1872 the +whole thing was forgotten.</p> + +<p>In Germany Marxian Socialism was already a force, and it was +attracting attention in England, as we have seen. But the +personality of Marx must have been antipathetic to the English +workmen whom he knew, or else he failed to make them understand his +ideas: at any rate, his socialism fell on deaf ears, and it may be +said to have made no lasting impression on the <a name= +'Page_24'></a>leaders of English working-class thought. Though he +was resident in England for thirty-four years, Marx remained a +German to the last. His writings were not translated into English +at this period, and Mr. Hyndman's "England for All," published in +1881, which was the first presentation of his ideas in English, did +not even mention his name. This book was in fact an extremely +moderate proposal to remedy "something seriously amiss in the +conditions of our everyday life," and the immediate programme was +no more than an eight hours working day, free and compulsory +education, compulsory construction of working-class dwellings, and +cheap "transport" for working-class passengers. It was the +unauthorised programme of the Democratic Federation which had been +founded by Mr. Hyndman in 1881. "Socialism Made Plain," the social +and political Manifesto of the Democratic Federation (undated, but +apparently issued in 1883), is a much stronger document. It deals +with the distribution of the National Income, giving the workers' +share as 300 out of 1300 millions sterling, and demands that the +workers should "educate, agitate, organise" in order to get their +own. Evidently it attracted some attention, since we find that the +second edition of a pamphlet "Reply" by Samuel Smith, M.P., then a +person of substantial importance, was issued in January, 1884.</p> + +<p>At the end of 1883 Mr. Hyndman published his "Historical Basis +of Socialism in England," which for some time was the text-book of +the Democratic Federation, but this, of course, was too late to +influence the founders of the Fabian Society.</p> + +<p>We were however aware of Marx, and I find that my copy of the +French edition of "Das Kapital" is dated 8th October, 1883; but I +do not think that any of the original Fabians had read the book or +had <a name='Page_25'></a>assimilated its ideas at the time the +Society was founded.</p> + +<p>To some of those who joined the Society in its early days +Christian Socialism opened the way of salvation. The "Christian +Socialist"<a name='FNanchor_4' href='#Footnote_4'>[4]</a> was +established by a band of persons some of whom were not Socialist +and others not Christian. It claimed to be the spiritual child of +the Christian Socialist movement of 1848-52, which again was +Socialist only on its critical side, and constructively was merely +Co-operative Production by voluntary associations of workmen. Under +the guidance of the Rev. Stewart D. Headlam<a name='FNanchor_5' +href='#Footnote_5'>[5]</a> its policy of the revived movement was +Land Reform, particularly on the lines of the Single Tax. The +introductory article boldly claims the name of Socialist, as used +by Maurice and Kingsley: the July number contains a long article by +Henry George. In September a formal report is given of the work of +the Democratic Federation. In November Christianity and Socialism +are said to be convertible terms, and in January, 1884, the +clerical view of usury is set forth in an article on the morality +of interest. In March Mr. H.H. Champion explains "surplus value," +and in April we find a sympathetic review of the "Historic Basis of +Socialism." In April, 1885, appears a long and full report of a +lecture by Bernard Shaw to the Liberal and Social Union. The +greater part of the paper is filled with Land Nationalisation, +Irish affairs—the land agitation in Ireland was then at its +height—and the propaganda of Henry George: whilst much space +is devoted to the religious aspect of the social problem. Sydney +Olivier, <a name='Page_26'></a>before he joined the Fabian Society, +was one of the managing group, and amongst others concerned in it +were the Rev. C.L. Marson and the Rev. W.E. Moll. At a later period +a Christian Socialist Society was formed; but our concern here is +with the factors which contributed to the Fabian Society at its +start, and it is not necessary to touch on other periods of the +movement.</p> + +<p>Thomas Davidson<a name='FNanchor_6' href='#Footnote_6'>[6]</a> +was the occasion rather than the cause of the founding of the +Fabian Society. His socialism was ethical and individual rather +than economic and political. He was spiritually a descendant of the +Utopians of Brook Farm and the Phalanstery, and what he yearned for +was something in the nature of a community of superior people +withdrawn from the world because of its wickedness, and showing by +example how a higher life might be led. Probably his Scotch common +sense recoiled from definitely taking the plunge: I am not aware +that he ever actually proposed that his disciples should form a +self-contained community. In a lecture to the New York Fellowship +of the New Life, he said, "I shall set out with two assumptions, +first, that human life does not consist in material possession; and +second, that it does consist in free spiritual activity, of which +in this life at least material possession is an essential +condition." There is nothing new in this: it is the common basis of +all religions and ethical systems. But it needs <a name= +'Page_27'></a>to be re-stated for each generation, and so stated as +to suit each environment. At the time that I am describing +Davidson's re-statement appealed to the small circle of his +adherents, though the movement which he started had results that he +neither expected nor approved.</p> + +<p>I have now indicated the currents of thought which contributed +to the formation of the Fabian Society, so far as I can recover +them from memory and a survey of the periodical literature of the +period. I have not included the writings of Ruskin, Socialist in +outlook as some of them undoubtedly are, because I think that the +value of his social teachings was concealed from most of us at that +time by reaction against his religious mediævalism, and +indifference to his gospel of art. Books so eminently adapted for +young ladies at mid-Victorian schools did not appeal to modernists +educated by Comte and Spencer.</p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_1' href='#FNanchor_1'>[1]</a> The words +Communism and Socialism were interchangeable at that period, e.g. +the "Manifesto of the Communist Party," by Karl Marx and Frederick +Engels, 1848.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_2' href='#FNanchor_2'>[2]</a> "Political +Economy," Book II, Chap. i, Sec. 3.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_3' href='#FNanchor_3'>[3]</a> William Morris +attributed to Mill his conversion to Socialism. See J.W. Mackail's +"Life," Vol. II, p. 79.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_4' href='#FNanchor_4'>[4]</a> No. 1, June, +1883, monthly, 1d.; continued until 1891.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_5' href='#FNanchor_5'>[5]</a> Born 1847. +Founded the Guild of St. Matthew 1877 and edited its organ, the +"Church Reformer," till 1895. Member of the English Land +Restoration League, originally the Land Reform Union, from 1883. +Member of the London School Board 1888-1904; of the London County +Council since 1907.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_6' href='#FNanchor_6'>[6]</a> See "Memorials +of Thomas Davidson: the wandering scholar." Edited by William +Knight. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1907. Thomas Davidson was born in +Aberdeenshire in 1840 of a peasant family; after a brilliant career +at Aberdeen University he settled in America, but travelled much in +Europe. His magnetic personality inspired attachment and admiration +in all he came across. He lectured and wrote incessantly, founded +Ethical Societies and Schools, and published several volumes on +philosophical subjects, but his achievements were scarcely +commensurate with his abilities. He died in 1900.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p class="center"><a name='image02'></a><img src= +"images/image02.png" style="width: 300px; height: 452px; border: 0" +alt= +"From a copyright photograph by Fredk. Hollyer, W. FRANK PODMORE, ABOUT 1895" /></p> + +<p class="center"><i>From a photograph by Fredk. Hollyer, +W</i>.</p> + +<p class="center">FRANK PODMORE, ABOUT 1895</p> + +<h3><a name='Page_28'></a><a name='Chapter_II'>Chapter II</a></h3> + +<h2>The Foundations of the Society: 1883-4</h2> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>Frank Podmore and Ghost-hunting—Thomas Davidson and his +circle—The preliminary meetings—The Fellowship of the +New Life—Formation of the Society—The career of the New +Fellowship.</p> +</div> + +<p>In the autumn of 1883 Thomas Davidson paid a short visit to +London and held several little meetings of young people, to whom he +expounded his ideas of a Vita Nuova, a Fellowship of the New Life. +I attended the last of these meetings held in a bare room somewhere +in Chelsea, on the invitation of Frank Podmore,<a name='FNanchor_7' +href='#Footnote_7'>[7]</a> whose acquaintance I had made a short +time previously. We had become friends through a common interest +first in Spiritualism and subsequently in Psychical Research, and +it was whilst vainly watching for a ghost in a haunted house at +Notting Hill—the house was unoccupied: we had obtained the +key from the agent, left the door unlatched, and returned late at +night in the foolish hope that we might perceive something +abnormal—that he first discussed with me the teachings of +Henry George in "Progress and Poverty," and we found a common +interest in social as well as psychical progress.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_29'></a>The English organiser or secretary of the +still unformed Davidsonian Fellowship was Percival Chubb, then a +young clerk in the Local Government Board, and subsequently a +lecturer and head of an Ethical Church in New York and St. Louis. +Thomas Davidson was about to leave London; and the company he had +gathered round him, desirous of further discussing his suggestions, +decided to hold another meeting at my rooms. I was at that time a +member of the Stock Exchange and lived in lodgings furnished by +myself.</p> + +<p>Here then on October 24th, 1883, was held the first of the +fortnightly meetings, which have been continued with scarcely a +break, through nine months of every year, up to the present time. +The company that assembled consisted in part of the Davidsonian +circle and in part of friends of my own.</p> + +<p>The proceedings at this meeting, recorded in the first minute +book of the Society in the handwriting of Percival Chubb, were as +follows:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<h4>"THE NEW LIFE"</h4> + +<p>"The first general meeting of persons interested in this +movement was held at Mr. Pease's rooms, 17 Osnaburgh Street, +Regent's Park, on Wednesday the 24th October, 1883. There were +present: Miss Ford, Miss Isabella Ford [of Leeds], Mrs. Hinton +[widow of James Hinton], Miss Haddon [her sister], Mr., Mrs., and +Miss Robins, Maurice Adams, H.H. Champion, Percival A. Chubb, H. +Havelock Ellis, J.L. Joynes, Edward R. Pease, Frank Podmore, R.B.P. +Frost, and Hamilton Pullen.</p> + +<p>"The proceedings were begun by the reading of Mr. Thomas +Davidson's paper 'The New Life,' read <a name='Page_30'></a>by him +at a former assemblage, and after it of the Draft of a proposed +constitution (Sketch No. 2). [This has not been preserved.]</p> + +<p>"A general discussion followed on the question as to what was +possible of achievement in the way of founding a communistic +society whose members should lead the new higher life foreshadowed +in the paper just read. The idea of founding a community abroad was +generally discredited, and it was generally recognised that it +would not be possible to establish here in England any independent +community. What could be done perhaps would be for a number of +persons in sympathy with the main idea to unite for the purpose of +common living as far as possible on a communistic basis, realising +amongst themselves the higher life and making it a primary care to +provide a worthy education for the young. The members would pursue +their present callings in the world, but they would always aim to +make the community as far as practicable self-contained and +self-supporting, combining perhaps to carry on some common business +or businesses.</p> + +<p>"It was eventually arranged to further discuss the matter at +another meeting which was fixed for a fortnight hence (Wednesday, +7th November). Mr. Podmore consented to ask Miss Owen [afterwards +Mrs. Laurence Oliphant] to attend then and narrate the experiences +of the New Harmony Community founded by [her grandfather] Robert +Owen.</p> + +<p>"It was suggested—and the suggestion was approvingly +received—that undoubtedly the first thing to be done was for +those present to become thoroughly acquainted with each other. A +general introduction of each person to the rest of the company was +made and the business of the meeting being concluded conversation +followed,"</p> +</div> + +<p><a name='Page_31'></a>On November 7th, the second meeting was +held, when a number of new people attended, including Hubert Bland, +who, I think, had been one of the original Davidson group. Miss +Owen was unable to be present, and a draft constitution was +discussed.</p> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>"A question was then raised as to the method of conducting the +proceedings. The appointment of a chairman was proposed, and Mr. +Pease was appointed. It was suggested that resolutions should be +passed constituting a society, and, as far as those present were +concerned, designating its objects. Some exception was taken to +this course as being an undesirable formality not in harmony with +the free spirit of the undertaking, but meeting with general +approval it was followed.</p> + +<p>"After some discussion ... the following resolution was proposed +and agreed to:—</p> + +<p>"That an association be formed whose ultimate aim shall be the +reconstruction of Society in accordance with the highest moral +possibilities"</p> +</div> + +<p>A Committee consisting of Messrs. Champion (who was not +present), Ellis, Jupp, Podmore, and Chubb, and, failing Champion, +Pease was appointed to draw up and submit proposals, and it was +resolved for the future to meet on Fridays, a practice which the +Society has maintained ever since.</p> + +<p>The meeting on November 23rd was attended by thirty-one people, +and included Miss Dale Owen, William Clarke, and Frederick Keddell, +the first Secretary of the Fabian Society.</p> + +<p>H.H. Champion<a name='FNanchor_8' href='#Footnote_8'>[8]</a> +introduced the proposals of the<a name='Page_32'></a>Committee, +including the following resolution, which was carried apparently +with unanimity:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>"The members of the Society assert that the Competitive system +assures the happiness and comfort of the few at the expense of the +suffering of the many and that Society must be reconstituted in +such a manner as to secure the general welfare and happiness,"</p> +</div> + +<p>Then the minutes go on, indicating already a rift in the +Society: "As the resolution referred rather to the material or +economic aims of the Society and not to its primary spiritual aim, +it was agreed that it should stand as No. 3, and that another +resolution setting forth the spiritual basis of the Fellowship +shall be passed which shall stand as No. 2."</p> + +<p>It proved impossible to formulate then and there the spiritual +basis of the Society, and after several suggestions had been made a +new committee was appointed. Resolution No. 1 had already been +deferred.</p> + +<p>The next meeting was held on December 7th, when only fifteen +were present. Hubert Bland occupied the chair, and Dr. Burns-Gibson +introduced a definite plan as follows:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<h4>"THE FELLOWSHIP OF NEW LIFE</h4> + +<p><i>Object</i>.—The cultivation of a perfect character in +each and all.</p> + +<p><i>Principle</i>.—The subordination of material things to +spiritual.</p> + +<p><i>Fellowship</i>.—The sole and essential condition of +fellowship shall be a single-minded, sincere, and strenuous +devotion to the object and principle."</p> +</div> + +<p><a name='Page_33'></a>Further articles touched on the formation +of a community, the supplanting of the spirit of competition, the +highest education of the young, simplicity of living, the +importance of manual labour and religious communion. Nine names +were attached to this project, including those of Percival Chubb, +Havelock Ellis, and William Clarke, and it was announced that a +Fellowship would be formed on this basis, whether it was accepted +or rejected by the majority. These propositions were discussed and +no decision was arrived at.</p> + +<p>Up to this point the minutes are recorded in the writing of +Percival Chubb. The next entry was made by Frank Podmore, and those +after that by Frederick Keddell.</p> + +<p>We now arrive at the birthday of the Fabian Society, and the +minutes of that meeting must be copied in full:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>"Meeting held at 17 Osnaburgh Street, on Friday, 4th January, +1884.</p> + +<p>"Present: Mrs. Robins, Miss Robins, Miss Haddon, Miss C. Haddon, +Messrs. J. Hunter Watts, Hughes, Bland, Keddell, Pease, Stapleton, +Chubb, Burns-Gibson, Swan, Podmore, Estcourt, etc.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Bland took the chair at 8.10 p.m.</p> + +<p>"After the minutes of the previous meeting had been read and +confirmed Dr. Gibson moved the series of resolutions which had been +read to the Society at the previous meeting.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Podmore moved as an amendment the series of resolutions, +copies of which had been circulated amongst the members a few days +previously.</p> + +<p>"The amendment was carried by 10 votes to 4.</p> + +<p>[Presumably the 4 included Burns-Gibson, Chubb, and Estcourt, +who signed the defeated resolutions.]</p> + +<p>"<a name='Page_34'></a>Mr. Podmore's proposals were then put +forward as substantive resolutions and considered seriatim.</p> + +<p>"Resolution I.—That the Society be called the Fabian +Society (as Mr. Podmore explained in allusion to the victorious +policy of Fabius Cunctator) was carried by 9 votes to 2.</p> + +<p>"Resolution II.—That the Society shall not at present +pledge its members to any more definite basis of agreement than +that contained in the resolution of 23rd November, 1883.</p> + +<p>"Carried unanimously.</p> + +<p>"Resolution III.—In place of Mr. Podmore's first proposal +it was eventually decided to modify the resolution of 7th November, +1883, by inserting the words 'to help on' between the words 'shall +be' and the words 'the reconstruction.'</p> + +<p>"Resolution IV with certain omissions was agreed to unanimously, +viz.: That with the view of learning what practical measures to +take in this direction the Society should:</p> + +<p>"<i>(a)</i> Hold meetings for discussion, the reading of papers, +hearing of reports, etc.</p> + +<p>"<i>(b)</i> Delegate some of its members to attend meetings held +on social subjects, debates at Workmen's Clubs, etc., in order that +such members may in the first place report to the Society on the +proceedings, and in the second place put forward, as occasion +serves, the views of the Society.</p> + +<p>"<i>(c)</i> Take measures in other ways, as, for example, by the +collection of articles from current literature, to obtain +information on all contemporary social movements and social +needs.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Bland, Mr. Keddell, and Mr. Podmore were provisionally +appointed as an Executive Committee, to serve for three months, on +the motion of Mr. Pease. A collection was made to provide funds for +<a name='Page_35'></a>past expenses: the sum collected amounting to +13s. 9d."</p> +</div> + +<p>It appears that Mr. Bland on this occasion acted as treasurer, +though there is no record of the fact. He was annually re-elected +treasurer and a member of the Executive Committee until he retired +from both positions in 1911.</p> + +<p>Thus the Society was founded. Although it appeared to be the +outcome of a division of opinion, this was scarcely in fact the +case. All those present became members, and the relations between +the Fabian Society and the Fellowship of the New Life were always +of a friendly character, though in fact the two bodies had but +little in common, and seldom came into contact.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +A few words may be devoted to the Fellowship of the New Life, which +continued to exist for fifteen years. Its chief achievement was the +publication of a quarterly paper called "Seedtime,"<a name= +'FNanchor_9' href='#Footnote_9'>[9]</a> issued from July, 1889, to +February, 1898. The paper contains articles on Ethical Socialism, +the Simple Life, Humanitarianism, the Education of Children, and +similar subjects. The Society was conducted much on the same lines +as the Fabian Society: fortnightly lectures were given in London +and reported in "Seedtime."</p> + +<p>In 1893 we find in "Seedtime" an Annual Report recording 12 +public meetings, 4 social gatherings, a membership of 95, and +receipts £73. During this year, 1892-3, J. Ramsay Macdonald, +subsequently M.P. and Secretary and Chairman of the Labour Party, +was Honorary Secretary, and for some years <a name='Page_36'></a>he +was on the Executive. In 1896 the membership was 115 and the income +£48.</p> + +<p>The most persistent of the organisers of the New Fellowship was +J.F. Oakeshott, who was also for many years a member of the Fabian +Executive. Corrie Grant, later a well-known Liberal M.P., H.S. Salt +of the Humanitarian League, Edward Carpenter, and his brother +Captain Carpenter, Herbert Rix, assistant secretary of the Royal +Society, Havelock Ellis, and, both before and after her marriage, +Mrs. Havelock Ellis (who was Honorary Secretary for some years), +are amongst the names which appear in the pages of "Seedtime,"</p> + +<p>Mild attempts were made to carry out the Community idea by means +of associated colonies (e.g. the members residing near each other) +and a co-operative residence at 49 Doughty Street, Bloomsbury; but +close association, especially of persons with the strong and +independent opinions of the average socialist, promotes discord, +and against this the high ideals of the New Fellowship proved no +protection. Indeed it is a common experience that the higher the +ideal the fiercer the hostilities of the idealists.</p> + +<p>At Thornton Heath, near Croydon, the Fellowship conducted for +some time a small printing business, and its concern for the right +education for the young found expression in a Kindergarten. Later +on an Ethical Church and a Boys' Guild were established at +Croydon.</p> + +<p>Soon afterwards the Fellowship came to the conclusion that its +work was done, the last number of "Seedtime" was published, and in +1898 the Society was dissolved.</p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_7' href='#FNanchor_7'>[7]</a> Frank Podmore, +M.A.—b. 1856, ed. Pembroke College, Oxford, 1st class in +Science, 1st class clerk, G.P.O. Author of "Apparitions and Thought +Transference," 1894, "Modern Spiritualism," 1902, "The Life of +Robert Owen," 1906, etc. D. 1910.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_8' href='#FNanchor_8'>[8]</a> Mr. Champion +took no further part in the Fabian movement, so far as I am aware. +His activities in connection with the Social Democratic Federation, +the "Labour Elector," etc., are not germane to the present subject. +He has for twenty years resided in Melbourne.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_9' href='#FNanchor_9'>[9]</a> See complete set +in the British Library of Political Science, London School of +Economics.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p class="center"><a name='image03'></a><img src= +"images/image03.png" style="width: 300px; height: 422px; border: 0" +alt= +"From a photograph by G.C. Beresford, S.W. HUBERT BLAND, IN 1902" /></p> + +<p class="center"><i>From a photograph by G.C. Beresford, +S.W.</i></p> + +<p class="center">HUBERT BLAND, IN 1902</p> + +<h3><a name='Page_37'></a><a name='Chapter_III'>Chapter +III</a></h3> + +<h2>The Early Days: 1884-6</h2> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>The use of the word Socialism—Approval of the Democratic +Federation—Tract No. 1—The Fabian Motto—Bernard +Shaw joins—His first Tract—The Industrial Remuneration +Conference—Sidney Webb and Sydney Olivier become +members—Mrs. Annie Besant—Shaw's second Tract—The +Tory Gold controversy—"What Socialism Is"—The Fabian +Conference of 1886—Sidney Webb's first contribution, "The +Government Organisation of Unemployed Labour."</p> +</div> + +<p>The Fabian Society was founded for the purpose of +"reconstructing society," based on the competitive system, "in such +manner as to secure the general welfare and happiness." It is worth +noting that the word "Socialism" had not yet appeared in its +records, and it is not until the sixth meeting, held on 21st March, +1884, that the word first appears in the minutes, as the title of a +paper by Miss Caroline Haddon: "The Two Socialisms"; to which is +appended a note in the handwriting of Sydney Olivier: "This paper +is stated to have been devoted to a comparison between the +Socialism of the Fabian Society and that of the S.D.F." The +Society, in fact, began its career with that disregard of mere +names which has always distinguished it. The resolutions already +recorded, advocating the reconstruction of society on a +non-competitive basis with the object of remedying the evils of +poverty, embody the essence <a name='Page_38'></a>of Socialism, and +our first publication, Tract No. 1, was so thorough-going a +statement of Socialism that it has been kept in print ever since. +But neither in Tract No. 1 nor in Tract No. 2 does the word +Socialism occur, and it is not till Tract No. 3, published in June, +1885, that we find the words "the Fabian Society having in view the +advance of Socialism in England." At this stage it is clear that +the Society was socialist without recognising itself as part of a +world-wide movement, and it was only subsequently that it adopted +the word which alone adequately expressed its ideas.</p> + +<p>At the second meeting, on 25th January, 1884, reports were +presented on a lecture by Henry George and a Conference of the +Democratic Federation (later the Social Democratic Federation); the +rules were adopted, and Mr. J.G. Stapleton read a paper on "Social +conditions in England with a view to social reconstruction or +development." This was the first of the long series of Fabian +fortnightly lectures which have been continued ever since. On +February 29th, after a paper on the Democratic Federation, Mr. +Bland moved: "That whilst not entirely agreeing with the statements +and phrases used in the pamphlets of the Democratic Federation, and +in the speeches of Mr. Hyndman, this Society considers that the +Democratic Federation is doing good and useful work and is worthy +of sympathy and support." This was carried nem. con. On March 7th a +pamphlet committee was nominated, and on March 21st the Executive +was reappointed. On April 4th the Pamphlet Committee reported, and +2000 copies of "Fabian Tract No. 1" were ordered to be printed.</p> + +<p>This four-page leaflet has now remained in print for over thirty +years, and there is no reason to suppose that the demand for it +will soon cease. According to <a name='Page_39'></a>tradition, it +was drafted by W.L. Phillips, a house-painter, at that time the +only "genuine working man" in our ranks. He had been introduced to +me by a Positivist friend, and was in his way a remarkable man, +ready at any time to talk of his experiences of liberating slaves +by the "Underground Railway" in the United States. He worked with +us cordially for several years and then gradually dropped out. The +original edition of "Why are the many poor?" differs very little +from that now in circulation. It was revised some years later by +Bernard Shaw, who cut down the rhetoric and sharpened the +phraseology, but the substance has not been changed. It is +remarkable as containing a sneer at Christianity, the only one to +be found in the publications of the Society. Perhaps this was a +rebound from excess of "subordination of material things to +spiritual things" insisted on by the Fellowship of the New +Life!</p> + +<p>The tract had on its title page two mottoes, the second of which +has played some part in the Society's history. They were produced, +again according to tradition, by Frank Podmore, and, though printed +as quotations, are not to be discovered in any history:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>"Wherefore it may not be gainsaid that the fruit of this man's +long taking of counsel—and (by the many so deemed) untimeous +delays—was the safe-holding for all men, his fellow-citizens, +of the Common Weal."</p> + +<p>"For the right moment you must wait, as Fabius did most +patiently, when warring against Hannibal, though many censured his +delays; but when the time comes you must strike hard, as Fabius +did, or your waiting will be in vain, and fruitless."</p> +</div> + +<p>It has been pointed out by Mr. H.G. Wells, and by others before +him, that Fabius never did strike hard; <a name='Page_40'></a>and +many have enquired when the right time for the Fabians to strike +would come. In fact, we recognised at that time that we did not +know what were the remedies for the evils of society as we saw them +and that the right time for striking would not come until we knew +where to strike. Taken together as the two mottoes were first +printed, this meaning is obvious. The delay was to be for the +purpose of "taking counsel."</p> + +<p>Tract No. 1, excellent as it is, shows a sense of the evil, but +gives no indication of the remedy. Its contents are commonplace, +and in no sense characteristic of the Society. The men who were to +make its reputation had not yet found it out, and at this stage our +chief characteristic was a lack of self-confidence unusual amongst +revolutionaries. We had with considerable courage set out to +reconstruct society, and we frankly confessed that we did not know +how to go about it.</p> + +<p>The next meeting to which we need refer took place on May 16th. +The minutes merely record that Mr. Rowland Estcourt read a paper on +"The Figures of Mr. Mallock," but a pencil note in the well-known +handwriting of Bernard Shaw has been subsequently added: "This +meeting was made memorable by the first appearance of Bernard +Shaw."</p> + +<p>On September 5th Bernard Shaw was elected a member, and at the +following meeting on September 19th his first contribution to the +literature of the Society, Pamphlet No. 2, was read. The influence +of his intellectual outlook was immediate, and already the era of +"highest moral possibilities" seems remote. Tract No. 2 was never +reprinted and the number of copies in existence outside public +libraries is small: it is therefore worth reproducing in full.</p> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<h4><a name='Page_41'></a>THE FABIAN SOCIETY</h4> + +<p class="center">17 Osnaburgh Street, Regent's Park<br /> + Fabian Tract No. 2</p> + +<h3>A MANIFESTO</h3> + +<div class='centerdiv'> +<p>"For always in thine eyes, O liberty,<br /> + Shines that high light whereby the world is saved;<br /> + And though thou slay us, we will trust in thee."</p> +</div> + +<p class="center">London:<br /> + George Standring, 8 & 9 Finsbury Street, E.C.<br /> +1884.</p> + +<h4>A MANIFESTO</h4> + +<p>THE FABIANS are associated for spreading the following opinions +held by them and discussing their practical consequences.</p> + +<p>That under existing circumstances wealth cannot be enjoyed +without dishonour or foregone without misery.</p> + +<p>That it is the duty of each member of the State to provide for +his or her wants by his or her own Labour.</p> + +<p>That a life interest in the Land and Capital of the nation is +the birthright of every individual born within its confines and +that access to this birthright should not depend upon the will of +any private person other than the person seeking it.</p> + +<p>That the most striking result of our present system of farming +out the national Land and Capital to private persons has been the +division of Society into hostile classes, with large appetites and +no <a name='Page_42'></a>dinners at one extreme and large dinners +and no appetites at the other.</p> + +<p>That the practice of entrusting the Land of the nation to +private persons in the hope that they will make the best of it has +been discredited by the consistency with which they have made the +worst of it; and that Nationalisation of the Land in some form is a +public duty.</p> + +<p>That the pretensions of Capitalism to encourage Invention and to +distribute its benefits in the fairest way attainable, have been +discredited by the experience of the nineteenth century.</p> + +<p>That, under the existing system of leaving the National Industry +to organise itself Competition has the effect of rendering +adulteration, dishonest dealing and inhumanity compulsory.</p> + +<p>That since Competition amongst producers admittedly secures to +the public the most satisfactory products, the State should compete +with all its might in every department of production.</p> + +<p>That such restraints upon Free Competition as the penalties for +infringing the Postal monopoly, and the withdrawal of workhouse and +prison labour from the markets, should be abolished.</p> + +<p>That no branch of Industry should be carried on at a profit by +the central administration.</p> + +<p>That the Public Revenue should be levied by a direct Tax; and +that the central administration should have no legal power to hold +back for the replenishment of the Public Treasury any portion of +the proceeds of Industries administered by them.</p> + +<p>That the State should compete with private +individuals—especially with parents—in providing happy +homes for children, so that every child may have a refuge from the +tyranny or neglect of its natural custodians.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_43'></a>That Men no longer need special political +privileges to protect them against Women, and that the sexes should +henceforth enjoy equal political rights.</p> + +<p>That no individual should enjoy any Privilege in consideration +of services rendered to the State by his or her parents or other +relations.</p> + +<p>That the State should secure a liberal education and an equal +share in the National Industry to each of its units.</p> + +<p>That the established Government has no more right to call itself +the State than the smoke of London has to call itself the +weather.</p> + +<p>That we had rather face a Civil War than such another century of +suffering as the present one has been.</p> +</div> + +<p>It would be easy in the light of thirty years' experience to +write at much length on these propositions. They are, of course, +unqualified "Shaw." The minutes state that each was discussed and +separately adopted. Three propositions, the nature of which is not +recorded, were at a second meeting rejected, while the proposition +on heredity was drafted and inserted by order of the meeting. I +recollect demurring to the last proposition, and being assured by +the author that it was all right since in fact no such alternative +would ever be offered!</p> + +<p>The persistency of Mr. Shaw's social philosophy is remarkable. +His latest volume<a name='FNanchor_10' href='#Footnote_10'>[10]</a> +deals with parents and children, the theme he touched on in 1884; +his social ideal is still a birthright life interest in national +wealth, and "an equal share in national industry," the latter a +phrase more suggestive than lucid. On the other hand, he, like the +rest of us, was then by no means clear as to the distinction +between Anarchism and Socialism. The old Radical prejudice in +favour <a name='Page_44'></a>of direct taxation, so that the State +may never handle a penny not wrung from the reluctant and acutely +conscious taxpayer, the doctrinaire objection to State monopolies, +and the modern view that municipal enterprises had better be +carried on at cost price, are somewhat inconsistently commingled +with the advocacy of universal State competition in industry. It +may further be noticed that we were as yet unconscious of the +claims and aims of the working people. Our Manifesto covered a wide +field, but it nowhere touches Co-operation or Trade Unionism, wages +or hours of labour. We were still playing with abstractions, Land +and Capital, Industry and Competition, the Individual and the +State.</p> + +<p>In connection with the first tracts another point may be +mentioned. The Society has stuck to the format adopted in these +early days, and with a few special exceptions all its publications +have been issued in the same style, and with numbers running on +consecutively. For all sorts of purposes the advantage of this +continuity has been great.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +On January 2nd, 1885, Bernard Shaw was elected to the Executive +Committee, and about the same time references to the Industrial +Remuneration Conference appear in the minutes. This remarkable +gathering, made possible by a gift of £1000 from Mr. Miller +of Edinburgh, was summoned to spend three days in discussing the +question, "Has the increase of products of industry within the last +hundred years tended most to the benefit of capitalists and +employers or to that of the working classes, whether artisans, +labourers or others? And in what relative proportions in any given +period?"</p> + +<p>The second day was devoted to "Remedies," and <a name= +'Page_45'></a>the third to the question, "Would the more general +distribution of capital or land or the State management of capital +or land promote or impair the production of wealth and the welfare +of the community?" The Fabian Society appointed two delegates, J.G. +Stapleton and Hubert Bland, but Bernard Shaw apparently took the +place of the latter.</p> + +<p>It met on January 28th, at the Prince's Hall, Piccadilly. Mr. +Arthur J. Balfour read a paper in which he made an observation +worth recording: "As will be readily believed, I am no Socialist, +but to compare the work of such men as Mr. (Henry) George with that +of such men, for instance, as Karl Marx, either in respect of its +intellectual force, its consistency, its command of reasoning in +general, or of economic reasoning in particular, seems to me +absurd."</p> + +<p>The Conference was the first occasion in which the Fabian +Society emerged from its drawing-room obscurity, and the speech of +Bernard Shaw on the third day was probably the first he delivered +before an audience of more than local importance. One passage made +an impression on his friends and probably on the public. "It was," +he said, "the desire of the President that nothing should be said +that might give pain to particular classes. He was about to refer +to a modern class, the burglars, but if there was a burglar present +he begged him to believe that he cast no reflection upon his +profession, and that he was not unmindful of his great skill and +enterprise: his risks—so much greater than those of the most +speculative capitalist, extending as they did to risk of liberty +and life—his abstinence; or finally of the great number of +people to whom he gave employment, including criminal attorneys, +policemen, turnkeys, builders of gaols, and it might be the +hangman. He did not wish to hurt the feelings of shareholders ... +or of landlords ... any <a name='Page_46'></a>more than he wished +to pain burglars. He would merely point out that all three +inflicted on the community an injury of precisely the same +nature."<a name='FNanchor_11' href='#Footnote_11'>[11]</a></p> + +<p>It may be added that Mr. Shaw was patted on the back by a +subsequent speaker, Mr. John Wilson, of the Durham Miners, for many +years M.P. for Mid-Durham, and by no means an habitual supporter of +Socialists.</p> + +<p>The stout volume in which the proceedings are published is now +but seldom referred to, but it is a somewhat significant record of +the intellectual unrest of the period, an indication that the +governing classes even at this early date in the history of English +Socialism, were prepared to consider its claims, and to give its +proposals a respectful hearing.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +The early debates in the Society were in the main on things +abstract or Utopian. Social Reconstruction was a constant theme, +Hubert Bland outlined "Revolutionary Prospects" in January, 1885, +and Bernard Shaw in February combated "The proposed Abolition of +the Currency."</p> + +<p>On March 6th a new departure began: a Committee was appointed to +collect "facts concerning the working of the Poor Law," with +special reference to alleged official attempts to disprove "great +distress amongst the workers." It does not appear that the Report +was ever completed.</p> + +<p>On March 20th Sidney Webb read a paper on "The Way Out," and on +the 1st May he was elected a member along with his Colonial Office +colleague Sydney Olivier. On May 15th is recorded the election of +Harold Cox, subsequently M.P., and now editor of the "Edinburgh +Review."</p> + +<p><a name='Page_47'></a>The Society was now finding its feet. On +April 17th it had been resolved to send a delegate "to examine into +and report upon the South Yorkshire Miners"! And on the same day it +was determined to get up a Soirée. This gathering, held in +Gower Street, was memorable because it was attended by Mrs. Annie +Besant, then notorious as an advocate of Atheism and Malthusianism, +the heroine of several famous law cases, and a friend and colleague +of Charles Bradlaugh. Mrs. Besant was elected a member a few weeks +later, and she completed the list of the seven who subsequently +wrote "Fabian Essays," with the exception of Graham Wallas, who did +not join the Society until April, 1886.<a name='FNanchor_12' href= +'#Footnote_12'>[12]</a></p> + +<p>But although Sidney Webb had become a Fabian the scientific +spirit was not yet predominant. Bernard Shaw had, then as now, a +strong objection to the peasant agriculture of his native land, and +he submitted to the Society a characteristic leaflet addressed: "To +provident Landlords and Capitalists, a suggestion and a warning." +"The Fabian Society," it says, "having in view the advance of +Socialism and the threatened subversion of the powers hitherto +exercised by private proprietors of the national land and capital +ventures plainly to warn all such proprietors that the +establishment of Socialism in England means nothing less than the +compulsion of all members of the upper class, without regard to sex +or condition, to work for their own living." The tract, which is a +very brief one, goes on to recommend the proprietary classes to +"support all undertakings having for their object the parcelling +out of waste or inferior lands amongst the labouring class" for +sundry plausible reasons. At the foot of the title page, in the +smallest of type, is <a name='Page_48'></a>the following: +"Note.—Great care should be taken to keep this tract out of +the hands of radical workmen, Socialist demagogues and the like, as +they are but too apt to conclude that schemes favourable to +landlords cannot be permanently advantageous to the working class." +This elaborate joke was, except for one amendment, adopted as +drafted on June 5th, 1885, and there is a tradition that it was +favourably reviewed by a Conservative newspaper!</p> + +<p>The Society still met as a rule at 17 Osnaburgh Street, or in +the rooms of Frank Podmore at 14 Dean's Yard, Westminster, but it +was steadily growing and new members were elected at every meeting. +Although most of the members were young men of university +education, the Society included people of various ages. To us at +any rate Mrs. James Hinton, widow of Dr. Hinton, and her sisters, +Miss Haddon and Miss Caroline Haddon, seemed to be at least +elderly. Mrs. Robins, her husband (a successful architect), and her +daughter, who acted as "assistant" honorary secretary for the first +eighteen months, lent an air of prosperous respectability to our +earliest meetings. Mr. and Mrs. J. Glode Stapleton, who were +prominent members for some years, were remarkable amongst us +because they drove to our meetings in their own brougham! The +working classes, as before mentioned, had but a single +representative. Another prominent member at this period was Mrs. +Charlotte M. Wilson, wife of a stock-broker living in Hampstead, +who a short time later "simplified" into a cottage at the end of +the Heath, called Wildwood Farm, now a part of the Garden Suburb +Estate, where Fabians for many years held the most delightful of +their social gatherings. Mrs. Wilson was elected to the Executive +of five in December, 1884 (Mrs. Wilson, H. Bland, E.R. Pease, G. +Bernard Shaw and F. Keddell), but after some time devoted <a name= +'Page_49'></a>herself entirely to the Anarchist movement, led by +Prince Kropotkin, and for some years edited their paper, "Freedom." +But she remained throughout a member of the Fabian Society, and +twenty years later she resumed her Fabian activity, as will be +related in a later chapter.</p> + +<p>All this time the Socialist movement in England was coming into +public notice with startling rapidity. In January, 1884, "Justice, +the organ of the Democratic Federation," was founded, and in August +of that year the Federation made the first of its many changes of +name, and became the Social Democratic Federation or S.D.F. The +public then believed, as the Socialists also necessarily believed, +that Socialism would be so attractive to working-class electors +that they would follow its banner as soon as it was raised, and the +candidatures undertaken by the S.D.F. at the General Election in +November, 1885, produced widespread alarm amongst politicians of +both parties. The following account of this episode from Fabian +Tract 41, "The Early History of the Fabian Society," was written by +Bernard Shaw in 1892, and describes the events and our attitude at +the time far more freshly and graphically than anything I can write +nearly thirty years later.</p> + +<p>After explaining why he preferred joining the Fabian Society +rather than the S.D.F., Mr. Shaw goes on (pp. 4-7):—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>"However, as I have said, in 1885 our differences [from other +Socialists] were latent or instinctive; and we denounced the +capitalists as thieves at the Industrial Remuneration Conference, +and, among ourselves, talked revolution, anarchism, labour notes +<i>versus</i> pass-books, and all the rest of it, on the tacit +assumption that the object of our campaign, with its watchwords, +'EDUCATE, AGITATE, ORGANIZE,' was to bring about a tremendous +smash-up of existing society, to be succeeded by complete +Socialism. And this meant that <a name='Page_50'></a>we had no true +practical understanding either of existing society or Socialism. +Without being quite definitely aware of this, we yet felt it to a +certain extent all along; for it was at this period that we +contracted the invaluable habit of freely laughing at ourselves +which has always distinguished us, and which has saved us from +becoming hampered by the gushing enthusiasts who mistake their own +emotions for public movements. From the first, such people fled +after one glance at us, declaring that we were not serious. Our +preference for practical suggestions and criticisms, and our +impatience of all general expressions of sympathy with +working-class aspirations, not to mention our way of chaffing our +opponents in preference to denouncing them as enemies of the human +race, repelled from us some warm-hearted and eloquent Socialists, +to whom it seemed callous and cynical to be even commonly +self-possessed in the presence of the sufferings upon which +Socialists make war. But there was far too much equality and +personal intimacy among the Fabians to allow of any member +presuming to get up and preach at the rest in the fashion which the +working-classes still tolerate submissively from their leaders. We +knew that a certain sort of oratory was useful for 'stoking up' +public meetings; but we needed no stoking up, and, when any orator +tried the process on us, soon made him understand that he was +wasting his time and ours. I, for one, should be very sorry to +lower the intellectual standard of the Fabian by making the +atmosphere of its public discussions the least bit more congenial +to stale declamation than it is at present. If our debates are to +be kept wholesome, they cannot be too irreverent or too critical. +And the irreverence, which has become traditional with us, comes +down from those early days when we often talked such nonsense that +we could not help laughing at ourselves.</p> + +<h4>"TORY GOLD AT THE 1885 ELECTION.</h4> + +<p>"When I add that in 1885 we had only 40 members, you will be +able to form a sufficient notion of the Fabian Society in its +nonage. In that year there occurred an event which developed the +latent differences between ourselves and the Social-Democratic +Federation. The Federation said then, as it still says, that its +policy is founded on a recognition of the existence of a Class War. +How far the fact of the working classes being at war with the +proprietary classes justifies them in suspending the observance of +the ordinary social obligations <a name='Page_51'></a>in dealing +with them was never settled; but at that time we were decidedly +less scrupulous than we are now in our ideas on the subject; and we +all said freely that as gunpowder destroyed the feudal system, so +the capitalist system could not long survive the invention of +dynamite. Not that we are dynamitards: indeed the absurdity of the +inference shows how innocent we were of any practical acquaintance +with explosives; but we thought that the statement about gunpowder +and feudalism was historically true, and that it would do the +capitalists good to remind them of it. Suddenly, however, the +Federation made a very startling practical application of the Class +War doctrine. They did not blow anybody up; but in the general +election of 1885 they ran two candidates in London—Mr. +Williams, in Hampstead, who got 27 votes, and Mr. Fielding, in +Kennington, who got 32 votes. And they made no secret of the fact +that the expenses of these elections had been paid by one of the +established political parties in order to split the vote of the +other. From the point of view of the abstract moralist there was +nothing to be said against the transaction; since it was evident +that Socialist statesmanship must for a long time to come consist +largely of taking advantage of the party dissensions between the +Unsocialists. It may easily happen to-morrow that the Liberal party +may offer to contribute to the expenses of a Fabian candidate in a +hopelessly Tory stronghold, in order to substantiate its +pretensions to encourage Labour representation. Under such +circumstances it is quite possible that we may say to the Fabian in +question, Accept by all means; and deliver propagandist addresses +all over the place. Suppose that the Liberal party offers to bear +part of Mr. Sidney Webb's expenses at the forthcoming County +Council election at Deptford, as they undoubtedly will, by means of +the usual National Liberal Club subscription, in the case of the +poorer Labour candidates. Mr. Webb, as a matter of personal +preference for an independence which he is fortunately able to +afford, will refuse. But suppose Mr. Webb were not in that +fortunate position, as some Labour candidates will not be! It is +quite certain that not the smallest odium would attach to the +acceptance of a Liberal grant-in-aid. Now the idea that taking Tory +money is worse than taking Liberal money is clearly a Liberal party +idea and not a Social-Democratic one. In 1885 there was not the +slightest excuse for regarding the Tory party as any more hostile +to Socialism than the Liberal party; and Mr. Hyndman's classical +quotation, <i>'Non olet'</i>—<a name='Page_52'></a>'It does +not smell,' meaning that there is no difference in the flavour of +Tory and Whig gold once it comes into the Socialist treasury, was a +sufficient retort to the accusations of moral corruption which were +levelled at him. But the Tory money job, as it was called, was none +the less a huge mistake in tactics. Before it took place, the +Federation loomed large in the imagination of the public and the +political parties. This is conclusively proved by the fact that the +Tories thought that the Socialists could take enough votes from the +Liberals to make it worth while to pay the expenses of two +Socialist candidates in London. The day after the election everyone +knew that the Socialists were an absolutely negligeable quantity +there as far as voting power was concerned. They had presented the +Tory party with 57 votes, at a cost of about £8 apiece. What +was worse, they had shocked London Radicalism, to which Tory money +was an utter abomination. It is hard to say which cut the more +foolish figure, the Tories who had spent their money for nothing, +or the Socialists who had sacrificed their reputation for worse +than nothing.</p> + +<p>"The disaster was so obvious that there was an immediate falling +off from the Federation, on the one hand of the sane tacticians of +the movement, and on the other of those out-and-out +Insurrectionists who repudiated political action altogether, and +were only too glad to be able to point to a discreditable instance +of it. Two resolutions were passed, one by the Socialist League and +the other by the Fabian Society. Here is the Fabian resolution:</p> + +<p>"'That the conduct of the Council of the Social-Democratic +Federation in accepting money from the Tory party in payment of the +election expenses of Socialist candidates is calculated to disgrace +the Socialist movement in England,'—4th Dec., 1885."</p> +</div> + +<p><br /> +The result of this resolution, passed by 15 votes to 4, was the +first of the very few splits which are recorded in the history of +the Society. Frederick Keddell, the first honorary secretary, +resigned and I took his place, whilst a few weeks later Sidney Webb +was elected to the vacancy on the Executive.</p> + +<p>In 1886 Socialism was prominently before the public. +Unemployment reached a height which has never since <a name= +'Page_53'></a>been touched. Messrs. Hyndman, Champion, Burns, and +Williams were actually tried for sedition, but happily acquitted; +and public opinion was justified in regarding Socialism rather as +destructive and disorderly than as constructive, and, as is now +often said, even too favourable to repressive legislation. In these +commotions the Society as a whole took no part, and its public +activities were limited to a meeting at South Place Chapel, on +December 18th, 1885, addressed by Mrs. Besant.</p> + +<p>In March, 1886, the Executive Committee was increased to seven +by the addition of Mrs. Besant and Frank Podmore, and in April +Tract No. 4, "What Socialism Is," was approved for publication. It +begins with a historical preface, touching on the Wars of the +Roses, Tudor confiscation of land, the enclosure of commons, the +Industrial Revolution, and so on. Surplus value and the tendency of +wages to a minimum are mentioned, and the valuable work of Trade +Unionism—sometimes regarded by Guild Socialists and others +nowadays as a recent discovery—is alluded to: indeed the +modern syndicalist doctrine was anticipated: the workman, it is +said, "has been forced to sell himself for a mess of pottage and is +consequently deprived of the guidance of his own life and the +direction of his own labour." Socialist opinion abroad, it says, +"has taken shape in two distinct schools, Collectivist and +Anarchist. English Socialism is not yet Anarchist or Collectivist, +not yet definite enough in point of policy to be classified. There +is a mass of Socialist feeling not yet conscious of itself as +Socialism. But when the conscious Socialists of England discover +their position they also will probably fall into two parties: a +Collectivist party supporting a strong central administration, and +a counterbalancing Anarchist party defending individual initiative +against <a name='Page_54'></a>that administration. In some such +fashion progress and stability will probably be secured under +Socialism by the conflict of the uneradicable Tory and Whig +instincts in human nature."</p> + +<p>It will be noticed that even in this period of turmoil the +Society was altogether constitutional in its outlook; political +parties of Socialists and Anarchists combining progress with +stability were the features of the future we foresaw.</p> + +<p>By this time the Society was thoroughly aware of its relation to +international socialism, and the remaining six pages of the tract +are occupied by expositions of the alternatives above alluded to. +"Collectivism" is summarised from Bebel's "Woman in the Past, +Present, and Future," and is a somewhat mechanical scheme of +executive committees in each local commune or district representing +each branch of industry, elected by universal suffrage for brief +periods of office and paid at the rate of ordinary workmen; and of +a central Executive Committee chosen in like manner or else +directly appointed by the local Communal Councils. The second part +consists of "Anarchism, drawn up by C.M. Wilson on behalf of the +London Anarchists." This is a statement of abstract principles +which frankly admits that "Anarchists have no fears that in +discarding the Collectivist dream of the scientific regulation of +industry and inventing no formulas for social conditions as yet +unrealised, they are neglecting the essential for the +visionary,"</p> + +<p>This tract was never reprinted, and, of course, it attracted no +attention. It was however the first of the long series of Fabian +tracts that aimed at supplying information and thus carrying out +the original object of the Society, the education of its members +and the systematic study of the reconstruction of the social +system.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_55'></a>The spring of 1886 was occupied with +arrangements for the Conference, which was held at South Place +Chapel on June 9th, 10th, and 11th.</p> + +<p>Here again a quotation from Bernard Shaw's "Early History of the +Fabian Society" is the best description available:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<h4>"THE FABIAN CONFERENCE OF 1886.</h4> + +<p>"You will now ask to be told what the Fabians had been doing all +this time. Well, I think it must be admitted that we were +overlooked in the excitements of the unemployed agitation, which +had, moreover, caused the Tory money affair to be forgotten. The +Fabians were disgracefully backward in open-air speaking. Up to +quite a recent date, Graham Wallas, myself, and Mrs. Besant were +the only representative open-air speakers in the Society, whereas +the Federation speakers, Burns, Hyndman, Andrew Hall, Tom Mann, +Champion, Burrows, with the Socialist Leaguers, were at it +constantly. On the whole, the Church Parades and the rest were not +in our line; and we were not wanted by the men who were organizing +them. Our only contribution to the agitation was a report which we +printed in 1886, which recommended experiments in tobacco culture, +and even hinted at compulsory military service, as means of +absorbing some of the unskilled unemployed, but which went +carefully into the practical conditions of relief works. Indeed, we +are at present trying to produce a new tract on the subject without +finding ourselves able to improve very materially on the old one in +this respect. It was drawn up by Bland, Hughes, Podmore, Stapleton, +and Webb, and was the first of our publications that contained any +solid information. Its tone, however, was moderate and its style +somewhat conventional; and the Society was still in so hot a temper +on the social question that we refused to adopt it as a regular +Fabian tract, and only issued it as a report printed for the +information of members. Nevertheless we were coming to our senses +rapidly by this time. We signalized our repudiation of political +sectarianism in June, 1886, by inviting the Radicals, the +Secularists, and anyone else who would come, to a great conference, +modelled upon the Industrial Remuneration Conference, and dealing +with the Nationalization of Land and Capital. It fully established +the fact that we had nothing immediately practical to impart to the +Radicals and that they had nothing to <a name='Page_56'></a>impart +to us. The proceedings were fully reported for us; but we never had +the courage even to read the shorthand writer's report, which still +remains in MS. Before I refreshed my memory on the subject the +other day, I had a vague notion that the Conference cost a great +deal of money; that it did no good whatever; that Mr. Bradlaugh +made a speech; that Mrs. Fenwick Miller, who had nothing on earth +to do with us, was in the chair during part of the proceedings; and +that the most successful paper was by a strange gentleman whom we +had taken on trust as a Socialist, but who turned out to be an +enthusiast on the subject of building more harbours. I find, +however, on looking up the facts, that no less than fifty-three +societies sent delegates; that the guarantee fund for expenses was +£100; and that the discussions were kept going for three +afternoons and three evenings. The Federation boycotted us; but the +'Times' reported us.<a name='FNanchor_13' href= +'#Footnote_13'>[13]</a> Eighteen papers were read, two of them by +members of Parliament, and most of the rest by well-known people. +William Morris and Dr. Aveling read papers as delegates from the +Socialist League; the National Secular Society sent Mr. Foote and +Mr. [John M.] Robertson,<a name='FNanchor_14' href= +'#Footnote_14'>[14]</a> the latter contributing a 'Scheme of +Taxation' in which he anticipated much of what was subsequently +adopted as the Fabian program; Wordsworth Donisthorpe took the +field for Anarchism of the type advocated by the authors of 'A Plea +for Liberty'; Stewart Headlam spoke for Christian Socialism and the +Guild of St. Matthew; Dr. Pankhurst dealt with the situation from +the earlier Radical point of view; and various Socialist papers +were read by Mrs. Besant, Sidney Webb, and Edward Carpenter, +besides one by Stuart Glennie, who subsequently left us because we +fought shy of the Marriage Question when revising our 'Basis.' I +mention all this in order to show you how much more important this +abortive Conference looked than the present one. Yet all that can +be said for it is that it made us known to the Radical clubs and +proved that we were able to manage a conference in a businesslike +way. It also, by the way, showed off our pretty prospectus with the +design by Crane at the top, our stylish-looking blood-red +invitation cards, and the other little smartnesses on which we then +prided ourselves. We used to be plentifully sneered at <a name= +'Page_57'></a>as fops and arm-chair Socialists for our attention to +these details; but I think it was by no means the least of our +merits that we always, as far as our means permitted, tried to make +our printed documents as handsome as possible, and did our best to +destroy the association between revolutionary literature and +slovenly printing on paper that is nasty without being cheap. One +effect of this was that we were supposed to be much richer than we +really were, because we generally got better value and a finer show +for our money than the other Socialist societies."<a name= +'FNanchor_15' href='#Footnote_15'>[15]</a></p> +</div> + +<p>Three members of Parliament, Charles Bradlaugh, William +Saunders, and Dr. G.B. Clark, took part. The Dr. Pankhurst +mentioned was the husband of Mrs. Pankhurst, later the leader of +the Women's Social and Political Union.</p> + +<p>The reference in the foregoing passage to the report on "The +Government Organisation of Unemployed Labour," prepared +concurrently with the organisation of the Conference, is by no +means adequate. The Report attracted but little attention at the +time, even in the Society itself, but it is in fact the first +typically Fabian publication, and the first in which Sidney Webb +took part. Much subsequent experience has convinced me that +whenever Webb is on a committee it may be assumed in default of +positive evidence to the contrary that its report is his work. Webb +however maintains that to the best of his recollection the work was +shared between Podmore and himself, the simple arrangement being +that Podmore wrote the first half and Webb the second. The tract is +an attempt to deal with a pressing social problem on constructive +lines. It surveys the field, analyses the phenomena presented, and +suggests practicable remedies. It is however a very cautious +document. Webb <a name='Page_58'></a>was then old as an economist, +and very young as a Socialist; none of the rest of the Committee +had the knowledge, if they had the will, to stand up to him. +Therefore we find snippets from the theory of economic "balance" +which was universally regarded as valid in those days.</p> + +<p>"In practice the government obtains its technical skill by +attracting men from other employers, and its capital in a mobile +form by attracting it from other possessors. It gets loans on the +money market, which is thereby rendered more stringent; the rate of +interest rises and the loans made to other borrowers are +diminished,"</p> + +<p>But the particular interest of the Report at the present day is +the fact that it contains the germs of many ideas which more than +twenty years later formed the leading features of the Minority +Report of the Poor Law Commission.</p> + +<p>At that time it was universally believed that the slum dwellers +of London were mainly recruited by rural immigrants, and this +error—disproved several years later by the painstaking +statistical investigations of Mr. (now Sir) H. Llewelyn +Smith—vitiates much of the reasoning of the Report.</p> + +<p>After analysing the causes of unemployment on lines now familiar +to all, and denouncing private charity with vehemence worthy of the +Charity Organisation Society, it recommends the revival of social +life in our villages in order to keep the country people from +crowding into the slums. The Dock Companies are urged to organise +their casual labour into permanently employed brigades: and it is +suggested, as in the "Minority Report," that "the most really +'remunerative' form of 'relief' works for the unemployed would +often be a course of instruction in some new trade or handicraft" +Technical education is strongly recom<a name='Page_59'></a>mended; +Labour Bureaux are advocated; State cultivation of tobacco is +suggested as a means of employing labour on the land (private +cultivation of tobacco was until recently prohibited by law), as +well as municipal drink supply, State railways, and "universal +military (home) service" as a means of promoting "the growth of +social consciousness,"</p> + +<p>The Report is unequal. An eloquent but irrelevant passage on the +social effects of bringing the railway contractor's navvies to a +rural village was possibly contributed by Hubert Bland, whilst the +conclusion, a magniloquent eulogy of the moral value of Government +service, written, according to Webb's recollection, by Frank +Podmore, is evidently the work of a civil servant who has not got +over the untamed enthusiasms of youth!</p> + +<p>The Report shows immature judgment, but also in parts remarkable +foresight, and a complete realisation of the right scientific +method. With State tobacco farms and the public organisation of a +corps of peripatetic State navvies, the childhood stage of the +Fabian Society may be said to conclude.</p> + +<p>My own connection with the Society also changed. In the spring +of 1886 I gave up my business on the Stock Exchange and in the +summer went to Newcastle-on-Tyne, where I lived till the autumn of +1890. My account of the Society for the next three years is +therefore in the main derived from its records. Sydney Olivier +succeeded me as "Acting Secretary," but for some months I was still +nominally the secretary, a fact of much significance to my future, +since it enabled me if I liked to deal with correspondence, and it +was through a letter to the secretary of the Society, answered by +me from Newcastle, that I made the acquaintance of the lady who +three years later became my wife.</p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_10' href='#FNanchor_10'>[10]</a> "Misalliance: +with a treatise on parents and children," 1914.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_11' href='#FNanchor_11'>[11]</a> Industrial +Remuneration Conference. The Report, etc. Cassell, 1885, p. +400.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_12' href='#FNanchor_12'>[12]</a> William +Clarke had attended some early meetings but dropped out and was +actually elected to the Society in February, 1886.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_13' href='#FNanchor_13'>[13]</a> Presumably a +"Times" reporter was present; but his report was not published.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_14' href='#FNanchor_14'>[14]</a> Later M.P. +for Tyneside and a member of Mr. Asquith's Government.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_15' href='#FNanchor_15'>[15]</a> Contemporary +accounts of the conference can be found in the July numbers of +"To-day" and "The Republican," the former by Mrs. Besant, and the +latter, a descriptive criticism, by the Editor and Printer, George +Standring.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p class="center"><a name='image04'></a><img src= +"images/image04.png" style="width: 300px; height: 458px; border: 0" +alt= +"From a photograph by Elliott and Fry, W. SYDNEY OLIVIER, IN 1903" /></p> + +<p class="center"><i>From a photograph by Elliott and Fry, +W.</i></p> + +<p class="center">SYDNEY OLIVIER, IN 1903</p> + +<h3><a name='Page_60'></a><a name='Chapter_IV'>Chapter IV</a></h3> + +<h2>The Formation of Fabian Policy:</h2> + +<h2>1886-9</h2> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>The factors of success; priority of date; the men who made +it—The controversy over policy—The Fabian Parliamentary +League—"Facts for Socialists"—The adoption of the +Basis—The seven Essayists in command—Lord +Haldane—The "Essays" as lectures—How to train for +Public Life—Fabians on the London School Board—"Facts +for Londoners"—Municipal Socialism—"The Eight Hours +Bill"</p> +</div> + +<p>The Society was now fully constituted, and for the next three +years its destiny was controlled by the seven who subsequently +wrote "Fabian Essays." But it was still a very small and quite +obscure body. Mrs. Besant, alone of its leaders, was known beyond +its circle, and at that period few outside the working classes +regarded her with respect. The Society still met, as a rule, at the +house of one or other of the members, and to the founders, who +numbered about 20, only about 67 members had been added by June, +1886. The receipts for the year to March, 1886, were no More than +£35 19s., but as the expenditure only amounted to £27 +6s. 6d., the Society had already adopted its lifelong habit of +paying its way punctually, though it must be confessed that a +complaisant printer and a series of lucky windfalls have +contributed to that result.</p> + +<p>The future success of the Society was dependent in <a name= +'Page_61'></a>the main on two factors then already in existence. +The first was its foundation before there was any other definitely +Socialist body in England. The Social Democratic Federation did not +adopt that name until August, 1884; the Fabian Society can +therefore claim technical priority, and consequently it has never +had to seek acceptance by the rest of the Socialist movement. At +any later date it would have been impossible for a relatively small +middle-class society to obtain recognition as an acknowledged +member of the Socialist confraternity. We were thus in a position +to welcome the formation of working-class Socialist societies, but +it is certain that in the early days they would never have welcomed +us.</p> + +<p>Regret has been sometimes expressed, chiefly by foreign +observers, that the Society has maintained its separate identity. +Why, it has been asked, did not the middle-class leaders of the +Society devote their abilities directly to aiding the popular +organisations, instead of "keeping themselves to themselves" like +ultra-respectable suburbans?</p> + +<p>If this had been possible I am convinced that the loss would +have exceeded the gain, but in the early years it was not possible. +The Social Democrats of those days asserted that unquestioning +belief in every dogma attributed to Marx was essential to social +salvation, and that its only way was revolution, by which they +meant, not the complete transformation of society, but its +transformation by means of rifles and barricades; they were +convinced that a successful repetition of the Commune of Paris was +the only method by which their policy could prevail. The Fabians +realised from the first that no such revolution was likely to take +place, and that constant talk about it was the worst possible way +to commend Socialism to the British working class. And indeed a few +years <a name='Page_62'></a>later it was necessary to establish a +new working-class Socialist Society, the Independent Labour Party, +in order to get clear both of the tradition of revolutionary +violence and of the vain repetition of Marxian formulas. If the +smaller society had merged itself in the popular movement, its +criticism, necessary, as it proved to be, to the success of +Socialism in England, would have been voted down, and its critics +either silenced or expelled. Of this criticism I shall have more to +say in another place.<a name='FNanchor_16' href= +'#Footnote_16'>[16]</a></p> + +<p>But there was another reason why this course would have been +impracticable. The Fabians were not suited either by ability, +temperament, or conditions to be leaders of a popular revolutionary +party. Mrs. Besant with her gift of splendid oratory and her long +experience of agitation was an exception, but her connection with +the movement lasted no more than five years. Of the others Shaw did +not and does not now possess that unquestioning faith in recognised +principles which is the stock-in-trade of political leadership:<a +name='FNanchor_17' href='#Footnote_17'>[17]</a> and whilst Webb +might have been a first-class <a name='Page_63'></a>minister at the +head of a department, his abilities would have been wasted as a +leader in a minority. But there was a more practical bar. The +Fabians were mostly civil servants or clerks in private employ. The +methods of agitation congenial to them were compatible with their +occupations: those of the Social Democrats were not. Indeed in +those days no question of amalgamation was ever mooted.</p> + +<p>But it must be remembered by critics that so far as concerns the +Fabian Society, the absence of identity in organisation has never +led to such hostility as has been common amongst Continental +Socialists. Since the vote of censure in relation to the "Tory +Gold," the Fabian Society has never interfered with the doings of +its friendly rivals. The two Societies have occasionally +co-operated, but as a rule they have severally carried on their own +work, each recognising the value of many of the activities of the +other, and on the whole confining mutual criticism within +reasonable limits.</p> + +<p>The second and chief reason for the success of the Society was +its good fortune in attaching to its service a group of young men, +then altogether unknown, whose reputation has gradually spread, in +two or three cases, all over the world, and who have always been in +the main identified with Fabianism. Very rarely in the history of +voluntary organisations has a group of such exceptional people come +together almost accidentally and worked unitedly together for so +many years for the furtherance of the principles in which they +believed. Others have assisted according to their <a name= +'Page_64'></a>abilities and opportunities, but to the Fabian +Essayists belongs the credit of creating the Fabian Society.</p> + +<p>For several years, and those perhaps the most important in the +history of the Society, the period, in fact, of adolescence, the +Society was governed by the seven Essayists, and chiefly by four or +five of them. Mrs. Besant had made her reputation in other fields, +and belonged, in a sense, to an earlier generation; she was +unrivalled as an expositor and an agitator, and naturally preferred +the work that she did best. William Clarke, also, was just a little +of an outsider: he attended committees irregularly, and although he +did what he was persuaded to do with remarkable force—he was +an admirable lecturer and an efficient journalist—he had no +initiative. He was solitary in his habits, and in his latter years, +overshadowed by ill-health, he became almost morose. Hubert Bland, +again, was always something of a critic. He was a Tory by instinct +wherever he was not a Socialist, and whilst thoroughly united with +the others for all purposes of the Society, he lived the rest of +his life apart. But the other four Essayists, Sidney Webb, Bernard +Shaw, Graham Wallas, and Sydney Olivier, then and for many years +afterwards may be said to have worked and thought together in an +intellectual partnership.<a name='FNanchor_18' href= +'#Footnote_18'>[18]</a> Webb and Olivier were colleagues in the +Colonial Office, and it is said that for some time the Fabian +records—they were not very bulky—were stored on a table +in Downing Street. For many years there were probably few evenings +of the week and few holidays which two or more of them did not +spend together.</p> + +<p>In 1885 or early in 1886 a group which included those four and +many others formed a reading society for the discussion of Marx's +"Capital." The meetings—I <a name='Page_65'></a>attended them +until I left London—were held in Hampstead, sometimes at the +house of Mrs. Gilchrist, widow of the biographer of Blake, +sometimes at that of Mrs. C.M. Wilson, and finally at the Hampstead +Public Library. Later on the Society was called "The Hampstead +Historic," and its discussions, which continued for several years, +had much to do with settling the Fabian attitude towards Marxian +economics and historical theory.<a name='FNanchor_19' href= +'#Footnote_19'>[19]</a></p> + +<p>It was this exceptional group of leaders, all intimate friends, +all loyal to each other, and to the cause they were associated to +advocate, and all far above the average in vigour and ability, that +in a few years turned an obscure drawing-room society into a factor +in national politics.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +At the meeting on June 19th, 1886, at 94 Cornwall Gardens, Sydney +Olivier assumed the duties of Secretary, and the minutes began to +be written with less formality than before. It is recorded that +"Graham Wallas read a paper on Personal Duty under the present +system. A number of questions from Fabians more or less in trouble +about their souls were answered <i>ex cathedra</i> by Mr. Wallas, +after which the Society was given to understand by G.B. Shaw that +Joseph the Fifth Monarchy Man could show them a more excellent way. +Joseph addressed the meeting for five minutes, on the subject of a +community about to be established in British North America under +the presidency of the Son of God. Sidney Webb, G. Bernard Shaw, +Annie Besant, [the Rev.] C.L. Marson and Adolph Smith discussed the +subject of the paper with especial reference to the question of +buying cheap goods and of the employment of the surplus income <a +name='Page_66'></a>of pensioners, after which Graham Wallas replied +and the meeting dispersed,"</p> + +<p>William Morris lectured on "The Aims of Art" on July 2nd, at a +public meeting at South Place Chapel, with Walter Crane in the +chair; and Belfort Bax was the lecturer on July 17th.</p> + +<p>The first meeting after the holidays was a memorable one, and a +few words of introduction are necessary.</p> + +<p>In normal times it may be taken for granted that in addition to +the Government and the Opposition there is at least one party of +Rebels. Generally there are more, since each section has its own +rebels, down to the tiniest. In the eighties the rebels were +Communist Anarchists, and to us at any rate they seemed more +portentous than the mixed crowd of suffragettes and gentlemen from +Oxford who before the war seemed to be leading the syndicalist +rebels. Anarchist Communism was at any rate a consistent and almost +sublime doctrine. Its leaders, such as Prince Kropotkin and +Nicholas Tchaykovsky, were men of outstanding ability and +unimpeachable character, and the rank and file, mostly refugees +from European oppression, had direct relations with similar parties +abroad, the exact extent and significance of which we could not +calculate.</p> + +<p>The Socialist League, founded in 1885 by William Morris, Dr. +Edward Aveling, and others, as the result of a quarrel, mainly +personal, with the leaders of the Social Democrats, soon developed +its own doctrine, and whilst never until near its dissolution +definitely anarchist, it was always dominated by the artistic and +anti-political temperament of Morris. Politically the Fabians were +closer to the Social Democrats, but their hard dogmatism was +repellent, whilst Morris had perhaps the most sympathetic and +attractive personality of his day.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_67'></a>The crisis of the Society's policy is +described in the following passage from Shaw's "Early +History,":—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>"By 1886 we had already found that we were of one mind as to the +advisability of setting to work by the ordinary political methods +and having done with Anarchism and vague exhortations to Emancipate +the Workers. We had several hot debates on the subject with a +section of the Socialist League which called itself Anti-State +Communist, a name invented by Mr. Joseph Lane of that body. William +Morris, who was really a free democrat of the Kropotkin type, +backed up Lane, and went for us tooth and nail. Records of our +warfare may be found in the volumes of the extinct magazine called +'To-day,' which was then edited by Hubert Bland; and they are by no +means bad reading. We soon began to see that at the debates the +opposition to us came from members of the Socialist League, who +were present only as visitors. The question was, how many followers +had our one ascertained Anarchist, Mrs. Wilson, among the silent +Fabians. Bland and Mrs. Besant brought this question to an issue on +the 17th September, 1886, at a meeting in Anderton's Hotel, by +respectively seconding and moving the following resolution:</p> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>"'That it is advisable that Socialists should organize +themselves as a political party for the purpose of transferring +into the hands of the whole working community full control over the +soil and the means of production, as well as over the production +and distribution of wealth.'</p> + +<p>"To this a rider was moved by William Morris as follows:</p> + +<p>"'But whereas the first duty of Socialists is to educate the +people to understand what their present position is and what their +future might be, and to keep the principle of Socialism steadily +before them; and whereas no Parliamentary party can exist without +compromise and concession, which would hinder that education and +obscure those principles, it would be a false step for Socialists +to attempt to take part in the Parliamentary contest.'</p> +</div> + +<p>"I shall not attempt to describe the debate, in which Morris, +Mrs. Wilson, Davis, and Tochatti did battle with Burns, Mrs. +Besant, Bland, Shaw, Donald, and Rossiter: that is, with Fabian and +S.D.F. combined. Suffice it to say that the minutes of the meeting +close with the<a name='Page_68'></a> following significant note by +the secretary:</p> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>"'Subsequently to the meeting, the secretary received notice +from the manager of Anderton's Hotel that the Society could not be +accommodated there for any further meetings.'</p> +</div> + +<p>Everybody voted, whether Fabian or not; and Mrs. Besant and +Bland carried their resolution by 47 to 19, Morris's rider being +subsequently rejected by 40 to 27."</p> +</div> + +<p>A short contemporary report written by Mrs. Besant was published +in "To-day" for October, 1886, from which it appears that +"Invitations were sent out to all Socialist bodies in London," and +that the irregularity of the proceedings alluded to by Shaw was +intentional. The minutes of the proceedings treat the meeting as in +ordinary course, but it is plain from Mrs. Besant's report that it +was an informal attempt to clear the air in the Socialist movement +as well as in the Society itself.</p> + +<p>In order to avoid a breach with Mrs. Wilson and her Fabian +sympathisers, it was resolved to form a Fabian Parliamentary +League, which Fabians could join or not as they pleased; its +constitution, dated February, 1887, is given in full in Tract No. +41; here it is only necessary to quote one passage which describes +the policy of the League and of the Society, a policy of deliberate +possibilism:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>"The League will take active part in all general and local +elections. Until a fitting opportunity arises for putting forward +Socialist candidates to form the nucleus of a Socialist party in +Parliament, it will confine itself to supporting those candidates +who will go furthest in the direction of Socialism. It will not +ally itself absolutely with any political party; it will jealously +avoid being made use of for party purposes; and it will be guided +in its action by the character, record, and pledges of the +candidates before the constituencies. In Municipal, School Board, +Vestry, and other local elections, the League will, as it finds +itself strong enough, run candidates <a name='Page_69'></a>of its +own, and by placing trustworthy Socialists on local representative +bodies it will endeavour to secure the recognition of the Socialist +principle in all the details of local government."</p> +</div> + +<p>Its history is narrated in the same Tract:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>"Here you have the first sketch of the Fabian policy of to-day. +The Parliamentary League, however, was a short-lived affair. Mrs. +Wilson's followers faded away, either by getting converted or +leaving us. Indeed, it is a question with us to this day whether +they did not owe their existence solely to our own imaginations. +Anyhow, it soon became plain that the Society was solidly with the +Executive on the subject of political action, and that there was no +need for any separate organization at all. The League first faded +into a Political Committee of the Society, and then merged silently +and painlessly into the general body."</p> +</div> + +<p><br /> +Amongst the lecturers of the autumn of 1886 were H.H. Champion on +the Unemployed, Mrs. Besant on the Economic Position of Women, +Percival Chubb, Bernard Shaw on "Socialism and the Family"—a +pencil note in the minute book in the lecturer's handwriting says, +"This was one of Shaw's most outrageous performances"—and, in +the absence of the Rev. Stopford Brooke, another by Shaw on "Why we +do not act up to our principles"</p> + +<p>A new Tract was adopted in January, 1887. No. 5, "Facts for +Socialists," perhaps the most effective Socialist tract ever +published in England. It has sold steadily ever since it was +issued: every few years it has been revised and the figures brought +up to date; the edition now on sale, published in 1915, is the +eleventh. The idea was not new. Statistics of the distribution of +our national income had been given, as previously mentioned, in one +of the earliest manifestoes of the Democratic Federation. But in +Tract 5 <a name='Page_70'></a>the exact facts were rubbed in with +copious quotations from recognised authorities and illustrated by +simple diagrams. The full title of the tract was "Facts for +Socialists from the Political Economists and Statisticians," and +the theme of it was to prove that every charge made by Socialism +against the capitalist system could be justified by the writings of +the foremost professors of economic science. It embodied another +Fabian characteristic of considerable importance. Other Socialists +then, and many Socialists now, endeavoured by all means to +accentuate their differences from other people. Not content with +forming societies to advocate their policy, they insisted that it +was based on a science peculiar to themselves, the Marxian analysis +of value, and the economic interpretation of history: they strove +too to dissociate themselves from others by the adoption of +peculiar modes of address—such as the use of the words +"comrade" and "fraternal"—and they were so convinced that no +good thing could come out of the Galilee of capitalism that any +countenance of capitalist parties or of the capitalist press was +deemed an act of treachery.</p> + +<p>The Fabians, on the other hand, tended to the view that "we are +all Socialists now." They held that the pronouncements of economic +science must be either right or wrong, and in any case science was +not a matter of party; they endeavoured to show that on their +opponents' own principles they were logically compelled to be +Socialists and must necessarily adopt Fabian solutions of social +problems.</p> + +<p>"Facts for Socialists" was the work of Sidney Webb. No other +member possessed anything like his knowledge of economics and +statistics. It is, as its title implies, simply a mass of +quotations from standard works on Political Economy, strung +together in order to prove that the bulk of the wealth annually +produced <a name='Page_71'></a>goes to a small fraction of the +community in return either for small services or for none at all, +and that the poverty of the masses results, not as the +individualists argue, from deficiencies of individual character, +but, as John Stuart Mill had declared, from the excessive share of +the national dividend that falls to the owners of land and +capital.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +After the settlement, by a compromise in structure, of the conflict +between the anarchists and the collectivists, the Society entered a +period of calm, and the Executive issued a circular complaining of +the apathy of the members. Probably this is the first of the +innumerable occasions on which it has been said that the Society +had passed its prime. Moreover, the Executive Committee were blamed +for "some habits" which had "a discouraging effect" on the rest of +the Society, and it was resolved, for the first, but not the last +time, to appoint a Committee to revise the Basis. The Committee +consisted of the Executive and eight added members, amongst whom +may be mentioned Walter Crane, the Rev. S.D. Headlam, and Graham +Wallas. It is said that after many hours of discussion they arrived +by compromise at an unanimous report, and that their draft was +accepted by the Society without amendment. The report was presented +to a meeting on June 3rd, 1887, of which I, on a visit to London, +was chairman. It is unfortunate that the record of this meeting, at +which the existing Basis of the Society was adopted, is the only +one, in the whole history of the Society, which is incomplete. +Possibly the colonial policy of the empire was disturbed, and the +secretary occupied with exceptional official duties. Anyway the +minutes were left unfinished in June, were continued in October, +and were never completed <a name='Page_72'></a>or recorded as +confirmed. The proceedings relating to the Basis were apparently +never written. There is no doubt, however, that the Basis was +adopted on this occasion, it is said, at an adjourned meeting, and +in spite of many projects of revision it has with one +addition—the phrase about "equal citizenship of +women"—remained the Basis of the Society to the present +time.<a name='FNanchor_20' href='#Footnote_20'>[20]</a></p> + +<p>The purpose of the Basis has been often misunderstood. It is not +a confession of faith, or a statement of the whole content and +meaning of Socialism. It is merely a test of admission, a minimum +basis of agreement, acceptance of which is required from those who +aspire to share in the control of a Society which had set out to +reconstruct our social system. The most memorable part of the +discussion was the proposal of Mr. Stuart Glennie to add a clause +relating to marriage and the family. This was opposed by Mrs. +Besant, then regarded as an extremist on that subject, and was +defeated. In view of the large amount of business transacted before +the discussion of the Basis began, the debate cannot have been +prolonged.</p> + +<p>It is easy enough, nearly thirty years later, to criticise this +document, to point out that it is purely economic, and +unnecessarily rigid: that the phrase about compensation, which has +been more discussed than any other, is badly worded, and for +practical purposes always disregarded in the constructive proposals +of the Society.<a name='FNanchor_21' href='#Footnote_21'>[21]</a> +The best testimony to the merits of the Basis is its +survival—its acceptance by the continuous stream of new +members who have joined the Society—and it has survived not +because <a name='Page_73'></a>its upholders deemed it perfect, but +because it has always been found impracticable to put on paper any +alternative on which even a few could agree. In fact, proposals to +re-write the Basis have on several occasions been referred to +Committees, but none of the Committees has ever succeeded in +presenting a report.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +At the end of the year the sole fruit of the Parliamentary League +was published. It is Tract No. 6, entitled "The True Radical +Programme" and consists of a declamatory criticism of the official +Liberal-Radical Programme announced at Nottingham in October, 1887, +and a demand to replace it by the True Radical Programme, namely, +adult (in place of manhood) suffrage, payment of Members of +Parliament and election expenses, taxation of unearned incomes, +nationalisation of railways, the eight hours day, and a few other +items. "The above programme," it says, "is sufficient for the +present to fill the hands of the True Radical Party—the New +Labour Party—in a word, the Practical Socialist Party," It is +by no means so able and careful a production as the Report on the +Government Organisation of Unemployed Labour.</p> + +<p>In April, 1888, the seven Essayists were elected as the +Executive Committee, Graham Wallas and William Clarke taking the +places of Frank Podmore and W.L. Phillips, who retired, and at the +same meeting the Parliamentary League was turned into the Political +Committee of the Society; and Tract 7, "Capital and Land," was +approved. This tract, the work of Sydney Olivier, is a reasoned +attack on Single Tax as a panacea, and in addition contains an +estimate of the total realised wealth of the country, just as +"Facts for Socialists" does of its income. This, too, has been <a +name='Page_74'></a>regularly revised and reprinted ever since and +commands a steady sale. It is now in its seventh edition.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the series of meetings, variously described as Public, +Ordinary, and Private, was kept on regularly twice a month, with a +break only of two months from the middle of July. Most of the +meetings were still held in the houses of members, but as early as +November, 1886, an ordinary meeting was held at Willis's Rooms, +King Street, St. James's, at that time an ultra-respectable +rendezvous for societies of the most select character, keeping up +an old-fashioned ceremonial of crimson tablecloths, elaborate +silver candlesticks, and impressively liveried footmen. Having been +turned out of Anderton's Hotel, the Society, on the application of +Olivier, was accepted solemnly at Willis's, probably because the +managers regarded the mere fact of our venturing to approach them +as a certificate of high rank in the world of learned +societies.</p> + +<p>One meeting of this period is perhaps worthy of record. On 16th +March, 1888, Mr. R.B. Haldane, M.P., subsequently Secretary of +State for War and Lord Chancellor, addressed the Society on +"Radical Remedies for Economic Evils." In the pages of the +"Radical," Vol. II, No. 8, for March, 1888, can be found a vivid +contemporary account of the proceedings from the pen of Mr. George +Standring, entitled "Butchered to Make a Fabian Holiday." After +describing the criticism of the lecture by Sidney Webb, Mrs. +Besant, and Bernard Shaw the report proceeds:—</p> + +<p>"The massacre was concluded by two other members of the Society +and then the chairman called on Mr. Haldane to reply. Hideous +mockery! The chairman knew that Haldane was <i>dead</i>! He had +seen him torn and tossed and trampled under foot. Perhaps he +expected the ghost of the M.P. to rise and conclude <a name= +'Page_75'></a>the debate with frightful jabberings of fleshless +jaws and gestures of bony hands. Indeed I heard a rustling of +papers as if one gathered his notes for a speech; but I felt unable +to face the grisly horror of a phantom replying to his assassins; +so I fled."</p> + +<p>It should be added that Mr. Standring did net become a member of +the Society until five years later.</p> + +<p>By the summer of 1888 the leaders of the Society realised that +they had a message for the world, and they decided that the autumn +should be devoted to a connected series of lectures on the "Basis +and Prospects of Socialism" which should subsequently be +published.</p> + +<p>There is no evidence, however, that the Essayists supposed that +they were about to make an epoch in the history of Socialism. The +meetings in the summer had been occupied with lectures by Professor +D.G. Ritchie on the "Evolution of Society," subsequently published +as his well-known volume "Darwinism and Politics." Walter Crane on +"The Prospects of Art under Socialism," Graham Wallas on "The +Co-operative Movement," and Miss Clementina Black on "Female +Labour." At the last-named meeting, on June 15th, a resolution was +moved by H.H. Champion and seconded by Herbert Burrows (neither of +them members) calling on the public to boycott Bryant and May's +matches on account of the low wages paid. This marks the beginning +of the period of Labour Unrest, which culminated in the Dock Strike +of the following year.</p> + +<p>The first meeting of the autumn was held at Willis's Rooms on +September 21st, with the Rev. S.D. Headlam in the chair. The +Secretary read a statement indicating the scope of the course of +the seven lectures arranged for the Society's meetings during the +autumn, after which the first paper, written by Sidney Webb <a +name='Page_76'></a>on "The Historical Aspect of the Basis of +Socialism," was read by Hubert Bland. Webb had at that time started +for a three months' visit to the United States, in which I +accompanied him. Mr. Headlam was the chairman throughout the +course, except on one occasion, and the lectures continued +fortnightly to the 21st December. It does not appear that any +special effort was made to advertise them. Each lecture was +discussed by members of the Society and of the S.D.F., and with the +exception of the Rev. Philip Wicksteed there is no evidence of the +presence of any persons outside the movement then or subsequently +known to fame.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +The preparation of "Fabian Essays" for publication occupied nearly +a year, and before dealing with it we must follow the history of +the Society during that period.</p> + +<p>The first lecture in 1889 was by Edward Carpenter, whose paper, +"Civilisation: Its Cause and Cure," gives the title to perhaps his +best known volume of essays. Another interesting lecture was by +William Morris, entitled "How Shall We Live Then?" and at the +Annual Meeting in April Sydney Olivier became the first historian +of the Society with an address on "The Origin and Early History of +the Fabian Society," for which he made the pencil notes on the +minute book already mentioned.</p> + +<p>The seven Essayists were re-elected to the Executive, and in the +record of proceedings at the meeting there is no mention of the +proposed volume of essays.</p> + +<p>It is, however, possible to give some account of the +organisation and activities for the year ending in March, 1889, +since the first printed Annual Report covers that period. It is a +four-page quarto document, <a name='Page_77'></a>only a few copies +of which are preserved. Of the Society itself but little is +recorded—a list of lectures and the bare statement that the +autumn series were to be published: the fact that 6500 Fabian +Tracts had been distributed and a second edition of 5000 "Facts for +Socialists" printed: that 32 members had been elected and 6 had +withdrawn—the total is not given—and that the deficit +in the Society's funds had been reduced.</p> + +<p>A favourite saying of Sidney Webb's is that the activity of the +Fabian Society is the sum of the activities of its members. His +report as Secretary of the work of the "Lecture Committee" states +that a lecture list with 33 names had been printed, and returns +made by 31 lecturers recorded 721 lectures during the year. Six +courses of lectures on Economics accounted for 52 of these. The +"Essays" series of lectures was redelivered by special request in a +room lent by King's College, Cambridge, and also at Leicester. Most +of the other lectures were given at London Radical Working Men's +Clubs, then and for some years later a much bigger factor in +politics than they have been in the twentieth century.</p> + +<p>But an almost contemporary account of the life of Bernard Shaw, +probably the most active of the leaders, because the least fettered +by his occupation, is given in Tract 41 under the heading:</p> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<h4>"HOW TO TRAIN FOR PUBLIC LIFE.</h4> + +<p>"We had to study where we could and how we could. I need not +repeat the story of the Hampstead Historic Club, founded by a +handful of us to read Marx and Proudhon, and afterwards turned into +a systematic history class in which each student took his turn at +being professor. My own experience may be taken as typical. For +some years I attended the Hampstead Historic Club once a fortnight, +and spent a night in the alternate weeks at a private circle of +economists which has since blossomed into the British Economic +Association—a circle where the social question was left out, +and the <a name='Page_78'></a>work kept on abstract scientific +lines. I made all my acquaintances think me madder than usual by +the pertinacity with which I attended debating societies and +haunted all sorts of hole-and-corner debates and public meetings +and made speeches at them. I was President of the Local Government +Board at an amateur Parliament where a Fabian ministry had to put +its proposals into black and white in the shape of Parliamentary +Bills. Every Sunday I lectured on some subject which I wanted to +teach to myself; and it was not until I had come to the point of +being able to deliver separate lectures, without notes, on Rent, +Interest, Profits, Wages, Toryism, Liberalism, Socialism, +Communism, Anarchism, Trade-Unionism, Co-operation, Democracy, the +Division of Society into Classes, and the Suitability of Human +Nature to Systems of Just Distribution, that I was able to handle +Social-Democracy as it must be handled before it can be preached in +such a way as to present it to every sort of man from his own +particular point of view. In old lecture lists of the Society you +will find my name down for twelve different lectures or so. +Nowadays I have only one, for which the secretary is good enough to +invent four or five different names. Sometimes I am asked for one +of the old ones, to my great dismay, as I forget all about them; +but I get out of the difficulty by delivering the new one under the +old name, which does as well. I do not hesitate to say that all our +best lecturers have two or three old lectures at the back of every +single point in their best new speeches; and this means that they +have spent a certain number of years plodding away at footling +little meetings and dull discussions, doggedly placing these before +all private engagements, however tempting. A man's Socialistic +acquisitiveness must be keen enough to make him actually prefer +spending two or three nights a week in speaking and debating, or in +picking up social information even in the most dingy and scrappy +way, to going to the theatre, or dancing or drinking, or even +sweethearting, if he is to become a really competent +propagandist—unless, of course, his daily work is of such a +nature as to be in itself a training for political life; and that, +we know, is the case with very few of us indeed. It is at such +lecturing and debating work, and on squalid little committees and +ridiculous little delegations to conferences of the three tailors +of Tooley Street, with perhaps a deputation to the Mayor thrown in +once in a blue moon or so, that the ordinary Fabian workman or +clerk must qualify for his future seat on the Town Council, <a +name='Page_79'></a>the School Board, or perhaps in the Cabinet. It +was in that way that Bradlaugh, for instance, graduated from being +a boy evangelist to being one of the most formidable debaters in +the House of Commons. And the only opponents who have ever held +their own against the Fabians in debate have been men like Mr. Levy +or Mr. Foote, who learnt in the same school."</p> +</div> + +<p>But lecturing was not the only activity of the Fabians. There +were at that time local Groups, each comprising one or a dozen +constituencies in London and its suburbs. The Groups in a corporate +capacity did little: but the members are reported as taking part in +local elections, County Council, School Board, and Vestry, in the +meetings of the London Liberal and Radical Union, the National +Liberal Federation, the Metropolitan Radical Federation, the +Women's Liberal Federation, and so on. This was the year of the +first London County Council Election, when the Progressive Party, +as it was subsequently named, won an unexpected victory, which +proved to be both lasting and momentous for the future of the +Metropolis. The only overt part taken by the Fabian Society was its +"Questions for Candidates," printed and widely circulated before +the election, which gave definiteness and point to the vague ideas +of Progressivism then in the air. A large majority of the +successful candidates had concurred with this programme. A pamphlet +by Sidney Webb, entitled "Wanted a Programme," not published but +printed privately, was widely circulated in time for the meeting of +the National Liberal Federation at Birmingham, and another by the +same author, "The Progress of Socialism," stated to be published by +"the Hampstead Society for the Study of Socialism," is reported as +in its second edition. This pamphlet was later republished by the +Fabian Society as Tract No. 15, "English Progress Towards Social +Democracy."</p> + +<p><a name='Page_80'></a>Mrs. Besant and the Rev. Stewart Headlam, +standing as Progressives, were elected to the School Board in +November, 1888, when Hubert Bland was an unsuccessful +candidate.</p> + +<p>Finally it may be mentioned that a Universities Committee, with +Frank Podmore as Secretary for Oxford and G.W. Johnson for +Cambridge, had begun the "permeation" of the Universities, which +has always been an important part of the propaganda of the +Society.</p> + +<p>At the Annual Meeting in April, 1889, the Essayists were +re-elected as the Executive Committee and Sydney Olivier as +Honorary Secretary, but he only retained the post till the end of +the year. I returned to London in October, was promptly invited to +resume the work, and took it over in January, 1890.</p> + +<p>In July another important tract was approved for publication. +"Facts for Londoners," No. 8 in the series, 55 pages of packed +statistics sold for 6d., was the largest publication the Society +had yet attempted. It is, as its sub-title states: "an exhaustive +collection of statistical and other facts relating to the +Metropolis, with suggestions for reform on Socialist principles," +The latter were in no sense concealed: the Society still waved the +red flag in season and out. "The Socialist Programme of immediately +practicable reforms for London cannot be wholly dissociated from +the corresponding Programme for the kingdom." This is the opening +sentence, and it is followed by a page of explanation of the +oppression of the workers by the private appropriation of rent and +interest, and an outline of the proposed reforms, graduated and +differentiated income tax, increased death duties, extension of the +Factory Acts, reform of the Poor Law, payment of all public +representatives, adult suffrage, and several others.</p> + +<p>Then the tract settles down to business. London <a name= +'Page_81'></a>with its County Council only a few months old was at +length waking to self-consciousness: Mr. Charles Booth's "Life and +Labour in East London"—subsequently issued as the first part +of his monumental work—had just been published; it was the +subject of a Fabian lecture by Sidney Webb on May 17th; and +interest in the political, economic, and social institutions of the +city was general. The statistical facts were at that time +practically unknown. They had to be dug out, one by one, from +obscure and often unpublished sources, and the work thus done by +the Fabian Society led up in later years to the admirable and far +more voluminous statistical publications of the London County +Council.</p> + +<p>The tract deals with area and population; with rating, land +values, and housing, with water, trams, and docks, all at that time +in the hands of private companies, with gas, markets, City +Companies, libraries, public-houses, cemeteries; and with the local +government of London, Poor Law Guardians and the poor, the School +Board and the schools, the Vestries, District Boards, the County +Council, and the City Corporation. It was the raw material of +Municipal Socialism, and from this time forth the Society +recognised that the municipalisation of monopolies was a genuine +part of the Socialist programme, that the transfer from private +exploiters to public management at the start, and ultimately by the +amortisation of the loans to public ownership, actually was <i>pro +tanto</i> the transfer from private to public ownership of land and +capital, as demanded by Socialists.</p> + +<p>Here, in passing, we may remark that there is a legend, current +chiefly in the United States, that the wide extension of municipal +ownership in Great Britain is due to the advocacy of the Fabian +Society. This is very far from the truth. The great provincial <a +name='Page_82'></a>municipalities took over the management of their +water and gas because they found municipal control alike +convenient, beneficial to the citizens, and financially profitable: +Birmingham in the seventies was the Mecca of Municipalisation, and +in 1882 the Electric Lighting Act passed by Mr. Joseph Chamberlain +was so careful of the interests of the public, so strict in the +limitations it put upon the possible profits to the investor, that +electric lighting was blocked in England for some years, and the +Act had to be modified in order that capital might be attracted.<a +name='FNanchor_22' href='#Footnote_22'>[22]</a></p> + +<p>What the Fabian Society did was to point out that Socialism did +not necessarily mean the control of all industry by a centralised +State; that to introduce Socialism did not necessarily require a +revolution because much of it could be brought about piecemeal by +the votes of the local electors. And secondly the Society +complained that London was singularly backward in municipal +management: that the wealthiest city in the world was handed over +to the control of exploiters, who made profits from its gas, its +water, its docks, and its tramways, whilst elsewhere these +monopolies were owned and worked by public authorities who obtained +all the advantages for the people of the localities concerned. +Moreover, it may be questioned whether the Fabian advocacy of +municipalisation hastened or retarded that process in London. In +provincial towns municipalisation—the word of course was +unknown—had been regarded as of no social or political +significance. It was a business matter, a local affair, a question +of convenience. In London, partly owing to Fabian advocacy and +partly because London had at last a single representative authority +with a recognised party system, it became the battle <a name= +'Page_83'></a>ground of the parties: the claim of the Socialists +awakened the Individualists to opposition: and the tramways of +London were held as a trench in the world-wide conflict between +Socialism and its enemies, whose capture was hailed as an omen of +progress by one side, and by the other deplored as the presage of +defeat.</p> + +<p>"Facts for Londoners" was the work of Sidney Webb, but there is +nothing in the tract to indicate this. The publications of the +Society were collective works, in that every member was expected to +assist in them by criticism and suggestion. Although several of the +tracts were lectures or papers written by members for other +purposes, and are so described, it was not until the issue in +November, 1892, of Tract 42, "Christian Socialism," by the Rev. +S.D. Headlam, that the author's name is printed on the title page. +The reason for the innovation is obvious: this tract was written by +a Churchman for Christians, and whilst the Society as a whole +approved the conclusions, the premises commended themselves to but +a few. It was therefore necessary that the responsibility of the +author should be made clear.</p> + +<p>The autumn of 1889 is memorable for the great strike of the +London Dockers, which broke out on August 14th, was led by John +Burns, and was settled mainly by Cardinal Manning on September +14th. The Fabian Society held no meeting between July 19th and +September 20th, and there is nothing in the minutes or the Annual +Report to show that the Society as such took any part in the +historic conflict. But many of the members as individuals lent +their aid to the Dockers in their great struggle, which once for +all put an end to the belief that hopeless disorganisation is a +necessary characteristic of unskilled labour.<a name='FNanchor_23' +href='#Footnote_23'>[23]</a></p> + +<p><a name='Page_84'></a>Arising out of the Dock Strike, the +special demand of the Socialist section of trade unionists for the +next four or five years was a legal eight hours day, and the Fabian +Society now for the first time recognised that it could render +substantial assistance to the labour movement by putting into a +practicable shape any reform which was the current demand of the +day.</p> + +<p>At the members' meeting on September 20 a committee was +appointed to prepare an Eight Hours Bill for introduction into +Parliament, and in November this was published as Tract No. 9. It +consists of a Bill for Parliament, drawn up in proper form, with +explanatory notes. It provided that eight hours should be the +maximum working day for Government servants, for railway men, and +for miners, and that other trades should be brought in when a +Secretary of State was satisfied that a majority of the workers +desired it. The tract had a large sale—20,000 had been +printed in six months—and it was specially useful because, in +fact, it showed the inherent difficulty of any scheme for universal +limitation of the hours of labour.</p> + +<p>The Eight Hours Day agitation attained larger proportions than +any other working-class agitation in England since the middle of +the nineteenth century. For a number of years it was the subject of +great annual demonstrations in Hyde Park. It commended itself both +to the practical trade unionists, who had always aimed at a +reduction in the hours of labour, and to the theoretical +socialists, who held that the exploiter's profits came from the +final hours of the day's work. The Fabian plan of "Trade Option" +was regarded as too moderate, and demands were made for a "Trade +Exemption" Bill, that is, a Bill enacting a universal Eight Hours +Day, with power to any trade to vote its own exclusion. But the +more <a name='Page_85'></a>the subject was discussed, the more +obvious the difficulties became, and at last it was recognised that +each trade must be dealt with separately. Considerable reductions +of hours were meantime effected in particular industries; an +eight-hour day became the rule in the Government factories and +dockyards; the Board of Trade was empowered to insist on the +reduction of unduly long hours of duty on railways; finally in 1908 +the Miners' Eight Hours Act became law; and the demand for any +general Bill faded away.</p> + +<p>The autumn meetings were occupied by a course of lectures at +Willis's Rooms on "A Century of Social Movements," by Frank +Podmore, William Clarke, Graham Wallas, Hubert Bland, and Mrs. +Besant, and with the beginning of the year 1890 we come to the +publication of "Fabian Essays," and a new chapter in the History of +the Society.</p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_16' href='#FNanchor_16'>[16]</a> On this +passage Shaw has written the following criticism, which I have not +adopted because on the whole I do not agree with it: "I think this +is wrong, because the Fabians were at first as bellicose as the +others, and Marx had been under no delusion as to the Commune and +did not bequeath a tradition of its repetition. Bakunin was as +popular a prophet as Marx. Many of us—Bland and Keddell among +others—were members of the S.D.F., and I was constantly +speaking for the S.D.F. and the League. We did not keep ourselves +to ourselves; we aided the working class organisations in every +possible way; and they were jolly glad to have us. In fact the main +difference between us was that we worked for everybody (permeation) +and they worked for their own societies only. The real reason that +we segregated for purposes of thought and study was that the +workers could not go our pace or stand our social habits. Hyndman +and Morris and Helen Taylor and the other bourgeois S.D.F.-ers and +Leaguers were too old for us; they were between forty and fifty +when we were between twenty and thirty."</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_17' href='#FNanchor_17'>[17]</a> On this +passage Shaw comments, beginning with an expletive, and proceeding: +"I was the only one who had any principles. But surely the secret +of it is that we didn't really want to be demagogues, having other +fish to fry, as our subsequent careers proved. Our decision not to +stand for Parliament in 1892 was the turning point. I was offered +some seats to contest—possibly Labour ones—but I always +replied that they ought to put up a bona fide working man. We +lacked ambition."</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_18' href='#FNanchor_18'>[18]</a> See "The +Great Society," by Graham Wallas (Macmillan, 1914), p. 260.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_19' href='#FNanchor_19'>[19]</a> For a much +fuller account of this subject, see Appendix I. A.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_20' href='#FNanchor_20'>[20]</a> See Appendix +II.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_21' href='#FNanchor_21'>[21]</a> See Fabian +Tract 147, "Capital and Compensation," by Edw. R. Pease.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_22' href='#FNanchor_22'>[22]</a> See "Fabian +Essays," p. 51, for the first point, and Fabian Tract No. 119 for +the second.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_23' href='#FNanchor_23'>[23]</a> See "The +Story of the Dockers' Strike," by Vaughan Nash and H. (now Sir +Hubert) Llewellyn Smith; Fisher Unwin, 1890.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p class="center"><a name='image05'></a> <img src= +"images/image05.png" style="width: 300px; height: 423px; border: 0" +alt="" /></p> + +<p class="center"><i>From a photograph By Savony of New +York</i></p> + +<p class="center">MRS. ANNE BESANT, IN 1890</p> + +<h3><a name='Page_86'></a><a name='Chapter_V'>Chapter V</a></h3> + +<h2>"Fabian Essays" and the Lancashire Campaign: 1890-3</h2> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>"Fabian Essays" published—Astonishing success—A new +presentation of Socialism—Reviewed after twenty-five +years—Henry Hutchinson—The Lancashire +Campaign—Mrs. Besant withdraws—"Fabian News."</p> +</div> + +<p>Volumes of essays by various writers seldom have any durable +place in the history of thought because as a rule they do not +present a connected body of ideas, but merely the opinions of a +number of people who start from incompatible premises and arrive at +inconsistent conclusions. A book, to be effective, must maintain a +thesis, or at any rate must be a closely integrated series of +propositions, and, as a rule, thinkers strong enough to move the +world are too independent to pull together in a team.</p> + +<p>"Fabian Essays," the work of seven writers, all of them far +above the average in ability, some of them possessing individuality +now recognised as exceptional, is a book and not a collection of +essays. This resulted from two causes. The writers had for years +known each other intimately and shared each other's thoughts; they +had hammered out together the policy which they announced; and they +had moulded each other's opinions before they began to write. +Secondly the book was planned in advance. Its scheme was arranged +<a name='Page_87'></a>as a whole, and then the parts were allotted +to each author, with an agreement as to the ground to be covered +and the method to be adopted, in view of the harmonious whole which +the authors had designed. It is not often that circumstances permit +of a result so happy. "Fabian Essays" does not cover the whole +field of Fabian doctrine, and in later years schemes were often set +on foot for a second volume dealing with the application of the +principles propounded in the first. But these schemes never even +began to be successful. With the passage of time the seven +essayists had drifted apart. Each was working at the lines of +thought most congenial to himself; they were no longer young and +unknown men; some of the seven were no longer available. Anyway, no +second series of Essays ever approached completion.</p> + +<p>Bernard Shaw was the editor, and those who have worked with him +know that he does not take lightly his editorial duties. He +corrects his own writings elaborately and repeatedly, and he does +as much for everything which comes into his care. The high literary +level maintained by the Fabian tracts is largely the result of +constant scrutiny and amendment, chiefly by Sidney Webb and Bernard +Shaw, although the tract so corrected may be published as the work +of some other member.</p> + +<p>Although therefore all the authors of "Fabian Essays" were +competent, and some of them practised writers, it may be assumed +that every phrase was considered, and every word weighed, by the +editor before the book went to press.<a name='FNanchor_24' href= +'#Footnote_24'>[24]</a></p> + +<p>A circular inviting subscriptions for the book was <a name= +'Page_88'></a>sent out in the spring, and three hundred copies were +subscribed in advance. Arrangements with a publisher fortunately +broke down because he declined to have the book printed at a "fair +house," and as Mrs. Besant was familiar with publishing—she +then controlled, or perhaps <i>was</i>, the Freethought Publishing +Company, of 63 Fleet Street—the Committee resolved on the +bold course of printing and publishing the book themselves. A +frontispiece was designed by Walter Crane, a cover by Miss May +Morris, and just before Christmas, 1889, the book was issued to +subscribers and to the public.</p> + +<p>None of us at that time was sufficiently experienced in the +business of authorship to appreciate the astonishing success of the +venture. In a month the whole edition of 1000 copies was exhausted. +With the exception of Mrs. Besant, whose fame was still equivocal, +not one of the authors had published any book of importance, held +any public office, or was known to the public beyond the circles of +London political agitators. The Society they controlled numbered +only about 150 members. The subject of their volume was far less +understood by the public than is Syndicalism at the present day. +And yet a six-shilling book, published at a private dwelling-house +and not advertised in the press, or taken round by travellers to +the trade, sold almost as rapidly as if the authors had been +Cabinet Ministers.</p> + +<p>A second edition of 1000 copies was issued in March, 1890: in +September Mr. Walter Scott undertook the agency of a new shilling +paper edition, 5000 of which were sold before publication and some +20,000 more within a year. In 1908 a sixpenny paper edition with a +new preface by the editor was issued by Walter Scott, of which +10,000 were disposed of in a few months, and in all some 46,000 +copies of the book have <a name='Page_89'></a>been sold in English +editions alone. It is difficult to trace the number of foreign +editions and translations. The authors made over to the Society all +their rights in the volume, and permission for translation and for +publication in the United States has always been freely given. In +that country we can trace an edition in 1894, published by Charles +E. Brown of Boston, with an Introduction by Edward Bellamy and a +Preface of some length on the Fabian Society and its work by +William Clarke: and another edition in 1909, published by the Ball +Publishing Company of Boston, also with the Introduction on the +Fabian Society. A Dutch translation by F.M. Wibaut was published in +1891; in 1806 the Essays, translated into Norwegian by Francis +Wolff, appeared as a series of small books; and in 1897 a German +translation by Dora Lande was issued by G.H. Wigand of Leipzig.</p> + +<p>The effect of "Fabian Essays" arose as much from what it left +out as from what it contained. Only the fast-dwindling band of +pioneer Socialists, who lived through the movement in its earliest +days, can fully realise the environment of ideas from which "Fabian +Essays" showed a way of escape.</p> + +<p>The Socialism of the Social Democratic Federation and the +Socialist League, the two societies which had hitherto represented +Socialism to the general public, was altogether revolutionary. +Socialism was to be the result of an outbreak of violence, +engineered by a great popular organisation like that of the +Chartists or the Anti-Corn Law League, and the Commune of Paris in +1871 was regarded as a premature attempt which pointed the way to +future success. The Socialist Government thus established was to +reconstruct the social and industrial life of the nation according +to a plan supposed to be outlined by Karl Marx. "On the morrow of +the revolution" all things would be <a name='Page_90'></a>new, and +at a bound the nation was expected to reach something very like the +millennium.</p> + +<p>The case for this project was based, strange to say, not on any +history but on the Marxian analysis of the origin of the value of +commodities, and no man who did not understand this analysis, or +pretend to understand it, was fit to be called a "comrade." The +economic reasoning which "proved" this "law" was expressed in +obscure and technical language peculiar to the propagandists of the +movement, and every page of Socialist writings was studded with the +then strange words "proletariat" and "bourgeoisie."</p> + +<p>Lastly, the whole world, outside the socialist movement, was +regarded as in a conspiracy of repression. Liberals (all +capitalists), Tories (all landlords), the Churches (all +hypocrites), the rich (all idlers), and the organised workers (all +sycophants) were treated as if they fully understood and admitted +the claims of the Socialists, and were determined for their own +selfish ends to reject them at all costs.</p> + +<p>Although the Fabian propaganda had no doubt had some effect, +especially amongst the working-class Radicals of London, and +although some of the Socialist writers and speakers, such as +William Morris, did not at all times present to the public the +picture of Socialism just outlined, it will not be denied by +anybody whose recollections reach back to this period that +Socialism up to 1890 was generally regarded as insurrectionary, +dogmatic, Utopian, and almost incomprehensible.</p> + +<p>"Fabian Essays" presented the case for Socialism in plain +language which everybody could understand. It based Socialism, not +on the speculations of a German philosopher, but on the obvious +evolution of society as we see it around us. It accepted economic +science as taught by the accredited British professors; it built up +the edifice of Socialism on the foundations <a name= +'Page_91'></a>of our existing political and social institutions: it +proved that Socialism was but the next step in the development of +society, rendered inevitable by the changes which followed from the +industrial revolution of the eighteenth century.</p> + +<p>It is interesting after twenty-five years to re-read these +essays and to observe how far the ideas that inspired them are +still valid, and how far the prophecies made have been +fulfilled.</p> + +<p>Bernard Shaw contributed the first Essay on "The Economic Basis +of Socialism," and also a second, a paper read to the British +Association in September, 1888, on the "Transition to Social +Democracy." His characteristic style retains its charm, although +the abstract and purely deductive economic analysis on which he +relied no longer commends itself to the modern school of thought. +Sidney Webb's "Historic Basis" is as readable as ever, except where +he quotes at length political programmes long forgotten, and +recounts the achievements of municipal socialism with which we are +all now familiar.</p> + +<p>William Clarke in explaining the "Industrial Basis" assumed that +the industry would be rapidly dominated by trusts—then a new +phenomenon—with results, the crushing out of all other forms +of industrial organisation, which are but little more evident +to-day, though we should no longer think worthy of record that the +Standard Oil Company declared a 10 per cent cash dividend in +1887!</p> + +<p>If the Essays had been written in 1890 instead of 1888 the +authors would have acquired from the great Trade Union upheaval of +1889 a fuller appreciation of the importance of Trade Unionism than +they possessed at the earlier date. Working-class organisation has +never been so prominent in London as in the industrial counties, +and the captious comments on the <a name='Page_92'></a>great +Co-operative movement show that the authors of the Essays were +still youthful, and in some matters ignorant.<a name='FNanchor_25' +href='#Footnote_25'>[25]</a></p> + +<p>Sydney Olivier's "Moral Basis" is, in parts, as obscure now as +it was at first, and there are pages which can have conveyed but +little to most of its innumerable readers. Graham Wallas treated of +"Property" with moderation rather than knowledge. Time has dealt +hardly with Mrs. Besant's contribution. She anticipated, as the +other Essayists did, that unemployment caused by labour-saving +machinery would constantly increase; and that State organisation of +industries for the unemployed would gradually supersede private +enterprise. She apparently supposed that the county councils all +over England, then newly created, were similar in character to the +London County Council, which had already inaugurated the +Progressive policy destined in the next few years to do much for +the advancement of practical socialism. The final paper on "The +Outlook," by Hubert Bland, is necessarily of the nature of +prophecy, and in view of the difficulty of this art his attempt is +perhaps less <a name='Page_93'></a>unsuccessful than might have +been expected. He could foresee the advent neither of the Labour +Party, mainly formed of Trade Unionists, nor of Mr. Lloyd George +and the policy he represents: he assumed that the rich would grow +richer and the poor poorer; that Liberals would unite with Tories, +as they have done in Australia, and would be confronted with a +Socialist Party representing the dispossessed. Possibly the +developments he sketches are still to come, but that is a matter +which cannot be discussed here.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +I can find no trace in the records of the Society that the first +success of their publication occasioned any elation to the +Essayists, and I cannot recollect any signs of it at the time. The +Annual Report mentions that a substantial profit was realised on +the first edition, and states that the authors had made over the +copyright, "valued at about £200," to the Society; but these +details are included in a paragraph headed "Publications," and the +Essays are not mentioned in the general sketch of the work of the +year.</p> + +<p>In fact the obvious results of the publication took some months +to materialise, and the number of candidates for election to the +Society showed little increase during the spring. It is true that +great changes were made in the organisation of the Society at the +Annual Meeting held on March 28th, 1890, but these were in part due +to other causes. The Executive Committee was enlarged to fifteen, +and as I happened to be available I was appointed paid secretary, +half time, at the modest salary of £1 a week for the first +year. The newly elected Executive included the seven Essayists, +Robert E. Dell, now Paris correspondent for several journals, W.S. +De Mattos, for many years <a name='Page_94'></a>afterwards an +indefatigable organiser for the Society, and now settled in British +Columbia, the Rev. Stewart D. Headlam, Mrs. L.T. Mallet, then a +prominent member of the Women's Liberal Association, J.F. +Oakeshott, of the Fellowship of the New Life, and myself.</p> + +<p>The lectures of the early months of 1890 were a somewhat +brilliant series. Sidney Webb on the Eight Hours Bill; James +Rowlands, M.P., on the then favourite Liberal nostrum of Leasehold +Enfranchisement (which the Essayists demolished in a crushing +debate); Dr. Bernard Bosanquet on "The Antithesis between +Individualism and Socialism Philosophically Considered"; Mrs. +Besant on "Socialism and the School Board Policy"; Mr. (now Sir) H. +Llewellyn Smith on "The Causes and Effects of Immigration from +Country to Town," in which he disproved the then universal opinion +that the unemployed of East London were immigrants from rural +districts; Sydney Olivier on "Zola"; William Morris on "Gothic +Architecture" (replacing a lecture on Morris himself by Ernest +Radford, who was absent through illness); Sergius Stepniak on +"Tolstoi, Tchernytchevsky, and the Russian School"; Hubert Bland on +"Socialist Novels"; and finally on July 18th Bernard Shaw on +"Ibsen." This last may perhaps be regarded as the high-water mark +in Fabian lectures. The minutes, which rarely stray beyond bare +facts, record that "the paper was a long one," nearer two hours +than one, if my memory is accurate, and add: "The meeting was a +very large one and the lecture was well received." In fact the +lecture was the bulk of the volume "The Quintessence of Ibsenism," +which some regard as the finest of Bernard Shaw's works, and it is +perhaps unnecessary to say that the effect on the packed audience +was over<a name='Page_95'></a>whelming. It was "briefly discussed" +by a number of speakers, but they seemed as out of place as a +debate after an oratorio.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +On June 16th Henry H. Hutchinson of Derby was elected a member, an +event of much greater importance than at the time appeared. Mr. +Hutchinson had been clerk to the Justices of Derby, and when we +first knew him had retired, and was with his wife living a somewhat +wandering life accompanied by a daughter, who also joined the +Society a few months later. He was not rich, but he was generous, +and on July 29th it is recorded in the minutes of the Executive +that he had offered us £100 or £200, and approved the +suggestion that it should be chiefly used for lectures in country +centres.</p> + +<p>A fortnight later the "Lancashire campaign" was planned. It was +thoroughly organised. An advanced agent was sent down, and +abstracts of lectures were prepared and printed to facilitate +accurate reports in the press. Complete lists of the forthcoming +lectures—dates, places, subjects, and lecturers—were +printed. All the Essayists except Olivier took part, and in +addition Robert E. Dell, W.S. De Mattos, and the Rev. Stewart +Headlam. An account of the Society written by Bernard Shaw was +reprinted from the "Scottish Leader" for September 4th, 1890, for +the use of the audience and the Press.</p> + +<p>A "Report" of the campaign was issued on November 4th, which +says:—</p> + +<p><br /> +"The campaign began on September 20th and ended on October 27th, +when about sixty lectures in all had been delivered ... not only in +Lancashire, at Manchester, Liverpool, Rochdale, Oldham, Preston, <a +name='Page_96'></a>Salford, and the district round Manchester, but +also at Barnsley, Kendal, Carlisle, Sheffield, and Hebden +Bridge.</p> + +<p>"In thus making our first attack upon the stronghold of the old +Unionism and the new Toryism, we would have been contented with a +very small measure of success, and we are much more than contented +with the results obtained. The lectures, except for a few days +during the contest at Eccles, were extremely well reported, and +even the 'Manchester Guardian' (the 'Daily News' of the +manufacturing districts) came out with an approving leader. The +audiences throughout the campaign steadily increased and followed +the lectures with close and intelligent attention. In particular +the members of Liberal working men's clubs constantly declared that +they had never heard 'the thing put so straight' before, and +complained that the ordinary party lecturers were afraid or +unwilling to speak out. Men who frankly confessed that they had +hesitated before voting for the admission of our lecturers to their +clubs were enthusiastic in welcoming our message as soon as they +heard it. The vigorous propaganda in the manufacturing districts of +the S.D.F. branches has been chiefly carried on by means of outdoor +meetings. Its effect upon working-class opinion, especially among +unskilled labourers, has been marked and important, but it has +entirely failed to reach the working-men politicians who form the +rank and file of the Liberal Associations and Clubs, or the +'well-dressed' Liberals who vaguely desire social reform, but have +been encouraged by their leaders to avoid all exact thought on the +subject."</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +The lectures were given chiefly in sets of four in consecutive +weeks, mostly at Liberal and Radical Clubs: others were arranged by +Co-operative Societies, <a name='Page_97'></a>and by branches of +the S.D.F. and the Socialist League. The subjects were "Socialism," +"Where Liberalism Fails," "Co-operation and Labour," "The Future of +Women," "The Eight Hours Bill," "The Politics of Labour," and so +on. Those arranged by Co-operative Societies were, we are told, the +least successful, but it is hoped "that they will bring about a +better feeling between Socialists and Co-operators," a state of +things which on the side of the Socialists was, as we have +previously indicated, badly wanted. It should be noted that much of +the success of the campaign was due to friendly assistance from the +head-quarters of the Co-operative Union and the National Reform +Union.</p> + +<p>There is no doubt that this campaign with the series of lectures +on the same lines which were continued for several years was an +event of some importance, not only in the history of the Fabian +Society but also in English politics. Hitherto the Socialism +presented to the industrial districts of England, which are the +backbone of Trade Unionism and Co-operation, to the men who are +meant when we speak of the power and independence of the working +classes, was revolutionary and destructive, ill-tempered and +ungenerous. It had perhaps alarmed, but it had failed to attract +them. It had made no real impression on the opinion of the people. +From this point a new movement began. It first took the form of +local Fabian Societies. They were succeeded by and merged into +branches of the Independent Labour Party, which adopted everything +Fabian except its peculiar political tactics. A few years later the +Labour Party followed, more than Fabian in its toleration in the +matter of opinions, and virtually, though not formally, Fabian in +its political policy. No doubt something of the sort would have +happened had there never been a Lancashire campaign, <a name= +'Page_98'></a>but this campaign may be fairly described as the +first step in an evolution, the end of which is not yet in +sight.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +Her lectures in the Lancashire campaign and the formation of the +branches were Mrs. Besant's last contributions to the Socialist +movement. Early in November she suddenly and completely severed her +connection with the Society. She had become a convert to Theosophy, +which at that time accepted the Buddhist doctrine that spiritual +conditions alone mattered, and that spiritual life would flourish +as well in the slum amidst dirt and starvation as in the +comfortable cottage, and much better than in the luxurious mansion. +Twentieth-century theosophy has receded from that position, and now +advocates social amelioration, but Mrs. Besant thought otherwise in +1890. Some twenty years later she lectured on several occasions to +the Society, and she joined her old friends at the dinner which +celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of its foundation, but in the +interval her connection with it completely ceased.</p> + +<p>The Fabian Society and British Socialism owe much to Mrs. Besant +for the assistance she gave it during five important years. Her +splendid eloquence, always at our service, has seldom been matched, +and has never been surpassed by any of the innumerable speakers of +the movement. She had, when she joined us, an assured position +amongst the working-class Radicals in London and throughout the +country; and through her Socialism obtained a sympathetic hearing +in places where less trusted speakers would have been neglected. +She was not then either a political thinker or an effective worker +on committees, but she possessed the power of expressing the ideas +of other people far better <a name='Page_99'></a>than their +originators, and she had at her command a certain amount of +political machinery—such as an office at 63 Fleet Street, and +a monthly magazine, "Our Corner"—which was very useful. Her +departure was a serious loss, but it came at a moment of rapid +expansion, so rapid that her absence was scarcely felt.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +On the Society itself the effect of the Essays and the Lancashire +Campaign was considerable. As the Executive Committee report in +April, 1891: "During the past year the Socialist movement has made +conspicuous progress in every respect, and a constantly increasing +share of the work of its organisation and extension has fallen to +the Fabian Society." The membership increased from 173 to 361, and +the subscription list—thanks in part to several large +donations—from £126 to £520. Local Fabian +Societies had been formed at Belfast, Birmingham, Bombay, Bristol, +Huddersfield, Hyde, Leeds, Manchester, Oldham, Plymouth, Tyneside, +and Wolverhampton, with a total membership of 350 or 400. The +business in tracts had been enormous. Ten new tracts, four +pamphlets and six leaflets, were published, and new editions of all +but one of the old ones had been printed. In all 335,000 tracts +were printed and 98,349 distributed. The new tracts include "The +Workers' Political Programme," "The New Reform Bill," "English +Progress Towards Social Democracy," "The Reform of Poor Law," and a +leaflet, No. 13, "What Socialism Is," which has been in circulation +ever since. It should be added that at this period our leaflets +were given away freely, a form of propaganda which soon proved too +expensive for our resources.</p> + +<p>In March, 1891, just before the end of the official year, +appeared the first number of "Fabian News," <a name= +'Page_100'></a>the monthly organ of the Society, which has +continued ever since. It replaced the printed circulars previously +issued to the members, and was not intended to be anything else +than a means of communicating with the members as to the work of +the Society, and also in later years as to new books on subjects +germane to its work. It has been edited throughout by the +Secretary, but everything of a contentious character relating to +the affairs of the Society has been published by the express +authority of the Executive Committee.</p> + +<p>It may be mentioned that from this time forward the documents of +the Society are both fuller and more accessible than before. For +the period up to the end of 1889 the only complete record is +contained in the two minute books of the meetings. No regular +minutes of Executive Committee meetings were kept, and the Annual +Reports were not printed until 1889. From 1890 onwards the meetings +of every committee were regularly recorded: the Annual Reports were +printed in octavo and can be found in many public libraries, whilst +"Fabian News" contains full information of the current doings of +the Society. It will not therefore be necessary to treat the later +years with such attention to detail as has seemed appropriate to +the earlier. The only "sources" for these are shabby notebooks and +the memories of a few men now rapidly approaching old age. The +later years can be investigated, if any subsequent enquirer desires +to do so, in a dozen libraries in Great Britain and the United +States.</p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_24' href='#FNanchor_24'>[24]</a> Shaw demurs +to this passage, and says that he did not revise the papers +verbally, especially those by Mrs. Besant and Graham Wallas, but +that he suggested or made alterations in the others. I am still +disposed to suspect that my statement is not far from the +truth.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_25' href='#FNanchor_25'>[25]</a> The opinions +of some of the Essayists about co-operation were apparently +modified by some small meetings with leading co-operators on March +27th, April 17th, and May 22nd, 1889. Bernard Shaw tells me that he +thinks that they were held at Willis's Rooms, that he was in the +chair, and that Mr. Benjamin Jones (whose name I find as a speaker +at Fabian Meetings about this period) played a prominent part on +behalf of the Co-operative Wholesale Society.</p> + +<p>The first printed Annual Report presented on 5th April, 1889, +mentions that "the Society is taking part in a 'Round Table +Conference' to ascertain amongst other objects how far the various +Co-operative and Socialist bodies can act together politically," a +problem, thirty years later, still unsolved. It is a pity that the +references to Co-operation in "Fabian Essays" were not modified in +the light of the Conference which was held after the lectures were +written but before they were published. No record of the Conference +seems to have been preserved.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p class="center"><a name='image06'></a><img src= +"images/image06.png" style="width: 300px; height: 426px; border: 0" +alt= +"From a photograph by Van der Weyde WILLIAM CLARKE, ABOUT 1895" /></p> + +<p class="center"><i>From a photograph by Van der Weyde</i></p> + +<p class="center">WILLIAM CLARKE, ABOUT 1895</p> + +<h3><a name='Page_101'></a><a name='Chapter_VI'>Chapter VI</a></h3> + +<h2>"To your tents, O Israel": 1894-1900</h2> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>Progress of the Society—The Independent Labour +Party—Local Fabian Societies—University Fabian +Societies—London Groups and Samuel Butler—The first +Fabian Conference—Tracts and Lectures—The 1892 Election +Manifesto—The Newcastle Program—The Fair Wages +Policy—The "Fortnightly" article—The "Intercepted +Letter" of 1906.</p> +</div> + +<p>During the next two or three years the Society made rapid +progress. The membership was 541 in 1892, 640 in 1893, and 681 in +1894. The expenditure, £640 to March, 1891, rose to +£1100 for 1892, and £1179 in 1893. In both these years +large sums—£350 and £450—were given by two +members for the expenses of lectures in the provinces, and in +provincial societies the growth was most marked. In March, 1892, 36 +were recorded: the report for 1893 gives 74, including Bombay and +South Australia. This was the high-water mark. The Independent +Labour Party was founded in January, 1893, at a Conference at which +the Fabian Society of London and nine local Fabian Societies were +represented, and from this time onward our provincial organisation +declined until, in 1900, only four local and four University +Societies remained.</p> + +<p>The attitude of the parent society towards its branches has +always been somewhat unusual. In early days it made admission to +its own ranks a matter of some difficulty. A candidate resident in +London <a name='Page_102'></a>had to secure a proposer and seconder +who could personally vouch for him and had to attend two meetings +as a visitor. We regarded membership as something of a privilege, +and a candidate was required not only to sign the Basis, but also +to take some personal trouble as evidence of zeal and good faith. +To our provincial organisation the same principle was applied. If +the Socialists in any town desired to form a local society we gave +them our blessing and received them gladly. But we did not urge the +formation of branches on lukewarm adherents, and we always +recognised that the peculiar political methods of the London +Society, appropriate to a body of highly educated people, nearly +all of them speakers, writers, or active political workers, were +unsuitable for the groups of earnest workmen in the provinces who +were influenced by our teaching. In fact the local Fabian +Societies, with rare exceptions, of which Liverpool was the chief, +were from the first "I.L.P." in personnel and policy, and were +Fabian only in name.</p> + +<p>This somewhat detached attitude, combined with the recognition +of the differences between the parent society and its offspring, +led to the adoption of a system of local autonomy. The parent +society retained complete control over its own affairs. It was +governed by a mass meeting of members, which in those days elected +the Executive for the year. It decided that a local Fabian Society +might be formed anywhere outside London, by any body of people who +accepted the Fabian Basis. The parent society would send them +lecturers, supply them with literature and "Fabian News," and +report their doings in the "News." But in other respects complete +autonomy was accorded. No fees were asked, or subventions granted: +no control over, or responsibility for, policy was claimed. Just as +the political policy of each <a name='Page_103'></a>Fabian was left +to his own judgment, so we declined the impossible task of +supervising or harmonising the political activities of our local +societies. When the I.L.P. was founded in Bradford and set to work +to organise Socialism on Fabian lines, adopting practically +everything of our policy, except the particular methods which we +had selected because they suited our personal capacities, we +recognised that provincial Fabianism had done its work. There was +no room, except here and there, for an I.L.P. branch and a local +F.S. in the same place. The men who were active in the one were +active also in the other. We made no effort to maintain our +organisation against that of the I.L.P., and though a few societies +survived for some years, and for a while two or three were formed +every year at such places as Tunbridge Wells, Maidstone, and +Swindon, they were bodies of small importance, and contributed +scarcely anything to the sum of Fabian activity. The only local +Fabian Society which survived the debacle was Liverpool, which has +carried on work similar to that of the London Society down to the +present time. Its relations with the I.L.P. have always been +harmonious, and, like the I.L.P., it has always maintained an +attitude of hostility towards the old political parties. Its work +has been lecturing, the publication of tracts, and political +organisation.</p> + +<p>The University Fabian Societies are of a different character. +Formed by and for undergraduates, but in some cases, especially at +Oxford, maintaining continuity by the assistance of older members +in permanent residence, such as Sidney Ball of St. John's, who has +belonged to the Oxford Society since its formation in 1895, they +are necessarily fluctuating bodies, dependent for their success on +the personality and influence of a few leading members. Their +members have always been elected at once to the parent <a name= +'Page_104'></a>society in order that the connection may be unbroken +when they leave the University. Needless to say, only a small +proportion become active members of the Society, but a few of the +leading members of the movement have entered it in this way. +Oxford, Glasgow, Aberystwyth, and latterly Cambridge have had +flourishing societies for long periods, and quite a number of the +higher grade civil servants and of the clergy and doctors in remote +districts in Wales and Scotland are or have been members. Moreover, +the Society always retains a scattering of members, mostly +officials or teachers, in India, in the heart of Africa, in China, +and South America, who joined it in their undergraduate days.</p> + +<p>Almost from the first the Executive has endeavoured to organise +the members in the London area into groups. The parent society grew +up through years of drawing-room meetings; why should not the +members residing in Hampstead and Hammersmith, in Bloomsbury or +Kensington do the same? Further, the Society always laid much +stress on local politics: there were County Council and Borough +Council, School Board and Poor Law Guardians elections in which +policy could be influenced and candidates promoted or +supported.</p> + +<p>In fact it is only in the years when London government was in +the melting-pot, or in times of special socialist activity, and in +a few districts, such as Hampstead, where Fabians are numerous, and +especially when one or more persons of persistence and energy are +available, that the groups have had a more than nominal existence. +The drawing-room meetings of the parent society attracted audiences +until they outgrew drawing-rooms, because of the exceptional +quality of the men and women who attended them and the novelty of +the doctrines promulgated. These <a name='Page_105'></a>conditions +were not repeated in each district of London, and in spite of +constant paper planning, and not a little service by the older +members, who spent their time and talents on tiny meetings in +Paddington or Streatham, the London group system has never been a +permanent success. What has kept the Society together is the series +of fortnightly meetings carried on regularly from the first, which +themselves fluctuate in popularity, but which have never wholly +failed.<a name='FNanchor_26' href='#Footnote_26'>[26]</a></p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +We now return to the point whence this digression started. Our +local societies were then flourishing. They were vigorously +supported from London. We had funds for the expenses of lecturers +and many willing to give the time. W.S. De Mattos was employed as +lecture secretary, and arranged in the year 1891-2 600 lectures, +300 of them in the provinces. In all 3339 lectures by members +during the year were recorded. All this activity imparted for a +time <a name='Page_106'></a>considerable vitality to the local +societies, and on February 6th and 7th, 1892, the first (and for +twenty years the last) Annual Conference was held in London, at +Essex Hall. Only fourteen provincial societies were represented, +but they claimed a membership of about 1100, some four-fifths of +the whole.</p> + +<p>The Conference was chiefly memorable because it occasioned the +preparation of the paper by Bernard Shaw, entitled "The Fabian +Society: What it has done and how it has done it," published later +as Tract 41 and renamed, when the passage of years rendered the +title obsolete, "The Fabian Society: Its Early History," parts of +which have already been quoted. This entertaining account of the +Society, and brilliant defence of its policy as opposed to that of +the Social Democratic Federation, was read to a large audience on +the Saturday evening, and made so great an impression that comment +on it seemed futile and was abandoned. The Conference on Sunday was +chiefly occupied with the discussion of a proposal that the +electors be advised to vote at the coming General Election in +accordance with certain test questions, which was defeated by 23 to +21. A resolution to expel from the Society any member becoming "an +official of the Conservative, Liberal, Liberal Unionist, or +National League parties" was rejected by a large majority, for the +first but by no means for the last time. The Conference was quite a +success, but a year later there was not sufficient eagerness in the +provinces for a second, and the project was abandoned.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +Amidst all this propaganda of the principles of Socialism the +activity of the Society in local government was in no way relaxed. +The output of tracts at this period was remarkable. In the year +1890-1, <a name='Page_107'></a>10 new tracts were published, +335,000 copies printed, and 98,349 sold or given away. In 1891-2, +20 tracts, 16 of them leaflets of 4 pages, were published, 308,300 +printed, and 378,281 distributed, most of them leaflets. This was +the maximum. Next year only 272,660 were distributed, though the +sales of penny tracts were larger. At this period the Society had a +virtual monopoly in the production of political pamphlets in which +facts and figures were marshalled in support of propositions of +reform in the direction of Socialism. Immense trouble was taken to +ensure accuracy and literary excellence. Many of the tracts were +prepared by Committees which held numerous meetings. Each of them +was criticised in proof both by the Executive and by all the +members of the Society. Every tract before publication had to be +approved at a meeting of members, when the author or authors had to +consider every criticism and justify, amend, or delete the passage +challenged.</p> + +<p>The tracts published in these years included a series of +"Questions" for candidates for Parliament and all the local +governing bodies embodying progressive programmes of administration +with possible reforms in the law—which the candidate was +requested to answer by a local elector and which were used with +much effect for some years—and a number of leaflets on +Municipal Socialism, extracted from "Facts for Londoners." In 1891 +the first edition of "What to Read: A List of Books for Social +Reformers," classified in a somewhat elaborate fashion, was +prepared by Graham Wallas, the fifth edition of which, issued as a +separate volume in 1910, is still in print. "Facts for Bristol," +drafted by the gentleman who is now Sir Hartmann Just, K.C.M.G., +C.B., was the only successful attempt out of many to apply the +method of "Facts for Londoners" to other cities.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_108'></a>It is impossible for me to estimate how +far the Progressive policy of London in the early nineties is to be +attributed to the influence of the Fabian Society. That must be +left to the judgment of those who can form an impartial opinion. +Something, however, the Society must have contributed to create +what was really a remarkable political phenomenon. London up to +1906 was Conservative in politics by an overwhelming majority. In +1892 out of 59 seats the Liberals secured 23, but in 1895 and 1900 +they obtained no more than 8 at each election. All this time the +Progressive Party in the County Council, which came into office +unexpectedly after the confused election in 1889 when the Council +was created, maintained itself in power usually by overwhelming +majorities, obtained at each succeeding triennial elections in the +same constituencies and with substantially the same electorate that +returned Conservatives to Parliament.</p> + +<p>In the early nineties the Liberal and Radical Working Men's +Clubs of London had a political importance which has since entirely +disappeared. Every Sunday for eight months in the year, and often +on weekdays, political lectures were arranged, which were +constantly given by Fabians. For instance, in October, 1891, I find +recorded in advance twelve courses of two to five lectures each, +nine of them at Clubs, and fifteen separate lectures at Clubs, all +given by members of the Society. In October, 1892, eleven courses +and a dozen separate lectures by our members at Clubs are notified. +These were all, or nearly all, arranged by the Fabian office, and +it is needless to say that a number of others were not so arranged +or were not booked four or five weeks in advance. Our list of over +a hundred lecturers, with their subjects and private addresses, was +circulated in all directions and was constantly used by the Clubs, +as well <a name='Page_109'></a>as by all sorts of other societies +which required speakers.</p> + +<p>Moreover, in addition to "Facts for Londoners," Sidney Webb +published in 1891 in Sonnenschein's "Social Science Series" a +volume entitled "The London Programme," which set out his policy, +and that of the Society, on all the affairs of the metropolis. The +Society had at this time much influence through the press. "The +London Programme" had appeared as a series of articles in the +Liberal weekly "The Speaker." The "Star," founded in 1888, was +promptly "collared," according to Bernard Shaw,<a name= +'FNanchor_27' href='#Footnote_27'>[27]</a> who was its musical +critic, and who wrote in it, so it was said, on every subject under +the sun except music! Mr. H.W. Massingham, assistant editor of the +"Star," was elected to the Society and its Executive simultaneously +in March, 1891, and in 1892 he became assistant editor of the +"Daily Chronicle," under a sympathetic chief, Mr. A.E. +Fletcher.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Besant and the Rev. Stewart Headlam had been elected to the +London School Board in 1888, and had there assisted a Trade Union +representative in getting adopted the first Fair Wages Clause in +Contracts. But in the first London County Council the Society, then +a tiny body, was not represented.</p> + +<p>At the second election in 1892 six of its members were elected +to the Council and another was appointed an alderman. Six of these +were members best known to the public as Trade Unionists or in +other organisations, but Sidney Webb, who headed the poll at +Deptford with 4088 votes, whilst his Progressive colleague received +2503, and four other candidates only 5583 votes between them, was a +Fabian and nothing else. He had necessarily to resign his +appointment in the Colonial Office, and thenceforth was able <a +name='Page_110'></a>to devote all his time to politics and literary +work. Webb was at once elected chairman of the Technical Education +Board, which up to 1904 had the management of all the education in +the county, other than elementary, which came under public control. +The saying is attributed to him that according to the Act of +Parliament Technical Education could be defined as any education +above elementary except Greek and Theology, and the Board under his +chairmanship—he was chairman for eight years—did much +to bring secondary and university education within the reach of the +working people of London. From 1892 onwards there was always a +group of Fabians on the London County Council, working in close +alliance with the "Labour Bench," the Trade Unionists who then +formed a group of the Progressive Party under the leadership of +John Burns. Under this silent but effective influence the policy of +the Progressives was largely identical with the immediate municipal +policy of the Society itself, and the members of the Society took a +keen and continuous interest in the triennial elections and the +work of the Council.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +All this concern in local administration did not interfere with the +interest taken by the Society in parliamentary politics, and one +illustration of this may be mentioned. The Liberal Party has a +traditional feud with Landlordism, and at this period its favourite +panacea was Leasehold Enfranchisement, that is, the enactment of a +law empowering leaseholders of houses built on land let for +ninety-nine years, the common practice in London, to purchase the +freehold at a valuation. Many Conservatives had come round to the +view that the breaking up of large town estates and the creation of +numerous freeholders, would <a name='Page_111'></a>strengthen the +forces upholding the rights of property, and there was every +prospect that the Bill would be passed. A few hours before the +debate on April 29th, 1891, a leaflet (Tract No. 22) was published +explaining the futility of the proposal from the Fabian standpoint, +and a copy was sent to every member of Parliament. To the +astonishment of the Liberal leaders a group of Radicals, including +the present Lord Haldane and Sir Edward Grey, opposed the Bill, and +it was defeated by the narrow majority of 13 in a house numbering +354. A few years later the proposal was dropped out of the Liberal +programme, and the Leasehold Enfranchisement Association itself +adopted a new name and a revised policy.</p> + +<p>But the main object of the Fabians was to force on the Liberal +Party a programme of constructive social reform. With few +exceptions their members belonged or had belonged to that party, +and it was not difficult, now that London had learned the value of +the Progressive policy, to get resolutions accepted by Liberal +Associations demanding the adoption of a programme. Sidney Webb in +1888 printed privately a paper entitled "Wanted a Programme: An +Appeal to the Liberal Party," and sent it out widely amongst the +Liberal leaders. The "Star" and the "Daily Chronicle" took care to +publish these resolutions, and everything was done, which skilful +agitators knew, to make a popular demand for a social reform +programme. We did what all active politicians in a democratic +country must do; we decided what the people ought to want, and +endeavoured to do two things, which after all are much the same +thing, to make the people want it, and to make it appear that they +wanted it. The result—how largely attributable to our efforts +can hardly now be estimated—was the Newcastle Program, +reluctantly blessed by <a name='Page_112'></a>Mr. Gladstone and +adopted by the National Liberal Federation in 1891.<a name= +'FNanchor_28' href='#Footnote_28'>[28]</a></p> + +<p>The General Election of 1892 was anticipated with vivid +interest. Since the election of 1886 English Socialism had come +into being and Trade Unionism had been transformed by the rise of +the Dockers, and the other "new" unions of unskilled labour. But a +Labour Party was still in the future, and our Election Manifesto +(Tract 40), issued in June, bluntly tells the working classes that +until they form a party of their own they will have to choose +between the parties belonging to the other classes. The Manifesto, +written by Bernard Shaw, is a brilliant essay on labour in <a name= +'Page_113'></a>politics and a criticism of both the existing +parties; it assures the working classes that they could create +their own party if they cared as much about politics as they cared +for horse-racing (football was not in those days the typical +sport); and it concludes by advising them to vote for the better, +or against the worse, man, on the ground that progress was made by +steps, a step forward was better than a step backward, and the only +thing certain is the defeat of a party which sulks and does not +vote at all. The Manifesto was widely circulated by the then +vigorous local societies, and no doubt had some effect, though the +intensity of the antipathy to Liberal Unionism on the one side and +to Home Rule on the other left little chance for other +considerations.</p> + +<p>Six members of the Society were candidates, but none of them +belonged to the group which had made its policy and conducted its +campaign. In one case, Ben Tillett at West Bradford, the Society +took an active part in the election, sending speakers and +collecting £152 for the Returning Officer's expenses. Of the +six, J. Keir Hardie at West Ham alone was successful, but Tillett +did well at West Bradford, polling 2,749, only a few hundred votes +below the other two candidates, and preparing the field for the +harvest which F.W. Jowett reaped in 1906.</p> + +<p>The result of the election, which took place in July, was +regarded as a justification for the Fabian policy of social +advance. In London, where Liberalism was strongly tainted with it, +the result was "as in 1885," the year of Liberal victory, and the +only Liberal seat lost was that of the President of the Leasehold +Enfranchisement Association! In the industrial cities, and in +Scotland, where Liberalism was still individualist, the result was +rather as in 1886, when Liberalism lost. In London also "by far the +largest majorities were <a name='Page_114'></a>secured by Mr. John +Burns and Mr. Keir Hardie, who stood as avowed Socialists, and by +Mr. Sydney Buxton, whose views are really scarcely less advanced +than theirs."<a name='FNanchor_29' href='#Footnote_29'>[29]</a></p> + +<p>I have pointed out that Fabian policy began with State +Socialism, and in quite early days added to it Municipal Socialism; +but in 1888 the authors of "Fabian Essays" appeared to be +unconscious of Trade Unionism and hostile to the Co-operative +movement. The Dock Strike of 1889 and the lecturing in London clubs +and to the artisans of the north pointed the way to a new +development. Moreover, in the summer of 1892 Sidney Webb had +married Miss Beatrice Potter, author of an epoch-making little +book, "The Co-operative Movement," and together they were at work +on their famous "History of Trade Unionism."</p> + +<p>The "Questions" for local governing bodies issued in 1892 were +full of such matters as fair wages, shorter hours, and proper +conditions for labour, and it was speedily discovered that this +line of advance was the best suited to Fabian tactics because it +was a series of skirmishes all over the country, in which scores +and hundreds could take part. Each locality had then or soon +afterwards three or four elected local councils, and hardly any +Fabian from one end of the country to the other would be unable in +one way or another to strike a blow or lift a finger for the +improvement of the conditions of publicly employed labour.</p> + +<p>But the Government of Mr. Gladstone had not been in office for +much more than a year before a much more ambitious enterprise on +this line was undertaken. In March, 1893, Sir Henry (then Mr.) +Campbell-Bannerman had pledged the Government to "show themselves +to be the best employers of labour in the <a name= +'Page_115'></a>country": "we have ceased," he said, "to believe in +what are known as competition or starvation wages." That was a +satisfactory promise, but enunciating a principle is one thing and +carrying it into effect in scores of departments is another. Mr. +Gladstone, of course, was interested only in Home Rule. Permanent +officials doubtless obstructed, as they usually do: and but a few +members of the Cabinet accepted or understood the new obligation. +The Fabian Society knew the Government departments from the inside, +and it was easy for the Executive to ascertain how labour was +treated under each chief, what he had done and what he had left +undone. At that time legislative reforms were difficult because the +Government majority was both small and uncertain, whilst the whole +time of Parliament was occupied by the necessary but futile +struggle to pass a Home Rule Bill for the Lords to destroy. But +administrative reforms were subject to no such limitations: wages +and conditions of labour were determined by the department +concerned, and each minister could do what he chose for the workmen +virtually in his employment, except perhaps in the few cases, such +as the Post Office, where the sums involved were very large, when +the Chancellor of the Exchequer had the same opportunity.</p> + +<p>Bernard Shaw and Sidney Webb then decided that the time had come +to make an attack on old-fashioned Liberalism on these lines. The +"Fortnightly Review" accepted their paper, the Society gave the +necessary sanction, and in November the article entitled "To Your +Tents, O Israel" appeared. Each of the great departments of the +State was examined in detail, and for each was stated precisely +what should be done to carry out the promise that the Government +would be "in the first flight of employers," and what in fact had +been done, which indeed, with rare exceptions, <a name= +'Page_116'></a>was nothing. The "Parish Councils Act" and Sir +William Harcourt's great Budget of 1894 were still in the future, +and so far there was little to show as results from the Liberal +victory of the previous year. The case against the Government from +the Labour standpoint was therefore unrelieved black, and the +Society, in whose name the Manifesto appeared, called on the +working classes to abandon Liberalism, to form a Trade Union party +of their own, to raise £30,000 and to finance fifty +candidates for Parliament. It is a curious coincidence that +thirteen years later, in 1906, the Party formed, as the Manifesto +demanded, by the big Trade Unions actually financed precisely fifty +candidates and succeeded in electing thirty of them.</p> + +<p>The Manifesto led to the resignation of a few distinguished +members, including Professor D.G. Ritchie, Mrs. Bateson, widow of +the Master of St. John's College, Cambridge, and more important +than all the rest, Mr. H.W. Massingham. He was on the Continent +when the Manifesto was in preparation; otherwise perhaps he might +have come to accept it: for his reply, which was published in the +same magazine a month later, was little more than a restatement of +the case. "The only sound interpretation of a model employer," he +said, "is a man who pays trade union rates of wages, observes trade +union limit of hours, and deals with 'fair' as opposed to 'unfair' +houses. Apply all these tests and the Government unquestionably +breaks down on every one of them." If this was all that an +apologist for the Government could say, no wonder that the attack +went home. The opponents of Home Rule were of course delighted to +find another weak spot in their adversary's defences; and the +episode was not soon forgotten.</p> + +<p>In January the article was reprinted with much <a name= +'Page_117'></a>additional matter drafted by Bernard Shaw. He showed +in considerable detail how a Labour Party ought to be formed, and +how, in fact, it was formed seven years later. With our numerous +and still flourishing local societies, and the newly formed I.L.P., +a large circulation for the tract was easily secured. Thousands of +working-class politicians read and remembered it, and it cannot be +doubted that the "Plan of Campaign for Labour," as it was called, +did much to prepare the ground for the Labour Party which was +founded so easily and flourished so vigorously in the first years +of the twentieth century.</p> + +<p>At this point the policy of simple permeation of the Liberal +Party may be said to have come to an end. The "Daily Chronicle," +under the influence of Mr. Massingham, became bitterly hostile to +the Fabians. They could no longer plausibly pretend that they +looked for the realisation of their immediate aims through +Liberalism. They still permeated, of course, since they made no +attempt to form a party of their own, and they believed that only +through existing organisations, Trade Unions on one side, the +political parties on the other, could sufficient force be obtained +to make progress within a reasonable time. In one respect it must +be confessed we shared an almost universal delusion. When the +Liberal Party was crushed at the election of 1895 we thought that +its end had come in England as it has in other countries. +Conservatism is intelligible: Socialism we regarded as entirely +reasonable. Between the two there seemed to be no logical resting +place. We had discovered long ago that the working classes were not +going to rush into Socialism, but they appeared to be and were in +fact growing up to it. The Liberalism of the decade 1895-1905 had +measures in its programme, such as Irish Home Rule, but it had no +policy, and it seemed <a name='Page_118'></a>incredible then, as it +seems astonishing now, that a party with so little to offer could +sweep the country, as it was swept by the Liberals in 1906. But +nobody could have foreseen Mr. Lloyd George, and although the +victory of 1906 was not due to his leadership, no one can doubt +that it is his vigorous initiative in the direction of Socialism +which secured for his party the renewed confidence of the +country.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +Twelve years later another attempt to get administrative reform +from the Liberal Party was made on somewhat similar lines. The +party had taken office in December, 1905, and in the interval +before the General Election of 1906 gave them their unprecedented +majority, "An Intercepted Letter," adopted at a members' meeting in +December, was published in the "National Review" for January. It +purported to be a circular letter addressed by the Prime Minister +to his newly appointed colleagues, giving each of them in turn +advice how to run his department. In this case there was no +necessity to suggest administrative reforms only. The Liberals were +certain of a majority, and they had no programme: they were bound +to win, not on their merits, but on the defects of their opponents. +The Letter, written by Webb in a rollicking style, to which he +rarely condescends, touched on each of the great departments of +Government, and advocated both the old policy of Trade Union hours +and wages, for which the new Prime Minister had made himself in +1893 personally responsible, but also all sorts of progressive +measures, graduated and differentiated income-tax for the Treasury, +Compulsory Arbitration in Labour Disputes for the Home +Office—we discovered the flaw in that project +later—reform of Grants in Aid for the Local Government Board, +<a name='Page_119'></a>Wages Boards for Agriculture, and so on. A +few weeks later the country had the General Election to think +about, and the Letter was merely reprinted for private circulation +amongst the members of the Society. But we took care that the new +Ministers read it, and it served to remind them of the demands +which, after the election, the Labour Party, at last in being, +would not let them again forget.</p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_26' href='#FNanchor_26'>[26]</a> Bernard Shaw +has sent me the following note on this paragraph:—</p> + +<p>One London group incident should be immortalized. It was in the +W.C. group, which met in Gt. Ormond St. It consisted of two or +three members who used to discuss bi-metallism. I was a member +geographically, but never attended. One day I saw on the notice of +meetings which I received an announcement that Samuel Butler would +address the group on the authorship of the Odyssey. Knowing that +the group would have no notion of how great a man they were +entertaining, I dashed down to the meeting; took the chair; gave +the audience (about five strong including Butler and myself) to +understand that the occasion was a great one; and when we had +listened gravely to Samuel's demonstration that the Odyssey was +written by Nausicaa, carried a general expression of enthusiastic +agreement with Butler, who thanked us with old-fashioned gravity +and withdrew without giving a sign of his feelings at finding so +small a meeting of the famous Fabian Society. Considering how +extraordinary a man Butler is now seen to have been, there is +something tragic in the fact that the greatest genius among the +long list of respectable dullards who have addressed us, never got +beyond this absurd little group.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_27' href='#FNanchor_27'>[27]</a> Tract 41. +"The Fabian Society," p. 18.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_28' href='#FNanchor_28'>[28]</a> Bernard Shaw +has sent me the following note on this point:—</p> + +<p>The exact facts of the launching of the Newcastle Program are +these. Webb gave me the Program in his own handwriting as a string +of resolutions. I, being then a permeative Fabian on the executive +of the South St. Pancras Liberal and Radical Association (I had +coolly walked in and demanded to be elected to the Association and +Executive, which was done on the spot by the astonished +Association—ten strong or thereabouts) took them down to a +meeting in Percy Hall, Percy Street, Tottenham Court Road, where +the late Mr. Beale, then Liberal candidate and subscription milch +cow of the constituency (without the ghost of a chance), was to +address as many of the ten as might turn up under the impression +that he was addressing a public meeting. There were certainly not +20 present, perhaps not 10. I asked him to move the resolutions. He +said they looked complicated, and that if I would move them he +would second them. I moved them, turning over Webb's pages by +batches and not reading most of them. Mr. Beale seconded. Passed +unanimously. That night they went down to The Star with a report of +an admirable speech which Mr. Beale was supposed to have delivered. +Next day he found the National Liberal Club in an uproar at his +revolutionary break-away. But he played up; buttoned his coat +determinedly; said we lived in progressive times and must move with +them; and carried it off. Then he took the report of his speech to +the United States and delivered several addresses founded on it +with great success. He died shortly after his last inevitable +defeat. He was an amiable and worthy man; and the devotion with +which he fought so many forlorn hopes for his party should have +earned him a safe seat. But that debt was never paid or even +acknowledged; and he felt the ingratitude very keenly.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_29' href='#FNanchor_29'>[29]</a> "Fabian +News," August, 1892.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p class="center"><a name='image07'></a><img src= +"images/image07.png" style="width: 300px; height: 464px; border: 0" +alt= +"From a photograph by Emery Walker G. BERNARD SHAW, IN 1889" /></p> + +<p class="center"><i>From a photograph by Emery Walker</i></p> + +<p class="center">G. BERNARD SHAW, IN 1889</p> + +<h3><a name='Page_120'></a><a name='Chapter_VII'>Chapter +VII</a></h3> + +<h2>"Fabianism and the Empire": 1900-1</h2> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>The Library and Book Boxes—Parish Councils—The +Workmen's Compensation Act—The Hutchinson Trust—The +London School of Economics—Educational +Lectures—Electoral Policy—The controversy over the +South African War—The publication of "Fabianism and the +Empire."</p> +</div> + +<p>The next few years were devoted to quieter work than that of the +period described in the previous chapter. The Conservative Party +was in power, Liberalism, which had lost its great leader, and a +year or two later lost also his successor, Lord Rosebery, was in so +hopeless a minority that its return to power in the near future +seemed to be and was impossible. It had been easy to permeate the +Liberals, because most of our members were or had been connected +with their party. It was impossible to permeate Conservatism on +similar lines, both because we were not in touch with their +organisation and because Conservatives in general regarded our +proposals with complete aversion. It was a time, therefore, for +educational rather than political activity, and to this the Society +devoted the greater part of its energies. Its work in this field +took various forms, some of which may be briefly described.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +We had started a lending library in boxes for our local societies, +and as these died away we offered the <a name='Page_121'></a>use of +it to working-class organisations, and indeed to any organisation +of readers or students. Books were purchased from special funds, a +collection of some 5000 volumes was ultimately formed, and for the +last twenty years the Society has kept in circulation anything up +to 200 boxes of books on Socialism, economics, history and social +problems, which are lent for ten shillings a year to Co-operative +Societies, Trade Unions, Socialist Societies, and miscellaneous +organisations. The books are intended to be educational rather than +directly propagandist, and each box is made up to suit the taste, +expressed or inferred, of the subscriber. Quarterly exchanges are +allowed, but the twenty or thirty books in a box usually last a +society for a year. It is a remarkable fact that although boxes are +lent freely to such slight organisations as reading classes, and +are sent even to remote mining villages in Wales or Scotland, not a +single box has ever been lost. Delays are frequent: books of course +are often missing, but sooner or later every box sent out has been +returned to the Society.</p> + +<p>Another method of securing the circulation of good books on +social subjects has been frequently used. We prepare a list of +recent and important publications treating of social problems and +request each member to report how many of them are in the Public +Library of his district, and further to apply for the purchase of +such as are absent.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +The Local Government Act of 1894, commonly called the Parish +Councils Act, which constituted out of chaos a system of local +government for rural England, gave the Society an opportunity for +practising that part of its policy which includes the making the +best use of all forms of existing legislation. Mr. Herbert <a name= +'Page_122'></a>Samuel was at that time a friend, though he was +never a member, of the Society, and the first step in his +successful political career was his candidature for the typically +rural Southern Division of Oxfordshire. He was good enough to +prepare for us not only an admirable explanation of the Act, but +also Questions for Parish Councillors, for Rural District +Councillors, and for Urban District Councillors. Probably this was +the first time that an analysis of a new Act of Parliament had been +published at a penny. Anyway the demand for it was considerable, +and over 30,000 copies were sold in five months. Then it was +revised, with the omission of temporary matter, and republished as +"Parish and District Councils: What they are and what they can do," +and in this form has gone through many editions, and is still in +print. The tract states that the secretary of the Society will give +advice on any obscure point in the law, and in this way the Society +has become an Information Bureau; hardly a week passed for many +years after the autumn of 1895 without a letter from some village +or small town asking questions as to housing, common rights, +charities, the duties of chairmen of councils, the qualifications +of candidates, and so on.</p> + +<p>Similar tracts were published describing the powers and duties +of the London County Council, the London Vestries, and the +Metropolitan Borough Councils, established in 1899, while one +giving the powers of various local authorities for housing (No. 76, +"Houses for the People") has gone through many editions and still +has a steady sale.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +The Workmen's Compensation Act, 1897, afforded another opportunity +for this sort of work. Our penny tract (No. 82) describing the +rights of the workmen <a name='Page_123'></a>under the Act was +reprinted thirteen times in eight months, and over 120,000 were +sold in the first year of publication. This tract offered free +advice to every purchaser, and the result has been an enormous +amount of correspondence which during seventeen years has never +entirely ceased. This work of providing expert advice on minor +legal matters has been a quiet service to the community constantly +rendered by the Society. The barristers amongst our members have +freely given assistance in the more difficult matters. Occasionally +the solicitors amongst us have taken up cases where the plaintiff +was specially helpless.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +In 1894, Henry Hutchinson, who had provided the funds for much of +our country lecturing, died, and to our complete surprise it was +found that he had appointed Sidney Webb, whom he hardly knew +personally, his executor, and had left the residue of his estate, +between £9000 and £10,000, to five +trustees—Sidney Webb, his daughter, myself, William Clarke, +and W.S. De Mattos—with directions that the whole sum be +expended within ten years. The two last named took but little part +in administering the trust, and Miss Hutchinson died only fifteen +months later, also leaving to her colleagues the residue of her +estate, something under £1000, for similar purposes. The +trustees—Mrs. Bernard Shaw, Hubert Bland, and Frederick +Whelen were appointed at later dates—resolved that the money +in their charge should be used exclusively for special work, as +otherwise the effect would be merely to relieve the members of +their obligation to pay for the maintenance of their Society. They +decided to devote part of the funds to initiating the London School +of Economics and Political Science, because they considered that a +thorough knowledge <a name='Page_124'></a>of these sciences was a +necessity for people concerned in social reconstruction, if that +reconstruction was to be carried out with prudence and wisdom: and +in particular it was essential that all classes of public officials +should have the opportunity of learning whatever can be known of +economics and politics taught on modern lines. Our old Universities +provided lectures on political science as it was understood by +Plato and Aristotle, by Hobbes and Bentham: they did not +then—and indeed they do not now—teach how New Zealand +deals with strikes, how America legislates about trusts, how +municipalities all over the world organise tramways.</p> + +<p>The trustees, as I have said, originated the London School of +Economics, but from the first they associated others with +themselves in its management, and they made no attempt to retain +any special share in its control. Their object was to get taught +the best science that could be obtained, confident that if their +own political theories were right, science would confirm them, and +if they were wrong, it was better that they should be discredited. +The London School of Economics, though thus founded, has never had +any direct or organic connection with the Fabian Society, and +therefore any further account of its successful career would be out +of place in this volume. But it may be said that it has certainly +more than justified the hopes of its founders, or rather, to be +accurate, I should say, founder, since the other trustees were +wholly guided by the initiative of Sidney Webb.</p> + +<p>Besides the School, and the Library connected with it, the Trust +promoted for many years regular courses of Fabian educational +lectures on social and political subjects, such as Socialism, Trade +Unionism, Co-operation, Poor Law, Economics, and Economic <a name= +'Page_125'></a>History. Lecturers were selected with care, and were +in some cases given a maintenance allowance during the preparation +of their lectures. Then arrangements were made for courses of four +lectures each, on what may be called University Extension lines, in +four or five centres in one part of the country. For example, in +the year 1896-7 180 lectures were given in fifty towns, half of +them under the auspices of branches of the I.L.P., and the rest +organised by Co-operative Societies, Liberal Associations, Trade +Unions, and other bodies. Very careful syllabuses were prepared and +widely circulated, and the whole scheme was intended to be +educational rather than directly propagandist. The first lecturers +engaged were J. Ramsay Macdonald and Miss Enid Stacy, whose +premature death, a few years after her marriage to the Rev. Percy +Widdrington, was a great loss to the movement. This lecturing was +maintained for many years. In 1900, shortly after the creation +there of County and District Councils, we experimented upon +Ireland, where J. Bruce Glasier and S.D. Shallard gave a number of +courses of lectures, without any very obvious results. In 1902 W. +Stephen Sanders took over the work, but the fund was coming to an +end, and after 1904 subsidised lecturing virtually ceased.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +In order to help working-class students who had the desire to study +more continuously than by attendance at lectures, correspondence +classes were started in the same class of subject as the lectures. +A textbook was selected and divided into sections, to each of which +an introduction was written, concluding with questions. Written +answers were sent in and corrected by the conductor of the class. +This went on regularly <a name='Page_126'></a>until 1900, when +Ruskin College, Oxford, organised similar classes on a larger +scale, and our services were no longer required.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +In August, 1896, the triennial International Socialist Workers and +Trade Union Congress was held in London, at which the Society was +represented by a numerous delegation. The chief business proved to +be the expulsion of the Anarchists, who at this period attended +these conferences and had to be got rid of before the appointed +business could be carried on. The Society prepared an important +"Report" for circulation at the Congress, one part of it advocating +various reforms, no longer of any special interest, and the other +part consisting of a summary of the principles and policy of the +Society, drafted by Bernard Shaw in a series of epigrammatic +paragraphs. This document, still circulated as Tract 70, is +interesting both as a brief and vivid exposition of Fabianism and +because it gave rise to another of the long series of fights on the +policy of political toleration. The passage chiefly objected to, +written, of course, for foreigners, and therefore more detailed +than otherwise would be necessary, is as follows:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<h4><br /> +"FABIAN ELECTORAL TACTICS.</h4> + +<p>"The Fabian Society does not claim to be the people of England, +or even the Socialist party, and therefore does not seek direct +political representation by putting forward Fabian candidates at +elections. But it loses no opportunity of influencing elections, +and inducing constituencies to select Socialists as their +candidates. No person, however, can obtain the support of the +Fabian Society or escape its opposition, merely by calling himself +a Socialist or Social-Democrat. As there is no Second Ballot in +England, frivolous candidatures give great offence and discredit +the party in whose name they <a name='Page_127'></a>are undertaken, +because any third candidate who is not well supported will not only +be beaten himself but may also involve in his defeat the better of +the two candidates competing with him. Under such circumstances the +Fabian Society throws its weight against the third candidate, +whether he calls himself a Socialist or not, in order to secure the +victory to the better of the two candidates between whom the +contest really lies. But when the third candidate is not only a +serious representative of Socialism, but can organise his party +well and is likely to poll sufficient votes to make even his defeat +a respectable demonstration of the strength and growth of Socialism +in the constituency, the Fabian Society supports him resolutely +under all circumstances and against all other parties."</p> +</div> + +<p><br /> +This was an extreme statement of our position, because the Society +has never, so far as I am aware, taken any action which could be +described as "throwing its weight against" a third candidate in a +parliamentary election. But it represented our policy as it might +have been, if occasion had arisen to carry it to its logical +conclusion.</p> + +<p>It was opposed, not because it was an inaccurate statement of +fact, but because a minority of the Society desired to change the +policy it described; and after the Congress was over an influential +requisition was got up by J. Ramsay Macdonald, who had been elected +to the Executive Committee in 1894, demanding that the tract be +withdrawn from circulation. The battle was joined at Clifford's Inn +in October, and the insurgents were defeated, after an exciting +discussion, by 108 to 33.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +There is little to record of the years that followed. Graham +Wallas, who had been elected to the London School Board in 1894, +resigned his seat on the Executive in 1895; Bernard Shaw became a +St. Pancras Vestryman without a contest in 1897, an event rather <a +name='Page_128'></a>of literary<a name='FNanchor_30' href= +'#Footnote_30'>[30]</a> than political significance, and in 1898 he +had a serious illness which kept him out of the movement for nearly +two years; whilst at the end of 1899 Sydney Olivier was appointed +Colonial Secretary of Jamaica, and spent most of the next fourteen +years in the West Indies, latterly as Governor of Jamaica, until +1913, when he was recalled to London to be the Secretary of the +Board of Agriculture.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +External events put an end to this period of quiescence, and the +Society, which was often derisively regarded as expert in the +politics of the parish pump, an exponent of "gas and water +Socialism," was forced to consider its attitude towards the +problems of Imperialism.</p> + +<p>War was declared by President Kruger for the South African +Republic on October 11th, 1899. Up to this point the whole of the +Society, with very few exceptions, had scouted the idea of war. +"The grievances alleged, though some of them were real enough, were +ludicrously unimportant in comparison with our cognate home +grievances. Nobody in his senses would have contemplated a war on +their account,"<a name='FNanchor_31' href='#Footnote_31'>[31]</a> +But when war had come the situation was entirely altered. The +majority of the Society recognised that the British Empire had to +win the war, and that no other conclusion to it was possible. Some +of us had joined in the protest against the threat of <a name= +'Page_129'></a>war: but when that protest was fruitless we declined +to contest the inevitable. A large section of the Liberal Party and +nearly all other Socialists took another view. They appeared to +believe, and some of them even hoped, that the Boers might be +successful and the British army be driven to the sea. The I.L.P. +regarded the war as a typical case of the then accepted theory of +Socialism that war is always instigated by capitalists for the +purpose of obtaining profits. They opposed every step in the +prosecution of the campaign, and criticised every action of the +British authorities.</p> + +<p>In this matter the left and right wings of the Fabians joined +hands in opposition to the centre. Members who came into the +movement when Marxism was supreme, like Walter Crane, those who +worked largely with the I.L.P., such as J. Ramsay Macdonald, S.G. +Hobson, and G.N. Barnes (later M.P. and Chairman of the Labour +Party), were joined by others who were then associated with the +Liberals, such as Dr. F. Lawson Dodd, Will Crooks (later Labour +M.P.), Clement Edwards (later Liberal M.P.), and Dr. John Clifford. +On the other side were the older leaders of the Society, who took +the view that the members had come together for the purpose of +promoting Socialism, that the question at issue was one "which +Socialism cannot solve and does not touch,"<a name='FNanchor_32' +href='#Footnote_32'>[32]</a> and that whilst each member was +entitled to hold and work for his own opinion, it was not necessary +for the Society in its corporate capacity to adopt a formal policy +with the result of excluding the large minority which would have +objected to whatever decision was arrived at.</p> + +<p>The first round in the contest was at a business meeting on +October 13th, 1899, when on the advice <a name='Page_130'></a>of +the Executive the members present rejected a motion of urgency for +the discussion of a resolution expressing sympathy with the +Boers.</p> + +<p>It was however agreed that the matter could not end thus, and a +members' meeting was fixed for December 8th, at Clifford's Inn +Hall, when S.G. Hobson moved a long resolution declaring it +essential that the attitude of the Society in regard to the war +should be clearly asserted, and concluding: "The Fabian Society +therefore formally dissociates itself from the Imperialism of +Capitalism and vainglorious Nationalism and pledges itself to +support the expansion of the Empire only in so far as it may be +compatible with the expansion of that higher social organisation +which this Society was founded to promote."</p> + +<p>Bernard Shaw, on behalf of the Executive Committee, moved a long +reasoned amendment declaring that a parliamentary vote was not +worth fighting about, demanding that at the conclusion of the war +measures be taken for securing the value of the Transvaal mines for +the public, and that the interests of the miners be safeguarded. +The amendment was barely relevant to the issue, and notwithstanding +influential support it was defeated by 58 to 27. Thereupon the +"previous question" was moved and carried by 59 to 50. This +inconclusive result revealed a great diversity of opinion in the +Society, and the Executive Committee, for the first and, so far, +the only time, availed itself of the rule which authorised it to +submit any question to a postal referendum of all the members.</p> + +<p>The question submitted in February, 1900, was this: "Are you in +favour of an official pronouncement being made now by the Fabian +Society on Imperialism in relation to the War?" and on the paper +published in the "News" were printed four reasons on one side <a +name='Page_131'></a>and five on the other, drafted by those members +of the Executive who advocated each policy. On the one hand it was +argued that the Society should resist aggressive capitalism and +militarism, thus putting itself into line with international +socialism, and that expenditure on the war would postpone social +reform. On the other it was contended that the question was outside +the province of the Society, that a resolution by the Society would +carry no weight, would not stop the war, and might have a serious +effect on the solidarity of the Society itself. The vote excited +great interest: an appeal to the electorate to vote Yes, worded +with much moderation, was issued by Walter Crane, S.G. Hobson, +Charles Charrington, F. Lawson Dodd, J. Frederick Green, George N. +Barnes, Will Crooks, Henry S. Salt, Dr. John Clifford, Mrs. Mallet, +Clement Edwards, Mrs. J.R. Macdonald and others; to which a reply +was sent, signed only by members of the Executive, Bernard Shaw, +Sidney Webb, Hubert Bland, J.F. Oakeshott, H.W. Macrosty and one or +two others. Finally a rejoinder by the signatories of the first +circular was issued in the course of the poll which extended over +nearly a month. The membership at the time was about 800, of whom +50 lived abroad, and in all only 476 votes were cast, 217 in favour +of a pronouncement and 259 against.</p> + +<p>It was said at the time, and has constantly been alleged since, +that the Society had voted its approval of the South African War +and had supported imperialist aggression and anti-democratic +militarism. As will be seen from the foregoing, no such statement +is correct. A vote on the policy of the Government would have given +an overwhelming adverse majority, but it would have destroyed the +Society. In early days we had drawn a clear line between Socialism +and politics: we had put on one side such problems as Home Rule <a +name='Page_132'></a>and Church Disestablishment as of the nature of +red herrings, matters of no real importance in comparison with the +economic enfranchisement which we advocated. In the early eighties +Parliament spent futile and fruitless months discussing whether Mr. +Bradlaugh should take the oath, and whether an extension of the +franchise should or should not be accompanied by redistribution. We +wanted to make the working classes pay less attention to these +party questions and more attention to their own social conditions. +We thought, or at any rate said, that the Liberal and Conservative +leaders kept the party ball rolling in order to distract the +workers from the iniquity of the distribution of wealth. We +insisted that Socialism was an economic doctrine, and had nothing +to do with other problems. Later on we realised that the form of +government is scarcely less important than its content: that the +unit of administration, whether imperial, national, or local, is +germane to the question of the services to be administered; that if +the governmental machine is to be used for industry, that machine +must be modern and efficient: and that in fact no clear line of +distinction can be drawn between the problems of constitutional +structure which concern Socialism and those, if any, which do not +concern it. In the case of the South African war it was mainly the +instinct of self-preservation that actuated us; it is certain that +any other decision would have destroyed the Society. The passions +of that period were extraordinarily bitter. The Pro-Boers were +mobbed and howled down, their actions were misrepresented, and +their motives disparaged: they retaliated by accusing the British +troops of incredible atrocities, by rejoicing over every disaster +which befell our arms, and by prophesying all sorts of calamities +however the war ended. There was never any question of the <a name= +'Page_133'></a>Society issuing a pronouncement justifying the war. +Only a very few of our members went as far as that. But many +others, all or nearly all who were now beginning to be called the +"old gang," on whom from first to last the initiative and stability +of the Society has depended, would have declined to be associated +with what they regarded as the anti-patriotic excesses of certain +of the Liberals, and would have resigned their membership, or at +any rate their official positions in the Society, had it adopted at +that time the same policy as the I.L.P. Happily tolerance +prevailed, and although an attempt was made to get up a big +secession, only about fifteen members resigned in a group when the +result of the poll was declared. These, however, included a few +important names, J. Ramsay Macdonald and J. Frederick Green, of the +Executive Committee, George N. Barnes and Pete Curran, future +Labour Members of Parliament, Walter Crane, H.S. Salt, Mrs. J.R. +Macdonald, and Mrs. Pankhurst.</p> + +<p>At the election of the Executive Committee in April, 1900, the +Society by another vote confirmed the previous decision. All the +old members were re-elected, and those of the majority party polled +the heaviest votes. The two seats vacated by resignation were +filled by "Pro-Boers," and the only new candidate who supported the +majority was defeated. It was clear, therefore, that the voting was +not strictly on party lines—one of the opposition, Charles +Charrington, was fourth on the poll—but that the Society as a +whole approved of the non-committal policy. The Executive Committee +had been elected since 1894 by a postal ballot of the whole +Society, and on this occasion 509 members, over 62 per cent of the +whole, recorded their votes.</p> + +<p>The Executive had resolved at the beginning of the war to issue +a tract on Imperialism, and at the Annual <a name= +'Page_134'></a>Meeting in May, 1900, a resolution was passed that +it prepare for submission to the members "a constructive criticism +from the Socialist standpoint of the actions and programmes of the +various political parties."</p> + +<p>Needless to say, Bernard Shaw undertook the difficult job, for +at this period all the official pronouncements of the Executive +were drafted by him. At the beginning of September it was announced +as nearly ready, and later in the month a proof was sent to every +member for criticism, and a meeting was called for the 25th to +discuss it. This was the extreme example of the practice at that +time habitual, of inviting the co-operation of every member in our +publications. No less than 134 members returned amended proofs or +wrote letters of criticism; and it is recorded that only one of +these was opposed to the whole thing, whilst only nine preferred to +have no manifesto at all; and another nine objected to material +portions. The great majority were cordial in approval.</p> + +<p>Bernard Shaw is fond of posing as the most conceited of persons, +but those who have had to do with him in literary matters are aware +that no pose was ever more preposterous. When he has acted as the +literary expert of the Fabian Society he has considered every +criticism with unruffled courtesy, and dealt with the many fools +who always find their way into extreme parties, not according to +their folly, but with the careful consideration properly accorded +to eminent wisdom. The business of examining over a hundred marked +proofs of a document of 20,000 words, every line of which was more +or less controversial, was an immense one, but the author gave +every criticism its proper weight, and accepted every useful +amendment. Then came the meeting. It was held at Clifford's Inn, +and between 130 and 140 members were present, each of whom was +entitled to move any amendment on <a name='Page_135'></a>any of the +20,000 words, or any addition to or deletion of them. Nearly three +hours were occupied partly in discussing the controversial portion +and partly with the general question of publication. Only eighteen +voted for omitting the part about Imperialism, and the minority +against the publication numbered no more than fourteen. By this +time the controversy over the war had reached an intensity which +those who cannot recollect it will find difficult to believe, and +nobody but the author could have written an effective document on +the war so skilfully as to satisfy the great majority of the +supporters of both parties in the Society. Bernard Shaw has +accomplished many difficult feats, but none of them, in my opinion, +excels that of drafting for the Society and carrying through the +manifesto called "Fabianism and the Empire."</p> + +<p>It was published as a shilling volume by Grant Richards, and +although it was widely and favourably noticed in the Press the +sales were only moderate, just over 2000 copies to the end of the +year. Some time later the Society purchased the remainder of 1500 +copies at 1d. and since sold them at prices, rising as the stock +declined, up to five shillings a copy!</p> + +<p>The theme of the manifesto is the overriding claim of efficiency +not only in our own government, and in our empire, but throughout +the world. The earth belongs to mankind, and the only valid moral +right to national as well as individual possession is that the +occupier is making adequate use of it for the benefit of the world +community. "The problem before us is how the world can be ordered +by Great Powers of practically international extent.... The +partition of the greater part of the globe among such powers is, as +a matter of fact that must be faced approvingly or deploringly, now +only a question of time" (p. 3). "<a name='Page_136'></a>The notion +that a nation has a right to do what it pleases with its own +territory, without reference to the interests of the rest of the +world is no more tenable from the International Socialist point of +view—that is, from the point of view of the twentieth +century—than the notion that a landlord has a right to do +what he likes with his estate without reference to the interests of +his neighbours.... [In China] we are asserting and enforcing +international rights of travel and trade. But the right to trade is +a very comprehensive one: it involves a right to insist on a +settled government which can keep the peace and enforce agreements. +When a native government of this order is impossible, the foreign +trading power must set one up" (pp. 44-5). "The value of a State to +the world lies in the quality of its civilisation, not in the +magnitude of its armaments.... There is therefore no question of +the steam-rollering of little States because they are little, any +more than of their maintenance in deference to romantic +nationalism. The State which obstructs international civilisation +will have to go, be it big or little. That which advances it should +be defended by all the Western Powers. Thus huge China and little +Monaco may share the same fate, little Switzerland and the vast +United States the same fortune" (p. 46).</p> + +<p>As for South Africa, "however ignorantly [our] politicians may +argue about it, reviling one another from the one side as brigands, +and defending themselves from the other with quibbles about +waste-paper treaties and childish slanders against a brave enemy, +the fact remains that a Great Power, consciously or unconsciously, +must govern in the interests of civilisation as a whole; and it is +not to those interests that such mighty forces as gold-fields, and +the formidable armaments that can be built upon them, should be <a +name='Page_137'></a>wielded irresponsibly by small communities of +frontiersmen. Theoretically they should be internationalised, not +British-Imperialised; but until the Federation of the World becomes +an accomplished fact we must accept the most responsible Imperial +federations available as a substitute for it" (pp. 23-4).</p> + +<p>As however the Manifesto was designed for the general election, +this theme was only sketched, and the greater part was occupied +with matters of a more immediately practicable character. The +proposed partition of China at that time seemed imminent, and our +attention had been called to the efficiency of the German State +organisation of foreign trade in comparison with the +<i>laissez-faire</i> policy which dominated our Foreign Office. We +regarded our overseas trade as a national asset, and urged that the +consular service should be revolutionised. "Any person who thinks +this application of Socialism to foreign trade through the consular +system impossible also thinks the survival of his country in the +age of the Powers impossible. No German thinks it impossible. If he +has not already achieved it, he intends to" (pp. 10, 11). We must +"have in every foreign market an organ of commercially +disinterested industrial intelligence. A developed consulate would +be such an organ." "The consulate could itself act as broker, if +necessary, and have a revenue from commissions, of which, however, +the salaries of its officials should be strictly independent" (pp. +10 and 8).</p> + +<p>The present army should be replaced "by giving to the whole male +population an effective training in the use of arms without +removing them from civil life. This can be done without +conscription or barrack life" by extending the half-time system to +the age of 21 and training the young men in the other half. From +the millions of men thus trained "we could obtain by <a name= +'Page_138'></a>voluntary enlistment a picked professional force of +engineers, artillery, and cavalry, and as large a garrison for +outlying provinces as we chose to pay for, if we made it attractive +by the following reforms": full civil rights, a living wage, +adequate superannuation after long service, and salaries for +officers on the civil scale. The other reforms advocated included a +minimum wage for labour, grants in aid for housing, freedom for +municipal trading, municipal public-houses, and reorganisation of +the machinery of education, as explained later. "The moral of it +all is that what the British Empire wants most urgently in its +government is not Conservatism, not Liberalism, not Imperialism, +but brains and political science" (p. 93).</p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_30' href='#FNanchor_30'>[30]</a> Shaw has +"vehemently protested" against this phrase, saying that he "put in +six years of hard committee work to the astonishment of the +vestrymen who had not expected (him) to be a man of business and a +sticker at it." But I am still of opinion that the secondary +effects of those six years on his knowledge of affairs and the +lessons he has drawn from them in his writings and speeches have +been of greater value to his innumerable readers and hearers than +was his administrative diligence to the Parish of St. Pancras.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_31' href='#FNanchor_31'>[31]</a> "Fabianism +and the Empire," p. 26.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_32' href='#FNanchor_32'>[32]</a> "The Fabian +Society and the War: reply by the majority of the Executive +Committee to the recent circular." (Circular on the referendum +mentioned later.)</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p class="center"><a name='image08'></a><img src= +"images/image08.png" style="width: 300px; height: 447px; border: 0" alt= +"GRAHAM WALLAS, IN 1891" /></p> + +<p class="center">GRAHAM WALLAS, IN 1891</p> + +<h3><a name='Page_139'></a><a name='Chapter_VIII'>Chapter +VII</a>I</h3> + +<h2>Education: 1902-5, and the Labour Party: 1900-15</h2> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>Housing—"The Education muddle and the way +out"—Supporting the Conservatives—The Education Acts of +1902 and 1903—Feeding School Children—The Labour +Representation Committee formed—The Fabian Election +Fund—Will Crooks elected in 1910—A Fabian Cabinet +Minister—Resignation of Graham Wallas—The younger +generation: H.W. Macrosty, J.F. Oakeshott, John W. +Martin—Municipal Drink Trade—Tariff Reform—The +Decline of the Birth-rate.</p> +</div> + +<p>The controversy described in the preceding chapter was not the +only business that occupied the Society at the period of the South +African War.</p> + +<p>Amongst minor affairs was a change of premises. The office first +taken, in 1891, was at 276 Strand, in the island at that time +formed by Holywell Street which ran between the churches of St. +Clement Danes and St. Martin's in the Fields. At the end of 1899 +the London County Council acquired the property for the Kingsway +and Aldwych clearance scheme, and we found new quarters in a +basement at Clement's Inn, a pleasant couple of rooms, with plenty +of light, though sometimes maliciously misdescribed as a cellar. At +the end of 1908 we removed into three much more spacious rooms at +the same address, also in "a dismal basement," where we remained +until in 1914 the Society rented a house at 25 Tothill Street, +Westminster.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_140'></a>Another undertaking was a conference on +Housing. Although the first public effort of the Society was its +conference at South Place Chapel in 1886, this particular form of +propaganda has never commended itself to the Executive, chiefly no +doubt because conferences, to which numerous representative persons +are invited, are most useful for promoting moderate reforms which +have already made themselves acceptable to the members and +officials of local governing bodies. Such reforms the Fabian +Society does not regard as its special business; it prefers to +pioneer; it is true that it uses its machinery for spreading a +knowledge of local government in all its forms, but that is mainly +a matter of office routine.</p> + +<p>However, for once we took up an already popular proposal. The +Housing of the Working Classes Act of 1890 was an admirable +measure, but it was hedged about with obstacles which rendered it +very difficult to work in urban areas and virtually useless in +rural districts. We had drafted an amending Bill for rural +districts in 1895, which was read a first time in the House of +Commons on the day of the vote on the supply of cordite, when the +defeat of the Liberal Government led to the dissolution of +Parliament.</p> + +<p>The Act of 1890 was singular in one respect. Part III was headed +"Working-Class Lodging Houses," and was drafted accordingly, but +the definition of lodging-houses was made to include cottages with +not more than half an acre of garden, thus enabling houses to be +provided by local authorities in town and country, apart from +clearances of insanitary areas. For years this definition was +overlooked, and very few people were aware that cottages could be +built in rural districts by the Guardians, and later by Rural +District Councils. Our Leaflet No. 63, "Parish Council Cottages," +issued in 1895, was almost the first <a name= +'Page_141'></a>publication drawing attention to the subject, and +with one exception no use was made of these powers of the Act in +rural districts before that year. Our Tract 76, "Houses for the +People," published in 1897, explained the Act in simple language, +and was widely circulated.</p> + +<p>In 1900 an amending Act, chiefly to simplify procedure in rural +districts, was promised by the Government; and the conference we +called was intended to agitate for widening its scope and +strengthening its provisions. The papers, read by Clement Edwards +(afterwards M.P.), Miss Constance Cochrane, Alderman Thompson, and +others, were first discussed at a preliminary private meeting in +December, and then submitted to the Conference, which was held on +March 1st, the day following the Conference at which the Labour +Party was established. By choosing this date we secured a large +number of delegates from Trade Unions, and these were reinforced by +numerous delegates from Vestries and other local authorities, +altogether numbering about 400. At the close of the proceedings a +National Committee was formed with headquarters at the Fabian +Office, which had however only a short career. The Conference +papers were printed as a bulky penny tract, "The House Famine and +How to Relieve It," which rapidly went through two editions. We +also published "Cottage Plans and Common Sense," by Raymond Unwin, +which describes how cottages should be built—an anticipation +of garden suburbs and town-planning—and a compilation of +everything which Parish Councils had done and could do, including +housing, prepared by Sidney Webb and called "Five Years' Fruits of +the Parish Councils Act," which in 1908 was revised and reissued as +"Parish Councils and Village Life." A speech by W.C. Steadman, +M.P., who was a member of the Society, was printed under the title +"Overcrowding <a name='Page_142'></a>and Its Remedy." Our agitation +was not without results. The amending Acts of 1900, 1903, and 1909 +have done much to remove the unnecessary administrative +complexities of the Act of 1890, but in fact the problem is still +unsolved, and the scandalous character of our housing, both urban +and rural, remains perhaps the blackest blot in the record of +British civilisation.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +The Society had always been concerned in public education. Its +first electoral success was when Mrs. Besant and the Rev. Stewart +Headlam were elected to the London School Board in 1888, and except +for one interval of three years Mr. Headlam has sat on the School +Board and its successor, the London County Council, ever since. +Sidney Webb was Chairman or Vice-Chairman of the L.C.C. Technical +Education Board from its foundation in 1893, almost continuously +until the Board came to an end in 1904, after the London Education +Act. Graham Wallas was elected to the School Board in 1894, and +from 1897 onwards was Chairman of the School Management Committee; +he had been re-elected in 1900, and was therefore filling the most +important administrative position on the Board when the Education +question was before the Society.</p> + +<p>The educational scheme of the Society was not, however, the +joint production of its experts. It was entirely the work of Sidney +Webb. Headlam and Wallas, and the members who took part, +contributed their share as critics, but as critics only, and for +the most part as hostile critics. It was in part a struggle between +the County Councils and the School Boards and in part a controversy +over the denominational schools. Wallas opposed our proposals in +the main <a name='Page_143'></a>because he regarded them as too +favourable to sectarian education: Headlam was against them on both +issues. They put up a vigorous fight, but they were beaten every +time in the Society, as the defenders of School Boards were beaten +ultimately in Parliament and in the country.</p> + +<p>The first step in the controversy was taken in May, 1899, when a +Members' Meeting was held to discuss "The Education Muddle and the +Way Out," in the form of sixteen resolutions, six on "General +Principles" and the remainder on "Immediate Practicable Proposals." +These were introduced by Webb, and the "General Principles," +advocating the transfer of education to the local government +authority and the abolition of School Boards, were adopted. +Amendments by Graham Wallas were defeated by large majorities, and +the discussion on the second part, the immediately practicable +proposals, was adjourned.</p> + +<p>At the adjourned meeting in November, 1899, the resolutions were +put aside and a draft tract was submitted. Graham Wallas again led +the opposition, which was always unsuccessful, though serious +shortcomings in the proposals were revealed and it was agreed to +meet the criticisms wherever possible. Finally it was decided to +appoint a Revision Committee, on which Wallas was placed. Thirteen +months passed before the scheme came before the Society again; in +December the tract as amended was submitted, and this time the +chief critic was Mr. Headlam. On the main question of principle he +found only one supporter, and with minor amendments the scheme was +adopted.</p> + +<p>It is unnecessary to describe the Fabian plan, because it is +substantially the system of administration, established by the Act +of 1902, under which present-day education is organised. The main +difference is <a name='Page_144'></a>that we presented a +revolutionary proposal in an extremely moderate form and Mr. Arthur +Balfour found himself able to carry out our principles more +thoroughly than we thought practically possible. Our tract +advocated the abolition of all School Boards, but anticipated, +incorrectly, that those of the twenty or thirty largest cities +would be too strong to be destroyed: and whilst insisting that the +public must find all the money required to keep the voluntary +schools in full efficiency, we only proposed that this should take +the form of a large grant by County Councils and County Boroughs, +whilst Mr. Balfour was able to make the Councils shoulder the +cost.</p> + +<p>How far the draughtsmen of the Bill were influenced by the +Fabian scheme cannot here be estimated, but the authorities at +Whitehall were so anxious to see it that they were supplied with +proofs before publication; and the tract when published was +greedily devoured by perplexed M.P.'s.</p> + +<p>It must be recollected that the whole complex machinery of +educational administration was in the melting-pot, and nobody knew +what was to come out of it. It had been assumed by nearly everybody +that education was a department of local government which demanded +for its management a special class of representatives. The Liberal +Party was attached to School Boards, because their creation had +been one of the great party victories of Mr. Gladstone's greatest +Government, because they embodied a triumph over the Church and the +virtual establishment of nonconformity in control of half the +elementary schools of the country. Socialists and the vague labour +section took the same view partly because they believed +theoretically in direct election for all purposes and partly +because the cumulative vote, intended to secure representation to +minorities, gave them better chances <a name='Page_145'></a>of +success at the polls than they then had in any other local +election. The Board schools, with ample funds derived from the +rates, were far better than the so-called voluntary schools; but +more than half the children of the nation were educated in these +schools, under-staffed, ill-equipped, and on the average in all +respects inefficient. Every year that passed turned out thus its +quota of poorly educated children. Something had to be done at once +to provide more money for these inferior schools. It might be +better that they should be abolished and State schools everywhere +supplied, but this was a counsel of perfection, and there was no +time to wait for it. Then again the distinction between elementary +education for the poor, managed by School Boards and by the +voluntary school authorities, and other education controlled and +subsidised by Town and County Councils, was disastrous, the more so +since a recent legal decision (the Cockerton case) had restricted +the limits of School Board education more narrowly than ever.</p> + +<p>All sorts of projects might have been proposed for solving these +complex difficulties, projects drafted in the interests of the +Church or the Nonconformists, the voluntary schools or the schools +of the local authorities: but, in fact, the scheme proposed by Mr. +Balfour followed almost precisely the lines laid down in our tract, +which was published in January, 1901, and of which 20,000 copies +were quickly circulated.</p> + +<p>At the Annual Meeting in May, 1901, a resolution was adopted, in +spite of the vigorous opposition of Mr. Headlam, welcoming the +Government Bill and suggesting various amendments to it. This Bill +was withdrawn, to be reintroduced a year later as the Education +Bill, 1902, which ultimately became law. This measure was +considered at a meeting in May, 1902, and a long series of +resolutions welcoming the <a name='Page_146'></a>Bill and +advocating amendments on eighteen different points was carried in +spite of vigorous opposition. Nearly all these amendments, the +chief of which was directed to making the Bill compulsory where it +was drafted as optional, were embodied in the Act.</p> + +<p>Our support of the Conservative Government in their education +policy caused much surprise and attracted not a little attention. +We had been suspected by other Socialists, not without excuse, of +intrigues with the Liberals, and our attack on that party in 1893 +was made exclusively in the interests of Labour. Now when Liberals +and Labour were united in denouncing the Government, when +Nonconformists who had deserted Liberalism on the Home Rule issue +were returning in thousands to their old party, the Fabians, alone +amongst progressives (except of course the Irish, who were keen to +save the Roman Catholic schools), supported the Government in what +was popularly regarded as a reactionary policy. Time has vindicated +our judgment. The theological squabbles which occupied so much of +the energies of the School Boards are now forgotten because the +rival sects are no longer represented on the Education Authorities, +that is, the town and county councils. Education has been +secularised in the sense that it is no longer governed by clerics, +and though some Liberals now desire to carry Mr. Balfour's policy +still further, the Liberal Party in its ten years of office has +never been able to affect any further change.</p> + +<p>The Act of 1902 did not apply to London, and in the great +province ruled by its County Council the case for maintaining the +separate existence of the School Board was stronger than anywhere +else. The London County Council itself was unwilling to undertake +elementary education, and the School Board, like all other bodies +in such circumstances, vehemently <a name='Page_147'></a>objected +to its own dissolution. The Board was efficient; its schools were +excellent; there was no evidence that the already overburdened +County Council could properly carry on the work. On the other hand, +the Fabian Society was in a stronger position. The Chairman of the +Technical Education Board was something more than a +self-constituted authority on the organisation of education: and +the other members of the Society were engaged on a contest on their +home ground. Into the details of the resolutions submitted to the +Fabian Society outlining a plan for London education it is needless +now to enter, except to say that Graham Wallas on this issue +supported, without enthusiasm, the policy of the Society. Mr. +Balfour made no fewer than three attempts to solve the problem, +each time approaching more nearly to the plan prepared by the +Fabian Society. On the third and eventually successful Bill +thirteen amendments were formulated by the Society, eleven of which +were adopted by the House of Commons, and finally, to quote our +Annual Report, "the Act only departed from our plan by giving to +the Borough Councils the appointment of two-thirds of the managers +of provided schools, while we desired the proportion to be +one-half, and omitting a proposal that the Education Authority +should have compulsory powers to acquire sites for schools other +than elementary."</p> + +<p>On the County Council itself, which was strongly opposed to the +Bill, Mr. Webb conducted a skilful and successful campaign to +defeat a policy of passive resistance which might have led to +endless difficulties. But that is outside the history of the Fabian +Society.</p> + +<p>It should be added that the Society did not content itself with +merely passing resolutions. All these documents were printed by +thousands and posted to members of Parliament and of education +authorities <a name='Page_148'></a>up and down the country: our +members incessantly lectured and debated at Liberal Associations +and Clubs, and indefatigably worked the London and Provincial +presses; none of the resources of skilful propagandists was +neglected which might shake the opposition to the Bills, or +convince some of the Liberal and Labour opponents that for once at +any rate a good thing might come from the Conservative Party.</p> + +<p>The transfer of the control of all elementary schools to the +local authorities rendered at last possible the public feeding of +school children, long before advocated by the Social Democratic +Federation. This had hitherto been regarded by the Fabian Society +as impracticable; though an eloquent and often quoted passage in +Graham Wallas's contribution to "Fabian Essays" describes the +schools of the future with "associated meals [served] on tables +spread with flowers, in halls surrounded with beautiful pictures, +or even, as John Milton proposed, filled with the sound of music." +Our contribution towards this ideal was Tract No. 120, "After Bread +Education: a Plan for the State Feeding of School Children," +published in 1905, one of the few tracts for which Hubert Bland was +largely responsible, which advocated a reform carried into law a +year later.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +In 1893, and even before, the Fabian Society had urged the Trade +Unionists to form a Labour Party of their own, and earlier in the +same year the Independent Labour Party had been founded which was +originally intended to achieve the object indicated by its name, +but which quickly became a purely Socialist society. It carried on +a vigorous and successful propaganda amongst Trade Unionists, with +the result that in 1899 the Trade Union Congress passed a +resolution directing <a name='Page_149'></a>its Parliamentary +Committee, in co-operation with the Socialist Societies, to call a +conference in order "to devise ways and means for securing an +increased number of Labour members in the next Parliament." In +accordance with this resolution the Society was invited to appoint +two representatives to meet the delegates of the Parliamentary +Committee and of the two other Socialist organisations. Bernard +Shaw and myself were appointed, and we took part in the business of +arranging for the Conference. This was held on the last two days of +February, 1900, and I was appointed the one delegate to which the +Society was by its numbers entitled. The "Labour Representation +Committee" was duly formed, and it was decided that the Executive +Committee of twelve should include one elected by the Fabian +Society. This Committee was constituted then and there, and, as +"Fabian News" reports, "Edward R. Pease provisionally appointed +himself, as the only Fabian delegate, to be on the Executive +Committee, and the Executive Committee has since confirmed the +appointment." This little comedy was carried on for some years. The +Fabian Society was only entitled to send one delegate to the annual +conference, but that delegate had the right of electing one member +to the Executive Committee, and I was appointed by my Committee to +serve in both capacities. But the incident embodies a moral. The +Trade Unionists on the Committee represented in the earlier years +about 100,000 members each: I then represented some 700. But +although it was often proposed to amend the constitution by giving +every vote an equal value, the Trade Union leaders always defended +the over-representation of the Socialists (the I.L.P. were also +over-represented, though their case was not so extreme) partly +because the Labour Representation Committee <a name= +'Page_150'></a>was founded as a federation of Socialists and Trade +Unionists, and partly because Socialist Societies, consisting +exclusively of persons keenly concerned in politics, were entitled +to larger representation per head of membership than Unions which +were primarily non-political. But when we remember how attractive +to the average man are broad generalisations like "one vote one +value," and how plausible a case could be made out against +discrimination in favour of Socialist Societies, it has always +seemed to me a remarkable example of the practical common sense of +organised labour that the old constitution has been preserved, in +fact though not precisely in form, to the present day. By the +present constitution the "Socialist Section" elects three members +to the Executive from nominations sent in advance; but as the +I.L.P. always makes two nominations, and the Fabian Society one, +the alteration of the rule has not in fact made any change, and the +over-representation of this section is of course undiminished.</p> + +<p>Six months after the Labour Representation Committee was formed +the Society adopted a project drafted by Mr. S.G. Hobson for a +Labour Members' Guarantee Fund, and circulated it amongst the +Unions affiliated to the Committee. The proposal was submitted by +its author on behalf of the Society to the Labour Representation +Conference of 1901, but an amendment both approving of the scheme +and declaring that the time was not ripe for it was carried. A year +later however the Conference unanimously agreed to establish its +Parliamentary Fund by which salaries for their M.P.'s were provided +until Parliament itself undertook the business.</p> + +<p>For several years after this the Fabian Society did not greatly +concern itself with the Labour Party. I attended the Annual +Conferences and took a regular <a name='Page_151'></a>part in the +work of the Executive Committee, but my colleagues of the Fabian +Society as a whole showed little interest in the new body. In a +sense, it was not in our line. Its object was to promote Labour +Representation in Parliament, and the Fabian Society had never run, +and had never intended to run, candidates for Parliament or for any +local authority. We had made appeals for election funds on a good +many occasions and had succeeded once or twice in collecting +substantial sums, but this was a very different matter from +accepting responsibility for a candidate and his election expenses. +Therefore, for a good while, we remained in a position of +benevolent passivity.</p> + +<p>The Labour Representation Committee was founded as a Group, not +as a Party, and one of the two members elected under its auspices +at the General Election of 1900 ran as a Liberal. In 1903 it +transformed itself into a Party, and then began the somewhat +strange anomaly that the Fabian Society as a whole was affiliated +to the Labour Party, whilst some of its members were Liberal +Members of Parliament. It is true that the Trade Unions affiliated +to the party were in the same position: their members also were +sometimes official Liberals and even Liberal M.P.'s. The Labour +Party itself never complained of the anomaly in the position of the +Society or questioned its collective loyalty. And the Liberals in +our Society never took any action hostile to the Labour Party, or +indeed, so far as I know, supported any of the proposals +occasionally made that we should disaffiliate from it. These +proposals always came from "Fabian reformers," the younger men who +wanted to create a revolution in the Society. And so little was +their policy matured that in several cases the same member first +tried to get the Society to expel all members who worked with any +party other than the Labour Party, <a name='Page_152'></a>and a +short time later moved that the Society should leave the Labour +Party altogether. Or perhaps it was the other way round. Logical +consistency is usually incompatible with political success: +compromise runs smooth, whilst principle jams. But the lesser sort +of critic, on the look out for a grievance, can always apply a +principle to a compromise, point out that it does not fit, and that +difficulties may arise. In the case in question they have in fact +rarely arisen, and such as have occurred have been easily +surmounted. It is not necessary to record here all the proposals +put forward from time to time that the Society should disaffiliate +from the Labour Party, or on the other hand, that it should expel, +directly or indirectly, all members who did not confine their +political activities to co-operating with the Labour Party. It may +be assumed that one or other of these proposals was made every few +years after the Labour Party was constituted, and that in every +case it was defeated, as a rule, by a substantial majority.</p> + +<p>The Labour Party won three remarkable victories in the period +between the General Election of 1900 and that of 1906. In 1902 Mr. +David Shackleton was returned unopposed for a Liberal seat, the +Clitheroe Division of Lancashire; in 1903 Mr. (now the Right Hon.) +Will Crooks, an old member of our Society, captured Woolwich from +the Conservatives by a majority of 3229, amidst a scene of +enthusiasm which none who were present will ever forget: and five +months later Mr. (now the Right Hon.) Arthur Henderson, who later +became a member of our Society, beat both Liberal and Tory +opponents at the Barnard Castle Division of Durham.</p> + +<p>When the election campaign of 1906 began the Labour Party put +fifty candidates into the field and succeeded in carrying no fewer +than twenty-nine of <a name='Page_153'></a>them, whilst another +joined the party after his election. Four of these were members of +the Fabian Society, and in addition three Fabians were successful +as Liberals, including Percy Alden, then a member of our Executive +Committee.</p> + +<p>Whilst the election was in progress Mr. H.G. Wells began the +Fabian reform movement which is described in the next chapter. At +that time he did not bring the Labour Party into his scheme of +reconstruction, but some of the members of his Committee were then +ardent adherents of that party, and they persuaded his Committee to +report in favour of the Society's choosing "in harmonious +co-operation with other Socialist and Labour bodies, Parliamentary +Candidates of its own. Constituencies for such candidates should be +selected, a special election fund raised and election campaigns +organised."</p> + +<p>The result was that a resolution proposed by the Executive +Committee was carried early in March, 1907, directing the +appointment of a Committee to report on "the best means of +promoting local Socialist societies of the Fabian type with the +object of increasing Socialist representation in Parliament as a +party co-operating as far as possible with the Labour Party whilst +remaining independent of that and of all other Parties."</p> + +<p>This, it will be observed, is a different proposition, and one +which resulted in a lot of talk and nothing else. Bernard Shaw had +the idea that there might be county constituencies in the South of +England, where independent middle-class Socialists could win when +Labour candidates had no chance. No such constituency has ever been +discovered and the Fabian scheme has never even begun to be +realised.</p> + +<p>In January, 1908, the Committee's Report was considered and +adopted, the important item being the <a name= +'Page_154'></a>decision to send a circular to every member inviting +promises to an election fund of at least £5,000, +contributions to be spread over five years. This ultimately +resulted in promises amounting to £2637—a much larger +sum than the Society had ever had at its command—and with +this substantial fund in prospect the Society was in a position to +begin the business of electioneering.</p> + +<p>A favourable opportunity soon presented itself. A vacancy at the +little town of Taunton was not to be fought by the Liberals, while +the Conservative candidate, the Hon. W. (now Viscount) Peel, was a +London County Councillor, bitterly opposed even to the mild +collectivism of the London Progressives, Frank Smith, a member both +of the Society and the London County Council, was willing to fight, +the Labour Party Executive cordially approved, and the members +promptly paid up the first instalment of their promises. The +election cost £316, of which the Society paid £275, and +although our candidate was beaten by 1976 votes to 1085, the result +was not contrary to our anticipations.</p> + +<p>During 1909 the Executive Committee resolved to run two +candidates, both already nominated by the I.L.P., who willingly +transferred to us the responsibility for their election expenses. +W. Stephen Sanders had been third on the poll out of six candidates +who fought in 1906 for the two seats at Portsmouth, and as he had +polled 8172 votes, more than either Conservative, it was reasonably +hoped that the Liberals would leave one of the seats to him. Harry +Snell at Huddersfield was opposing both parties, but had a fair +chance of winning. At the General Election of January, 1910, +neither of these candidates was successful, Sanders, opposed by +Lord Charles Beresford with an irresistible shipbuilding programme, +only obtaining <a name='Page_155'></a>3529 votes, whilst at +Huddersfield Snell was second on the poll, but 1472 behind the +Liberal. Elsewhere, however, the members of the Society did well, +no less than eight securing seats, four for the Labour Party and +four as Liberals.</p> + +<p>In December, 1910, we won our first electoral victory. Will +Crooks had lost his seat at Woolwich in January by 295 votes. It +was decided to take over his candidature from the Coopers' Union, a +very small society which only nominally financed it, and also to +support Harry Snell again at Huddersfield. Will Crooks was +victorious by 236 votes, but Harry Snell failed to reduce the +Liberal majority. Elsewhere members of the Society were very +successful. In all eight secured seats for the Labour Party and +four for the Liberals, amongst the latter Mr. (now Sir) L.G. +Chiozza Money, then a member of the Executive Committee.</p> + +<p>This brings the electoral record of the Society up to the +present time, except that it should be mentioned that Mr. Arthur +Henderson, M.P., who became a member of the Society in 1912, was in +1915 both Secretary of the Labour Party Executive and Chairman of +the party in the House of Commons, until he relinquished the latter +position on joining the Coalition Cabinet as Minister for +Education, being thus actually the first member of a Socialist +society to attain Cabinet rank in this country during his +membership.</p> + +<p>During these later years the Fabian Society with its increased +numbers was entitled to several delegates at the annual conference +of the Labour Party, and it frequently took part in the business by +putting motions or amendments on the agenda paper. All talk of +forming a Fabian Socialist Party had died away, and the Executive +Committee had shown itself far more appreciative of the importance +of the Labour Party than in earlier years. I continued to represent +<a name='Page_156'></a>the Society on the Executive Committee until +the end of 1913, when I retired, and the new General Secretary, W. +Stephen Sanders, took my place. When in December, 1915, he accepted +a commission for the period of the war, as a recruiting officer, +Sidney Webb was appointed to fill the vacancy.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +The account of the part taken by the Society in the work of the +Labour Party has carried us far beyond the period previously +described, and a short space must now be devoted to the years which +intervened between the Education episode and the outburst of +activity to be described in the next chapter.</p> + +<p>Social progress advances in waves, and outbursts of energy are +always succeeded by depressions. Up to 1899 the Society slowly grew +in membership until this reached 861. Then it slowly declined to +730 in 1904. This was symptomatic of a general lack of interest in +Socialism. The lectures and meetings were poorly attended, and the +really important debates which decided our educational policy were +conducted by only a few dozen members. Twenty years had passed +since the Society was founded. Of the Essayists Bernard Shaw, +Sidney Webb, Hubert Bland, and when in England, Sydney Olivier were +still leaders of the Society, and so until January, 1904, was +Graham Wallas, who then resigned his membership on account of his +disagreement with the tract on Tariff Reform, but really, as his +letter published in "Fabian News" indicated, because in the long +controversy over education policy he had found himself constantly +in the position of a hostile critic. It should be added that his +resignation has been followed by none of those personal and +political disagreements which so commonly accompany the severance +of old associations. <a name='Page_157'></a>Mr. Wallas has remained +a Fabian in all except name. His friendship with his old colleagues +has been unbroken, and he has always been willing to assist the +Society out of his abundant stores of special knowledge both by +lecturing at its meetings and by taking part in conferences and +even by attending quite small meetings of special groups.</p> + +<p>In all these years a large number of younger members had come +forward, none of them of quite the same calibre as the Essayists, +but many of them contributing much to the sum total of the +Society's influence. Of these perhaps the most active was Henry W. +Macrosty,<a name='FNanchor_33' href='#Footnote_33'>[33]</a> who sat +on the Executive from 1895 till 1907, when he retired on account of +the pressure of official duties. During and indeed before his +period of office Mr. Macrosty was constantly engaged in research +and writing for the Society. He prepared the Eight Hours Bill which +approached nearest to practicability (Tract 48, "Eight Hours by +Law," 1893); in 1898 he wrote for the Society "State Arbitration +and the Living Wage" (Tract 83); in 1899, Tract 88, "The Growth of +Monopoly in English Industry"; in 1905 "The Revival of Agriculture, +a national policy for Great Britain," the last named an +extraordinarily farsighted anticipation of the chief reforms which +were advocated with such vigour by the Liberal Party, and indeed by +all parties in the years preceding the great war. In the same year +his "State Control of Trusts" was published as Tract 124. As I have +before explained, a great part of the published work of the Society +has been prepared co-operatively, and in this process Mr. Macrosty +always took an active part. He had a <a name= +'Page_158'></a>considerable share in drafting the innumerable +documents issued in connection with the education controversy, and +indeed participated in all the activities of the Executive until +his retirement.</p> + +<p>Scarcely less active was Joseph F. Oakeshott, who has been +already mentioned in connection with the Fellowship of the New +Life. He joined the Executive when it was first enlarged in 1890, +and sat until 1902. A Somerset House official, like Macrosty, he +was strong on statistics, and for many years he undertook the +constant revisions of the figures of national income, in the +various editions of our "Facts for Socialists,"</p> + +<p>His "Democratic Budget" (Tract 39) was our first attempt to +apply Socialism to taxation: and his "Humanising of the Poor Law" +(Tract 54), published in 1894, set out the policy which in recent +years has been widely adopted by the better Boards of +Guardians.</p> + +<p>John W. Martin sat on the Executive from 1894 to 1899, wrote +Tract No. 52, "State Education at Home and Abroad" (1894), and did +a lot of valuable lecturing, both here and in America, where he +married the leading exponent of Fabianism and editor of a monthly +called "The American Fabian," and, settling in New York, has since, +under the name of John Martin, played a considerable part in the +educational and progressive politics of his adopted city.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +I will conclude this chapter with a short account of some of the +applications of Socialism to particular problems which were studied +by the Society in or about this period of its history.</p> + +<p>In 1897 and 1898 a good deal of time was devoted to working out +a scheme for the municipalisation of the Drink Trade. This was +before the publication of "The Temperance Problem and Social +Reform," by <a name='Page_159'></a>Joseph Rowntree and Arthur +Sherwell, in 1899, a volume which was the first to treat the +subject scientifically on a large scale. I took the lead on the +question, and finally two tracts were published in 1898, "Liquor +Licensing at Home and Abroad" (No. 85), giving a sketch of the +facts, and "Municipal Drink Traffic" (No. 86), which set out a +scheme drafted by me, but substantially modified as the result of +discussions by the Executive Committee and by meetings of members. +This is one of the few causes taken up by the Society which has +made but little progress in popular favour in the seventeen years +that have elapsed since we adopted it.</p> + +<p>Old Age Pensions, proposed in 1890 by Sidney Webb in Tract 17, +"Reform of the Poor Law," was definitely advocated in Tract No. 73, +"The Case for State Pensions in Old Age," written in 1896 by George +Turner, one of the cleverest of the younger members. The Society +did not make itself responsible for the scheme he proposed, +universal pensions for all, and the Old Age Pensions Act of 1908 +adopted another plan.</p> + +<p>In 1899 and 1900 we devoted much time to the working out of +further schemes of municipalisation in the form of a series of +leaflets, Nos. 90 to 97. We applied the principle to Milk, +Pawnshops, Slaughterhouses, Bakeries, Fire Insurance, and +Steamboats. These were written by various members, and are all +careful little studies of the subject, but they were not issued in +a convenient form, and none of the schemes advocated has yet been +generally carried out.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +The Tariff Reform agitation could not pass unnoticed, and for a +time Bernard Shaw showed a certain inclination to toy with it. A +tract advocating Free <a name='Page_160'></a>Trade was actually set +up, but got no further. Finally Shaw drafted "Fabianism and the +Fiscal Question An Alternative Policy" (Tract 116), which we +adopted with practical unanimity, though it was the occasion of the +resignation of Graham Wallas.</p> + +<p>It was perhaps the least successful of the many pronouncements +written by Bernard Shaw on behalf of the Society. A subtle and +argumentative criticism of Mr. Chamberlain's policy on one side and +of the Free Trade rejoinder on the other is neither simple nor +decisive enough for the general reader: and the alternatives +advocated—reorganisation of the consular service in the +interests of export trade, free ocean transit for the purpose of +consolidating the Empire and nationalisation of railways as a +necessary corollary together with improved technical +education—were too futurist, and appealed directly to too +small and conservative a class, to attract much attention in the +heat of a vital controversy. The writer had no anticipation of the +triumph of Liberalism, then so near, and Evidently expected that +Mr. Chamberlain would carry the country for his policy. The tract +was also issued in a shilling edition on superior paper with a +preface by the author, and it is the only one of his publications +which has failed to sell freely.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +At this period we had a number of Committees appointed to +investigate various problems, and one of them, which had for its +reference the Birth-rate and Infant Mortality, produced a report of +more that temporary significance. When the Society was formed the +Malthusian hypothesis held the field unchallenged and the stock +argument against Socialism was that it would lead to universal +misery by removing the beneficent checks on the growth of +population, imposed <a name='Page_161'></a>by starvation and +disease upon the lowest stratum of society. Since the year 1876 the +birth-rate had declined, and gradually the fear of over-population, +which had saddened the lives of such men as John Stuart Mill, began +to give way to the much less terrifying but still substantial fear +of under-population, caused either by race degeneracy or race +suicide. At that period the former of the two was the accepted +explanation, and only by vague hints did scientific statisticians +indicate that there might be or perhaps must be something else than +"natural" causes for the decline. To the Society it seemed an +all-important question. Was our race to perish by sterility, and if +so, was sterility due to wealth and luxury or to poverty and +disease? Or was the cause of the decline a voluntary limitation of +families? We determined, as a first step, to form some sort of +statistical estimate of the extent of voluntary restriction. We +thought, and, as the event proved, thought rightly, that our +members would be willing to assist us in this delicate enquiry. +They were a sample of the population, selected in a manner which +bore no sort of relation to the question at issue, and if we could +get returns from them indicating their personal practice in the +matter, we might have some clue to the facts. It turned out that +the result was far more startling and far more conclusive than we +suspected.</p> + +<p>In November, 1905, carefully drafted enquiry forms were sent out +to all members of the Society except unmarried women, so arranged +as to allow exact answers to be given to the questions without +disclosure of the name or handwriting of the deponent. Of the 634 +posted 460 were returned or accounted for, and only two members +signified objection to the enquiry. After deduction of bachelors +and others not relevant, we obtained particulars of 316 marriages. +I prepared <a name='Page_162'></a>an elaborate statistical report, +which showed that in the period 1890-1899 out of 120 marriages only +6 fertile marriages were recorded in which no restriction had been +adopted. This was the first and possibly is the only statistical +enquiry yet made on the subject, and although the number of cases +was minute in proportion to the population, the evidence afforded +by that sample was sufficient to be conclusive, that at any rate a +cause, and probably the chief cause, of the fall in the birth-rate +was voluntary limitation of families.</p> + +<p>The method of publication presented some difficulty, and finally +it was decided, in order to secure the most generally impressive +publicity, to ask Sidney Webb to collect the other available +evidence and to make an article out of the whole, to be published +over his name. It appeared as two special articles in "The Times" +for October 11th and 18th, 1906, and was subsequently reprinted by +us as Tract 131, "The Decline of the Birth-rate."</p> + +<p>Other Committees at this period discussed Agriculture, Poor Law, +Local Government Areas, Public Control of Electricity, and Feeding +of School Children. Reports on all these subjects were issued as +tracts, some of which have been mentioned already in connection +with their authors, H.W. Macrosty and Hubert Bland, whilst others +will be referred to in a future chapter.</p> + +<p>FOOTNOTE:</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_33' href='#FNanchor_33'>[33]</a> Born 1865. +Clerk in the Exchequer and Audit Dept. 1884, Assistant Director of +the Census of Production 1908. Author of "Trusts and the State" +(1901) and "The Trust Movement in British Industry" (1907).</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p class="center"><a name='image09'></a><img src= +"images/image09.png" style="width: 300px; height: 453px; border: 0" +alt= +"From a photograph by Lambert Weston and Son, Folkestone H.G. WELLS, IN 1908 At the door of his house at Sandgate" /></p> + +<p class="center"><i>From a photograph by Lambert Weston and Son, +Folkestone</i></p> + +<p class="center">H.G. WELLS, IN 1908</p> + +<p class="center">At the door of his house at Sandgate</p> + +<h3><a name='Page_163'></a><a name='Chapter_IX'>Chapter IX</a></h3> + +<h2>The Episode of Mr. Wells: 1906-8</h2> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>His lecture on administrative areas—"Faults of the +Fabian"—The Enquiry Committee—The Report, and the +Reply—The real issue, Wells v. Shaw—The women +intervene—The Basis altered—The new Executive—Mr. +Wells withdraws—His work for Socialism—The writing of +Fabian Tracts.</p> +</div> + +<p>The long controversy introduced by Mr. H.G. Wells attracted much +public attention to the Fabian Society, added greatly to its +numbers, and for a time made it more of a popular institution than +it had been before or has been since. But, in fact, its main +permanent interest arises from the persons who played the leading +parts. The real question at issue was one neither of Socialist +theory nor of Socialist policy. In so far as these entered in, Mr. +Wells preached to willing listeners, and the only difference of +opinion was as to the relative stress to be laid on particular +points. When the episode was over, the chief change made in Fabian +policy was one which Mr. Wells did not initiate, and which as soon +as it was actually adopted he virtually repudiated.<a name= +'FNanchor_34' href='#Footnote_34'>[34]</a> The <a name= +'Page_164'></a>substance of the controversy was whether the members +desired to hand over their Society to be managed by Mr. Wells +alone, or whether they preferred to retain their old leaders and +only to accept Mr. Wells as one amongst the rest.</p> + +<p>Mr. Wells became a member in February, 1903, and in March gave +his first lecture to the Society on a very technical subject, "The +Question of Scientific Administrative Areas in Relation to +Municipal Undertakings," a paper subsequently published as an +appendix to "Mankind in the Making."</p> + +<p>It was probably his first appearance on a public platform; and +as a lecture it was by no means a success, because he read his +paper in a low monotonous voice, addressed to a corner of the hall. +If Mr. Wells had been by nature or practice as effective in +speaking as he is in writing the fate of the Fabian Society might +have been different. He was severely handicapped in his contest +with the skilled debaters of the "Old Gang," and though after a +short time he learnt the art up to a point, he was never really at +home on a platform, and since the Fabian episode he has confined +himself for the most part to controversy in writing.</p> + +<p>The next contribution of Mr. Wells to Fabian propaganda was on +January 12th, 1906. This date had been fixed for his paper next +referred to, but in view of the General Election then in progress +he read in its place his admirable article entitled "This Misery of +Boots," which was subsequently issued as a special Fabian +publication.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_165'></a>On February 9th the great controversy +began by the paper entitled "Faults of the Fabian," read by Mr. +Wells to a members' meeting, and subsequently issued as a private +document to all the members of the Society. It was couched +altogether in a friendly tone, expressed cordial appreciation of +the record of the Society, but criticised it for lack of +imaginative megalomania. It was "still half a drawing-room +society," lodged in "an underground apartment," or "cellar," with +one secretary and one assistant. "The first of the faults of the +Fabian, then, is that it is small, and the second that strikes me +is that, even for its smallness, it is needlessly poor." The task +undertaken by the Fabians "is nothing less than the alteration of +the economic basis of society. Measure with your eye this little +meeting, this little hall: look at that little stall of not very +powerful tracts: think of the scattered members, one here, one +there.... Then go out into the Strand. Note the size of the +buildings and business places, note the glare of the +advertisements, note the abundance of traffic and the multitude of +people.... That is the world whose very foundations you are +attempting to change. How does this little dribble of activities +look then?"</p> + +<p>The paper goes on to complain that the Society did not advertise +itself, made the election of new members difficult, and maintained +a Basis "ill-written and old-fashioned, harsh and bad in tone, +assertive and unwise." The self-effacive habits and insidious +methods of the Society were next criticised, and the writer +exclaimed, "Make Socialists and you will achieve Socialism; there +is no other plan." The history of the Fabian motto was made use of +to enforce the view that victory can only be gained by straight +fighters like Scipio, whilst Fabius, however successful at first, +ended his career as a stumbling-block to progress. <a name= +'Page_166'></a>To effect the desired expansion the writer proposed +to raise an income of £1000 a year, to increase the staff, to +prepare literature for the conversion of unbelievers, and to get a +number of young men and women, some paid and some unpaid, to carry +on the propaganda and the administrative work. "Unless I am the +most unsubstantial of dreamers, such a propaganda as I am now +putting before you ought to carry our numbers up towards ten +thousand within a year or so of its commencement."</p> + +<p>At the close of the meeting it was unanimously agreed "that the +Executive Committee be instructed to appoint a Committee consisting +of members and non-members of the Executive to consider what +measures should be taken to increase the scope, influence, income, +and activity of the Society." Further, a temporary amendment was +made to the rules deferring the Annual Meeting and Executive +election until after the Committee had reported.</p> + +<p>"The Executive Committee," says "Fabian News," "was of opinion +that a large Committee including both the Executive and an equal +number of unofficial members should be appointed. But as Mr. Wells, +the author of the proposal, was resolutely opposed to this plan, +the Executive decided that in the circumstances it was best to fall +in with his wishes, and they accordingly appointed only those +members, both Executive and other, whom Mr. Wells nominated and who +were willing to serve."</p> + +<p>The Committee thus appointed consisted of the Rev. Stewart +Headlam, Mrs. Bernard Shaw, and G.R.S. Taylor of the Executive; Dr. +Stanton Coit, W.A. Colegate, Dr. Haden Guest, Sydney Olivier, Mrs. +Pember Reeves, H.G. Wells, and Mrs. Wells.</p> + +<p>The Committee held its first sitting on February 28th, but its +report was not completed and presented <a name='Page_167'></a>to +the Executive until the following October, Mr. Wells having in the +interval visited the United States.</p> + +<p>"Faults of the Fabian," written before the election of 1906, +gave little indication that its author anticipated the sudden +outburst of interest in Socialism which followed the astonishing +success of the Labour Party at the polls. When Keir Hardie was +chosen as leader of the party, it was recognised that Socialism was +no longer the creed of a few fanatics, but a political force +supported, actively or passively, by the great organisations of +Labour throughout the country, able to fight, and sometimes to beat +both the older parties. A new era in politics had begun. The Tories +had been defeated before by Mr. Gladstone's unrivalled personality. +Now they were defeated, as they had not been for three-quarters of +a century, by a party none of whose leaders possessed an +outstanding personality, and by a programme which contained no item +with any popular appeal. Everybody was thinking and talking +politics; every political conversation began or ended with that +unknown factor, the new Labour Party; every discussion of the +Labour Party involved a discussion of Socialism.</p> + +<p>Perhaps Mr. Wells with the intuition of genius in fact foresaw +what was about to happen: perhaps it was only chance. Anyway his +proposal for an enlarged and invigorated society came at the +precise moment, when the realisation of his project was in fact +possible; and, of course, his own vigorous and interesting +personality attracted many to us who might have moved in other +directions, or indeed never have moved at all.</p> + +<p>The inner history of the Wells Committee has never been +revealed, but the composition of the Committee indicates the +probable truth of the rumours that the meetings were anything but +dull, though in the end <a name='Page_168'></a>the Committee +arrived at an unanimous report. Sydney Olivier was one of the "old +gang," though at that time a vigorous supporter of all sorts of +changes. Mr. Headlam has always stood at the extreme right of the +movement, and in party politics has never abated his loyalty to +Liberalism. Mr. G.R.S. Taylor and Dr. Haden Guest were at that time +eager adherents of the Labour Party, and Dr. Coit, who had just +fought an election for the Party, no doubt took the same line. Mrs. +Shaw by habit and Mrs. Reeves by instinct belonged to the +government rather than to the opposition: and Mr. Colegate, a +judicious person, then quite young, doubtless inclined to the same +side. Last but not least, Mr. Wells himself, then as always +mercurial in his opinions, but none the less intensely opinionated, +and unable to believe that anybody could honestly differ from him, +was by himself sufficient to disturb the harmony of any +committee.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Wells acted as secretary, and the Committee took evidence +from myself and others before the report was drawn up.</p> + +<p>The Report of the Committee is a much less inspiring document +than the irresponsible and entertaining "Faults of the Fabian." It +was largely concerned with a number of administrative details. New +books and "short readable tracts" were to be written, and the +format of our publications was to be changed. Groups were to be +revived in all localities (to be called "Wandsworth 1, Wandsworth +2, Wandsworth 3," and so on), together with Head-quarters groups, +also numbered 1, 2, 3, etc. This perhaps is the chief remaining +trace of the megalomania of the original scheme, and is hidden away +in an appendix: all our efforts never yielded Wandsworth No. 1, let +alone the others! A fixed minimum subscription payable on a fixed +date and a list of subscriptions to be published <a name= +'Page_169'></a>annually were further suggestions. The rule of the +Society had been and is to the contrary in both particulars. +"Fabian News" was to be enlarged into a weekly review addressed to +the public, a change which would have required an editorial staff +and extensive new offices. A publications editor was to be +appointed who would be able to publish, or to arrange for the +publication of, such books as Mr. Wells' "A Modern Utopia" and Mr. +Money's "Riches and Poverty." The Basis of the Society was to be +rewritten, its name changed to the British Socialist Party—a +title since adopted by the old Social Democratic +Federation—the Executive Committee was to be replaced by a +Council of twenty-five, which was to appoint three Committees of +three members each for Publishing, for Propaganda, and General +Purposes respectively. The last, to be entitled the Directing +Committee, was to meet frequently and manage most of the affairs of +the Society. Finally, "in harmonious co-operation with other +Socialist and Labour bodies," the Society was to run candidates for +Parliament and raise a fund for the purpose.</p> + +<p>It will be seen that some of these proposals were merely +speculative. Groups could be organised easily enough when the +members in any district numbered hundreds instead of units, or, at +best, dozens. New tracts could be published when they were written: +a weekly review was possible if the capital was provided. The new +Basis and the new name were matters of emphasis and taste rather +than anything else. The new machinery of government was in the main +a question to be decided by experience. Mr. Wells had none; it is +said that he never sat on a Committee before that under discussion, +and certainly while he remained a Fabian he never acquired the +Committee habit. On the principle underlying some of these <a name= +'Page_170'></a>proposals, viz. that the Society should cease to +treat membership as a privilege, and should aim at increasing its +numbers, there was no serious controversy. The Executive Committee +had already carried through a suggestion made in the discussion on +"Faults of the Fabian" for the creation of a class of Associates, +entitled to all privileges except control over policy, with a view +to provide a means of attracting new adherents. The one +constructive proposal, direct collective participation in +Parliamentary Elections, was quite alien to Mr. Wells' original +ideas; it was forced on him, it is said, by other members of his +Committee and was described by himself later on as "secondary and +subordinate."<a name='FNanchor_35' href='#Footnote_35'>[35]</a></p> + +<p>The Executive Committee transmitted the Special Committee's +Report to the members of the Society accompanied by a Report of +their own, drafted by Bernard Shaw and incomparably superior to the +other as a piece of literature.<a name='FNanchor_36' href= +'#Footnote_36'>[36]</a></p> + +<p>The reply of the Executive Committee began by welcoming +criticism from within the Society, of which they complained that in +the past they had had too little. An opposition, they said, was a +requisite of good government. They were prepared to welcome +expansion, but they pointed out that the handsome offices proposed +must be produced by the large income and not the income by the +handsome offices. A publishing business on the scale suggested +could not be undertaken by an unincorporated society; moreover, <a +name='Page_171'></a>at present the Society had not sufficient +income to pay its officials at the market rate, or to keep out of +debt to its printer. They agreed that the Executive Committee +should be enlarged, but recommended twenty-one instead of +twenty-five members; and that the three proposed sub-committees be +appointed, but of seven members each instead of three. The project +of triumvirates they could not endorse, both for other reasons and +because all the leading members of the Society refused to serve on +them, while the essence of the scheme was that the triumvirs should +be the most influential members of the Society. The abolition of +the old-fashioned restrictions on admission to membership was +approved, but not the proposal for a fixed subscription payable on +an appointed date. The Executive Committee did not object to the +proposed new Basis as a whole (and in fact it is on record that its +adoption by the Executive was only lost by 7 votes to 6); but +considered that passages were open to criticism and that the time +and effort necessary for carrying through any new Basis, so worded +as to unite practically the whole Society, would be better spent in +other ways. A Socialist weekly would be valuable, but it would not +replace "Fabian News," which was required for the internal purposes +of the Society, and capable journalists like Mr. Wells himself +preferred the publicity of the "Fortnightly Review" and "The +Times," to the "Clarion" and the "Labour Leader." The Reply goes at +great length into the difficulty of forming a Socialist Party, and +into the composition and policy of the Labour Party, all admirably +argued, but just a little unreal; for Bernard Shaw has never quite +understood the Labour Party which he did so much to create, and at +the same time he is thoroughly convinced that he sees it as it is, +in the white light of his genius. Permeation is described, <a name= +'Page_172'></a>explained, and defended—the Special Committee +had suggested rather than proposed, in scarcely more than a +sentence, that the policy be abandoned—and it is announced +that as long as the Executive was unchanged there would be no +reversal of the political policy of the Society. Finally the Reply +asserts that the time had come to attempt the formation of a +middle-class Socialist Party. At the end three resolutions were set +out, which the Executive submitted to the Society for +discussion.</p> + +<p>How much of personality, how little of principle there was in +the great controversy is indicated by the fact that Mrs. Bernard +Shaw signed the Special Committee Report, with the reservation that +she also completely agreed with the Reply. Mr. Headlam also was a +party to both documents: Mr. G.R.S. Taylor, alone of the three +Executive members of the Special Committee, supported the Report +and dissociated himself from the Reply. Of course the Executive +Committee had to decide points in their Report by a majority. That +majority, in the case of the proposed revision of the Basis, was, +as already mentioned, one vote only. I did not concur with the view +expressed about the Labour Party, a body scarcely less easy to be +understood by an outsider than the Fabian Society itself: and at +that time I was the only insider on the Fabian Executive.</p> + +<p>But the real issue was a personal one. The Executive Committee +at that time consisted, in addition to the three just named, of +Percy Alden (Liberal M.P. for Tottenham), Hubert Bland, Cecil E. +Chesterton, Dr. F. Lawson Dodd, F.W. Galton, S.G. Hobson, H.W. +Macrosty, W. Stephen Sanders, Bernard Shaw, George Standring, +Sidney Webb and myself. Mr. Alden was too busy with his new +parliamentary duties to take much part in the affair. All the rest, +except <a name='Page_173'></a>of course Mr. Taylor, stood together +on the real issue—Was the Society to be controlled by those +who had made it or was it to be handed over to Mr. Wells? We knew +by this time that he was a masterful person, very fond of his own +way, very uncertain what that way was, and quite unaware whither it +necessarily led. In any position except that of leader Mr. Wells +was invaluable, as long as he kept it! As leader we felt he would +be impossible, and if he had won the fight he would have justly +claimed a mandate to manage the Society on the lines he had laid +down. As Bernard Shaw led for the Executive, the controversy was +really narrowed into Wells versus Shaw.</p> + +<p>The Report was sent to the members with "Fabian News" for +December, 1906, and it was the occasion of much excitement. The +Society had grown enormously during the year. The names of no less +than ninety applicants for membership are printed in that month's +issue alone. In March, 1907, the membership was 1267, an increase +of nearly 500 in two years.</p> + +<p>The discussion was carried on at a series of meetings held at +Essex Hall, Strand, under the chairmanship of Mr. H. Bond Holding, +on December 7th and 14th, 1906, and January 11th and 18th, February +1st and March 8th, and also at the Annual Meeting for 1905-6, held +on February 22nd, 1907. The series was interrupted for the London +County Council Election on March 2nd, in which many of the members +were concerned.</p> + +<p>With a view to a "Second Reading" debate the executive Committee +had put down a general resolution that their report be received, +but Mr. Wells did not fall in with this plan, and the resolution on +the motion of Bernard Shaw was adopted without discussion. On the +first clause of the next resolution, instructing the Executive to +submit amendments to the Rules for increasing their number to +twenty-five, <a name='Page_174'></a>Mr. Wells, acting for himself, +moved an amendment "approving the spirit of the report of the +Committee of Enquiry, and desiring the outgoing Executive to make +the earliest possible arrangements for the election of a new +Executive to give effect to that report." His speech, which +occupied an hour and a quarter and covered the whole field, would +have been great if Mr. Wells had been a good speaker. Written out +from notes, it was printed in full by himself for circulation +amongst the members, and it is vigorous, picturesque entertaining, +and imaginative, as his work always is. But it delivered him into +the hands of his more experienced opponents by virtually +challenging the society to discard them and enter on a regenerated +career under his guidance. It was a heroic issue to force; and it +was perhaps the real one; but it could have only one result. The +discussion was adjourned to the 14th, and at 9 o'clock on that +evening Bernard Shaw replied on the whole debate. His main +proposition was that, as the amendment had been converted by Mr. +Wells' printed and circulated speech into a motion of want of +confidence, the leaders of the Society must and would retire if it +were adopted. They were willing to discuss every point on its +merits and to abide by the decision of the Society, but they would +not accept a general approval of the Committee's Report as against +their own when it implied an accusation of misconduct. In the +course of the speech Mr. Wells pledged himself not to retire from +the Society if he was defeated; and at the end of it he consented +to withdraw his amendment. Bernard Shaw's speech, probably the most +impressive he has ever made in the Society, was delivered to a +large and keenly appreciative audience in a state of extreme +excitement. A long report pacifically toned down by Shaw himself, +appears in "Fabian News" (January, 1907). <a name='Page_175'></a>It +succeeded in its object. The Executive Committee welcomed the +co-operation of Mr. Wells; the last thing they desired was to drive +him out of the Society, and whilst they could not accept his report +as a whole, they were willing to adopt any particular item after +full discussion. There is no doubt that they would have won if the +amendment had gone to a division, but they were only too glad not +to inflict a defeat on their opponents.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +The next episode in the debate requires a few words of +introduction. The Society had always been in favour of votes for +women. A proposition in the Manifesto, Tract No. 2, published as +early as 1884, states that "men no longer need special political +privileges to protect them against women," and in all our +publications relating to the franchise or local government the +claims of women to equal citizenship were prominently put forward. +But we had published no tract specially on the subject of the +Parliamentary Vote for Women. This was not mere neglect. In 1893 a +committee was appointed "to draw up a tract advocating the claims +of women to all civil and political rights at present enjoyed by +men," and in March, 1894, it reported that "a tract had been +prepared which the Committee itself did not consider suitable for +publication." Later the Committee was discharged, and in face of +this fiasco nothing further was done.</p> + +<p>Mr. Wells took a strong view on the importance of doing +something in relation to women and children, though exactly what he +proposed was never clear. He offered to the Society his little book +on "Socialism and the Family," subsequently published by Mr. +Fifield, but the Executive Committee declined it precisely because +of its vagueness: they were not <a name='Page_176'></a>disposed to +accept responsibility for criticisms on the existing system, unless +some definite line of reform was proposed which they could ask the +Society to discuss and approve, or at any rate to issue as a +well-considered scheme suitable for presentation to the public.</p> + +<p>The new Basis proposed by the Special Committee declared that +the Society sought to bring about "a reconstruction of the social +organisation" by</p> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p><i>(a)</i> promoting transfer of land and capital to the +State,</p> + +<p><i>(b)</i> "enforcing equal citizenship of men and women,</p> + +<p><i>(c)</i> "substituting public for private authority in the +education and support of the young."</p> +</div> + +<p>Precisely what the last clause meant has never been disclosed. +Mr. Wells in his speech did nothing to elucidate it. Mr. Shaw in +his reply criticised its vagueness and protested against possible +interpretations of it. Mr. Wells stated some time later that he had +resigned from the Society because we refused to adopt it. I do not +think that any of his colleagues attached much importance to it, +and none of them has attempted to raise the issue since.<a name= +'FNanchor_37' href='#Footnote_37'>[37]</a></p> + +<p><a name='Page_177'></a>Clause (b) was another matter. Nobody +objected to the principle of this, but many demurred to inserting +it in the Basis. We regarded the Basis as a statement of the +minimum of Socialism, without which no man had the right to call +himself a Socialist. But there are a few Socialists, such as Mr. +Belfort Bax, who are opposed to women's suffrage, and moreover, +however important it be, some of us regard it as a question of +Democracy rather than Socialism. Certainly no one would contend +that approval of women's suffrage was acceptance of a part of the +creed of Socialism. It is a belief compatible with the most +thoroughgoing individualism.</p> + +<p>But many of the women members had made up their minds that this +clause must appear in the Basis, and under the leadership of Mrs. +Pember Reeves, they had indicated they would vote for the Special +Committee Report unless they got their way. Those who, like myself, +regarded this amendment of the Basis as inexpedient, recognised +also that the adoption of the Wells report was far more +inexpedient, and the Executive consequently decided to support a +proposal that they be instructed to submit an addition to the Basis +declaring for equal citizenship for men and women. On January 11th, +1907, Mrs. Pember Reeves obtained precedence for a resolution to +this effect, and she was seconded by Mrs. Sidney Webb, who, after +fourteen years of membership, was now beginning to take a part in +the business of the Society. The opposition was led by Dr. Mary +O'Brien Harris, who objected not to the principle but to its +inclusion in the Basis, but she was unsuccessful, and the +instruction was carried.</p> + +<p>On January 18th the debate on the Executive resolutions was +resumed, and it was resolved to increase the Executive Committee to +twenty-one, to form three standing Sub-Committees, and to abolish +<a name='Page_178'></a>the old restrictions on membership. On +February 1st the debate on Political Action began, and largely +turned on the question whether we should attempt to found a +Socialist Party or should subordinate our political activity to the +Independent Labour Party. As the first step towards founding a +middle-class Socialist Party was to be the establishment of Fabian +Societies throughout the country, those of us who like myself did +not believe in the possibility of the proposed new party could none +the less support the scheme. Co-operation with the Labour Party was +not in question; nor was the continuance of our friendly relations +with the I.L.P., but the proposal to subordinate our political +activity to the latter society met with but little support, and +finally on March 2nd the Executive resolution to appoint a +Committee for the purpose of drawing up a political policy was +adopted against a very small minority. Mr. Wells took very little +part in the proceedings after the Second Reading debate, and only +one speech of his is mentioned in the report.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +Meanwhile the controversy was being fought out on another field. +The January meetings had settled the number of the new Executive +and decided how the Basis should be altered. The Executive +therefore was now able to summon the Annual Meeting in order to +make the necessary amendments to the Rules. This was held on +February 22nd, when the resolutions were adopted without +discussion. The meeting then took up some minor items in the +Report, and in particular certain other amendments to the Basis +proposed by individual members. On these a resolution was carried +that the new Executive appoint a Committee to revise the Basis. The +Committee was in fact appointed, and consisted of Bernard Shaw, +Sidney <a name='Page_179'></a>Webb, H.G. Wells, and Sidney Ball of +Oxford. Mr. Wells resigned from the Society before its labours were +completed, and no report was ever presented.</p> + +<p>The Annual Meeting over, the way was now clear for the election +of the new Executive. The ballot papers, sent out with the March +"News," contained the names of 37 candidates, 13 out of the 15 of +the retiring Committee and 24 others. In normal years the practice +of issuing election addresses is strictly discouraged, because of +the advantage they give to those rich enough to afford the expense. +Therefore the record of new candidates, severely concrete +statements of past achievements, is published in "Fabian News." On +this occasion the usual distinction between old and new candidates +was not made, and the Executive undertook to send out Election +Addresses of candidates subject to necessary limits and on payment +by the candidates of the cost of printing. In addition numerous +other addresses were posted to the electors. The Old Gang made no +attempt to monopolise the Executive by running a full ticket. The +candidates in effect formed three groups, 15 supporters of the +outgoing Executive, including 10 retiring members who issued a +joint address; 13 candidates selected by a temporary Reform +Committee whose names were sent out by Mr. Wells and his chief +adherents; 7 independents, some of them supporters of the Executive +and the others of the Reformers; and finally myself. As I was paid +secretary and returning officer I did not formally associate myself +with any party, though my general sympathy with my old colleagues +was well known. Nine hundred and fifty-four members cast very +nearly 17,000 votes. Sidney Webb headed the poll with 819 votes; I +followed with 809. Bernard Shaw received 781, and Mr. Wells came +fourth with 717. <a name='Page_180'></a>All the retiring members +were re-elected except Cecil Chesterton, and including G.R.S. +Taylor, who had vehemently opposed his colleagues. Eleven of the +Executive list, nine of the Reformers, and myself constituted the +new Committee. In fact it was an able and effective body. The Old +Gang brought in Mr. Granville Barker; the Reformers included Mr. +Wells, Mrs. Pember Reeves, Aylmer Maude, R.C.K. Ensor, Dr. Haden +Guest, Sidney Ball, F.W. Pethick Lawrence, and Miss B.L. +Hutchins—most, if not all, of whom received support from the +friends of the Old Gang. Scarcely anything less like revolutionists +can be imagined than this list. Mr. Pethick Lawrence, it is true, +has since then done some hard fighting in another cause, but he has +always acted with seriousness and deliberation. Most of the others +might as well have figured on one ticket as the other. The Old Gang +including myself had 12 votes and all the experience, against 9 on +the other side. But the two sides did not survive the first meeting +of the new Committee. There was, as I have already said, no +differences of principle between the two parties. The expansion of +the parent Society had come about, local Societies were growing up +all over the country; Mr. Wells said no more about public authority +over the young—indeed his election address made no reference +to it—and Mr. Shaw did nothing to establish his Middle-Class +Socialist Party.</p> + +<p>The new Committee quickly settled down to work, but Mr. Wells +was already wearying of his rôle as political organiser. He +was appointed both to the General Purposes and the Propaganda +Sub-Committees, but after attending two meetings of the former, and +none of the latter, he resigned from both in October, and of the +seventeen meetings of the Executive Committee during its year of +office he attended only seven.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_181'></a>In April, 1908, he was re-elected to the +Executive, again fourth on the poll, and Mrs. Wells who had not +been a candidate before was also successful. But in the following +September he resigned his membership of the Society, assigning as +reasons "disagreement with the Basis which forms the Confession of +Faith of the Society and discontent with the general form of its +activities," together with a desire "to concentrate on the writing +of novels." He explained that "a scheme which proposes to leave +mother and child economically dependent on the father is not to me +Socialism at all, but a miserable perversion of Socialism." The +letter, printed in "Fabian News," goes on to refer to his objection +to the "no compensation" clause in the Basis (the real weakness of +which is that it refers hypothetically to a complete change of +system and is never applied to any particular case<a name= +'FNanchor_38' href='#Footnote_38'>[38]</a>), and added that the +opportunity for a propaganda to the British middle classes was now +over. Mrs. Wells retained her seat on the Executive Committee till +March, 1910, and soon after that date the connection of both of +them with the Society altogether ceased.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +I have now traced the main stream of the subject of this chapter, +though a good deal remains to be said <a name='Page_182'></a>on +other effects of the agitation. I have indicated that the actual +proposals made by the Special Committee under the inspiration of +Mr. Wells, in so far at any rate as they were controversial or +controverted, were futile or impossible, and neither led, nor in my +opinion could have led, to any benefit to the Society or to its +objects. But it must not be inferred from this that the +intervention of Mr. Wells, viewed as a whole, was of this +character. He is a man of outstanding genius, and in so far as he +used his powers appropriately, his work was of enormous value to +Socialism; and his energy and attractive personality added radiance +to the Society only equalled in the early days when the seven +Essayists were all in the field and all fighting at their bravest. +The new life in the Society during those brilliant years was due to +other factors as well as Mr. Wells. Other Socialist Societies, in +which he took no part, also increased their numbers and launched +out into fresh activities. But for us Mr. Wells was the spur which +goaded us on, and though at the time we were often forced to resent +his want of tact, his difficult public manners, and his constant +shiftings of policy, we recognised then, and we remember still, how +much of permanent value he achieved.</p> + +<p>Of this the chiefest is his books, and as the Society as such +had no part in them, anything more than a reference to them is +outside the scope of this volume. But it must be said that his "New +Worlds for Old," published in 1908, whilst he was a member of the +Fabian Executive, is perhaps the best recent book on English +Socialism.</p> + +<p>In this connection Mr. Wells displayed unexpected modesty and at +the same time inexperience of the ways of the world. His first +criticism of the Society, his first project of reform, related to +our tracts. To this <a name='Page_183'></a>point he directed an +unpublished preface to his paper "This Misery of Boots," when he +read it to the Society before the controversy had actually started. +He justly observed that very few of our publications were addressed +to the unconverted, were emotional appeals to join our movement, or +effective explanations of our general principles. He said that +these ought to be written, and the odd thing is that he appeared to +imagine that anybody, or at any rate a considerable number of +people, could just sit down and write them. He was aware that he +could do it himself, and he innocently imagined that plenty of +other people could do it too. He blamed the Executive for failing +to make use of the members in this respect, and persuaded them to +invite any member to send in manuscripts.</p> + +<p>In fact of course something like genius, or, at any rate, very +rare ability, is required for this sort of work. Any competent +writer can collect the facts about Municipal Drink Trade, or +Afforestation, or Poor Law Reform: many can explain an Act of +Parliament in simple language: but only one here and there can +write what others care to read on the principles of Socialism and +the broad aspects of its propaganda. If our list of tracts be +examined it will be found that the great majority of the "general" +tracts have been written by Sidney Webb and Bernard Shaw. A few +other writers have contributed general tracts from a special +standpoint, such as those on Christian Socialism. When we have +mentioned reprinted papers by William Morris and Sir Oliver Lodge, +and a tract by Sidney Ball, the list is virtually complete. Mr. +Wells himself only contributed to us his paper "This Misery of +Boots," and his appeal to the rank and file yielded nothing at all. +Of course there are plenty of people as innocent in this respect as +Mr. Wells was at that <a name='Page_184'></a>period referred to. +Hardly a month has passed in the last twenty years without +somebody, usually from the remote provinces, sending up a paper on +Socialism, which he is willing to allow the Society to publish on +reasonable terms. But only once have we thus found an unknown +author whose work, on a special subject, we could publish, and he +resigned a year or two later because we were compelled to reject a +second tract which he wrote for us.</p> + +<p>The history of the intervention of Mr. Wells is now complete. +Some account of the expansion of the Society at this period will be +given in the next chapter.</p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_34' href='#FNanchor_34'>[34]</a> The "Wells +Report" in October, 1906, recommended cordial co-operation with the +Labour Party, including the running of candidates for Parliament, +and it "warmly endorsed the conception of Socialists whenever +possible,... standing as Socialists in Municipal and Parliamentary +elections." In January, 1908, a scheme for effecting this was +adopted by the Society. In May, 1908, Mr. Wells, writing to "Fabian +News," said he should resign if the Society rejected his view that +"the Fabian Society is a Society for the study, development, and +propaganda of the Socialist idea. It extends a friendly support to +the Labour Party, but it is not a political society and membership +involves no allegiance to any political party."</p> + +<p>This was written in connection with his support of a Liberal +against a Socialist Candidate at North-West Manchester.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_35' href='#FNanchor_35'>[35]</a> In his +election address referred to on p. 179.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_36' href='#FNanchor_36'>[36]</a> +Private.—Report of the special Committee appointed in +February, 1906, to consider measures for increasing the scope, +influence, income, and activity of the Society, together with the +Executive Committee's Report, and Resolutions thereon. To be +submitted to the members at Essex Hall on Fridays the 7th and 14th +December, 1906, at 7.30 p.m. The Fabian Society. November, 1906 +(pp. 48).</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_37' href='#FNanchor_37'>[37]</a> See his "New +Worlds for Old," Chapter III, The First Main Generalisation of +Socialism, which according to Mr. Wells is as follows:—</p> + +<p>"The ideas of private individual rights of the parent and of his +isolated responsibility for his children are harmfully exaggerated +in the contemporary world. We do not sufficiently protect children +from negligent, incompetent, selfish, or wicked parents.... The +Socialist holds that the community should be responsible ... it is +not simply the right but the duty of the State ... to intervene in +any default for the child's welfare. Parentage rightly undertaken +is a service as well as a duty to the world ... in any completely +civilised state it must be sustained, rewarded, and +controlled...."</p> + +<p>Except for the last three words all this is neither new nor +controversial amongst not merely Socialists but the mildest of +social reformers, always excepting the Charity Organisation +Society. The last word is not, I think, further explained.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_38' href='#FNanchor_38'>[38]</a> A Tramway or +a Gasworks consists of two things: the actual plant, and the +nominal capital which represents its value. When the plant is +municipalised, its control is vested in the community, and the +shareholders are "compensated" with municipal securities or cash +obtained by loans from other investors in these securities. The +capital value of the tramway still virtually belongs to the private +holders of the municipal loan. But no second such step is possible. +Holders of municipal stock cannot be "compensated," if it is taken +from them. They can be paid off; or their property can be +confiscated either by taxation or by repudiation of the debt: there +is no middle course. The whole problem therefore arises from +confusion of thought.</p> + +<p>See Fabian Tract 147 "Capital and Compensation."</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p class="center"><a name='image10'></a><img src= +"images/image10.png" style="width: 300px; height: 460px; border: 0" +alt="From a drawing by Jessie Holliday SIDNEY WEBB, IN 1909" /></p> + +<p class="center"><i>From a drawing by Jessie Holliday</i></p> + +<p class="center">SIDNEY WEBB, IN 1909</p> + +<h3><a name='Page_185'></a><a name='Chapter_X'>Chapter X</a></h3> + +<h2>The Policy of Expansion: 1907-12</h2> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>Statistics of growth—The psychology of the +Recruit—Famous Fabians—The Arts Group—The +Nursery—The Women's Group—Provincial Fabian +Societies—University Fabian Societies—London Groups +revived—Annual Conferences—The Summer School—The +story of "Socialist Unity"—The Local Government Information +Bureau—The Joint Standing Committee—Intervention of the +International Socialist Bureau.</p> +</div> + +<p>The episode described in the last chapter, which took place +during the years 1906 to 1908, was accompanied by many other +developments in the activities of the Society which must now be +described. In the first place the membership grew at an +unprecedented rate. In the year ended March, 1905, 67 members were +elected. Next year the number was 167, to March, 1907, it was 455, +to March, 1908, 817, and to March, 1909, 665. This was an enormous +accession of new blood to a society which in 1904 had only 730 +members in all. In 1909 the Society consisted of 1674 men and 788 +women, a total of 2462; of these 1277 were ordinary members +residing in or near London, 343 scattered elsewhere in the United +Kingdom, 89 abroad; 414 were members of provincial Societies and +339 of University Societies. There were in addition about 500 +members of local Fabian Societies who were not also members of the +London Society, and the Associates numbered 217. The income from +subscriptions of all sorts was £473 in 1904 and £1608 +<a name='Page_186'></a>in 1908, the high-water mark in the history +of the Society for contributions to the ordinary funds.</p> + +<p>Of course there is all the difference in the world between a new +member and an old. The freshly elected candidate attends every +meeting and reads every word of "Fabian News." He begins, +naturally, as a whole-hearted admirer and is profoundly impressed +with the brilliance of the speakers, the efficiency of the +organisation, the ability of the tracts. A year or two later, if he +has any restlessness of intellect, he usually becomes a critic: he +wants to know why there are not more brightly written tracts, +explanatory of Socialism and suitable for the unconverted: he +complains that the lectures are far less interesting than they used +to be, that the debates are footling, the publications unattractive +in appearance and too dull to read. A few years later he either +settles down into a steady-going member, satisfied to do what +little he can to improve this unsatisfactory world; or else, like +Mr. Wells, he announces that the Society is no longer any good: +once (when he joined) it was really important and effective: its +methods <i>were</i> all right: it <i>was</i> proclaiming a fresh +political gospel. But times have changed, whilst the Society has +only grown old: it has done its work, and missed its opportunity +for more. It is no longer worthy of his support.</p> + +<p>In 1907 and 1908 the Society consisted largely of new members; +consequently the meetings were crowded and we were driven out from +one hall after another. Moreover the propagandist enthusiasm of Mr. +Wells and the glamour of his name helped to attract a large number +of distinguished persons into our ranks. Mr. Granville Barker was +one of the most active of these. He served on the Executive from +1907 to 1912 and took a large share in the detailed work of the +Committees, besides giving many lectures and <a name= +'Page_187'></a>assisting in social functions. The Rev. R.J. +Campbell, who addressed large meetings on several occasions, as +also elected to the Executive for the year 1908-9, but did not +attend a single meeting. Mr. Aylmer Maude joined the Executive in +1907, held office to 1912, and is still a working member of the +Society. Arnold Bennett, Laurence Irving, Edgar Jepson, Reginald +Bray, L.C.C. (member of the Executive 1911-12), Sir Leo (then Mr.) +Chiozza Money, M.P. (who sat on the Executive from 1908 to 1911), +Dr. Stanton Coit, H. Hamilton Fyfe, A.R. Orage, G.M. Trevelyan, +Edward Garnett, Dr. G.B. Clark (for many years M.P.), Miss +Constance Smedley, Philip Snowden, M.P., Mrs. Snowden (Executive +1908-9), George Lansbury, Herbert Trench, Jerome K. Jerome, Edwin +Pugh, Spencer Pryse, and A. Clutton Brock are amongst the people +known in politics, literature, or the arts who joined the Society +about this period.</p> + +<p>Some of these took little or no part in our proceedings, beyond +paying the necessary subscription, but others lectured or wrote for +the Society or participated in discussions and social meetings. +These were at this time immensely successful. In the autumn of +1907, for example, Mrs. Bernard Shaw arranged for the Society a +series of crowded meetings of members and subscribers at Essex Hall +on "The Faith I Hold." Mrs. Sidney Webb led off and was followed by +the Rev. R.J. Campbell, S.G. Hobson, Dr. Stanton Coit, H.G. Wells, +and Hubert Bland: with an additional discourse later in the spring +by Sir Sydney Olivier. Mr. Wells' paper, which proved to be far too +long for a lecture, was the first draft of his book "First and Last +Things"; but he had tired of the Society when it was published, and +the preface conceals its origin in something of a mystery. Sir John +Gorst, Mrs. Annie Besant, Dr. Südekum (German M.P.), Sir John +<a name='Page_188'></a>Cockburn, K.C.M.G., the Hon. W.P. Reeves, +Raymond Unwin, and Sir Leo Chiozza Money were amongst the other +lecturers of that year.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +In 1906 and succeeding years a new form of organisation was +established. Members spontaneously associated themselves into +groups, "The Nursery" for the young, the Women's Group, the Arts +Group, and Groups for Education, Biology, and Local Government. The +careers of these bodies were various. The Arts Group included +philosophy, and, to tell the truth, almost excluded Socialism. But +all of us in our youth are anxiously concerned about philosophy and +art and many who are no longer young are in the same case. Moreover +artists and philosophers are always attractive. Mr. Holbrook +Jackson and Mr. A.R. Orage, at that time associated in "The New +Age," founded the group early in 1907, and soon obtained lecturers +as distinguished, and audiences scarcely less numerous than the +Society itself. But in eighteen months "Art and Philosophy in +Relation to Socialism" seems to have been exhausted, and after the +summer of 1908 the Group disappears from the calendar. Biology and +Local Government had a somewhat longer but far less glorious +career. The meetings were small and more of the nature of classes. +Education is the life-work of a large class, which provides a +sensible proportion of Fabian membership, and teachers are always +eager to discuss and explain the difficult problems of their +profession and the complex law which regulates it. The Education +Group has led a diligent and useful life; it prepared a tract (No. +156), "What an Education Committee can do (Elementary Schools)," +and besides its private meetings it arranges occasional lectures +open to the public, which sometimes attract large audiences.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_189'></a>The Nursery belongs to another class. +When a society, formed as many societies are, of quite young +people, has existed over twenty years, the second generation begins +to be adult, and wants to be quit of its parents. Moreover the +young desire, naturally, to hear themselves talk, whilst the others +usually prefer the older and more famous personages. So a number of +younger members eagerly took up a plan which originated in the +circle of the Bland family, for forming a group confined to the +young in years or in membership in order to escape the +overmastering presence of the elderly and experienced. Sometimes +they invite a senior to talk to them and to be heckled at leisure. +More often they provide their own fare from amongst themselves. +Naturally the Nursery is not exclusively devoted to economics and +politics: picnics and dances also have their place. Some of the +members eventually marry each other, and there is no better +security for prolonged happiness in marriage than sympathy in +regard to the larger issues of life. The Nursery has produced one +tract, No. 132, "A Guide to Books for Socialists," described in the +"Wells Report" as intended "to supplement or even replace that arid +and indiscriminating catalogue, What to Read."</p> + +<p>Last in date, but by no means least in importance of the Groups +of this period, was the Women's Group, founded by Mrs. C.M. Wilson, +who after nearly twenty years of nominal membership had resumed her +active interest in the Society. The vigorous part taken by the +women of the Society under the leadership of Mrs. Reeves in +obtaining the only alteration yet made in the Basis has been +already described. The Group was not formed till a year later, and +at that time the Women's Suffrage movement, and especially the +party led by Mrs. Pankhurst, had attracted universal <a name= +'Page_190'></a>attention. The early Suffrage movement was mainly +Socialist in origin: most of the first leaders of the Women's +Social and Political Union were or had been members either of the +Fabian Society or of the I.L.P. and it may almost be said that all +the women of the Society joined one or more of the Suffrage +Societies which for the next seven years played so large a part in +national politics. But besides the question of the vote, which is +not peculiar to Socialism, there is a very large group of subjects +of special interest to Socialist women, either practical problems +of immediate politics relating to the wages and conditions of +women's labour and the treatment of women by Education Acts, +National Insurance Acts, and Factory Acts; or remoter and more +theoretical problems, especially those connected with the question +whether the wife in the ideal state is to be an independent +wage-earner or the mistress and manager of an isolated home, +dependent on her husband as breadwinner. Efficiently organised by +Mrs. C.M. Wilson, until ill-health required her resignation of the +secretaryship in 1914; by Mrs. Bernard Shaw, Mrs. Pember Reeves, +Miss Murby, Miss Emma Brooke, and many others, including in later +years Dr. Letitia Fairfield, the Group has had many of the +characteristics of an independent society. It has its own office, +latterly at 25 Tothill Street, rented from the parent Society, with +its own paid assistant secretary, and it has issued for private +circulation its own publications. In 1913 it prepared a volume of +essays on "Women Workers in Seven Professions," which was edited by +Professor Edith Morley and published by George Routledge and Sons. +It has prepared five tracts for the Society, published in the +general list, under a sub-title, "The Women's Group Series," and it +has taken an active part, both independently and in co-operation +with other bodies, <a name='Page_191'></a>in the political +movements specially affecting women, which have been so numerous in +recent years.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +It will be recollected that the only direct result of the Special +Enquiry Committee, apart from the changes made in the organisation +of the Society itself, was the decision to promote local Socialist +Societies of the Fabian type with a view to increasing Socialist +representation in Parliament. I have recounted in a previous +chapter how this scheme worked out in relation to the Labour Party +and the running of candidates for Parliament. It remains to +describe here its measure of success in the formation of local +societies.</p> + +<p>The summer of 1905 was about the low-water mark of provincial +Fabianism. Nine societies are named in the report, but four of +these appeared to have no more than a nominal existence. The Oxford +University Society had but 6 members; Glasgow had 30 in its +University Society and 50 in its town Society; Liverpool was +reduced to 63, Leeds and County to 15, and that was all. A year +later the Cambridge University Society had been formed, Oxford had +more than doubled its membership to 13, but only five other +societies were in existence. By the following year a revival had +set in. W. Stephen Sanders, at that time an Alderman of the London +County Council, who had been a member of the Society since 1890 and +of the executive Committee since 1904, was appointed Organising +Secretary with the special object of building up the provincial +organisation. By 1910 there were forty-six local societies, and in +1912 the maximum of fifty was reached. Since then the number has +declined. These societies were scattered over the country, some of +them in the great cities, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield, and so +on: others within hail of London, <a name='Page_192'></a>at +Croydon, Letchworth, Ilford: others again in small towns, +Canterbury, Chelmsford, Carnarvon: another was at Bedales School, +Petersfield, run by my son and his schoolfellows. The local +societies formed at this period, apart from the University +Societies, were in the main pallid reflections of the parent +Society in its earlier days; none of them had the good fortune to +find a member, so far as we yet know, of even second-class rank as +a thinker or speaker. One or two produced praiseworthy local tracts +on housing conditions and similar subjects. They usually displayed +less tolerance than the London Society, a greater inclination to +insist that there was but one way of political salvation, usually +the Labour Party way, and that all who would not walk in it should +be treated as alien enemies. If Socialism is only to be achieved by +the making of Socialists, as Mr. Wells announced with all the +emphasis of a rediscovery, no doubt the local societies achieved +some Socialism, since they made some members. If Socialism is to be +attained by the making of Socialist measures, doubtless they +accomplished a little by their influence on local administration. +Organisation for political work is always educative to those who +take part in it, and it has some effect on the infinitely complex +parallelogram of forces which determines the direction of progress. +Possibly I underestimate the importance of local Fabian Societies; +there is a school of thought, often represented in the Society, +which regards the provinces with reverent awe—omne ignotum +pro magnifico—as the true source of political wisdom, which +Londoners should endeavour to discover and obey. Londoners no doubt +see little of organised labour, and even less of industrial +co-operation: the agricultural labourer is to them almost a +foreigner: the Welsh miner belongs to another race. But the +business men, the <a name='Page_193'></a>professional class, and +the political organisers of Manchester and Glasgow have, in my +opinion, no better intuitions, and usually less knowledge than +their equivalents in London, and they have the disadvantage of +comparative isolation. London, the brain of the Empire, where +reside the leaders in politics and in commerce, in literature, in +journalism and in art, and which consequently attracts the young +men who aspire to be the next generation of leaders, where too are +stationed all the higher ranks of Civil Service, is different in +kind, as well as in size, from other cities. New thought on social +subjects is almost always the product of association. Only those +who live in a crowd of other thinkers know where there is room for +new ideas; for it takes years for the top layer of political +thought to find expression in books. Therefore the provincial +thinker on social problems is always a little out of date. Except +for one or two University men (e.g. Sidney Ball and Sir Oliver +Lodge) practically all Fabian tract-writers have been Londoners. +The local Fabian Societies have so far achieved nothing towards the +making of a middle-class Socialist party, and they have achieved +but little else. They have been fully justified because every +association for mutual instruction adds something to the mass of +political intelligence, does something to disseminate ideas, but +that is all that can be said for them.</p> + +<p>The University Societies belong to a different type. Nothing is +more important than the education of young men and women in +politics, and the older Universities have always recognised this. +Socialist Societies accordingly grew up naturally alongside Liberal +and Tory Clubs, and under the shadow of the "Unions." Oxford, as we +have seen, had a University Fabian Society from early days. +Cambridge followed at a much later date. For years Glasgow +University <a name='Page_194'></a>and University College, +Aberystwyth, maintained flourishing societies. The newer +Universities, dependent largely on the bounty of wealthy capitalist +founders and supporters, and assisted by, or in close touch with, +town councils and local industries, have been much less willing to +sanction political free-thought amongst their undergraduates, and +the pernicious influence of wealth, or rather the fear of alarming +the wealthy, has at times induced the authorities to interfere with +the freedom of the undergraduates to combine for the study and +propaganda of Socialism.</p> + +<p>Undergraduate societies are composed of a constantly shifting +population, and we arranged from the first that all their members +should also be elected direct to the parent Society in order that +they might remain automatically in membership when they "go down." +In fact of course the percentage which retains its membership is +very small. "Men" and women at Universities join any organisation +whose leaders at the moment are influential and popular. They are +sampling life to discover what suits them, and a few years later +some of them are scattered over the globe, others immersed in +science or art, or wholly occupied in law and medicine, in the +church and the army, in the civil service and in journalism. Most +of them no doubt have ceased to pretend to take interest in social +and political reform. A few remain, and these are amongst the most +valuable of our members. At times, when an undergraduate of force +of character and high social position, the heir to a peerage for +example, is for the moment an ardent Socialist, the Fabian Society +becomes, in a certain set or college, the fashionable organisation. +On the whole it is true that Socialists are born and not made, and +very few of the hundreds who join at such periods stay for more +than a couple of years. The maximum University membership—on +<a name='Page_195'></a>paper—was in 1914, when it reached 541 +members, of whom 101 were at Oxford and 70 at Cambridge. But the +weakness of undergraduate Socialism is indicated by the +extraordinary difficulty found in paying to the parent Society the +very moderate fee of a shilling a head per annum, and the effect of +attempting to enforce this in 1915, combined with the propaganda of +Guild Socialism, especially at Oxford, was for the moment to break +up the apparently imposing array of University Fabianism.</p> + +<p>In 1912 Clifford Allen of Cambridge formed the University +Socialist Federation, which was in fact a Federation of Fabian +Societies though not nominally confined to them. Mr. Allen, an +eloquent speaker and admirable organiser, with most of the virtues +and some of the defects of the successful propagandist, planned the +foundations of the Federation on broad lines. It started a +sumptuous quarterly, "The University Socialist," the contents of +which by no means equalled the excellence of the print and paper. +It did not survive the second number. The Federation has held +several conferences, mostly at Barrow House—of which +later—and issued various documents. Its object is to +encourage University Socialism and to found organisations in every +University. It still exists, but whether it will survive the period +of depression which has coincided with the war remains to be +seen.</p> + +<p>Lastly, amongst the organs of Fabian activity come the London +Groups. In the years of rapid growth that followed the publication +of "Fabian Essays" the London Groups maintained a fairly genuine +existence. London was teeming with political lectures, and in the +decade 1889-1899 its Government was revolutionised by the County +Councils Act of 1888, the Local Government Act of 1894, and the +London Government Act of 1899 which established the Metropolitan <a +name='Page_196'></a>Boroughs. Socialism, too, was a novelty, and +the few who knew about it were in request.</p> + +<p>Anyway even with the small membership of those days, the London +Groups managed to persist, and "Fabian News" is full of reports of +conferences of Group Secretaries and accounts of Group activities. +In the trough of depression between the South African War and the +Liberal victory of 1906 all this disappeared and the Group system +scarcely existed even on paper.</p> + +<p>With the expansion which began in 1906 the Groups revived. New +members were hungry for lectures: many of them desired more +opportunities to talk than the Society meetings afforded. All +believed in or hoped for Mr. Wells' myriad membership. He himself +was glad to address drawing-room meetings, and the other leaders +did the same. Moreover the Society was conducting a series of +"Suburban Lectures" by paid lecturers, in more or less middle-class +residential areas of the Home Counties. Lectures to the Leisured +Classes, a polite term for the idle rich, were arranged with +considerable success in the West End, and other lectures, meetings, +and social gatherings were incessant.</p> + +<p>For co-ordinating these various bodies the Fabian Society has +created its own form of organisation fitted to its peculiar +circumstances, and more like that of the British Empire than +anything else known to me. As is the United Kingdom in the British +Empire, so in the Fabian movement the parent Society is larger, +richer, and more powerful, and in all respects more important than +all the others put together. Any form of federal organisation is +impossible, because federation assumes some approach to equality +amongst constituents. Our local societies, like the British +self-governing Dominions, are practically independent, especially +in the very important department of finance. The Groups, on the +other hand, are like <a name='Page_197'></a>County Councils, local +organisations within special areas for particular purposes, with +their own finances for those purposes only. But the parent Society +is not made up of Groups, any more than the British Government is +composed of County Councils. The local Groups consist of members of +the Society qualified for the group by residence in the group area; +the "Subject Groups" of those associated for some particular +purpose.</p> + +<p>The problem of the Society (as it is of the Empire) was to give +the local societies and the groups some real function which should +emphasise and sustain the solidarity of the whole; and at the same +time leave unimpaired the control of the parent Society over its +own affairs.</p> + +<p>The Second Annual Conference of Fabian Societies and Groups was +held on July 6th, 1907, under the chairmanship of Hubert Bland, who +opened the proceedings with an account of the first Conference held +in 1892 and described in an earlier chapter. Fifteen delegates from +9 local and University Societies, 16 from 8 London Groups, 8 from +Subject Groups, and 9 members of the Executive Committee were +present. The business consisted of the sanction of rules for the +Pan-Fabian Organisation.</p> + +<p>The Conference of 1908 was a much bigger affair. A dozen members +of the Executive, including Mr. H.G. Wells and (as he then was) Mr. +L.G. Chiozza Money. M.P., and 61 delegates representing 36 Groups +and Societies met for a whole-day conference at University Hall, +Gordon Square. Miss Murby was chairman, and addressed the delegates +on the importance of tolerance, an apposite subject in view of the +discussion to follow on the proposed parliamentary action, +especially the delicate issue between co-operation with the Labour +Party and the promotion of a purely Socialist party. A resolution +favouring exclusive support of independent Socialist candidatures +<a name='Page_198'></a>moved by Mr. J.A. Allan of Glasgow received +only 10 votes, but another advocating preference for such +candidates was only defeated by 26 to 21. The resolution adopted +left the question to be settled in each case by the constituency +concerned. Another resolution directed towards condemnation of +members who worked with the Liberal or Tory Party failed by 3 votes +only, 17 to 20. In the afternoon Mr. Money gave an address on the +Sources of Socialist Revenue, and a number of administrative +matters were discussed.</p> + +<p>The 1909 Conference was attended by 29 delegates of local and +University Societies, and by 46 delegates from London Groups and +from the parent Society. On this occasion a Constitution was +adopted giving the Conference a regular status, the chief +provisions of which required the submission to the Conference of +any alteration of the Basis, and "any union affiliation or formal +alliance with any other society or with any political party whereby +the freedom of action of any society ... is in any way limited ... +"; and of any change in the constitution itself. These are all +matters which concern the local organisations, as they are required +to adopt the Basis, or some approved equivalent, and are affiliated +to the Labour Party through the parent Society. No contentious +topic was on this occasion seriously discussed.</p> + +<p>The Conference of 1910 was smaller, sixty-one delegates in all. +Resolutions against promoting parliamentary candidatures and +favouring the by this time vanishing project for an independent +Socialist party obtained but little support, and the chief +controversy was over an abstract resolution on the "economic +independence of women," which was in the end settled by a +compromise drafted by Sidney Webb.</p> + +<p>Sixty delegates were present at the 1911 Conference, held at +Clifford's Inn, who, after rejecting by a seven <a name= +'Page_199'></a>to one majority a resolution to confine Fabian +membership to Labour Party adherents, devoted themselves mainly to +opposition to the National Insurance Bill then before +Parliament.</p> + +<p>In 1912 the Conference was still large and still concerned in +the position of the Society in relation to Labour and +Liberalism.</p> + +<p>Both in 1913 and in 1914 the Conference was well attended and +prolonged, but in 1915, partly on account of the war and partly +because of the defection of several University Societies, few were +present, and the business done was inconsiderable.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +The Summer School was another enterprise started at the period. It +was begun independently of the Society in this sense, that half a +dozen members agreed to put up the necessary capital and to accept +the financial responsibility, leaving to the Society the +arrangement of lectures and the management of business.</p> + +<p>It was opened at the end of July, 1907, at Pen-yr-allt, a large +house, previously used as a school, looking out over the sea, near +Llanbedr, a little village on the Welsh coast between Barmouth and +Harlech. The house was taken for three years partly furnished, and +the committee provided the beds, cutlery, etc., needed. One or two +other houses near by were usually rented for the summer months.</p> + +<p>The value of the plan for a propagandist society is largely +this, that experience shows that people can only work together +efficiently when they know each other. Therefore in practice +political and many other organisations find it necessary to arrange +garden parties, fêtes, picnics, teas, and functions of all +sorts in order to bring together their numbers under such +conditions as enable them to become personally <a name= +'Page_200'></a>acquainted with each other. In times of expansion +the Fabian Society has held dinners and soirées in London, +many of which have been successful and even brilliant occasions, +because the new members come in crowds and the old attend as a +duty. When new members are few these entertainments cease, for +nothing is so dreary as a social function that is half failure, and +a hint of it brings the series to an end. But a Summer School where +members pass weeks together is far more valuable in enabling the +leaders and officials to find out who there is who is good as a +speaker or thinker, or who is a specialist on some subject of value +to the movement. Moreover, gatherings of this class attract those +on the fringe of the movement, and many of our members have come to +us through attendance at the school. Apart from the direct +interests of the Society, a School of this character is valued by +many solitary people, solitary both socially, such as teachers and +civil servants, who are often lonely in the world, and solitary +intellectually because they live in remote places where people of +their way of thinking are scarce.</p> + +<p>It is not necessary to describe the arrangements of the School, +for these institutions have in the last few years become familiar +to everybody. We do not, however, as a rule make quite such a +business of the schooling as is usual where the term is short, and +study is the sole object. One regular lecture a day for four days a +week is the rule, but impromptu lectures or debates in the +evenings, got up amongst the guests, are customary. Moreover, +frequent conferences on special subjects are held, either by allied +bodies, such as the Committee for the Prevention of Destitution, or +by a Group, such as the Education Group or the Research Department. +On these occasions the proportion of work to play is higher. The +School-house <a name='Page_201'></a>belongs to the Society for the +whole year, and parties are arranged for Christmas, Easter, and +Whitsuntide whenever possible.</p> + +<p>After four years at Llanbedr the lease was terminated and the +original Committee wound up. The capital borrowed had all been +repaid, and there remained, after a sale by auction, a lot of +property and nearly £100 in cash. This the Committee +transferred to the Society, and thereupon the quasi-independence of +the Summer School came to an end. In 1911 a new experiment was +tried. A small hotel at Saas Grund, off the Rhone Valley, was +secured, and during six weeks three large parties of Fabians +occupied it for periods of a fortnight each. The summer was one of +the finest of recent years, and the high mountains were +exceptionally attractive. On account of the remoteness of the +place, and the desire to make the most of a short time, lectures +were as a rule confined to the evening, and distinguished visitors +were few, but an address by Dr. Hertz of Paris, one of the few +French Fabians, may be mentioned, partly because in the summer of +1915 his promising career was cut short in the trenches which +protected his country from the German invaders.</p> + +<p>In 1912 Barrow House, Derwentwater, was taken for three years, a +beautiful place with the Barrow Falls in the garden on one side, +and grounds sloping down to the lake on the other, with its own +boating pier and bathing-place. A camp of tents for men was set up, +and as many as fifty or sixty guests could be accommodated at a +time. Much of the success of the School has throughout been due to +Miss Mary Hankinson, who from nearly the beginning has been a most +popular and efficient manager. A director is selected by the +Committee to act as nominal head, and holds office usually for a +week or a fortnight; but the chief of staff is a permanent +institution, and is not only business <a name= +'Page_202'></a>manager, but also organiser and leader of excursions +and a principal figure in all social undertakings. A great part in +arranging for the School from the first has been taken by Dr. +Lawson Dodd, to whose experience and energy much of its success has +been due.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +The year 1911 saw the formation of the Joint Standing Committee +with the I.L.P., and this is a convenient place to describe the +series of attempts at Socialist Unity which began a long way back +in the history of the Society. For the first eight years or so of +the Socialist movement the problem of unity did not arise. Until +the publication of "Fabian Essays" the Fabian Society was small, +and the S.D.F., firm in its Marxian faith, and confident that the +only way of salvation was its particular way, had no more idea of +uniting with the other societies than the Roman Catholic Church has +of union with Lutherans or Methodists. The Socialist League was the +outcome of an internal dispute, and, if my memory is correct, the +S.D.F. expected, not without reason, that the seceders would +ultimately return to the fold. The League ceased to count when at +the end of 1890 William Morris left it and reconstituted as the +Hammersmith Socialist Society the branch which met in the little +hall constructed out of the stable attached to Kelmscott House.</p> + +<p>In January, 1893, seven delegates from this Society held a +conference with Fabian delegates, and at a second meeting at which +S.D.F. delegates were present a scheme for promoting unity was +approved. A Joint Committee of five from each body assembled on +February 23rd, when William Morris was appointed Chairman, with +Sydney Olivier as Treasurer, and it was decided that the Chairman +with H.M. Hyndman an<a name='Page_203'></a>d Bernard Shaw should +draft a Joint Manifesto. The "Manifesto of English Socialists," +published on May 1st, 1893, as a penny pamphlet with the customary +red cover, was signed by the three Secretaries, H.W. Lee of the +S.D.F., Emery Walker of the H.S.S., and myself, and by fifteen +delegates, including Sydney Olivier and Sidney Webb of the F.S., +Harry Quelch of the S.D.F., and the three authors.</p> + +<p>Like most joint productions of clever men, it is by no means an +inspiring document. The less said, the less to dispute about, and +so it only runs to eight pages of large print, four devoted to the +evils of capitalism, unemployment, the decline of agriculture, and +the ill-nurture of children, and the rest to remedies, a queer +list, consisting of:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>An eight hours law.</p> + +<p>Prohibition of child labour for wages.</p> + +<p>Free Maintenance for all necessitous children (a compromise in +which Fabian influence may be traced by the insertion of the word +"necessitous").</p> + +<p>Equal payment of men and women for equal work.</p> +</div> + +<p>(A principle which, whether good or bad, belongs rather to +individualism than to Socialism: Socialism according to Bernard +Shaw—and most of us agree with him—demands as an ideal +equal maintenance irrespective of work; and in the meantime payment +according to need, each to receive that share of the national +product which he requires in order to do his work and maintain his +dependents, if any, appropriately.)</p> + +<p>To resume the programme:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>An adequate minimum wage for all adults employed in Government +and Municipal services or in any monopolies such as railways +enjoying State privileges.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_204'></a>Suppression of all sub-contracting and +sweating (an ignorant confusion between a harmless industrial +method and its occasional abuse).</p> + +<p>Universal suffrage for all adults, men and women alike.</p> + +<p>Public payment for all public service.</p> +</div> + +<p>These of course were only means tending towards the ideal, "to +wit, the supplanting of the present state by a society of equality +of condition," and then follows a sentence paraphrased from the +Fabian Basis embodying a last trace of that Utopian idealism which +imagines that society can be constituted so as to enable men to +live in freedom without eternal vigilance, namely, "When this great +change is completely carried out, the genuine liberty of all will +be secured by the free play of social forces with much less +coercive interference than the present system entails."</p> + +<p>From these extracts it will be seen that the Manifesto, drafted +by William Morris, but mutilated and patched up by the other two, +bears the imprint neither of his style, nor that of Shaw, but +reminds one rather of mid-Victorian dining-room furniture, solid, +respectable, heavily ornate, and quite uninteresting. Happily there +is not much of it!</p> + +<p>Unity was attained by the total avoidance of the contentious +question of political policy. But fifteen active Socialists sitting +together at a period when parties were so evenly divided that a +General Election was always imminent could not refrain from +immediate politics, and the S.D.F., like many other bodies, always +cherished the illusion that the defeat of a minority at a joint +conference on a question of principle would put that minority out +of action.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, as soon as the Manifesto had been published +resolutions were tabled pledging the constituent societies to +concentrate their efforts on <a name='Page_205'></a>Socialist +candidates accepted as suitable by the Joint Committee. On this +point the Fabian Society was in a hopeless minority, and an endless +vista of futile and acrimonious discussions was opened out which +would lead to unrest in our own society—for there has always +been a minority opposed to its dominant policy—and a waste of +time and temper to the delegates from our Executive. It was +therefore resolved at the end of July that our delegates be +withdrawn, and that put an end to the Joint Committee.</p> + +<p>The decision was challenged at a members' meeting by E.E. +Williams, one of the signatories of the Joint Manifesto, +subsequently well known as the author of "Made in Germany," and in +some sense the real founder of the Tariff Reform movement; but the +members by a decisive vote upheld the action of their +Executive.</p> + +<p>Four years later, early in 1897, another effort after Unity was +made. By this time Morris, whose outstanding personality had given +him a commanding and in some respects a moderating influence in the +movement, was dead; and the Hammersmith Socialist Society had +disappeared. Instead there was the new and vigorous Independent +Labour Party, already the premier Socialist body in point of public +influence. This body took the first step, and a meeting was held in +April at the Fabian office, attended by Hubert Bland, Bernard Shaw, +and myself as delegates from our Society. The proposal before the +Conference was "the formation of a court of appeal to adjudicate +between rival Socialist candidates standing for the same seat at +any contested election," an occurrence which has in fact been rare +in local and virtually unknown in Parliamentary elections.</p> + +<p>As the Fabian Society did not at that time officially run +candidates, and has always allowed to its members <a name= +'Page_206'></a>liberty of action in party politics, it was +impossible for us to undertake that our members would obey any such +tribunal. The difficulty was however solved by the S.D.F., whose +delegates to the second meeting, held in July, announced that they +were instructed to withdraw from the Committee if the Fabian +delegates remained. The I.L.P. naturally preferred the S.D.F. to +ourselves, because their actual rivalry was always with that body, +and we were only too glad to accept from others the dismissal which +we desired. So our delegates walked out, leaving the other two +parties in temporary possession of our office, and Socialist Unity +so far as we were concerned again vanished. I do not think that the +court of appeal was ever constituted, and certainly the relations +between the other two Societies continued to be difficult.</p> + +<p>The next move was one of a practical character. The Fabian +Society had always taken special interest in Local Government, as a +method of obtaining piecemeal Socialism, and had long acted as an +informal Information Bureau on the law and practice of local +government administration. The success of the I.L.P. in getting its +members elected to local authorities suggested a conference of such +persons, which was held at Easter, 1899, on the days preceding the +I.L.P. Annual Conference at Leeds. Sidney Webb was invited to be +President, and gave an address on "The Sphere of Municipal +Statesmanship"; Will Crooks was Chairman of the Poor Law Section. +At this Conference it was resolved to form a Local Government +Information Bureau, to be jointly managed by the I.L.P. and the +Fabian Society; it was intended for Labour members of local +authorities, but anybody could join on payment of the annual +subscription of 2s. 6d. For this sum the subscriber obtained the +right to have questions answered free of charge, and <a name= +'Page_207'></a>to receive both "Fabian News" and the official +publications of the I.L.P., other than their weekly newspaper. The +Bureau also published annual Reports, at first on Bills before +Parliament, and latterly abstracts of such Acts passed by +Parliament as were of interest to its members. It pursued an +uneventful but useful career, managed virtually by the secretaries +of the two societies, which divided the funds annually in +proportion to the literature supplied. Several Easter Conferences +of Elected Persons were held with varying success. Later on the +nominal control was handed over to the Joint Committee, next to be +described.</p> + +<p>The problem of Socialist Unity seemed to be approaching a +settlement when the three organisations, in 1900, joined hands with +the Trade Unions in the formation of the Labour Representation +Committee, later renamed the Labour Party. But in 1901, eighteen +months after the Committee was constituted, the S.D.F. withdrew, +and thereafter unity became more difficult than ever, since two +societies were united for collective political action with the +numerically and financially powerful trade unions, whilst the third +took up the position of hostile isolation. But between the Fabian +Society and the I.L.P. friendly relations became closer than ever. +The divergent political policies of the two, the only matter over +which they had differed, had been largely settled by change of +circumstances. The Fabian Society had rightly held that the plan of +building up an effective political party out of individual +adherents to any one society was impracticable, and the I.L.P. had +in fact adopted another method, the permeation of existing +organisations, the Trade Unions. On the other hand the Fabian +Society, which at first confined its permeation almost entirely to +the Liberal Party, because this was <a name='Page_208'></a>the only +existing organisation accessible—we could not work through +the Trade Unions, because we were not eligible to join +them—was perfectly willing to place its views before the +Labour Party, from which it was assured of sympathetic attention. +Neither the Fabian Society nor the I.L.P. desired to lose its +identity, or to abandon its special methods. But half or two-thirds +of the Fabians belonged also to the I.L.P., and nearly all the +I.L.P. leaders were or had been members of the Fabian Society.</p> + +<p>The suggestion was made in March, 1911, by Henry H. Slesser, +then one of the younger members of the Executive, that the friendly +relations of the two bodies should be further cemented by the +formation of a Joint Standing Committee. Four members of each +Executive together with the secretaries were appointed, and W.C. +Anderson, later M.P. for the Attercliffe Division of Sheffield, and +at that time Chairman of the I.L.P., was elected Chairman, a post +which he has ever since retained. The Joint Committee has wisely +confined its activities to matters about which there was no +disagreement, and its proceedings have always been harmonious to +the verge of dullness. The Committee began by arranging a short +series of lectures, replacing for the time the ordinary Fabian +meetings, and it proposed to the Labour Party a demonstration in +favour of Adult Suffrage, which was successfully held at the Royal +Albert Hall.</p> + +<p>In the winter of 1912-13 the Joint Committee co-operated with +the National Committee for the Prevention of Destitution (of which +later) in a big War against Poverty Campaign, to demand a minimum +standard of civilised life for all. A demonstration at the Albert +Hall, a Conference at the Memorial Hall, twenty-nine other +Conferences throughout Great Britain, all attended by numerous +delegates from Trade <a name='Page_209'></a>Unions and other +organisations, and innumerable separate meetings were among the +activities of the Committee. In 1913 a large number of educational +classes were arranged. In the winter of 1913-14 the I.L.P. desired +to concentrate its attention on its own "Coming of Age Campaign," +an internal affair, in which co-operation with another body was +inappropriate. A few months later the War began and, for reasons +explained later, joint action remains for the time in abeyance.</p> + +<p>It will be convenient to complete the history of the movements +for Socialist Unity, though it extends beyond the period assigned +to this chapter, and we must now turn back to the beginning of +another line of action.</p> + +<p>The International Socialist and Trade Union Congresses held at +intervals of three or four years since 1889 were at first no more +than isolated Congresses, arranged by local organisations +constituted for the purpose in the preceding year. Each nation +voted as one, or at most, as two units, and therefore no limit was +placed on the number of its delegates: the one delegate from +Argentina or Japan consequently held equal voting power to the +scores or even hundreds from France or Germany. But gradually the +organisation was tightened up, and in 1907 a scheme was adopted +which gave twenty votes each to the leading nations, and +proportionately fewer to the others. Moreover a permanent Bureau +was established at Brussels, with Emile Vandervelde, the +distinguished leader of the Belgian Socialists, later well known in +England as the Ministerial representative of the Belgian Government +during the war, as Chairman. In England, where the Socialist and +Trade Union forces were divided, it was necessary to constitute a +special joint committee in order to raise the British quota of the +cost of the <a name='Page_210'></a>Bureau, and to elect and +instruct the British delegates. It was decided by the Brussels +Bureau that the 20 British votes should be allotted, 10 to the +Labour Party, 4 to the I.L.P., 4 to the British Socialist Party +(into which the old S.D.F. had merged), and 2 to the Fabian +Society, and the British Section of the International Socialist +Bureau was, and still remains, constituted financially and +electorally on that basis.</p> + +<p>In France and in several other countries the internal +differences between sections of the Socialist Party have been +carried to far greater lengths than have ever been known in +England. In France there have been hostile groups of Socialist +representatives in the Chamber of Deputies and constant internecine +opposition in electoral campaigns. In Great Britain the rivalry of +different societies has consisted for the most part in separate +schemes of propaganda, in occasional bickerings in their +publications, in squabbles over local elections, and sometimes over +the selection but not the election of parliamentary candidates. On +the other hand co-operation on particular problems and exchange of +courtesies have been common.</p> + +<p>The International Socialist Bureau, under instructions from the +Copenhagen Conference had made a successful attempt to unite the +warring elements of French Socialism, and in the autumn of 1912 the +three British Socialist Societies were approached with a view to a +conference with the Bureau on the subject of Socialist unity in +Great Britain. Convenient dates could not be fixed, and the matter +was dropped, but in July, 1913, M. Vandervelde, the Chairman, and +M. Camille Huysmans, the Secretary of the Bureau, came over from +Brussels and a hurried meeting of delegates assembled in the Fabian +office to discuss their proposals. The Bureau had the good sense to +recognise that the way to unity led through the Labour <a name= +'Page_211'></a>Party; and it was agreed that the three Socialist +bodies should form a United Socialist Council, subject to the +condition that the British Socialist Party should affiliate to the +Labour Party.</p> + +<p>In December, 1913, a formal conference was held in London, +attended on this occasion by all the members of the International +Socialist Bureau, representing the Socialist parties of twenty +different countries. The crux of the question was to find a form of +words which satisfied all susceptibilities; and Sidney Webb, who +was chosen chairman of a part of the proceedings when the British +delegates met by themselves to formulate the terms of agreement, +was here in his element; for it would be hard to find anybody in +England more skilful in solving the difficulties that arise in +determining the expression of a proposition of which the substance +is not in dispute.</p> + +<p>An agreement was arrived at that the Joint Socialist Council +should be formed as soon as the British Socialist Party was +affiliated to the Labour Party. The B.S.P. confirmed the decision +of its delegates, but the Labour Party referred the acceptance of +affiliation to the Annual Conference of 1915<a name='FNanchor_39' +href='#Footnote_39'>[39]</a>.</p> + +<p>Then came the War. The Labour Party Conference of 1915 did not +take place, and a sudden new divergence of opinion arose in the +Socialist movement. The Labour Party, the Fabian Society, and the +leaders of the B.S.P. gave general support to the Government in +entering into the war. The I.L.P. adopted an attitude of critical +hostility. Amidst this somewhat unexpected regrouping of parties, +any attempt to inaugurate a United Socialist Council was foredoomed +to failure. The project for Socialist Unity therefore awaits the +happy time when war shall have ceased.</p> + +<p>FOOTNOTE:</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_39' href='#FNanchor_39'>[39]</a> The Labour +Party Conference held in January, 1916, unanimously accepted the +affiliation of the British Socialist Party.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p class="center"><a name='image11'></a><img src= +"images/image11.png" style="width: 300px; height: 460px; border: 0" +alt="MRS. SIDNEY WEBB, IN 1909" /></p> + +<p class="center">MRS. SIDNEY WEBB, IN 1909</p> + +<h3><a name='Page_212'></a><a name='Chapter_XI'>Chapter XI</a></h3> + +<h2>The Minority Report, Syndicalism and Research: 1909-15</h2> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>The emergence of Mrs. Sidney Webb—The Poor Law +Commission—The Minority Report—Unemployment—The +National Committee for the Prevention of Destitution—"Vote +against the House of Lords"—Bernard Shaw retires—Death +of Hubert Bland—Opposition to the National Insurance +Bill—The Fabian Reform Committee—The "New +Statesman"—The Research Department—"The Rural +Problem"—"The Control of +Industry"—Syndicalism—The Guildsmen—Final +Statistics—The War.</p> +</div> + +<p>A former chapter was entitled "The Episode of Mr. Wells." The +present might have been called "The Intervention of Mrs. Sidney +Webb," save for the fact that it would suggest a comparison which +might be misleading.</p> + +<p>I have insisted with some iteration that the success of the +Society, both in its early days and afterwards, must be mainly +attributed to the exceptional force and ability of the Essayists. +Later in its history only two persons have come forward who are in +my opinion entitled in their Fabian work to rank with the original +leaders, to wit, Mr. Wells and Mrs. Webb. Of the former I have said +enough already. The present chapter will be largely devoted to the +influence of the latter.</p> + +<p>It must however be observed that in all their achievements it is +impossible to make a clear distinction between Mrs. Webb and her +husband. For example, the Minority Report of the Poor Law +Commission, shortly to be dealt with, purported to be the <a name= +'Page_213'></a>work of Mrs. Webb and her three co-signatories. In +fact the investigation, the invention, and the conclusions were in +the fullest sense joint, although the draft which went to the +typist was in the handwriting of Mr. Webb. On some occasions at any +rate Mrs. Webb lectures from notes in her husband's eminently +legible handwriting: her own—oddly unlike her +character—is indecipherable without prolonged scrutiny even +by herself. Sometimes, on the other hand, it is possible to +separate the work of the two. Mrs. Webb, although elected a member +in 1893, took practically no part in the Fabian Society until 1906. +It may be said, with substantial if not literal accuracy, that her +only contributions to the Society for the first dozen years of her +membership were a couple of lectures and Tract No. 67, "Women and +the Factory Acts." The Suffrage movement and the Wells episode +brought her to our meetings, and her lecture in "The Faith I Hold" +series, a description of her upbringing amongst the captains of +industry who built some of the world's great railways, was amongst +the most memorable in the long Fabian series. Still she neither +held nor sought any official position; and the main work of a +Society is necessarily done by the few who sit at its Committees +often twice or thrice a week.</p> + +<p>The transformation of Mrs. Webb from a student and writer, a +typical "socialist of the chair," into an active leader and +propagandist originated in December, 1905, when she was appointed a +member of the Royal Commission on the Poor Law. The Fabian Society +had nothing to do with the Commission during its four years of +enquiry, though as usual not a few Fabians took part in the work, +both officially and unofficially. But when in the spring of 1909 +the Minority Report was issued, signed by Mrs. Webb and George +Lansbury, both members of the Society, as well as by the Rev. <a +name='Page_214'></a>Russell Wakefield (now the Bishop of +Birmingham) and Mr. F. Chandler, Secretary of the Amalgamated +Society of Carpenters and Joiners, the Society took it up. Mr. and +Mrs. Webb reprinted the Minority Report with an introduction and +notes in two octavo volumes, and they lent the Society the plates +for a paper edition in two parts at a shilling and two shillings, +one dealing with Unemployment and the other with the reconstruction +of the Poor Law, some 6000 copies of which were sold at a +substantial profit.</p> + +<p>The Treasury Solicitor was rash enough to threaten us with an +injunction on the ground of infringement of the Crown copyright and +to demand an instant withdrawal of our edition. But Government +Departments which try conclusions with the Fabian Society generally +find the Society better informed than themselves; and we were able +triumphantly to refer the Treasury Solicitor to a published +declaration of his own employers, the Lords Commissioners of the +Treasury, a score of years before, in which they expressly +disclaimed their privilege of copyright monopoly so far as ordinary +blue books were concerned, and actually encouraged the reprinting +of them for the public advantage. And, with characteristic +impudence, we intimated also that, if the Government wished to try +the issue, it might find that the legal copyright was not in the +Crown at all, as the actual writer of the Report, to whom alone the +law gives copyright, had never ceded his copyright and was not a +member of the Royal Commission at all! At the same time we prepared +to get the utmost advertisement out of the attempt to suppress the +popular circulation of the Report, and we made this fact known to +the Prime Minister. In the end the Treasury Solicitor had to climb +down and withdraw his objection. What the Government did was to +undercut us by publishing a <a name='Page_215'></a>still cheaper +edition, which did not stop our sales, and thus the public +benefited by our enterprise, and an enormous circulation was +obtained for the Report.</p> + +<p>The Minority Report of the Poor Law Commission—although +never, from first to last, mentioning Socialism—was a notable +and wholly original addition to Socialist theory, entirely of +Fabian origin. Hitherto all Socialist writings on the organisation +of society, whether contemporary or Utopian, had visualised a world +composed exclusively of healthy, sane, and effective citizens, +mostly adults. No Socialist had stopped to think out how, in a +densely populated and highly industrialised Socialist community, we +should provide systematically for the orphans, the sick, the +physically or mentally defective and the aged on the one hand, and +for the adults for whom at any time no immediate employment could +be found. The Minority Report, whilst making immediately +practicable proposals for the reform of all the evils of the Poor +Law, worked out the lines along which the necessary organisation +must proceed, even in the fully socialised State. We had, in the +Fabian Society, made attempts to deal with both sides of this +problem; but our publications, both on the Poor Law and on the +Unemployed, had lacked the foundation of solid fact and the +discovery of new principles, which the four years' work of the +Fabians connected with the Poor Law Commission now supplied.</p> + +<p>English Socialists have always paid great and perhaps excessive +attention to the problem of unemployment. Partly this is due to the +fact that Socialism came to the front in Great Britain at a period +when unemployment was exceptionally rife, and when for the first +time in the nineteenth century the community had become acutely +aware of it. In our early days it was commonly believed to be a +rapidly growing <a name='Page_216'></a>evil. Machinery was +replacing men: the capitalists would employ a few hands to turn the +machines on and off: wealth would be produced for the rich, and +most of the present manual working class would become superfluous. +The only reply, so far as I know, to this line of argumentative +forecast is that it does not happen. The world is at present so +avid of wealth, so eager for more things to use or consume, that +however quickly iron and copper replace flesh and blood, the demand +for men keeps pace with it. Anyway, unemployment in the twentieth +century has so far been less prevalent than it was in the +nineteenth, and nobody now suggests, as did Mrs. Besant in 1889, +that the increasing army of the unemployed, provided with work by +the State, would ultimately oust the employees of private +capitalism. Unemployment in fact is at least as old as the days of +Queen Elizabeth, when the great Poor Law of 1601 was passed to cope +with it. Whilst labour was scattered and the artisan still +frequently his own master, unemployment was indefinite and +relatively imperceptible. When masses of men and women came to be +employed in factories, the closing of the factory made unemployment +obvious to those on the spot. But two generations ago Lancashire +and Yorkshire were far away from London, and the nation as a whole +knew little and cared less about hard times amongst cotton +operatives or iron-workers in the remote north.</p> + +<p>It may be said with fair accuracy that Unemployment was scarcely +recognised as a social problem before the last quarter of the +nineteenth century, though in fact it had existed for centuries, +and had been prevalent for fifty years. Mill in his "Political +Economy," which treats so sympathetically of the state of labour +under capitalism, has no reference to it in the elaborate table of +contents. Indeed the word unemployment <a name='Page_217'></a>is so +recent as to have actually been unknown before the early nineties<a +name='FNanchor_40' href='#Footnote_40'>[40]</a>.</p> + +<p>But the Trade Unionists had always been aware of unemployment, +since, after strike pay, it is "out-of-work benefit" which they +have found the best protection for the standard rate of wages, and +nothing in the program of Socialism appealed to them more directly +than its claim to abolish unemployment. Finally it may be said that +unemployment is on the whole more prevalent in Great Britain than +elsewhere; the system of casual or intermittent employment is more +widespread; throughout the Continent the working classes in towns +are nearly everywhere connected with the rural peasant landowners +or occupiers, so that the town labourer can often go back to the +land at any rate for his keep; whilst all America, still +predominantly agricultural, is in something like a similar +case.</p> + +<p>The Fabian Society had since its earliest days been conscious of +the problem of unemployment; but it had done little to solve it. +The "Report on the Government Organisation of Unemployed Labour," +printed "for the information of members" in 1886, had been long +forgotten, and an attempt to revise it made some time in the +nineties had come to nothing. In "Fabian Essays" unemployment is +rightly recognised as the Achilles heel of the proletarian system, +but the practical problem is not solved or even thoroughly +understood; the plausible error of supposing that the unemployed +baker and bootmaker can be set to make bread and boots for one +another still persists. In 1893 we reprinted from the "Nineteenth +Century" as Tract No. 47 a paper on "The Unemployed" by John Burns, +and we had published nothing else.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_218'></a>In fact we found the subject too +difficult. There were plenty of palliatives familiar to every +social enquirer; Socialism, the organisation of industry by the +community for the community, we regarded as the real and final +remedy. But between the former, such as labour bureaux, farm +colonies, afforestation, the eight hours day, which admittedly were +at best only partial and temporary, and Socialism, which was +obviously far off, there was a great gulf fixed, and how to bridge +it we knew not. At last the Minority Report provided an answer. It +was a comprehensive and practicable scheme for preventing +unemployment under existing conditions, and for coping with the +mass of incompetent destitution which for generations had Been the +disgrace of our civilisation.</p> + +<p>Into the details of this scheme I must not enter because it is, +properly speaking, outside the scope of this book. The propaganda +for carrying the Report into effect was undertaken by the National +Committee for the Prevention of Destitution, established by Mrs. +Webb as a separate organisation. The necessity for this step was +significant of the extent to which Socialism, as it crystallises +into practical measures, invades the common body of British +thought. People who would not dream of calling themselves +Socialists, much less contributing to the funds of a Socialist +Society, become enthusiastically interested in separate parts of +its program as soon as it has a program, provided these parts are +presented on their own merits and not as approaches to Socialism. +Indeed many who regard Socialism as a menace to society are so +anxious to find and support alternatives to it, that they will +endow expensive Socialistic investigations and subscribe to +elaborate Socialistic schemes of reform under the impression that +nothing that is thoughtful, practical, well informed, and +constitutional can <a name='Page_219'></a>possibly have any +connection with the Red Spectre which stands in their imagination +for Socialism. To such people the Minority Report, a document +obviously the work of highly skilled and disinterested political +thinkers and experts, would recommend itself as the constitutional +basis of a Society for the Prevention of Destitution: that is, of +the condition which not only smites the conscientious rich with a +compunction that no special pleading by arm-chair economists can +allay, but which offers a hotbed to the sowers of Socialism. Add to +these the considerable number of convinced or half-convinced +Socialists who for various reasons are not in a position to make a +definite profession of Socialism without great inconvenience, real +or imaginary, to themselves, and it will be plain that Mrs. Webb +would have been throwing away much of her available resources if +she had not used the device of a new organisation to agitate for +the Minority Report <i>ad hoc</i>.</p> + +<p>Many Fabians served on the Committee—indeed a large +proportion of our members must have taken part in its incessant +activities—and the relations between the two bodies were +close; but most of the subscribers to the Committee and many of its +most active members came from outside the Society, and were in no +way committed to its general principles.</p> + +<p>For two whole years Mrs. Webb managed her Committee with great +vigour and dash. She collected for it a considerable income and a +large number of workers: she lectured and organised all over the +country; she discovered that she was an excellent propagandist, and +that what she could do with success she also did with zest.</p> + +<p><br /> +In the summer of 1911 Mr. and Mrs. Webb left England for a tour +round the world, and Mrs. Webb <a name='Page_220'></a>had mentioned +before she left that she was willing to be nominated for the +Executive. At the election in April, 1912, whilst still abroad, she +was returned second on the poll, with 778 votes, only a dozen +behind her husband.</p> + +<p>From this point onwards Mrs. Webb has been on the whole the +dominant personality in the Society This does not necessarily mean +that she is abler or stronger than her husband or Bernard Shaw. But +the latter had withdrawn from the Executive Committee, and the +former, with the rest of the Old Gang, had made the Society what it +already was. Mrs. Webb brought a fresh and fertile mind to its +councils. Her twenty years of membership and intimate private +acquaintance with its leaders made her familiar with its +possibilities, but she was free from the influence of past +failures—in such matters for example as Socialist +Unity—and she was eager to start out on new lines which the +almost unconscious traditions of the Society had hitherto +barred.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +The story of the Society has been traced to the conclusion of the +intervention of Mr. Wells, and I then turned aside to describe the +numerous new activities of the booming years which followed the +Labour Party triumph of 1906. I must now complete the history of +the internal affairs of the Society.</p> + +<p>As a political body, the Society has usually, though not +invariably, issued some sort of pronouncement on the eve of a +General Election. In January, 1910, the Executive Committee +published in "Fabian News" a brief manifesto addressed to the +members urging them to "Vote against the House of Lords." It will +be recollected that the Lords had rejected the Budget, and the sole +issue before the country was the right of <a name= +'Page_221'></a>the House of Commons to control finance. Members +were urged to support any duly accredited Labour or socialist +candidate; elsewhere they were, in effect, advised to vote for the +Liberal candidates. In April their action in publishing this +"Special advice to members" without the consent of a members' +meeting was challenged, but the Executive Committee's contention +that it was entitled to advise the members, and that the advice +given was sound, was endorsed by a very large majority.</p> + +<p>At the Annual Meeting the Executive Committee, with a view to +setting forth once more their reasoned view on a subject of +perennial trouble to new members, accepted a resolution instructing +them to consider and report on the advisability of limiting the +liberty of members to support political parties other than Labour +or Socialist, and on November 4th R.C.K. Ensor on behalf of the +Executive gave an admirable address on Fabian Policy. He explained +that the Society had never set out to become a political party, and +that in this respect it differed in the most marked manner from +most Socialist bodies. Its collective support of the Labour Party +combined with toleration of Liberals suited a world of real men who +can seldom be arranged on tidy and geometrical lines. This report +was accepted by general consent, and in December, when Parliament +was again dissolved, this time on the question of the Veto of the +Lords, the Executive repeated their "Advice to Members" to vote for +Liberals whenever no properly accredited Labour or Socialist +candidate was in the field.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +But the dissatisfaction with the old policy, and with its old +exponents, was not yet dispelled. A new generation was knocking at +the door, and some of the old <a name='Page_222'></a>leaders +thought that the time had come to make room for them. Hubert Bland +was suffering from uncertain health, and he made up his mind to +retire from the official positions he had held since the formation +of the Society. Bernard Shaw determined to join him and then +suggested the same course to the rest of his contemporaries. Some +of them concurred, and in addition to the two already named R.C.K. +Ensor (who returned a year later), Stewart Headlam, and George +Standring withdrew from the Executive in order to make room for +younger members. Twenty-two new candidates came forward at the +election of April, 1911; but on the whole the Society showed no +particular eagerness for change. The retiring members were +re-elected ahead of all the new ones, with Sidney Webb at the top +of the poll, and the five additions to the Executive, Emil Davies, +Mrs. C.M. Wilson, Reginald Bray, L.C.C., Mrs. F. Cavendish +Bentinck, and Henry D. Harben, were none of them exactly youthful +or ardent innovators.</p> + +<p>By this time it was apparent that the self-denying ordinance of +the veterans was not really necessary, and the Executive, loath to +lose the stimulation of Shaw's constant presence, devised a scheme +to authorise the elected members to co-opt as consultative members +persons who had already held office for ten years and had retired. +The Executive itself was by no means unanimous on this policy, and +at the Annual Meeting one of them, Henry H. Slesser, led the +opposition to any departure from "the principles of pure +democracy." On a show of hands the proposal appeared to be defeated +by a small majority, and in the face of the opposition was +withdrawn. This is almost the only occasion on which the Executive +Committee have failed to carry their policy through the Society, +and they might have succeeded even in this instance, either <a +name='Page_223'></a>at the meeting or on a referendum, if they had +chosen to insist on an alteration in the constitution against the +wishes of a substantial fraction of the membership.</p> + +<p>Here then it may be said that the rule of the essayists as a +body came to an end. Sidney Webb alone remained in office. Hubert +Bland was in rapidly declining health. Only once again he addressed +the Society, on July 16th, 1912, when he examined the history of +"Fabian Policy," and indicated the changes which he thought should +be made to adapt it to new conditions. Soon after this his sight +completely failed, and in April, 1914, he died suddenly of +long-standing heart disease.</p> + +<p>Bernard Shaw happily for the Society has not ceased to concern +himself in its activities, although he is no longer officially +responsible for their management. His freedom from office does not +always make the task of his successors easier. The loyalest of +colleagues, he had always defended their policy, whether or not it +was exactly of his own choice; but in his capacity of private +member his unrivalled influence is occasionally something of a +difficulty. If he does not happen to approve of what the Executive +proposes he can generally persuade a Business Meeting to vote for +something else!</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +At this same period, the spring of 1911, the National Insurance +Bill was introduced. This was a subject to which the Society had +given but little attention and on which it had not formulated a +policy. It had opposed the contributory system as proposed to be +applied to Old Age Pensions, and a paper on "Paupers and Old Age +Pensions," published by Sidney Webb in the "Albany Review" in +August, 1907, and reprinted by the Society as Tract No. 135, had +probably <a name='Page_224'></a>much influence in deciding the +Government to abandon its original plan of excluding paupers +permanently from the scheme by showing what difficulties and +anomalies would follow from any such course. The National Insurance +Bill when first introduced was severely criticised by Sidney Webb +in documents circulated amongst Trade Unionists and published in +various forms; but a few weeks later he started on his tour round +the world and could take no further part in the affair. At the +Annual Conference of Fabian Societies in July, 1911, an amendment +proposed by H.D. Harben to a resolution dealing with the Bill was +carried against a small minority. The amendment declared that the +Bill should be opposed, and in furtherance of the policy thus +casually suggested and irregularly adopted, the Executive Committee +joined with a section of the I.L.P. in a vigorous campaign to +defeat the Bill. This was a new rôle for the Society. Usually +it has adopted the principle of accepting and making the best of +what has already happened; and in politics a Bill introduced by a +strong Government is a <i>fait accompli</i>; it is too late to say +that something else would have been preferable. It may be amended: +it may possibly be withdrawn: it cannot be exchanged for another +scheme.</p> + +<p>I shall not however dwell on this episode in Fabian history +because for once I was in complete disagreement with all my +colleagues, except Sir Leo Chiozza Money, and perhaps I cannot yet +view the matter with entire detachment. The Labour Party decided to +meet the Bill with friendly criticism, to recognise it as great +measure of social reform, and to advocate amendments which they +deemed improvements. The Fabian Society attacked the Bill with +hostile amendments, prophesied all sorts of calamities as certain +to result from it: magnified its administrative difficulties, <a +name='Page_225'></a>and generally encouraged the duchesses and +farmers who passively resisted it; but their endeavour to defeat +the Bill was a failure.</p> + +<p>It may be too soon to be confident that the policy of the +Society in this matter was wrong. But the Trade Unions are stronger +than ever: the Friendly Societies are not bankrupt: the working +people are insured against sickness: and anybody who now proposed +to repeal the Act would be regarded as a lunatic.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +Meanwhile the withdrawal of some of the older had by no means +satisfied the younger generation, and during the autumn of 1911 a +Fabian Reform Committee was constituted, with Henry H. Slesser as +Chairman, Dr. Marion Phillips as Vice-Chairman, Clifford Allen as +Secretary, and fifteen other members, including Dr. Ethel Bentham, +who, like Mr. Slesser, was a member of the Executive. Their +programme, like that of Mr. Wells, included a number of reforms of +procedure, none of them of much consequence; and a political +policy, which was to insist "that if Fabians do take part in +politics, they should do so only as supporters of the Labour +Party."<a name='FNanchor_41' href='#Footnote_41'>[41]</a> The +campaign of the Committee lasted a year, and as usual in such cases +led to a good deal of somewhat heated controversy over matters +which now appear to be very trivial. It is therefore not worth +while to recount the details of the proceedings, which can be found +by any enquirer in the pages of "Fabian News." Two of the leaders, +Dr. Marion Phillips and Clifford Allen, were elected to the +Executive at the election of 1912, and some of the administrative +reforms proposed by the Committee were carried into effect. The +Reformers <a name='Page_226'></a>elected to fight the battle of +political policy on point of detail, until in July, 1912, the +Executive Committee resolved to bring the matter to an issue, and +to that end moved at a members' meeting: "That this meeting +endorses the constitutional practice of the Society which accords +complete toleration to its members; and whilst reaffirming its +loyalty to the Labour Party, to which party alone it as a society +has given support, it declines to interfere ... with the right of +each member to decide on the manner in which he can best work for +Socialism in accordance with his individual opportunities and +circumstances." (The phrase omitted refers to the rule about +expulsion of members, a safeguard which in fact has never been +resorted to.) An amendment of the Reformers embodying their policy +was defeated by 122 to 27 and after the holiday season the Reform +Committed announced that their mission was accomplished and their +organisation had been disbanded<a name='FNanchor_42' href= +'#Footnote_42'>[42]</a>.</p> + +<p>"Fabian Reform" embodied no new principle all through the +history of the Society there had been a conflict between the +"constitutional practice" of political toleration, and the desire +of a militant minority to set up a standard of party orthodoxy, and +to penalise or expel the dissenters from it.</p> + +<p>The next storm which disturbed Fabian equanimity involved an +altogether new principle, and was therefore a refreshing change to +the veterans, who were growing weary of winning battles fought over +the same ground. In order to explain this movement it is necessary +to describe a new development in the work of the Society.</p> + +<p>In the autumn of 1912 Mrs. Webb came to the conclusion that the +work of the National Committee for the Prevention of Destitution +could not be carried on <a name='Page_227'></a>indefinitely on a +large scale. Reform of the Poor Law was not coming as a big scheme. +It was true that the Majority Report was almost forgotten, but +there appeared to be no longer any hope that the Government would +take up as a whole the scheme of the Minority Report. It would come +about in due time, but not as the result of an agitation. The +National Committee had a monthly paper, "The Crusade," edited by +Clifford Sharp, a member of the Society who came to the front at +the time of the Wells agitation, had been one of the founders of +the Nursery, and a member of the Executive from 1909 to 1914. In +March, 1913, Bernard Shaw, H.D. Harben, and the Webbs, with a few +other friends, established the "New Statesman," with Clifford Sharp +as editor. This weekly review is not the organ of the Society, and +is not in any formal way connected with it, but none the less it +does in fact express the policy which has moulded the Society, and +it has been a useful vehicle for publishing the results of Fabian +Research.</p> + +<p>Fabian Research, the other outgrowth of the Committee for the +Prevention of Destitution, was organised by Mrs. Webb in the autumn +of 1912. Investigation of social problems was one of the original +objects of the Society and had always been a recognised part of its +work. As a general rule, members had taken it up individually, but +at various periods Committees had been appointed to investigate +particular subjects. The important work of one of these Committees, +on the Decline of the Birth-rate, has been described in an earlier +chapter. Mrs. Webb's plan was to systematise research, to enlist +the co-operation of social enquirers not necessarily committed to +the principles of the Society, and to obtain funds for this special +purpose from those who would not contribute to the political side +of the Society's operations.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_228'></a>The "Committees of Inquiry" then formed +took up two subjects, the "Control of Industry" and "Land Problems +and Rural Development." The latter was organised by H.D. Harben and +was carried on independently. After a large amount of information +had been collected, partly in writing and partly from the oral +evidence of specialists, a Report was drafted by Mr. Harben and +published first as a Supplement to the "New Statesman" on August +4th, 1913, and some months later by Messrs. Constable for the +Fabian Society as a half-a-crown volume entitled "The Rural +Problem."</p> + +<p>In fact there is a consensus of opinion throughout all parties +on this group of questions. Socialists, Liberals, and a large +section of Conservatives advocate Wages Boards for providing a +statutory minimum wage for farm labourers, State aid for building +of cottages and a resolute speeding up in the provision of land for +small holdings. The Fabian presentment of the case did not +substantially differ from that of the Land Report published a few +months later under Liberal auspices, and our Report, though useful, +cannot be said to have been epoch-making.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the Enquiry into the Control of Industry was +developing on wider lines. The Research Department set up its own +office and staff, and began to collect information about all the +methods of control of industry at present existing as alternatives +to the normal capitalist system. Co-operation in all its forms, the +resistances of Trade Unionism, the effects of professional +organisations, such as those of the Teachers and of the Engineers, +and all varieties of State and Municipal enterprise were +investigated in turn; several reports have been published as "New +Statesman" Supplements, and a volume or series of volumes will in +due time appear.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_229'></a>The problem of the Control of Industry +had become important because of the rise of a new school of thought +amongst Socialists, especially in France, where the rapid growth of +Trade Unionism since 1884, combined with profound distrust of the +group system of party politics, had led to a revival of +old-fashioned anarchism in a new form. Syndicalism, which is the +French word for Trade Unionism, proposes that the future State +should be organised on the basis of Trade Unions; it regards a +man's occupation as more vitally important to him than his place of +residence, and therefore advocates representation by trades in +place of localities: it lays stress on his desire, his right, to +control his own working life directly through his own elected +representatives of his trade: it criticises the "servile state" +proposed by collectivists, wherein the workman, it is said, would +be a wage-slave to officials of the State, as he is now to +officials of the capitalists. Thus it proposes that the control of +industry should be in the hands of the producers, and not, as at +present, in the hands of consumers through capitalists catering for +their custom, or through co-operative societies of consumers, or +through the State acting on behalf of citizens who are +consumers.</p> + +<p>A quite extraordinary diversity of streams of opinion converged +to give volume to this new trend of thought. There was the literary +criticism of Mr. Hilaire Belloc, whose ideal is the peasant +proprietor of France, freed from governmental control, a +self-sufficient producer of all his requirements. His attack was +directed against the Servile State, supposed to be foreshadowed by +the Minority Report, which proposed drastic collective control over +the derelicts of our present social anarchy. Then Mr. Tom Mann came +back from Australia as the prophet of the new proletarian gospel, +and for a few months attracted working-class attention by his +energy <a name='Page_230'></a>and eloquence. The South Wales +miners, after many years of acquiescence in the rule of successful +and highly respected but somewhat old-fashioned leaders, were +awakening to a sense of power, and demanding from their Unions a +more aggressive policy. The parliamentary Labour Party since 1910 +had resolved to support the Liberal Government in its contest with +the House of Lords and in its demand for Irish Home Rule, and as +Labour support was essential to the continuance of the Liberals in +power, they were debarred from pushing their own proposals +regardless of consequences. Although therefore the party was +pledged to the demand for Women's Franchise, they refused to wreck +the Government on its behalf. Hence impatient Socialists and +extreme Suffragists united in proclaiming that the Labour Party was +no longer of any use, and that "direct action" by Suffragettes and +Trade Unionists was the only method of progress. The "Daily +Herald," a newspaper started by a group of compositors in London, +was acquired by partisans of this policy, and as long as it lived +incessantly derided the Labour Party and advocated Women's +Franchise and some sort of Syndicalism as the social panacea. +Moreover a variant on Syndicalism, of a more reasoned and less +revolutionary character, called "Guild Socialism," was proposed by +Mr. A.R. Orage in the pages of his weekly, "The New Age," and +gained a following especially in Oxford, where Mr. G.D.H. Cole was +leader of the University Fabian Society. His book on Trade +Unionism, entitled "The World of Labour," published at the end of +1913, attracted much attention, and he threw himself with great +energy into the Trade Union enquiry of the Research Department, of +which his friend and ally, Mr. W. Mellor, was the Secretary. Mr. +Cole was elected to the Executive Committee in April, 1914, and +soon afterwards began <a name='Page_231'></a>a new "Reform" +movement. He had become a prophet of the "Guild Socialism" school, +and was at that time extremely hostile to the Labour Party. Indeed +a year before, when dissatisfaction with the party was prevalent, +he had proposed at a business meeting that the Fabian Society +should disaffiliate, but he had failed to carry his resolution by +92 votes against 48. In the summer of 1914 however he arrived at an +understanding with Mr. Clifford Allen, also a member of the +Executive, and with other out and out supporters of the Labour +Party, by which they agreed to combine their altogether +inconsistent policies into a single new program for the Fabian +Society. The program of the "several schools of thought," published +in "Fabian News" for April, 1915, laid down that the object of the +Society should be to carry out research, that the Basis should be +replaced merely by the phrase, "The Fabian Society consists of +Socialists and forms part of the national and international +movement for the emancipation of the community from the capitalist +system"; and that a new rule should be adopted forbidding members +to belong to, or publicly to associate with, any organisation +opposed to that movement of which this Society had declared itself +a part. The Executive Committee published a lengthy rejoinder, and +at the election of the Executive Committee a few weeks later the +members by their votes clearly indicated their disapproval of the +new scheme. At the Annual Meeting in May, 1915, only small +minorities supported the plan of reconstruction, and Mr. Cole then +and there resigned his membership of the Society, and was +subsequently followed by a few other members. A little while later +the Oxford University Fabian Society severed its connection with +the parent Society, and Mr. Cole adopted the wise course of +founding a society of his own for the advocacy of Guild +Socialism.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_232'></a>This episode brings the history of the +Society down to the present date, and I shall conclude this chapter +with a brief account of its organisation at the time of writing, +the summer of 1915.</p> + +<p>At the end of 1913 my own long term of service as chief officer +of the Society came to an end, and my colleague for several +previous years, W. Stephen Sanders, was appointed my successor. The +Executive Committee requested me to take the new office of Honorary +Secretary, and to retain a share in the management of the Society. +This position I still hold.</p> + +<p>The tide of Socialist progress which began to rise in 1905 had +turned before 1914, and the period of depression was intensified by +the war, which is still the dominant fact in the world. The +membership of the Society reached its maximum in 1913, 2804 in the +parent Society and about 500 others in local societies. In 1915 the +members were 2588 and 250. The removal to new premises in the +autumn of 1914 was more than a mere change of offices, since it +provided the Society with a shop for the sale of its publications, +a hall sufficiently large for minor meetings, and accommodation in +the same house for the Research Department and the Women's Group. +Moreover a couple of rooms were furnished as a "Common Room" for +members, in which light refreshments can be obtained and Socialist +publications consulted. The finances of the Society have of course +been adversely affected by the war, but not, so far, to a very +material extent.</p> + +<p>The chief new departure of recent years has been the +organisation of courses of lectures in London for the general +public by Bernard Shaw, Sidney Webb, and Mrs. Webb, which have not +only been of value as a means of propaganda, but have also yielded +a substantial profit for the purposes of the Society. <a name= +'Page_233'></a>The plan originated with a debate between Bernard +Shaw and G.K. Chesterton in 1911, which attracted a crowded +audience and much popular interest. Next year Mr. Shaw debated with +Mr. Hilaire Belloc: in 1913 Mr. and Mrs. Webb gave six lectures at +King's Hall on "Socialism Restated": in 1914 Bernard Shaw gave +another course of six at Kingsway Hall on the "Redistribution of +Income," in which he developed the thesis that the economic goal of +Socialism is equality of income for all. Lastly, in 1915 a course +of six lectures at King's Hall by the three already named on "The +World after the War" proved to be unexpectedly successful. The +lecturing to clubs and other societies carried on by new +generations of members still continues, but it forms by no means so +prominent a part of the Society's work as in earlier years.</p> + +<p>Local Fabian organisation, as is always the case in time of +depression, is on the down grade. The London groups scarcely exist, +and but few local societies, besides that of Liverpool, show signs +of life. The Research Department, the Women's Group, and the +Nursery are still active.</p> + +<p>The Society has an old-established tradition and a settled +policy, but in fact it is not now controlled by anything like an +Old Gang. The Executive Committee numbers twenty-one: two only of +these, Sidney Webb and myself, have sat upon it from its early +days: only two others, Dr. Lawson Dodd (the Treasurer) and W. +Stephen Sanders (the General Secretary) were on the Executive +during the great contest with Mr. Wells ten years ago. All the rest +have joined it within the last few years, and if they support the +old tradition, it is because they accept it, and not because they +created it. Moreover the majority of the members are young people, +most of them born since the Society <a name='Page_234'></a>was +founded. The Society is old, but it does not consist, in the main, +of old people.</p> + +<p>What its future may be I shall consider in the next, and +concluding, chapter.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +I must add a final paragraph to my history. At the time I write, in +the first days of 1916, the war is with us and the end is not in +sight. In accordance with the rule which forbids it to speak, +unless it has something of value to say, the Society has made no +pronouncement and adopted no policy. A resolution registering the +opinion of the majority of a few hundred members assembled in a +hall is not worth recording when the subject is one in which +millions are as concerned and virtually as competent as +themselves.</p> + +<p>Naturally there is diversity of opinion amongst the members. On +the one hand Mr. Clifford Allen, a member of the Executive, has +played a leading part in organising opposition to conscription and +opposing the policy of the Government. On the other hand two other +members of the Executive Committee, Mr. H.J. Gillespie and Mr. C.M. +Lloyd, have, since the beginning of the war, resigned their seats +in order to take commissions in the Army. Another member, the +General Secretary, after months of vigorous service as one of the +Labour Party delegates to Lord Derby's Recruiting Committee, +accepted a commission in the Army in November, 1915, in order to +devote his whole time to this work, and has been granted leave of +absence for the period of the war, whilst I have undertaken my old +work in his place. Many members of the Society joined the Army in +the early months of the war, and already a number, amongst whom may +be named Rupert Brooke, have given their lives for their +country.</p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_40' href='#FNanchor_40'>[40]</a> The editors +of the Oxford English Dictionary kindly inform me that the earliest +quotation they have yet found is dated December, 1894. I cannot +discover it in any Fabian publication before Tract No. 65, which +was published in July, 1895.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_41' href='#FNanchor_41'>[41]</a> Manifesto on +Fabian Policy issued by the Fabian Reform Committee, 4 pp., 4to, +November 28th, 1911.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_42' href='#FNanchor_42'>[42]</a> "Fabian +News," November, 1912.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p class="center"><a name='image12'></a><img src= +"images/image12.png" style= +"width: 300px; height: 414px; border: 0" alt= +"EDWARD R. PEASE, IN 1913" /></p> + +<p class="center">EDWARD R. PEASE, IN 1913</p> + +<h3><a name='Page_235'></a><a name='Chapter_XII'>Chapter +XII</a></h3> + +<h2>The Lessons of Thirty Years</h2> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>Breaking the spell of Marxism—A French +verdict—Origin of Revisionism in Germany—The British +School of Socialism—Mr. Ernest Barker's summary—Mill +<i>versus</i> Marx—The Fabian Method—Making Socialists +or making Socialism—The life of propagandist +societies—The prospects of Socialist Unity—The future +of Fabian ideas—The test of Fabian success.</p> +</div> + +<p>The Fabian Society was founded for the purpose of reconstructing +Society in accordance with the highest moral possibilities. This is +still the most accurate and compendious description of its object +and the nature of its work. But the stage of idealism at which more +than a very modest instalment of this cosmic process seemed +possible within the lifetime of a single institution had passed +before the chief Essayists became members, and indeed I cannot +recollect that the founders themselves ever imagined that it lay +within their own power to reconstruct Society; none of them was +really so sanguine or so self-confident as to anticipate so great a +result from their efforts, and it will be remembered that the +original phrase was altered by the insertion of the words "to help +on" when the constitution was actually formulated. Society has not +yet been reconstructed, but the Fabians have done something towards +its reconstruction, and my history will be incomplete without an +attempt to indicate what the Society has already <a name= +'Page_236'></a>accomplished and what may be the future of its +work.</p> + +<p>Its first achievement, as already mentioned, was to break the +spell of Marxism in England. Public opinion altogether failed to +recognise the greatness of Marx during his lifetime, but every year +that passes adds strength to the conviction that the broad +principles he promulgated will guide the evolution of society +during the present century. Marx demonstrated the moral bankruptcy +of commercialism and formulated the demand for the communal +ownership and organisation of industry; and it is hardly possible +to exaggerate the value of this service to humanity. But no man is +great enough to be made into a god; no man, however wise, can see +far into the future. Neither Marx himself nor his immediate +followers recognised the real basis of his future fame; they +thought he was a brilliant and original economist, and a profound +student of history. His Theory of Value, his Economic +Interpretation of History, seemed to them the incontestible +premises which necessarily led to his political conclusions. This +misapprehension would not have much mattered had they allowed +themselves freedom of thought. Socialism, as first preached to the +English people by the Social Democrats, was as narrow, as bigoted, +as exclusive as the strictest of Scotch religious sects. "Das +Kapital," Vol. I, was its bible; and the thoughts and schemes of +English Socialists were to be approved or condemned according as +they could or could not be justified by a quoted text.</p> + +<p>The Fabian Society freed English Socialism from this +intellectual bondage, and freed it sooner and more completely than +"Revisionists" have succeeded in doing anywhere else.</p> + +<p>Accepting the great principle that the reconstruction of society +to be worked for is the ownership and control <a name= +'Page_237'></a>of industry by the community, the Fabians refused to +regard as articles of faith either the economic and historic +analyses which Marx made use of or the political evolution which he +predicted.</p> + +<p>Socialism in England remained the fantastic creed of a group of +fanatics until "Fabian Essays" and the Lancashire Campaign taught +the working classes of England, or at any rate their leaders, that +Socialism was a living principle which could be applied to existing +social and political conditions without a cataclysm either +insurrectionary or even political. Revolutionary phraseology, the +language of violence, survived, and still survives, just as in +ordinary politics we use the metaphors of warfare and pretend that +the peaceful polling booth is a battlefield and that our political +opponents are hostile armies. But we only wave the red flag in our +songs, and we recognise nowadays that the real battles of Socialism +are fought in committee rooms at Westminster and in the council +chambers of Town Halls.</p> + +<p>It was perhaps fortunate that none of the Fabian leaders came +within the influence of the extraordinary personality of Karl Marx. +Had he lived a few years longer he might have dominated them as he +dominated his German followers, and one or two of his English +adherents. Then years would have been wasted in the struggle to +escape. It was fortunate also that the Fabian Society has never +possessed one single outstanding leader, and has always refrained +from electing a president or permanent chairman. There never has +been a Fabian orthodoxy, because no one was in a position to assert +what the true faith was.</p> + +<p>Freedom of thought was without doubt obtained for English +Socialists by the Fabians. How far the world-wide revolt against +Marxian orthodoxy had its origin in England is another and more +difficult question. <a name='Page_238'></a>In his study of the +Fabian Society<a name='FNanchor_43' href='#Footnote_43'>[43]</a> M. +Édouard Pfeiffer states in the preface that the Society +makes this claim, quotes Bernard Shaw as saying to him, "The world +has been thoroughly Fabianised in the last twenty-five years," and +adds that he is going to examine the accuracy of it. Later he +says:—</p> + +<p><br /> +"Les premiers de tous les Socialistes, les Fabiens out +inauguré le mouvement de critique antimarxiste: à une +époque oû les dogmes du maître étaient +considérés comme intangibles, les Fabiens out +prétendu que l'on pouvait se dire socialiste sans jamais +avoir lu le Capital ou en en désapprouvant la teneur; par +opposition à Marx ils out ressuscité l'esprit de +Stuart Mill et sur tous les points ils se sont attaqués +à Marx, guerre des classes et materialisme historique, +catastrophisme et avant tout la question de la valeur-travail."<a +name='FNanchor_44' href='#Footnote_44'>[44]</a></p> + +<p><br /> +This is a French view. Germany is naturally the stronghold of +Marxism, and the country where it has proved, up to a point, an +unqualified success. Although the Social Democratic Party was +founded as an alliance between the followers of Marx and of +Lassalle, on terms to which Marx himself violently objected, none +the less the leadership of the party fell to those who accepted the +teaching of Marx, and on that basis by <a name='Page_239'></a>far +the greatest Socialist Party of the world has been built up. +Nowhere else did the ideas of Marx hold such unquestioned +supremacy: nowhere else had they such a body of loyal adherents, +such a host of teachers and interpreters. Only on the question of +agricultural land in the freer political atmosphere of South +Germany was there even a breath of dissent. The revolt came from +England in the person of Edward Bernstein, who, exiled by Bismarck, +took refuge in London, and was for years intimately acquainted with +the Fabian Society and its leaders. Soon after his return to +Germany he published in 1899 a volume criticising Marxism,<a name= +'FNanchor_45' href='#Footnote_45'>[45]</a> and thence grew up the +Revisionist movement for free thought in Socialism which has +attracted all the younger men, and before the war had virtually, if +not actually, obtained control over the Social Democratic +Party.</p> + +<p>In England, and in Germany through Bernstein, I think the Fabian +Society may claim to have led the revolt. Elsewhere the revolt has +come rather in deeds than in words. In France, in Italy, and in +Belgium and in other European countries, a Socialist Party has +grown up which amid greater political opportunities has had to face +the actual problems of modern politics. These could not be solved +by quotations from a German philosopher, and liberty has been +gained by force of circumstances. Nevertheless in many countries, +such as Russia and the United States, even now, or at any rate +until very recent years, the freedom of action of Socialist parties +has been impeded by excessive respect for the opinions of the +Founder, and Socialist thought has been sterilised, because it was +assumed that Marx had completed the philosophy of Socialism, and +the business of Socialists was not <a name='Page_240'></a>to think +for themselves, but merely to work for the realisation of his +ideas.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +But mere freedom was not enough. Something must be put in the place +of Marx. His English followers did not notice that he had indicated +no method, and devised no political machinery for the transition; +or if they noticed it they passed over the omission as a negligible +detail. If German Socialism would not suit, English Socialism had +to be formulated to take its place. This has been the life-work of +the Fabian Society, the working out of the application of the broad +principles of Socialism to the industrial and political environment +of England. I say England advisedly, because the industrial and +political conditions of Scotland are in some degree different, and +the application of the principles of Socialism to Ireland has not +yet been seriously attempted. But for England "Fabian Essays" and +the Fabian Tracts are by general consent the best expositions of +the meaning and working of Socialism in the English language.</p> + +<p>Marxian Socialism regarded itself as a thing apart. Marx had +discovered a panacea for the ills of society: the old was to be +cleared away and all things were to become new. In Marx's own +thought evolution and revolution were tangled and alternated. The +evolutionary side was essential to it; the idea of revolutionary +catastrophe is almost an excrescence. But to the Marxians (of whom +Marx once observed that he was not one) this excrescence became the +whole thing. People were divided into those who advocated the +revolution and those who did not. The business of propaganda was to +increase the number of adherents of the new at the expense of the +supporters of the old.</p> + +<p>The Fabians regarded Socialism as a principle <a name= +'Page_241'></a>already in part embodied in the constitution of +society, gradually extending its influence because it harmonised +with the needs and desires of men in countries where the large +industry prevails.</p> + +<p>Fabian Socialism is in fact an interpretation of the spirit of +the times. I have pointed out already that the municipalisation of +monopolies, a typically Fabian process, had its origin decades +before the Society was founded, and all that the Fabian Society did +was to explain its social implications and advocate its wider +extension. The same is true of the whole Fabian political policy. +Socialism in English politics grew up because of the necessity for +State intervention in the complex industrial and social +organisation of a Great State. Almost before the evil results of +Laissez Faire had culminated Robert Owen was pointing the way to +factory legislation, popular education, and the communal care of +children. The Ten Hours Act of 1847 was described by Marx himself +as "the victory of a principle," that is, of "the political economy +of the working class."<a name='FNanchor_46' href= +'#Footnote_46'>[46]</a> That victory was frequently repeated in the +next thirty years, and collective protection of Labour in the form +of Factory Acts, Sanitary Acts, Truck Acts, Employers' Liability +Acts, and Trade Board Acts became a recognised part of the policy +of both political parties.</p> + +<p>Fabian teaching has had more direct influence in promoting the +administrative protection of Labour. The Fair Wages policy, now +everywhere prevalent in State and Municipal employment, was, as has +been already described, if not actually invented, at any rate +largely popularised by the Society. It was a working-class demand, +and it has been everywhere put forward by organised labour, but its +success would have been <a name='Page_242'></a>slower had the +manual workers been left to fight their own battle.</p> + +<p>I have said that the work of the Society was the interpretation +of an existing movement, the explanation and justification of +tendencies which originated in Society at large, and not in +societies, Fabian or other. That work is only less valuable than +the formulation of new ideas. None of the Fabians would claim to +rank beside the great promulgators of new ideas, such as Owen and +Marx. But the interpretation of tendencies is necessary if progress +is to be sustained and if it is to be unbroken by casual reaction. +In an old country like ours, with vast forces of inertia built up +by ages of precedents, by a class system which forms a part of the +life of the nation, by a distribution of wealth which even yet +scarcely yields to the pressure of graduated taxation, legislation +is always in arrear of the needs of the times; the social structure +is always old-fashioned and out of date, and reform always tends to +be late, and even too late, unless there are agitators with the +ability to attract public attention calling on the men in power to +take action.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +But this victory of a principle is not a complete victory of the +principles of Socialism. It is a limitation of the power of the +capitalist to use his capital as he pleases, and Socialism is much +more than a series of social safeguards to the private ownership of +capital. Municipal ownership is a further step, but even this will +not carry us far because the capital suitable for municipal +management on existing lines is but a small fraction of the whole, +and because municipal control does not directly affect the amount +of capital in the hands of the capitalists who are always +expropriated with ample compensation.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_243'></a>We have made some progress along another +line. Supertax, death duties, and taxes on unearned increment do a +little to diminish the wealth of the few: old age pensions, +national insurance, and workmen's compensation do something towards +mitigating the poverty of the poor.</p> + +<p>But it must be confessed that we have made but little progress +along the main road of Socialism. Private ownership of capital and +land flourishes almost as vigorously as it did thirty years ago. +Its grosser cruelties have been checked, but the thing itself has +barely been touched. Time alone will show whether progress is to be +along existing lines, whether the power of the owners of capital +over the wealth it helps to create and over the lives of the +workers whom it enslaves will gradually fade away, as the power of +our kings over the Government of our country has faded, the form +remaining when the substance has vanished, or whether the community +will at last consciously accept the teaching of Socialism, setting +itself definitely to put an end to large-scale private capitalism, +and undertaking itself the direct control of industry. The +intellectual outlook is bright; the principles of Socialism are +already accepted by a sensible proportion of the men and women in +all classes who take the trouble to think, and if we must admit +that but little has yet been done, we may well believe that in the +fullness of time our ideas will prevail. The present war is giving +the old world a great shake, and an era of precipitated +reconstruction may ensue if the opportunity be wisely handled.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +The influence of the Fabian Society on political thought is already +the theme of doctoral theses by graduates, especially in American +universities, but <a name='Page_244'></a>it has not yet found much +place in weightier compilation. Indeed so far as I know the only +serious attempts in this country to describe its character and +estimate its proportions is to be found in an admirable little book +by Mr. Ernest Barker of New College, Oxford, entitled "Political +Thought in England from Herbert Spencer to the Present Day."<a +name='FNanchor_47' href='#Footnote_47'>[47]</a> The author, dealing +with the early Fabians, points out that "Mill rather than Marx was +their starting point," but he infers from this that "they start +along the line suggested by Mill with an attack on rent as the +'unearned increment' of land," a curious inaccuracy since our +earliest contribution to the theory of Socialism, Tract No. 7, +"Capital and Land," was expressly directed to emphasising the +comparative unimportance of Land Nationalisation, and nothing in +the later work of the Society has been inconsistent with this +attitude. Then Mr. Barker goes on: "Fabianism began after 1884 to +supply a new philosophy in place of Benthamite Individualism. Of +the new gospel of collectivism a German writer<a name='FNanchor_48' +href='#Footnote_48'>[48]</a> has said Webb was the Bentham and Shaw +the Mill.<a name='FNanchor_49' href='#Footnote_49'>[49]</a> Without +assigning rôles we may fairly say there is some resemblance +between the influence of Benthamism on legislation after 1830 and +the influence of Fabianism on legislation since, at any rate, +1906.<a name='FNanchor_50' href='#Footnote_50'>[50]</a> In either +case we have a small circle of <a name='Page_245'></a>thinkers and +investigators in quiet touch with politicians: in either case we +have a 'permeation' of general opinion by the ideas of these +thinkers and investigators.... It is probable that the historian of +the future will emphasise Fabianism in much the same way as the +historian of to-day emphasises Benthamism."<a name='FNanchor_51' +href='#Footnote_51'>[51]</a></p> + +<p>Mr. Barker next explains that "Fabianism has its own political +creed, if it is a political creed consequential upon an economic +doctrine. That economic doctrine advocates the socialisation of +rent. But the rents which the Fabians would socialise are not only +rents from land. Rent in the sense of unearned increments may be +drawn, and is drawn, from other sources. The successful +entrepreneur for instance draws a rent of ability from his superior +equipment and education. The socialisation of every kind of rent +will necessarily arm the State with great funds which it must +use.... Shaw can define the two interconnected aims of Fabianism as +'the gradual extension of the franchise and the transfer of rent +and interest to the State.'"</p> + +<p>As Mr. Barker may not be alone in a slight misinterpretation of +Fabian doctrine it may be well to take this opportunity of refuting +the error. He says that Fabianism advocates the socialisation of +rent, and in confirmation quotes Shaw's words "rent <i>and +interest</i>"! That makes all the difference. If the term rent is +widened to include all differential unearned incomes, from land, +from ability, from opportunity (i.e. special profits), interest +includes all non-differential <a name='Page_246'></a>unearned +incomes, and thus the State is to be endowed, not with rents alone, +but with all unearned incomes.<a name='FNanchor_52' href= +'#Footnote_52'>[52]</a> It is true that the Fabians, throwing over +Marx's inaccurate term "surplus value," base their Socialism on the +Law of Rent, because, as they allege, this law negatives both +equality of income and earnings in proportion to labour, so long as +private ownership of land prevails. It is also true that they have +directed special attention to the unearned incomes of the "idle" +landlord and shareholder, because these are the typical feature of +the modern system of distribution, which indeed has come to the +front since the time of Marx, and because they furnish the answer +to those who contend that wealth is at present distributed +approximately in accordance with personal capacity or merit, and +tacitly assume that "the rich" are all of them great captains of +industry who by enterprise and ability have actually created their +vast fortunes.<a name='FNanchor_53' href='#Footnote_53'>[53]</a> +Indeed we might say that we do not mind conceding to our opponents +all the wealth "created" by superior brains, if they will let us +deal with the unearned incomes which are received independent of +the possession of any brains, or any services at all!</p> + +<p>But although we regard the case of the capitalist employer as +relatively negligible, and although we prefer to concentrate our +attack on the least defensible side of the capitalist +system—and already the State recognises that unearned incomes +should pay a larger proportion in income-tax, that property which +passes at death, necessarily to those who have not earned it, +should contribute a large quota to the public purse, and that +unearned increment on land should in part <a name= +'Page_247'></a>belong to the public—that does not mean that +we have any tenderness for the entrepreneur. Him we propose to deal +with by the favourite Fabian method of municipalisation and +nationalisation. We take over his "enterprise," his gasworks and +waterworks, his docks and trams, his railways and mines. We secure +for the State the profits of management and the future unearned +increment, and we compensate him for his capital with +interest-bearing securities. We force him in fact to become the +idle recipient of unearned income, and then we turn round and +upbraid him and tax him heavily precisely because his income is +unearned! If there is any special tenderness in this treatment, I +should prefer harshness. To me it seems to resemble the policy of +the wolf towards the lamb.<a name='FNanchor_54' href= +'#Footnote_54'>[54]</a></p> + +<p>I will proceed with quotations from Mr. Barker, because the view +of a historian of thought is weightier than anything I could +say.</p> + +<p>"But collectivism also demands in the second place expert +government. It demands the 'aristocracy of talent' of which Carlyle +wrote. The control of a State with powers so vast will obviously +need an exceptional and exceptionally large aristocracy. Those +opponents of Fabianism who desire something more revolutionary than +its political 'meliorism' and 'palliatives' accuse it of alliance +with bureaucracy. They urge that it relies on bureaucracy to +administer social reforms from above; and they conclude that, since +any governing <i>class</i> is anti-democratic, the Fabians who +believe in such a class are really anti-democratic. The charge +seems, as a matter of fact, difficult to sustain. Fabians from the +first felt and urged that the decentralisation of the State was a +<a name='Page_248'></a>necessary condition of the realisation of +their aim. The municipality and other local units were the natural +bodies for administering the new funds and discharging the new +duties which the realisation of that aim would create. 'A +democratic State,' Shaw wrote, 'cannot become a Social Democratic +State unless it has in every centre of population a local governing +body as thoroughly democratic in its constitution as the central +Parliament.' The House of Commons he felt must develop 'into the +central government which will be the organ of federating the +municipalities.' Fabianism thus implied no central bureaucracy; +what it demanded was partly, indeed, a more efficient and expert +central government (and there is plenty of room for that), but +primarily an expert local civil service in close touch with and +under the control of a really democratic municipal government. It +is difficult to say that this is bureaucracy or that it is not +desirable. Many men who are not Fabians or Socialists of any kind +feel strongly that the breathing of more vigour and interest into +local politics, and the creation of a proper local civil service, +are the great problems of the future.</p> + +<p>"The policy of Fabianism has thus been somewhat as follows. An +intellectual circle has sought to permeate all classes, from the +top to the bottom, with a common opinion in favour of social +control of socially created values. Resolved to permeate all +classes, it has not preached class-consciousness; it has worked as +much with and through Liberal 'capitalists' as with and through +Labour representatives. Resolved gradually to permeate, it has not +been revolutionary: it has relied on the slow growth of opinion. +Reformist rather than revolutionary, it has explained the +impossibility of the sudden 'revolution' of the working classes +against capital: it has urged the necessity <a name= +'Page_249'></a>of a gradual amelioration of social conditions by a +gradual assertion of social control over unearned increment.<a +name='FNanchor_55' href='#Footnote_55'>[55]</a> Hence Fabianism has +not adopted the somewhat cold attitude of the pure Socialist Party +to Trade Unions, but has rather found in their gradual conquest of +better wages and better conditions for the workers the line of +social advance congenial with its own principles. Again, it has +preached that the society which is to exert control must be +democratic, if the control is to be, as it must be, self-control: +it has taught that such democratic self-control must primarily be +exerted in democratic local self-government: it has emphasised the +need of reconciling democratic control with expert guidance. While +it has never advocated 'direct action' or the avoidance of +political activity, while on the contrary, it has advocated the +conquest of social reforms on the fields of parliamentary and +municipal government, it has not defended the State as it is, but +has rather urged the need for a State which is based on democracy +tempered by respect for the 'expert.' In this way Socialism of the +Fabian type has made representative democracy its creed. It has +adopted the sound position that democracy flourishes in that form +of state in which people freely produce, thanks to an equality of +educational opportunity, and freely choose, thanks to a wide and +active suffrage, their own members for their guidance, and, since +they have freely produced and chosen them, give them freely and +fully the honour of their trust. And thus Socialists like Mr. +Sidney Webb and Mr. Ramsay Macdonald have not coquetted with +primary democracy, which has always had a magnetic attraction for +Socialists. The doctrine that the people itself governs directly +through obedient agents—the doctrine of mandate and +plebiscite, <a name='Page_250'></a>of referendum and +initiative—is not the doctrine of the best English +Socialism." Mr. Barker next explains that behind these ideas lies +"an organic theory of society," that society is regarded as "an +organic unity with a real 'general will' of its own," and after +stating that "the development of Liberalism, during the last few +years, shows considerable traces of Fabian influence," concludes +the subject with the words "Collectivism of the Fabian order was +the dominant form of Socialism in England till within the last +three of four years." Of the movement of Guild Socialists and +others which he deems to have replaced it I shall speak later.</p> + +<p>I have ventured to quote from Mr. Barker at some length because +his summary of Fabian doctrine seems to me (with the exception +noted) to be both correct and excellent, and it is safer to borrow +from a writer quite unconnected with the Society an estimate of its +place in the history of English political thought, rather than to +offer my own necessarily prejudiced opinion of its +achievements.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +But I must revert again to the Fabian "method." "Make Socialists," +said Mr. Wells in "Faults of the Fabian," "and you will achieve +Socialism. There is no other way"; and Mr. Wells in his enthusiasm +anticipated a society of ten thousand Fabians as the result of a +year's propaganda. Will Socialism come through the making of +Socialists?</p> + +<p>If so, Socialism has made but little progress in England, since +the number who profess and call themselves Socialist is still +insignificant. The foregoing pages have shown in the words of a +student of political thought how Socialism has been made in England +in quite another way.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_251'></a>We did not at the time repudiate Mr. +Wells' dictum: indeed we adopted his policy, and attempted the +making of Socialism on a large scale. No doubt there is a certain +ambiguity in the word "Socialists." It may mean members of +Socialist societies, or at any rate "unattached Socialists," all +those in fact who use the name to describe their political +opinions. Or it may merely be another way of stating that the +existing form of society can only be altered by the wills of living +people, and change will only be in the direction of Socialism, when +the wills which are effective for the purpose choose that direction +in preference to another.</p> + +<p>Mr. Wells himself described as a "fantastic idea" the notion +that "the world may be manoeuvred into Socialism without knowing +it": that "society is to keep like it is ... and yet Socialism will +be soaking through it all, changing without a sign,"<a name= +'FNanchor_56' href='#Footnote_56'>[56]</a> and he at any rate meant +by his phrase, "make members of Socialist societies."</p> + +<p>The older and better Fabian doctrine is set out in the opening +paragraphs of Tract 70, the "Report on Fabian Policy" (1896).</p> + +<h4><br /> +"THE MISSION OF THE FABIANS</h4> + +<p>The object of the Fabian Society is to persuade the English +people to make their political constitution thoroughly democratic +and so to socialise their industries as to make the livelihood of +the people entirely independent of private capitalism.</p> + +<p>The Fabian Society endeavours to pursue its Socialist and +Democratic objects with complete singleness of aim. For +example:—</p> + +<p>It has no distinctive opinions on the Marriage <a name= +'Page_252'></a>Question, Religion, Art, abstract Economics, +historic Evolution, Currency, or any other subject than its own +special business of practical Democracy and Socialism.</p> + +<p>It brings all the pressure and persuasion in its power to bear +on existing forces, caring nothing by what name any party calls +itself or what principles, Socialist or other, it professes, but +having regard solely to the tendency of its actions, supporting +those which make for Socialism and Democracy and opposing those +which are reactionary.</p> + +<p>It does not propose that the practical steps towards Social +Democracy should be carried out by itself or by any other specially +organised society or party.</p> + +<p>It does not ask the English people to join the Fabian +Society."</p> + +<p>In old days acting on this view of our "mission" we deliberately +allowed the Society to remain small. Latterly we tried to expand, +and in the main our attempt was an expensive failure. The other +Socialist bodies have always used their propaganda primarily for +recruiting; and they have sought to enlist the rank and file of the +British people. In this they too have substantially failed, and the +forty or fifty thousand members of the I.L.P. and B.S.P. are +roughly no larger a proportion of the working class than the three +thousand Fabians are of the middle class. If the advance of +Socialism in England is to be measured by the "making of +Socialists," if we are to count membership, to enumerate meetings, +to sum up subscriptions, the outlook is gloomy. Thirty-four years +ago a group of strong men led by Mr. H.M. Hyndman founded the +Democratic Federation, which survives as the British Socialist +Party, with Mr. Hyndman still to the fore; the rest have more or +less dropped out, and no one has arisen to take their places. +Twenty-two years ago <a name='Page_253'></a>Keir Hardie founded the +Independent Labour Party: he has died since the first draft of this +passage was written, and no one is left who commands such universal +affection and respect amongst the members of the Society he +created. Of the seven Essayists who virtually founded the Fabian +Society only one is still fully in harness, and his working life +must necessarily be nearing its term. It may be doubted whether a +society for the propagation of ideas has the power to long outlive +the inspiration of its founder, unless indeed he is a man of such +outstanding personality that his followers treat him as a god. The +religions of the world have been maintained by worshippers, and +even in our own day the followers of Marx have held together partly +because they regard his teachings with the uncritical reverence +usually accorded to the prophets of new faiths. But Marxism has +survived in Germany chiefly because it has created and inspired a +political party, and political parties are of a different order +from propagandist societies. Socialism in England has not yet +created a political party; for the Labour Party, though entirely +Socialist in policy, is not so in name or in creed, and in this +matter the form counts rather than the fact.</p> + +<p>Europe, as I write in the early days of 1916, is in the +melting-pot, and it would be foolish to prophesy either the fate of +the nations now at war or, in particular, the future of political +parties in Great Britain, and especially of the Labour Party.</p> + +<p>But so far as concerns the Fabian Society and the two other +Socialist Societies, this much may be said: three factors in the +past have kept them apart: differences of temperament; differences +of policy; differences of leadership. In fact perhaps the last was +the strongest.</p> + +<p>I do not mean that the founders of the three societies <a name= +'Page_254'></a>entertained mutual antipathies or personal +jealousies to the detriment of the movement. I do mean that each +group preferred to go its own way, and saw no sufficient advantage +in a common path to compensate for the difficulties of selecting +it.</p> + +<p>In a former chapter I have explained how a movement for a form +of Socialist Unity had at last almost achieved success, when a new +factor, the European War, interposed. After the war these +negotiations will doubtless be resumed, and the three Socialist +Societies will find themselves more closely allied than ever +before. The differences of policy which have divided them will then +be a matter of past history. The differences of temperament matter +less and less as the general policy becomes fixed, and in a few +years the old leaders from whose disputes the general policy +emerged must all have left the stage. The younger men inherit an +established platform and know nothing of the old-time quarrels and +distrusts. They will come together more easily. If the organised +propaganda of Socialism continues—and that perhaps is not a +matter of certainty—it seems to me improbable that it will be +carried on for long by three separate societies. In some way or +other, in England as in so many other countries, a United Socialist +organisation will be constituted.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +But what of the future of Fabian ideas? In a passage already quoted +Mr. Barker indicates that the dominance of "Collectivism of the +Fabian order" ceased three or four years ago, and he goes on to +indicate that it has been replaced by an anti-state propaganda, +taking various forms, Syndicalism, Guild Socialism, and the +Distributivism of Mr. Belloc. It is true that Fabianism of the old +type is not the last event in the <a name='Page_255'></a>history of +political thought, but it is still, I venture to think, the +dominant principle in political progress. Guild Socialism, whatever +its worth, is a later stage. If our railways are to be managed by +the Railwaymen's Union, they must first be acquired for the +community by Collectivism.</p> + +<p>This is not the place to discuss the possibilities of Guild +Socialism. After all it is but a form of Socialism, and a first +principle of Fabianism has always been free thought. The leading +Guild Socialists resigned from the Society: they were not expelled: +they attempted to coerce the rest, but no attempt was made to +coerce them. Guild Socialism as a scheme for placing production +under the management of the producers seems to me to be on the +wrong lines. The consumer as a citizen must necessarily decide what +is to be produced for his needs. But I do not belong to the +generation which will have to settle the matter. The elderly are +incompetent judges of new ideas. Fabian doctrine is not +stereotyped: the Society consists in the main of young people. The +Essayists and their contemporaries have said their say: it remains +for the younger people to accept what they choose, and to add +whatever is necessary. Those who repudiated the infallibility of +Marx will be the last to claim infallibility for themselves. I can +only express the hope that as long as the Fabian Society lasts it +will be ever open to new ideas, ever conscious that nothing is +final, ever aware that the world is enormously complex, and that no +single formula will summarise or circumscribe its infinite +variety.<a name='FNanchor_57' href='#Footnote_57'>[57]</a></p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<p><br /> +The work of the Fabian Society has been not to make Socialists, but +to make Socialism. I think it may be <a name='Page_256'></a>said +that the dominant opinion in the Society—at any rate it is my +opinion—is that great social changes can only come by +consent. The Capitalist system cannot be overthrown by a revolution +or by a parliamentary majority. Wage slavery will disappear, as +serfdom disappeared, not indeed imperceptibly, for the world is now +self-conscious, not even so gradually, for the pace of progress is +faster than it was in the Middle Ages, but by a change of heart of +the community, by a general recognition, already half realised, +that whatever makes for the more equitable distribution of wealth +is good; that whatever benefits the working class benefits the +nation; that the rich exist only on sufferance, and deserve no more +than painless extinction; that the capitalist is a servant of the +public, and too often over-paid for the services that he +renders.</p> + +<p>Again, Socialism succeeds because it is common sense. The +anarchy of individual production is already an anachronism. The +control of the community over itself extends every day. We demand +order, method, regularity, design; the accidents of sickness and +misfortune, of old age and bereavement, must be prevented if +possible, and if not, mitigated. Of this principle the public is +already convinced: it is merely a question of working out the +details. But order and forethought is wanted for industry as well +as for human life. Competition is bad, and in most respects private +monopoly is worse. No one now seriously defends the system of rival +traders with their crowds of commercial travellers: of rival +tradesmen with their innumerable deliveries in each street; and yet +no one advocates the capitalist alternative, the great trust, often +concealed and insidious, which monopolises oil or tobacco or +diamonds, and makes huge profits for a fortunate; few out of the +helplessness of the unorganised consumers.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_257'></a>But neither the idle rich class nor the +anarchy of competition is so outstanding an evil as the poverty of +the poor. We aim at making the rich poorer chiefly in order to make +the poor richer. Our first tract, "Why are the Many Poor?" struck +the keynote. In a century of abounding wealth England still has in +its midst a hideous mass of poverty which is too appalling to think +of. That poverty, we say, is preventible. That poverty was the +background of our thoughts when the Society was founded. Perhaps we +have done a little to mitigate it: we believe we have done +something to make clear the way by which it may ultimately be +abolished. We do not constantly talk of it. We write of the +advantages of Municipal Electricity, of the powers of Parish +Councils, of the objections to the Referendum; but all the while it +is that great evil which chiefly moves us, and by our success or +our failure in helping on the reconstruction of society for the +purpose of abolishing poverty, the work of the Fabian Society must +ultimately be judged.</p> + +<p>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_43' href='#FNanchor_43'>[43]</a> "La +Société Fabienne et le Mouvement socialiste anglais +contemporain." By Édouard Pfeiffer, Paris, F. Giard and E. +Brière, 1911; an excellent volume but full of errors.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_44' href='#FNanchor_44'>[44]</a> "The Fabians +were the first amongst Socialists to start the movement of +anti-Marxist criticism. At a period when the dogmas of the Master +were regarded as sacred, the Fabians ventured to assert that it was +possible to call oneself a Socialist without ever having read 'Das +Kapital,' or without accepting its doctrine. In opposition to Marx, +they have revived the spirit of J.S. Mill, and they have attacked +Marx all along the line—the class war, the economic +interpretation of history, the catastrophic method, and above all +the theory of value."</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_45' href='#FNanchor_45'>[45]</a> Published in +English by the Independent Labour Party in 1909 as "Evolutionary +Socialism."</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_46' href='#FNanchor_46'>[46]</a> Address to +the International, 1862, quoted from Spargo's "Karl Marx," p. +266.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_47' href='#FNanchor_47'>[47]</a> Home +University Library, Williams and Norgate, 1915, 1s.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_48' href='#FNanchor_48'>[48]</a> M. Beer, +"Geschichte des Socialismus in England" (Stuttgart, 1913), p. 462. +Mr. Beer devotes seven pages to the Society, which he describes +with accuracy, and interprets much as Mr. Barker has done. The book +was written at the request of the German Social Democratic +Party.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_49' href='#FNanchor_49'>[49]</a> I quote, but +do not endorse the opinion that G.B.S. markedly resembles James +Mill (Mr. Barker confuses the two Mills). Beer adds "Webb was the +thinker, Shaw the fighter." This antithesis is scarcely happy. The +collaboration of the two is much too complicated to be summed up in +a phrase.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_50' href='#FNanchor_50'>[50]</a> But see +chapter VIII for its influence before 1906; and see Appendix I. A. +for a much fuller discussion of this subject.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_51' href='#FNanchor_51'>[51]</a> The same idea +is expressed by a Canadian Professor:—</p> + +<p>"It is necessary to go back to the Philosophical Radicals to +find a small group of men who have exercised such a profound +influence over English political thought as the little band of +social investigators who organised the Fabian Society."</p> + +<p>"Socialism: a critical analysis." By O.D. Skelton, Ph.D., +Professor of Economic Science, Kingston, Canada. (Constable, 1911.) +p. 288.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_52' href='#FNanchor_52'>[52]</a> Mr. Barker +erroneously uses the word "increment" for "income" in several +places. Unearned increment is quite another thing.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_53' href='#FNanchor_53'>[53]</a> See +"Socialism and Superior Brains: a reply to Mr. Mallock," by G.B. +Shaw. Fabian Tract 146.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_54' href='#FNanchor_54'>[54]</a> Mr. Barker +emphasises the "discrimination advocated by the Fabians" in favour +of profits in a later passage (p. 224) not here quoted.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_55' href='#FNanchor_55'>[55]</a> This should +read "incomes."</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_56' href='#FNanchor_56'>[56]</a> "Faults of +the Fabian," p. 9.</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_57' href='#FNanchor_57'>[57]</a> See Appendix +I. B.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h3><a name='Page_258'></a><a name='Appendix_I'>Appendix I</a></h3> + +<h3>Memoranda by Bernard Shaw</h3> + +<p>Bernard Shaw has been good enough to write the following +memoranda on Chapter XII. For various reasons I prefer to leave +that chapter as it stands; but the memoranda have an interest of +their own and I therefore print them here.</p> + +<h3>A</h3> + +<h3>ON THE HISTORY OF FABIAN ECONOMICS</h3> + +<p>Mr. Barker's guesses greatly underrate the number of tributaries +which enlarged the trickle of Socialist thought into a mighty +river. They also shew how quickly waves of thought are forgotten. +Far from being the economic apostle of Socialism, Mill, in the days +when the Fabian Society took the field, was regarded as the +standard authority for solving the social problem by a combination +of peasant proprietorship with neo-Malthusianism. The Dialectical +Society, which was a centre of the most advanced thought in London +until the Fabian Society supplanted it, was founded to advocate the +principles of Mill's Essay on Liberty, which was much more the +Bible of English Individualism than Das Kapital ever was of English +Socialism. As late as 1888 Henry Sidgwick, a follower of Mill, rose +indignantly at the meeting of the British Association in Bath, to +which I had just read the paper on The Transition to +Social-Democracy, which was subsequently published; <a name= +'Page_259'></a>as one of the Fabian Essays, and declared that I had +advocated nationalisation of land; that nationalisation of land was +a crime; and that he would not take part in a discussion of a +criminal proposal. With that he left the platform, all the more +impressively as his apparently mild and judicial temperament made +the incident so unexpected that his friends who had not actually +witnessed it were with difficulty persuaded that it had really +happened. It illustrates the entire failure of Mill up to that date +to undo the individualistic teaching of the earlier volumes of his +Political Economy by the Socialist conclusions to which his work on +the treatise led him at the end. Sidney Webb astonished and +confounded our Individualist opponents by citing Mill against them; +and it is probably due to Webb more than to any other disciple that +it is now generally known that Mill died a Socialist. Webb read +Mill and mastered Mill as he seemed to have read and mastered +everybody else; but the only other prominent Socialist who can be +claimed by Mill as a convert was, rather unexpectedly, William +Morris, who said that when he read the passage in which Mill, after +admitting that the worst evils of Communism are, compared to the +evils of our Commercialism, as dust in the balance, nevertheless +condemned Communism, he immediately became a Communist, as Mill had +clearly given his verdict against the evidence. Except in these +instances we heard nothing of Mill in the Fabian Society. Cairnes's +denunciation of the idle consumers of rent and interest was +frequently quoted; and Marshall's Economics of Industry was put +into our book boxes as a textbook; but the taste for abstract +economics was no more general in the Fabian Society than elsewhere. +I had in my boyhood read some of Mill's detached essays, including +those on <a name='Page_260'></a>constitutional government and on +the Irish land question, as well as the inevitable one on Liberty; +but none of these pointed to Socialism; and my attention was first +drawn to political economy as the science of social salvation by +Henry George's eloquence, and by his Progress and Poverty, which +had an enormous circulation in the early eighties, and beyond all +question had more to do with the Socialist revival of that period +in England than any other book. Before the Fabian Society existed I +pressed George's propaganda of Land Nationalisation on a meeting of +the Democratic Federation, but was told to read Karl Marx. I was so +complete a novice in economics at that time that when I wrote a +letter to Justice pointing out a flaw in Marx's reasoning, I +regarded my letter merely as a joke, and fully expected that some +more expert Socialist economist would refute me easily. Even when +the refutation did not arrive I remained so impressed with the +literary power and overwhelming documentation of Marx's indictment +of nineteenth-century Commercialism and the capitalist system, that +I defended him against all comers in and out of season until Philip +Wicksteed, the well-known Dante commentator, then a popular +Unitarian minister, brought me to a standstill by a criticism of +Marx which I did not understand. This was the first appearance in +Socialist controversy of the value theory of Jevons, published in +1871. Professor Edgeworth and Mr. Wicksteed, to whom Jevons +appealed as a mathematician, were at that time trying to convince +the academic world of the importance of Jevons's theory; but I, not +being a mathematician, was not easily accessible to their methods +of demonstration. I consented to reply to Mr. Wicksteed on the +express condition that the editor of <a name='Page_261'></a>To-day, +in which my reply appeared, should find space for a rejoinder by +Mr. Wicksteed. My reply, which was not bad for a fake, and +contained the germ of the economic argument for equality of income +which I put forward twenty-five years later, elicited only a brief +rejoinder; but the upshot was that I put myself into Mr. +Wicksteed's hands and became a convinced Jevonian, fascinated by +the subtlety of Jevons's theory and the exquisiteness with which it +adapted itself to all the cases which had driven previous +economists, including Marx, to take refuge in clumsy distinctions +between use value, exchange value, labour value, supply and demand +value, and the rest of the muddlements of that time.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, the abstract economics of the Fabian Essays are, as +regards value, the economics of Jevons. As regards rent they are +the economics of Ricardo, which I, having thrown myself into the +study of abstract economics, had learnt from Ricardo's own works +and from De Quincey's Logic of Political Economy. I maintained, as +I still do, that the older economists, writing before Socialism had +arisen as a possible alternative to Commercialism and a menace to +its vested interests, were far more candid in their statements and +thorough in their reasoning than their successors, and was fond of +citing the references in De Quincey and Austin's Lectures on +Jurisprudence to the country gentleman system and the evils of +capitalism, as instances of frankness upon which no modern +professor dare venture.</p> + +<p>The economical and moral identity of capital and interest with +land and rent was popularly demonstrated by Olivier in Tract 7 on +Capital and Land, and put into strict academic form by Sidney Webb. +The point was of importance at a time when the distinction was +still so strongly maintained that the Fabian Society <a name= +'Page_262'></a>was compelled to exclude Land Nationalizers, both +before and after their development into Single Taxers, because they +held that though land and rent should be socialized, capital and +interest must remain private property.</p> + +<p>This really exhausts the history of the Fabian Society as far as +abstract economic theory is concerned. Activity in that department +was confined to Webb and myself. Later on, Pease's interest in +banking and currency led him to contribute some criticism of the +schemes of the currency cranks who infest all advanced movements, +flourishing the paper money of the Guernsey Market, and to give the +Society some positive guidance as to the rapid integration of +modern banking. But this was an essay in applied economics. It may +be impossible to draw a line between the old abstract deductive +economics and the modern historical concrete economics; but the +fact remains that though the water may be the same, the tide has +turned. A comparison of my exposition of the law of rent in my +first Fabian Essay and in my Impossibilities of Anarchism with the +Webbs' great Histories of Trade Unionism and of Industrial +Democracy will illustrate the difference between the two +schools.</p> + +<p>The departure was made by Graham Wallas, who, abandoning the +deductive construction of intellectual theorems, made an exhaustive +study of the Chartist movement. It is greatly to be regretted that +these lectures were not effectively published. Their delivery +wrought a tremendous disillusion as to the novelty of our ideas and +methods of propaganda; much new gospel suddenly appeared to us as +stale failure; and we recognized that there had been weak men +before Agamemnon, even as far back as in Cromwell's army. The +necessity for mastering the history of our own movement and falling +into our ordered place in it <a name='Page_263'></a>became +apparent; and it was in this new frame of mind that the monumental +series of works by the Webbs came into existence. Wallas's Life of +Francis Place shows his power of reconstructing a popular agitation +with a realism which leaves the conventional imaginary version of +it punctured and flaccid; and it was by doing the same for the +Chartist movement that he left his mark on us.</p> + +<p>Of the other Essayists, Olivier had wrestled with the huge +Positive Philosophy of Comte, who thus comes in as a Fabian +influence. William Clarke was a disciple of Mazzini, and found +Emerson, Thoreau, and the Brook Farm enthusiasts congenial to him. +Bland, who at last became a professed Catholic, was something of a +Coleridgian transcendentalist, though he treated a copy of +Bakunin's God and the State to a handsome binding. Mrs. Besant's +spiritual history has been written by herself. Wallas brought to +bear a wide scholastic culture of the classic type, in which modern +writers, though interesting, were not fundamental. The general +effect, it will be perceived, is very much wider and more various +than that suggested by Mr. Ernest Barker's remark that Mill was our +starting point.</p> + +<p>It is a curious fact that of the three great propagandist +amateurs of political economy, Henry George, Marx, and Ruskin, +Ruskin alone seems to have had no effect on the Fabians. Here and +there in the Socialist movement workmen turned up who had read Fors +Clavigera or Unto This Last; and some of the more well-to-do no +doubt had read the first chapter of Munera Pulveris. But Ruskin's +name was hardly mentioned in the Fabian Society. My explanation is +that, barring Olivier, the Fabians were inveterate Philistines. My +efforts to induce them to publish Richard Wagner's Art and +Revolution, <a name='Page_264'></a>and, later on, Oscar Wilde's The +Soul of Man under Socialism, or even to do justice to Morris's News +From Nowhere, fell so flat that I doubt whether my colleagues were +even conscious of them. Our best excuse must be that as a matter of +practical experience English political societies do good work and +present a dignified appearance whilst they attend seriously to +their proper political business; but, to put it bluntly, they make +themselves ridiculous and attract undesirables when they affect art +and philosophy. The Arts and Crafts exhibitions, the Anti-Scrape +(Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings), and the Art +Workers' Guild, under Morris and Crane, kept up a very intimate +connection between Art and Socialism; but the maintenance of Fabian +friendly relations with them was left mostly to me and Stewart +Headlam. The rest kept aloof and consoled themselves with the +reflection—if they thought about it at all—that the +Utilitarians, though even more Philistine than the Fabians, were +astonishingly effective for their numbers.</p> + +<p>It must be added that though the tradition that Socialism +excludes the established creeds was overthrown by the Fabians, and +the claim of the Christian Socialists to rank with the best of us +was insisted on faithfully by them, the Fabian leaders did not +break the tradition in their own practice. The contention of the +Anti-Socialist Union that all Socialists are atheists is no doubt +ridiculous in the face of the fact that the intellectual opposition +to Socialism has been led exclusively by avowed atheists like +Charles Bradlaugh or agnostics like Herbert Spencer, whilst +Communism claims Jesus as an exponent; still, if the question be +raised as to whether any of the Fabian Essayists attended an +established place of worship regularly, the reply must be in the +negative. Indeed, they were <a name='Page_265'></a>generally +preaching themselves on Sundays. To describe them as irreligious in +view of their work would be silly; but until Hubert Bland towards +the end of his life took refuge in the Catholic Church, and Mrs. +Besant devoted herself to Theosophy, no leading Fabian found a +refuge for his soul in the temples of any established denomination. +I may go further and admit that the first problems the Fabians had +to solve were so completely on the materialist plane that the +atmosphere inevitably became uncongenial to those whose capacity +was wasted and whose sympathies were starved on that plane. Even +psychical research, with which Pease and Podmore varied their +Fabian activities, tended fatally towards the exposure of alleged +psychical phenomena as physical tricks. The work that came to our +hands in our first two decades was materialistic work; and it was +not until the turn of the century brought us the Suffrage movement +and the Wells raid, that the materialistic atmosphere gave way, and +the Society began to retain recruits of a kind that it always lost +in the earlier years as it lost Mrs. Besant and (virtually) William +Clarke. It is certainly perceptibly less hard-headed than it was in +its first period.</p> + +<h3>B</h3> + +<h3>ON GUILD SOCIALISM</h3> + +<p>Here I venture to say, with some confidence, that Mr. Barker is +mistaken. That storm has burst on the Fabian Society and has left +it just where it was. Guild Socialism, championed by the ablest and +most industrious insurgents of the rising generation in the +Society, raised its issue with Collectivism only to discover, when +the matter, after a long agitation, <a name='Page_266'></a>was +finally thrashed out at a conference at Barrow House, that the +issue was an imaginary one, and that Collectivism lost nothing by +the fullest tenable concessions to the Guild Socialists. A very +brief consideration will shew that this was inevitable.</p> + +<p>Guild Socialism, in spite of its engaging medieval name, means +nothing more picturesque than a claim that under Socialism each +industry shall be controlled by its own operators, as the +professions are to-day. This by itself would not imply Socialism at +all: it would be merely a revival of the medieval guild, or a fresh +attempt at the now exploded self-governing workshop of the +primitive co-operators. Guild Socialism, with the emphasis on the +Socialism, implies that the industries, however completely they may +be controlled by their separate staffs, must pool their products. +All the Guild Socialists admit this. The Socialist State must +therefore include an organ for receiving and distributing the +pooled products; and such an organ, representing the citizen not as +producer but as consumer, reintroduces the whole machinery of +Collectivism. Thus the alleged antithesis between Guild Socialism +and Collectivism, under cover of which the one was presented as an +alternative to the other, vanished at the first touch of the +skilled criticism the Fabians brought to bear on it; and now Mrs. +Sidney Webb, who was singled out for attack by the Guild Socialists +as the arch Collectivist, is herself conducting an investigation +into the existing control of industry by professional +organizations, whilst the quondam Guild Socialists are struggling +with the difficult question of the proper spheres of the old form +of Trade Union now called the craft union, and the new form called +the industrial union, in which workers of all crafts and +occupations, from clerks and railway porters to locomotive drivers +and <a name='Page_267'></a>fitters, are organized in a single union +of the entire industry. There is work enough for many years to some +of the old Fabian kind in these directions; and this work will +irresistibly reunite the disputants instead of perpetuating a +quarrel in which, like most of the quarrels which the Society has +survived, there was nothing fundamental at issue.</p> + +<p>There is work, too, to be done in the old abstract deductive +department. It can be seen, throughout the history of the Society, +how any attempt to discard the old economic basis of the law of +rent immediately produced a recrudescence of Anarchism in one form +or another, the latest being Syndicalism and that form of Guild +Socialism which was all Guild and no Socialism. But there is still +much to be settled by the deductive method. The fundamental +question of the proportions in which the national income, when +socialized, shall be distributed, was not grappled with until 1914, +when I, lecturing on behalf of the Society, delivered my final +conclusion that equal distribution is the only solution that will +realize the ideals of Socialism, and that it is in fact the +economic goal of Socialism. This is not fully accepted as yet in +the movement, in which there is still a strong leaven of the old +craving for an easy-going system which, beginning with "the +socialization of the means of production, distribution, and +exchange," will then work out automatically without interference +with the citizen's private affairs.</p> + +<p>Another subject which has hardly yet been touched, and which +also must begin with deductive treatment, is what may be called the +democratization of democracy, and its extension from a mere +negative and very uncertain check on tyranny to a positive +organizing force. No experienced Fabian believes that society can +be reconstructed (or rather constructed; for the difficulty is that +society is as yet only half rescued from <a name= +'Page_268'></a>chaos) by men of the type produced by popular +election under existing circumstances, or indeed under any +circumstances likely to be achieved before the reconstruction. The +fact that a hawker cannot ply his trade without a licence whilst a +man may sit in Parliament without any relevant qualifications is a +typical and significant anomaly which will certainly not be removed +by allowing everybody to be a hawker at will. Sooner or later, +unless democracy is to be discarded in a reaction of disgust such +as killed it in ancient Athens, democracy itself will demand that +only such men should be presented to its choice as have proved +themselves qualified for more serious and disinterested work than +"stoking up" election meetings to momentary and foolish excitement. +Without qualified rulers a Socialist State is impossible; and it +must not be forgotten (though the reminder is as old as Plato) that +the qualified men may be very reluctant men instead of very +ambitious ones.</p> + +<p>Here, then, are two very large jobs already in sight to occupy +future Fabians. Whether they will call themselves Fabians and begin +by joining the Fabian Society is a question which will not be +settled by the generation to which I belong.</p> + +<p class="right">G.B.S.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h3><a name='Page_269'></a><a name='Appendix_II'>Appendix +II</a></h3> + +<h3>The Basis of the Fabian Society</h3> + +<p>The Fabian Society consists of Socialists.</p> + +<p>It therefore aims at the reorganisation of Society by the +emancipation of Land and Industrial Capital from individual and +class ownership, and the vesting of them in the community for the +general benefit. In this way only can the natural and acquired +advantages of the country be equitably shared by the whole +people.</p> + +<p>The Society accordingly works for the extinction of private +property in Land and of the consequent individual appropriation, in +the form of Rent, of the price paid for permission to use the +earth, as well as for the advantages of superior soils and +sites.</p> + +<p>The Society, further, works for the transfer to the community of +the administration of such industrial Capital as can conveniently +be managed socially. For, owing to the monopoly of the means of +production in the past, industrial inventions and the +transformation of surplus income into Capital have mainly enriched +the proprietary class, the worker being now dependent on that class +for leave to earn a living.</p> + +<p>If these measures be carried out, without compensation (though +not without such relief to expropriated individuals as may seem fit +to the community), Rent and Interest will be added to the reward of +labour, the idle class now living on the labour of others will +necessarily disappear, and practical equality of opportunity will +be maintained by the spontaneous action of economic forces with +much less interference with personal liberty than the present +system entails.</p> + +<p>For the attainment of these ends the Fabian Society looks to the +spread of Socialist opinions, and the social and political changes +consequent thereon, <i>including the establishment of equal +citizenship for men and women.</i><a name='FNanchor_58' href= +'#Footnote_58'>[58]</a> It seeks to achieve these ends by the +general dissemination of knowledge as to the relation between the +individual and Society in its economic, ethical, and political +aspects.</p> + +<p>FOOTNOTE:</p> + +<p><a name='Footnote_58' href='#FNanchor_58'>[58]</a> The words in +italics were added in 1907. See page 177.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h3><a name='Page_270'></a><a name='Appendix_III'>Appendix +III</a></h3> + +<h3>List of the names and the years of office of the ninety-six +members of the Executive Committee, 1884-1915</h3> + +<p>The full term of office is from April to March, and such an +entry as 1901-2 usually means one year's office. Membership has +been terminated in many cases by resignation, in the great majority +by refusal to stand for re-election, in perhaps a dozen cases by +defeat, and never by death.</p> + +<ul> +<li> +<ul> +<li>Alden, Percy, M.P., 1903-7.</li> + +<li>Allen, Clifford, 1912 to date.</li> + +<li>Anderson, R. Wherry, 1898-1903.</li> + +<li>Atkinson, Miss Mabel, 1909 to date.</li> +</ul> + +<ul> +<li>Ball, Sidney, 1907-8.</li> + +<li>Banner, Robert, 1892.</li> + +<li>Barker, Granville, 1907-12.</li> + +<li>Bentham, Dr. Ethel, 1909-14.</li> + +<li>Bentinck, Mrs. R. Cavendish, 1911-13.</li> + +<li>Besant, Mrs. Annie, 1886-90.</li> + +<li>Bland, Hubert, 1884-1911. Honorary Treasurer 1884-1911.</li> + +<li>Blatch, Mrs. Stanton, 1894-5.</li> + +<li>Bray, Reginald A., 1911-12.</li> + +<li>Brooke, Miss Emma, 1893-6.</li> +</ul> + +<ul> +<li>Cameron, Miss Mary, 1893-4.</li> + +<li>Campbell, Rev. R.J., 1908-9.</li> + +<li>Charrington, Charles, 1899-1904.</li> + +<li>Chesterton, Cecil E., 1904-7.</li> + +<li>Clarke, William, 1888-91.</li> + +<li>Cole, G.D.H., 1914-15.</li> +</ul> + +<ul> +<li>Davies, Emil, 1911 to date.</li> + +<li>Dearmer, Rev. Percy, 1895-8.</li> + +<li>Dell, Robert E., 1890-3; 1898-9.</li> + +<li>De Mattos, W.S., 1890-4.</li> + +<li>Dodd, F. Lawson, 1900 to date. Honorary Treasurer 1911 to +date.</li> +</ul> + +<ul> +<li>Ensor, R.C.K., 1907-11; 1912 to date.<a name= +'Page_271'></a></li> + +<li>Ervine, St. John G., 1913 to date.</li> +</ul> + +<ul> +<li>Fairfield, Dr. Letitia, 1915 to date.</li> +</ul> + +<ul> +<li>Galton, F.W., 1901-7.</li> + +<li>Garnett, Mrs. Constance, 1894-5.</li> + +<li>Gillespie, H.J., 1914.</li> + +<li>Green, J.F. 1899-1900.</li> + +<li>Griffith, N.L., 1892-3.</li> + +<li>Grover, Miss Mary, 1890-2.</li> + +<li>Guest, L. Haden, 1907-11.</li> +</ul> + +<ul> +<li>Hammill, Fred, 1892-5.</li> + +<li>Harben, Henry D., 1911 to date.</li> + +<li>Harris, Mrs. O'Brien (Miss Mary O'Brien), 1898-1901.</li> + +<li>Headlam, Rev. Stewart D., 1890-1; 1901-11.</li> + +<li>Hoatson, Miss Alice, 1890-2. Assistant Hon. Secretary +1885-6.</li> + +<li>Hobson, Samuel G., 1900-9.</li> + +<li>Holding, H. Bond, 1894-6.</li> + +<li>Hutchins, Miss B.L., 1907-12.</li> +</ul> + +<ul> +<li>Keddell, Frederick, 1884-5. Honorary Secretary 1884-5.</li> +</ul> + +<ul> +<li>Lawrence F.W. Pethick, 1907-8.</li> + +<li>Lawrence, Miss Susan (L.C.C.), 1912 to date.</li> + +<li>Lloyd, C.M., 1912-15.</li> + +<li>Lowerison, Harry (Bellerby), 1891-2.</li> +</ul> + +<ul> +<li>Macdonald, J. Ramsay (M.P.), 1894-1900.</li> + +<li>Macpherson, Mrs. Fenton, 1900-1.</li> + +<li>Macrosty, Henry W., 1895-1907.</li> + +<li>Mallet, Mrs. L.T., 1890-2.</li> + +<li>Mann, Tom, 1896.</li> + +<li>Martin, John W., 1894-9.</li> + +<li>Massingham, H.W., 1891-3.</li> + +<li>Matthews, John E. (L.C.C.), 1901-2.</li> + +<li>Maude, Aylmer, 1907-12.</li> + +<li>Money, (Sir) Leo Chiozza (M.P.), 1908-11.</li> + +<li>Morley, Professor Edith, 1914 to date.</li> + +<li>Morris, Miss May, 1896-8.</li> + +<li>Morten, Miss Honor, 1895-8.</li> + +<li>Muggeridge, H.T., 1903-5.</li> + +<li>Murby, Miss M.B., 1907-13.</li> +</ul> + +<ul> +<li>Oakeshott, Joseph F., 1890-1902.<a name='Page_272'></a></li> + +<li>Olivier (Sir), Sydney (K.C.M.G.), 1887-1899. Honorary Secretary +1886-9.</li> +</ul> + +<ul> +<li>Pease, Edward R., 1885-6; 1890 to date. Honorary Secretary +1886, and 1914 to date. Secretary 1890-1913.</li> + +<li>Phillips, Dr. Marion, 1913-14.</li> + +<li>Phillips, W.L., 1887-8.</li> + +<li>Podmore, Frank, 1884; 1886-8.</li> + +<li>Priestley, Miss (Mrs. Bart Kennedy), 1896-8. Assistant +Secretary, 1892-5.</li> +</ul> + +<ul> +<li>Reeves, Mrs. Pember, 1907 to date.</li> +</ul> + +<ul> +<li>Sanders, W. Stephen, 1904 to date. Organising Secretary +1907-13. General Secretary 1914 to date.</li> + +<li>Sandham, Mrs., 1891-3.</li> + +<li>Sharp, Clifford D., 1909-14.</li> + +<li>Shaw, G. Bernard, 1885-1911.</li> + +<li>Shaw, Mrs. Bernard (Miss Payne Townshend), 1898-1915.</li> + +<li>Slesser, Henry H., 1910-14.</li> + +<li>Smith, Miss Ellen, 1915 to date.</li> + +<li>Snell, Harry, 1912 to date.</li> + +<li>Snowden, Mrs. Philip, 1908-9.</li> + +<li>Sparling, H. Halliday, 1892-4.</li> + +<li>Squire, J.C., 1914 to date.</li> + +<li>Standring, George, 1893-1908; 1909-11.</li> +</ul> + +<ul> +<li>Taylor, G.R.S., 1905-8.</li> + +<li>Townshend, Mrs. Emily C., 1915.</li> +</ul> + +<ul> +<li>Utley, W.H., 1892-4.</li> +</ul> + +<ul> +<li>Wallas, Graham, 1888-1895.</li> + +<li>Webb, Sidney, 1886 to date.</li> + +<li>Webb, Mrs. Sidney, 1912 to date.</li> + +<li>Wells, H.G., 1907-8.</li> + +<li>Wells, Mrs. H.G., 1908-10.</li> +</ul> + +<ul> +<li>West, Julius, 1915 to date. Secretary of Research Department, +etc., 1908-12.</li> + +<li>Whelen, Frederick, 1896-1901; 1902-4.</li> + +<li>Williams, Ernest E., 1893-4.</li> + +<li>Wilson, Mrs. C.M., 1885-7; 1911-15.</li> + +<li>Wood, Mrs. Esther, 1902-3.</li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h3><a name='Page_273'></a><a name='Appendix_IV'>Appendix +IV</a></h3> + +<h3>Complete List of Fabian Publications, 1884-1915, with names of +authors</h3> + +<h3>FABIAN TRACTS</h3> + +<p>The printing of the author's name in italics signifies that the +tract was adopted and probably amended by the Society and that it +was issued without the author's name. In the other cases the +author's name is given in the tract, and as a rule the tract was +approved for publication as a whole: a star to the author's name +signifies "not a member of the Society."</p> + +<p>No.</p> + +<ul> +<li> +<div class="center">1884.</div> + +<ul> +<li>1. Why are the Many Poor? 4 pp. <i>W.L. Phillips</i>.</li> + +<li>2. A Manifesto. 4 pp. <i>G. Bernard Shaw</i>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li> +<div class="center">1885.</div> + +<ul> +<li>3. To Provident Landlords and Capitalists: A Suggestion and a +Warning. 4 pp. <i>G. Bernard Shaw</i>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li> +<div class="center">1886.</div> + +<ul> +<li>4. What Socialism Is. 12 pp. Mrs. C.M. Wilson and others.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li> +<div class="center">1887.</div> + +<ul> +<li>5. Facts for Socialists. 16 pp. <i>Sidney Webb</i>.</li> + +<li>6. The True Radical Programme (Fabian Parliamentary League). 12 +pp. <i>G. Bernard Shaw</i>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li> +<div class="center">1888.</div> + +<ul> +<li>7. Capital and Land. 16 pp. <i>(Sir) Sydney Olivier</i>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li> +<div class="center">1889.</div> + +<ul> +<li>8. Facts for Londoners. 56 pp. <i>Sidney Webb</i>.</li> + +<li>9. An Eight Hours Bill. 16 pp. <i>Do</i>.</li> + +<li>10. Figures for Londoners. 4 pp. <i>Do</i>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li> +<div class="center">1890.</div> + +<ul> +<li>11. The Workers' Political Programme. 20 pp. <i>Sidney +Webb</i>.</li> + +<li>12. Practical Land Nationalisation. 4 pp. <i>Do</i>.</li> + +<li>13. What Socialism Is. 4 pp. <i>Bernard Shaw</i>.</li> + +<li>14. The New Reform Bill. 20 pp. <i>J.F. Oakeshott and +others</i>.</li> + +<li>15. English Progress towards Social Democracy. 16 pp. Sidney +Webb.</li> + +<li>16. A Plea for an Eight Hours Bill. 4 pp. <i>Sidney +Webb</i>.</li> + +<li>17. Reform of the Poor Law. 20 pp. Sidney Webb.</li> + +<li>18. Facts for Bristol. 20 pp. <i>(Sir) Hartmann W. +Just</i>.</li> + +<li>19. What the Farm Labourer Wants. 4 pp. <i>Sidney +Webb</i>.</li> + +<li>20. Questions for Poor Law Guardians. 4 pp. <i>S.W. +Group</i>.</li> + +<li>21. Questions for London Vestrymen. 4 pp. <i>C. +Foulger</i>.</li> + +<li>22. The Truth about Leasehold Enfranchisement. 4 pp. <i>Sidney +Webb</i>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li> +<div class="center">1891.</div> + +<ul> +<li>23. The Case for an Eight Hours Bill. 16 pp. <i>Sidney +Webb</i>.</li> + +<li>24. Questions for Parliamentary Candidates. 4 pp. +<i>Do</i>.</li> + +<li>25. Questions for School Board Candidates. 4 pp. +<i>Do</i>.</li> + +<li>26. Questions for London County Councillors. 4 pp. +<i>Do</i>.</li> + +<li>27. Questions for Town Councillors. 4 pp. <i>Rev. C. +Peach</i>.</li> + +<li>28. Questions for County Council Candidates (Rural). 4 pp. +<i>F. Hudson</i>.</li> + +<li>29. What to Read. 48 pp. <i>Graham Wallas</i> (1st edition). +(Fifth edition, 1910, not included in the series.)</li> + +<li>30. The Unearned Increment. 4 pp. <i>Sidney Webb</i>.</li> + +<li>31. London's Heritage in the City Guilds. 4 pp. <i>Sidney +Webb</i>.</li> + +<li>32. The Municipalisation of the Gas Supply. 4 pp. +<i>Do</i>.</li> + +<li>33. Municipal Tramways. 4 pp. <i>Do</i>.</li> + +<li>34. London's Water Tribute. 4 pp. <i>Do</i>.</li> + +<li>35. The Municipalisation of the London Docks. 4 pp. +<i>Do</i>.</li> + +<li>36. The Scandal of London's Markets. 4 pp. <i>Do</i>.</li> + +<li>37. A Labour Policy for Public Authorities. 4 pp. +<i>Do</i>.</li> + +<li>38. Welsh Translation of No. 1.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li> +<div class="center">1892.</div> + +<ul> +<li>39. A Democratic Budget. 16 pp. <i>J.F. Oakeshott</i>.</li> + +<li>40. Fabian Election Manifesto. 16 pp. <i>Bernard Shaw</i>.</li> + +<li>41. The Fabian Society: What it has done and how it has done +it. 32 pp. G. Bernard Shaw.</li> + +<li>42. Christian Socialism. 16 pp. Rev. Stewart D. Headlam.</li> + +<li>43. Vote! Vote! Vote! 2 pp. <i>Bernard Shaw</i>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li> +<div class="center">1893.</div> + +<ul> +<li>44. A Plea for Poor Law Reform. 4 pp. <i>Frederick +Whelen</i>.</li> + +<li>45. Impossibilities of Anarchism. 28 pp. G. Bernard Shaw.</li> + +<li>46. Socialism and Sailors. 16 pp. B.T. Hall.</li> + +<li>47. The Unemployed. (Rt. Hon.) John Burns.</li> + +<li>48. Eight Hours by Law. <i>Henry W. Macrosty</i>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li> +<div class="center">1894.</div> + +<ul> +<li>49. A Plan of Campaign for Labour. 28 pp. <i>G. Bernard +Shaw</i>.</li> + +<li>50. Sweating: Its Cause and Remedy. 16 pp. <i>H.W. +Macrosty</i>.</li> + +<li>51. Socialism: True and False. 20 pp. Sidney Webb.</li> + +<li>52. State Education at Home and Abroad. 16 pp. J.W. +Martin.</li> + +<li>53. The Parish Councils Act: What it is and how to work it. 20 +pp. <i>(Rt. Hon.) Herbert Samuel</i>.*</li> + +<li>54. Humanising of the Poor Law. 24 pp. J.F. Oakeshott.</li> + +<li>55. The Workers' School Board Programme. 20 pp. <i>J.W. +Martin</i>.</li> + +<li>56. Questions for Parish Council Candidates. 4 pp. <i>(Rt. +Hon.) Herbert Samuel</i>.*</li> + +<li>57. Questions for Rural District Council Candidates. 4 pp. +<i>(Rt. Hon.) Herbert Samuel</i>*</li> + +<li>58. Allotments and How to Get Them. 4 pp. <i>(Rt. Hon.) Herbert +Samuel</i>.*</li> + +<li>59. Questions for Candidates for Urban District Councils. 4 +pp.</li> + +<li>60. The London Vestries: What they are and what they do. 20 pp. +Sidney Webb.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li> +<div class="center">1895.</div> + +<ul> +<li>61. The London County Council: What it is and what it does. 16 +pp. <i>J.F. Oakeshott</i>.</li> + +<li>62. Parish and District Councils: What they are and what they +can do. 16 pp. (No. 53 re-written.)</li> + +<li>63. Parish Council Cottages and how to get them. 4 pp. <i>Edw. +R. Pease</i>.</li> + +<li>64. How to Lose and how to Win an Election. 2 pp. <i>Ramsay +Macdonald</i>.</li> + +<li>65. Trade Unionists and Politics. 2 pp. <i>F.W. +Galton</i>.</li> + +<li>66. A Program for Workers. 2 pp. <i>Edw. R. Pease</i>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li> +<div class="center"><a name='Page_276'></a>1896.</div> + +<ul> +<li>67. Women and the Factory Acts. 16 pp. Mrs. Sidney Webb.</li> + +<li>68. The Tenant's Sanitary Catechism. 4 pp. <i>Arthur +Hickmott</i>.</li> + +<li>69. The Difficulties of Individualism. 20 pp. Sidney Webb.</li> + +<li>70. Report on Fabian Policy. 16 pp. <i>Bernard Shaw</i>.</li> + +<li>71. The (London) Tenant's Sanitary Catechism. 4 pp. <i>Miss +Grove</i>.</li> + +<li>72. The Moral Aspects of Socialism. 24 pp. Sidney Ball.</li> + +<li>73. The Case for State Pensions in Old Age. 16 pp. <i>George +Turner</i>.</li> + +<li>74. The State and Its Functions in New Zealand. 16 pp. The Hon. +W.P. Reeves.*</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li> +<div class="center">1896.</div> + +<ul> +<li>75. Labour in the Longest Reign. 20 pp. Sidney Webb.</li> + +<li>76. Houses for the People. 20 pp. <i>Arthur Hickmott</i>.</li> + +<li>77. The Municipalisation of Tramways. 16 pp. F.T.H. +Henlé.</li> + +<li>78. Socialism and the Teaching of Christ. 16 pp. Rev. John +Clifford, D.D.</li> + +<li>79. A Word of Remembrance and Caution to the Rich. 16 pp. John +Woolman.*</li> + +<li>80. Shop Life and its Reform. 16 pp. <i>William +Johnson</i>.</li> + +<li>81. Municipal Water. 4 pp. <i>C.M. Knowles</i>.*</li> + +<li>82. The Workmen's Compensation Act. 20 pp. <i>C.R. Allen, +junr</i>.</li> + +<li>83. State Arbitration and the Living Wage. 16 pp. <i>H.W. +Macrosty</i>.</li> + +<li>84. The Economics of Direct Employment. 16 pp. Sidney +Webb.</li> + +<li>85. Liquor Licensing at Home and Abroad. 16 pp. Edw. R. +Pease.</li> + +<li>86. Municipal Drink Traffic. 20 pp. <i>Edw. R. Pease</i>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li> +<div class="center">1899.</div> + +<ul> +<li>87. A Welsh Translation of No. 78. 16 pp.<i>J.F. +Oakeshott</i>.</li> + +<li>88. The Growth of Monopoly in English Industry. 16 pp. Henry W. +Macrosty.</li> + +<li>89. Old Age Pensions at Work. 4 pp. <i>Bullock</i>.</li> + +<li>90. The Municipalisation of the Milk Supply. 4 pp. <i>Dr. G.F. +McCleary</i>.</li> + +<li>91. Municipal Pawnshops. 4 pp. <i>Charles Charrington</i>.</li> + +<li>92. Municipal Slaughterhouses. 4 pp. <i>George +Standring</i>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li> +<div class="center"><a name='Page_277'></a>1900.</div> + +<ul> +<li>93. Women as Councillors. 4 pp. <i>Bernard Shaw</i>.</li> + +<li>94. Municipal Bakeries. 4 pp. <i>Dr. G.F. McCleary.</i></li> + +<li>95. Municipal Hospitals. 4 pp. <i>Do</i>.</li> + +<li>96. Municipal Fire Insurance. 4 pp. (1901). <i>Mrs. Fenton +Macpherson</i>.</li> + +<li>97. Municipal Steamboats. 4 pp. (1901). <i>S.D. +Shallard</i>.</li> + +<li>98. State Railways for Ireland. 16 pp. <i>Clement Edwards +(M.P.).</i></li> + +<li>99. Local Government in Ireland. <i>C.R. Allen, junr</i>.</li> + +<li>100. Metropolitan Borough Councils: Their Powers and Duties. 20 +pp. <i>Henry W. Macrosty</i>.</li> + +<li>101. The House Famine and How to Relieve it. 52 pp. +Various.</li> + +<li>102. Questions for Candidates: Metropolitan Borough Councils. 4 +pp.</li> + +<li>103. Overcrowding in London and its Remedy. 16 pp. W.C. +Steadman, M.P.</li> + +<li>104. How Trade Unions Benefit Workmen. 4 pp. <i>Edw. R. +Pease</i>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li> +<div class="center">1901.</div> + +<ul> +<li>105. Five Years' Fruit of the Parish Councils Act. 24 pp +<i>Sidney Webb</i>.</li> + +<li>106. The Education Muddle and the Way Out. 20 pp. <i>Sidney +Webb</i>.</li> + +<li>107. Socialism for Millionaires. 16 pp. Bernard Shaw.</li> + +<li>108. Twentieth Century Politics: A Policy of National +Efficiency. 16 pp. Sidney Webb.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li> +<div class="center">1902.</div> + +<ul> +<li>109. Cottage Plans and Common Sense. 16 pp. Raymond Unwin.</li> + +<li>110. Problems of Indian Poverty. 16 pp. S.S. Thorburn.*</li> + +<li>111. Reform of Reformatories and Industrial Schools. 16 pp. +H.T. Holmes.</li> + +<li>112. Life in the Laundry. 16 pp. Dr. G.F. McCleary.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li> +<div class="center">1903.</div> + +<ul> +<li>113. Communism. 16 pp. William Morris.* Preface by Bernard +Shaw.</li> + +<li>114. The Education Act, 1902. How to make the best of it. 20 +pp. <i>Sidney Webb</i>.</li> + +<li>115. State Aid to Agriculture. 16 pp. T.S. Dymond.*</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li> +<div class="center"><a name='Page_278'></a>1904.</div> + +<ul> +<li>116. Fabianism and the Fiscal Question: An Alternative Policy. +28 pp. <i>Bernard Shaw</i>.</li> + +<li>117. The London Education Act, 1903: How to make the best of +it. 20 pp. <i>Sidney Webb</i>.</li> + +<li>118. The Secret of Rural Depopulation. 20 pp. Lieut.-Col. D.C. +Pedder.*</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li> +<div class="center">1904.</div> + +<ul> +<li>119. Public Control of Electric Power and Transit. 16 pp. S.G. +Hobson.</li> + +<li>120. After Bread, Education. 16 pp. Hubert Bland.</li> + +<li>121. Public Service versus Private Expenditure. 12 pp. Sir +Oliver Lodge.*</li> + +<li>122. Municipal Milk and Public Health. 20 pp. F. Lawson. +Dodd.</li> + +<li>123. The Revival of Agriculture: A National Policy for Great +Britain. 24 pp. Henry W. Macrosty.</li> + +<li>124. State Control of Trusts. 16 pp. Henry W. Macrosty.</li> + +<li>125. Municipalisation by Provinces. 16 pp. W. Stephen +Sanders.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li> +<div class="center">1906.</div> + +<ul> +<li>126. The Abolition of Poor Law Guardians. 24 pp. Edw. R. +Pease.</li> + +<li>127. Socialism and Labour Policy. 16 pp. <i>Hubert Bland +(Editor)</i>.</li> + +<li>128. The Case for a Legal Minimum Wage. 20 pp. <i>W. Stephen +Sanders</i>.</li> + +<li>129. More Books to Read. 20 pp. <i>Edw. R. Pease</i>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li> +<div class="center">1907.</div> + +<ul> +<li>130. Home Work and Sweating: The Causes and Remedies. 20 pp. +Miss B.L. Hutchins.</li> + +<li>131. The Decline in the Birth-rate. 20 pp. Sidney Webb.</li> + +<li>132. A Guide to Books for Socialists. 12 pp. "The +Nursery."</li> + +<li>133. Socialism and Christianity. 24 pp. Rev. Percy Dearmer, +D.D.</li> + +<li>134. Small Holdings, Allotments, and Common Pastures. 4 pp. +Revised edition of No. 58.</li> + +<li>135. Paupers and Old Age Pensions. 16 pp. Sidney Webb.</li> + +<li>136. The Village and the Landlord. 12 pp. Edward +Carpenter.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li> +<div class="center"><a name='Page_279'></a>1908.</div> + +<ul> +<li>137. Parish Councils and Village Life. 28pp. Revised version of +No. 105.</li> + +<li>138. Municipal Trading. 20 pp. <i>Aylmer Maude</i>.</li> + +<li>139. Socialism and the Churches. 16 pp. Rev. John Clifford, +D.D.</li> + +<li>140. Child Labour Under Capitalism. 20 pp. Mrs. Hylton +Dale.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li> +<div class="center">1909.</div> + +<ul> +<li>141. (Welsh Translation of No. 139).</li> + +<li>142. Rent and Value. 12 pp. Adapted by Mrs. Bernard Shaw from +Fabian Essays, The Economic Basis.</li> + +<li>143. Sosialaeth Yng Ngoleuni'R Beibl (Welsh). J.R. Jones.</li> + +<li>144. Machinery: Its Masters and its Servants. 20 pp. H.H. +Schloesser (Slesser) and Clement Game.</li> + +<li>145. The Case for School Nurseries. 20 pp. Mrs. Townshend.</li> + +<li>146. Socialism and Superior Brains. A Reply to Mr. Mallock. 24 +pp. Bernard Shaw.</li> + +<li>147. Capital and Compensation. 16 pp. Edward R. Pease.</li> + +<li>148. What a Health Committee can do. 16 pp. <i>Miss B.L. +Hutchins</i>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li> +<div class="center">1910.</div> + +<ul> +<li>149. The Endowment of Motherhood. 24 pp. Henry D. Harben.</li> + +<li>150. State Purchase of Railways: A Practicable Scheme. 24 pp. +Emil Davies.</li> + +<li>151. The Point of Honour. A Correspondence on Aristocracy and +Socialism. 16 pp. Mrs. Ruth Cavendish Bentinck.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li> +<div class="center">1911.</div> + +<ul> +<li>152. Our Taxes as they are and as they ought to be. 20 pp. +Robert Jones.</li> + +<li>153. The Twentieth Century Reform Bill. 20 pp. Henry H. +Schloesser (Slesser).</li> + +<li>154. The Case for School Clinics. 16 pp. L. Haden Guest.</li> + +<li>155. The Case against the Referendum. 20 pp. Clifford D. +Sharp.</li> + +<li>156. What an Education Committee can do (Elementary Schools). +36 pp. The Education Group.</li> + +<li>157. The Working Life of Women. 16 pp. Miss B.L. Hutchins.</li> + +<li>158. The Case Against the Charity Organisation Society. 20 pp. +Mrs. Townshend.</li> + +<li><a name='Page_280'></a>159. The Necessary Basis of Society. 12 +pp. Sidney Webb.</li> + +<li>160. A National Medical Service. 20 pp. F. Lawson Dodd.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li> +<div class="center">1912.</div> + +<ul> +<li>161. Afforestation and Unemployment. 16 pp. Arthur P. +Grenfell.</li> + +<li>162. Family Life on a Pound a Week. 24 pp. Mrs. Pember +Reeves.</li> + +<li>163. Women and Prisons. 28 pp. Helen Blagg and Charlotte +Wilson.</li> + +<li>164. Gold and State Banking. A Study in the Economics of +Monopoly. 20 pp. Edward R. Pease.</li> + +<li>165. Francis Place: The Tailor of Charing Cross. 28 pp. St. +John G. Ervine.</li> + +<li>166. Robert Owen: Social Reformer. 24 pp. Miss B.L. +Hutchins.</li> + +<li>167. William Morris and the Communist Ideal. 24 pp. Mrs. +Townshend.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li> +<div class="center">1913.</div> + +<ul> +<li>168. John Stuart Mill. 24 pp. Julius West.</li> + +<li>169. The Socialist Movement in Germany. 28 pp. W. Stephen +Sanders.</li> + +<li>170. Profit-Sharing and Co-partnership: A fraud and a failure? +16 pp. Edward R. Pease.</li> + +<li>171. The Nationalisation of Mines and Minerals Bill. 16 pp. +Henry H. Schloesser (Slesser).</li> + +<li>172. What about the Rates, or Municipal Finance and Municipal +Autonomy. 12 pp. Sidney Webb.</li> + +<li>173. Public versus Private Electricity Supply. 20 pp. C. +Ashmore Baker.*</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li> +<div class="center">1914.</div> + +<ul> +<li>174. Charles Kingsley and Christian Socialism. 28 pp. Colwyn E. +Vulliamy.</li> + +<li>175. The Economic Foundations of the Women's Movement. 24 pp. +M.A. <i>(Mabel Atkinson</i>).</li> + +<li>176. War and the Workers. Handbook of some immediate measures +to prevent Unemployment and relieve distress. 24 pp. Sidney +Webb.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li> +<div class="center">1915.</div> + +<ul> +<li>177. Socialism and the Arts of Use. 16 pp. A. Clutton +Brock.</li> + +<li>178. The War; Women; and Unemployment. 28 pp. The Women's Group +Executive.</li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h3><a name='Page_281'></a><a name= +'BOOKS_AND_SPECIAL_PAMPHLETS'></a>BOOKS AND SPECIAL PAMPHLETS.</h3> + +<p class="center">Those without any publisher's name were published +by the Society.</p> + +<p>The Government Organisation of Unemployed Labour. Report made by +a Committee to the Fabian Society and ordered to be printed for the +information of members. 1886. pp. 24. N.P. <i>Sidney Webb</i> and +<i>Frank Podmore.</i></p> + +<p>Fabian Essays in Socialism. Edited by Bernard Shaw. 1889. 1st +edition, 6s. Subsequent editions published by Walter Scott.</p> + +<p>Report on Municipal Tramways, presented to the Richmond (Surrey) +Town Council by Aid. Thompson.* Reprinted for the Society by +special permission. 4to. pp. 20. 1898. 6d.</p> + +<p>Labour in the Longest Reign: 1837-1897. By Sidney Webb. A +reprint of Tract No. 75. Grant Richards, pp. 62. 1897. 1s.</p> + +<p>Fabianism and the Empire. A Manifesto by the Fabian Society. +Edited by Bernard Shaw. pp. 101. Grant Richards. 1900. 1s.</p> + +<p>Fabianism and the Fiscal Question: An Alternative Policy. +Special edition of Tract 116; with a preface by Bernard Shaw. pp. +39. 1904. 1s.</p> + +<p>This Misery of Boots. By H.G. Wells. Cover designed by A.G. +Watts, pp. 48. 1907. 3d.</p> + +<p>Tract Index and Catalogue Raisonné of Tracts Nos. 1 to +139. Pp. 35. 1908. 3d.</p> + +<p>Those Wretched Rates, a dialogue. By F.W. Hayes, pp. 16. 1908. +1d.</p> + +<p>Ballads and Lyrics of Socialism, 1883-1908. By E. Nesbit (Mrs. +Hubert Bland), pp. 80. A.C. Fifield. 1908. 6d. and 1s.</p> + +<p>Break Up the Poor Law and Abolish the Workhouse. Being Part I of +the Minority Report of the Poor Law Commission 1909. pp. 601. 2s. +By <i>Sidney</i> and <i>Beatrice Webb.</i></p> + +<p>The Remedy for Unemployment. Being Part II. 1909. pp. 345. 1s. +By <i>Sidney</i> and <i>Beatrice Webb</i>.</p> + +<p>A Summary of Six Papers and Discussions upon the Disabilities of +Women as Workers.</p> + +<p>The writers of the papers: Miss Emma Brooke, Dr. Constance +Long,* Mrs. Ernestine Mills, Mrs. Gallichan (G. Gasquoine Hartley), +Miss Millicent Murby, Dr. Ethel Bentham.</p> + +<p>Issued for private circulation only by the Fabian Women's Group, +pp. 24. 1909.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_282'></a>Summary of Eight Papers and Discussions +upon the Disabilities of Mothers as Workers.</p> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>The writers of the papers: Mrs. Pember Reeves, Dr. Ethel Vaughan +Sawyer,* Mrs. Spence Weiss,* Mrs. Bartrick Baker, Mrs. Stanbury, +Mrs. S.K. Ratcliffe, Miss B.L. Hutchins, Mrs. O'Brien Harris.</p> + +<p>Issued for private circulation only by the Fabian Women's Group, +pp. 32. 1910.</p> +</div> + +<p>What to Read on</p> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>Social and Economic Subjects. 5th edition. Earlier editions +published as Tract No. 29. pp. 52. P.S. King and Son. 1910. 1s.</p> +</div> + +<p>Songs for Socialists, compiled by the Fabian Society. A.C. +Fifield. 1912. 3d.</p> + +<p>The Rural Problem. By Henry D. Harben. pp. 169. Constable and +Co. 1913. 2s. 6d. net.</p> + +<p>Women Workers in Seven Professions. A survey of their economic +conditions and prospects. Edited for the Studies Committee of the +Fabian Women's Group. By Edith J. Morley. pp. xxii+318. G. +Routledge and Sons. 1914. 6s.</p> + +<p>Wage-Earning Women and their Dependents. By Ellen Smith on +behalf of the Executive Committee of the Women's Group, pp. 36. +1915. 1s. net.</p> + +<h3>BOUND TRACTS.</h3> + +<p>The whole of the numbered tracts at any time in print are sold +as a bound volume with a title-page. As the complete set is in +demand and as every few months a new tract is published, or an old +one is sold out, the sets are usually bound a dozen at a time, and +each dozen differs as a rule from all the rest. Price now 5s. +net.</p> + +<h3>FABIAN SOCIALIST SERIES.</h3> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p class="center">Published for the Society by A.C. Fifield at 6d. +and is net each.</p> + +<p>I. Socialism and Religion. Reprint of Tracts, Nos. 42, 78, 133, +and 79. pp. 87. 1908.</p> + +<p>II. Socialism and Agriculture. Reprint of Tracts, Nos. 136, 118, +115, and 123. pp. 94. 1908.</p> + +<p>III. Socialism and Individualism. Reprint of Tracts, Nos. 69, +45, 72, and 121. pp. 102. 1908.</p> + +<p>IV. The Basis and Policy of Socialism. Reprint of Tracts, Nos. +5, 7, 51, and 108. pp. 95. 1908.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_283'></a>V. The Common Sense of Municipal Trading. +By Bernard Shaw. Reprint with a new preface, pp. 120. 1908.</p> + +<p>VI. Socialism and National Minimum. Papers by Mrs. Sidney Webb +and Miss B.L. Hutchins, and reprint of Tract No. 128. pp. 91. +1909.</p> + +<p>VII. Wastage of Child Life, as exemplified by Conditions in +Lancashire. By J. Johnston, M.D.* A reprint, pp. 95. 1909.</p> + +<p>VIII. Socialism and Superior Brains. Reprint of Tract, No. 146. +pp. 59. 1910.</p> + +<p>IX. The Theory and Practice of Trade Unionism. By J.H. +Greenwood. Preface by Sidney Webb. pp. 70. 1911.</p> +</div> + +<h3>RESEARCH DEPARTMENT PUBLICATIONS.</h3> + +<p>New Statesman Supplements:</p> + +<div class='blkquot'> +<p>Industrial Organisation in Germany, Report. By W.S. Sanders. +1913. 8 pp. folio.</p> + +<p>National Insurance Act. First Draft Report of the Insurance +Committee. March 14, 1914. 32 pp. folio, 1s.</p> + +<p>Co-operative Production and Profit-Sharing. February 14, 1914. +32 pp. folio. 2s. 6d.</p> + +<p>Co-operative Movement. Drafts of the first two parts of the +Report on the Control of Industry. By Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Webb. May +30, 1914. 36 pp. folio, 1s.</p> + +<p>Industrial Insurance. March 13, 1915. 32 pp. folio, 1s.</p> + +<p>State and Municipal Enterprise. Draft Report. By Mr. and Mrs. +Sidney Webb. May 8, 1915. 32 pp. folio, 1s.</p> + +<p>Suggestions for the Prevention of War.</p> + +<p>Part I. By L.S. Woolf. July 10, 1915. 24 pp. folio, 1s.</p> + +<p>Part II. By the International Agreements Committee July 17, +1915. 8 pp. folio, 1s.</p> + +<p>English Teachers and their Professional Organisation. Monograph +by Mrs. Sidney Webb.</p> + +<p>Part I. September 25, 1915. 24 pp. folio. 6d.</p> + +<p>Part II. October 2, 1915. 24 pp. folio. 6d.</p> +</div> + +<p>Labour Year Book, 1915-16, issued under the auspices of the +Parliamentary Committee of the Trade Union Congress, the Executive +Committee of the Labour Party, and the Fabian Research Department. +1915. 704 pp. 1s., and 2s. 6d.</p> + +<h2><a name='Page_285'></a><a name='Index'></a>Index</h2> + +<p class="center">Of the principal references to people and +subjects</p> + +<ul> +<li>A + +<ul> +<li>Agriculture, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_15'>15,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_47'>47,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_157'>157,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_228'>228</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Alden, Percy, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_153'>153,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_172'>172,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_231'>231</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Allen, Clifford, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_195'>195,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_225'>225,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_234'>234</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Anarchism, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_49'>49,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_53'>53,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_66'>66</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Arts Group, The, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_188'>188</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>B + +<ul> +<li>Balfour, Rt. Hon. Arthur J., + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_45'>45,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_142'>142</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Ball, Sidney, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_103'>103,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_180'>180,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_183'>183</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Barker, Ernest, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_244'>244,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_258'>258</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Barker, Granville, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_180'>180,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_186'>186</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Barnett, Canon, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_16'>16</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Basis, The Fabian, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_71'>71,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_169'>169,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_177'>177,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_178'>178,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_231'>231,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_269'>269</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Bax, Belfort, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_66'>66</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Beale, Mr., + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_112'>112</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Bentham, Jeremy, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_244'>244</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Bernstein, Edward, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_239'>239</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Besant, Mrs. Annie, joins, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_47'>47;</a></li> + +<li class="subitem">her position, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_64'>64;</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li class="subitem">Fabian Essay, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_92'>92;</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li class="subitem">resigns, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_98'>98;</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li class="subitem">lecture, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_187'>187</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Birth-rate, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_160'>160</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Bland, Hubert, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_31'>31,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_35'>35,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_222'>222,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_223'>223,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_265'>265</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Book-boxes, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_121'>121</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Brooke, Miss Emma, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_190'>190</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Brooke, Rupert, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_234'>234</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Brooke, Rev. Stopford, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_69'>69</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Burns, Rt. Hon. John, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_67'>67,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_83'>83,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_110'>110,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_217'>217</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Butler, Samuel, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_105'>105</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>C + +<ul> +<li>Campbell, Rev. R.J., + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_187'>187</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Carpenter, Edward, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_36'>36</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Champion, H.H., + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_25'>25,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_31'>31,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_69'>69,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_75'>75</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Charrington, Charles, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_131'>131,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_133'>133</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Christian Socialism, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_25'>25,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_83'>83</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Chubb, Percival, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_29'>29,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_69'>69</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Clarke, William, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_31'>31,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_33'>33;</a></li> + +<li class="subitem">joins, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_47'>47;</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li class="subitem">position, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_64'>64,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_123'>123</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Clifford, Dr. John, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_129'>129</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Cole, G.D.H., + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_230'>230</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Comte, Auguste, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_14'>14,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_18'>18,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_263'>263</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Conference, of 1886, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_55'>55;</a></li> + +<li class="subitem">of 1892, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_106'>106;</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li class="subitem">of later years, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_197'>197</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Conscription, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_137'>137</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Co-operation, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_44'>44,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_92'>92,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_114'>114,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_228'>228</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Cox, Harold, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_46'>46</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Crane, Walter, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_66'>66,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_71'>71,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_75'>75,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_88'>88,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_129'>129,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_131'>131,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_133'>133,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_264'>264</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Crooks, Rt. Hon. Will, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_129'>129,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_152'>152,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_155'>155</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>D + +<ul> +<li>Darwin, Charles, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_15'>15</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Davidson, Thomas, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_26'>26,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_28'>28</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Decline of birth-rate, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_160'>160</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>De Mattos, W.S., + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_93'>93,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_105'>105,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_123'>123</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Democratic Federation, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_24'>24,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_38'>38,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_49'>49</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Dock Strike, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_75'>75,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_83'>83,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_114'>114</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Dodd, F. Lawson, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_129'>129,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_131'>131,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_172'>172,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_202'>202</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Drink Trade, Municipal, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_159'>159</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>E + +<ul> +<li>Edgeworth, Professor, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_260'>260</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Education, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_142'>142</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Education Group, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_185'>185</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Eight Hours Bill, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_84'>84,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_203'>203</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Elections, of 1892, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_108'>108,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_112'>112;</a></li> + +<li class="subitem">of 1906, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_152'>152;</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li class="subitem">of 1910, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_220'>220</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Ellis, Havelock,<a name='Page_286'></a> + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_29'>29,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_36'>36</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Ensor, R.C.K., + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_180'>180,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_221'>221</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Evolution, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_15'>15,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_17'>17</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>F + +<ul> +<li>"Facts for Londoners," + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_80'>80</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>"Facts for Socialists," + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_69'>69</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>"Fair Wages," + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_109'>109,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_114'>114,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_241'>241</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>"Family, The," + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_15'>15,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_69'>69,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_175'>175,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_181'>181</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Feeding school children, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_148'>148,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_203'>203</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Fellowship of the New Life + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_28'>28,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_32'>32,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_35'>35</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Finance, 1884, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_35'>35;</a></li> + +<li class="subitem">1886, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_60'>60;</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li class="subitem">1891, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_99'>99;</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li class="subitem">1893, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_100'>100;</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li class="subitem">1908, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_185'>185</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>G + +<ul> +<li>George, Henry, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_16'>16,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_19'>19,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_25'>25,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_28'>28,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_38'>38,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_45'>45,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_260'>260</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>"Government Organisation of Unemployed Labour," + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_57'>57</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Green, J. Frederick, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_131'>131,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_133'>133</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Groups, Fabian, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_104'>104,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_195'>195</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Guild Socialism, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_230'>230,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_254'>254</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>H + +<ul> +<li>Haldane, Lord, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_74'>74,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_111'>111</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Hampstead Historic, The, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_65'>65</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Harben, Henry D., + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_222'>222,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_224'>224,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_227'>227,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_228'>228</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Hardie, J. Keir, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_113'>113,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_167'>167,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_253'>253</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Headlam, Rev. Stewart D., + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_25'>25,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_57'>57,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_75'>75,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_94'>94,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_142'>142,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_166'>166,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_168'>168,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_172'>172</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Henderson, Rt. Hon. Arthur, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_152'>152,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_155'>155</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Hobson, S.G., + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_130'>130,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_150'>150,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_172'>172</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Housing, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_140'>140</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Huddersfield Election, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_155'>155</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Hutchinson, Henry H., + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_95'>95,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_123'>123</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Hutchinson, Miss, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_123'>123</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Huxley, T.H., + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_18'>18</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Hyndman, H.M., + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_24'>24,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_38'>38,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_51'>51,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_202'>202,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_252'>252</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>I + +<ul> +<li>Ibsen, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_94'>94</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Imperialism, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_135'>135</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Independent Labour Party, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_63'>63,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_97'>97,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_101'>101,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_129'>129,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_202'>202</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Industrial Remuneration Conference, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_44'>44</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>"Intercepted Letter, An," + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_118'>118</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>International Socialist Congress, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_126'>126,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_209'>209</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>J + +<ul> +<li>Jevons, Stanley, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_260'>260</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Joint Standing Committee, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_202'>202</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>K + +<ul> +<li>"Kapital, Das," + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_24'>24,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_64'>64,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_236'>236,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_258'>258</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Keddell, Frederick, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_31'>31,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_52'>52</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Kropotkin, Prince, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_49'>49,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_66'>66</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>L + +<ul> +<li>Labour Party, The, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_97'>97,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_116'>116,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_148'>148,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_167'>167,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_171'>171</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Lancashire Campaign, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_95'>95</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Land, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_47'>47,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_244'>244,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_260'>260</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Land taxation, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_21'>21,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_25'>25,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_73'>73</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Lavelaye, Emile de, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_16'>16,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_19'>19</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Leasehold Enfranchisement, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_94'>94,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_110'>110,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_113'>113</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Lecturing, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_77'>77,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_105'>105,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_108'>108,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_124'>124</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Library, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_120'>120</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Local Fabian Societies, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_99'>99,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_102'>102,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_191'>191</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Local Government Information Bureau, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_206'>206</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>London County Council, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_79'>79,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_92'>92,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_109'>109</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>London School Board, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_109'>109</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>London School of Economics, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_123'>123</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>M + +<ul> +<li>Macdonald, J. Ramsay, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_35'>35,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_125'>125,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_127'>127,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_129'>129,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_133'>133,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_249'>249</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Macrosty, Henry S., + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_131'>131,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_157'>157,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_172'>172</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Martin, J.W., + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_158'>158</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Marx, Karl, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_23'>23,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_45'>45,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_61'>61,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_89'>89,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_236'>236,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_260'>260</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li><a name='Page_287'></a>Massingham, H.W., + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_109'>109,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_116'>116,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_117'>117</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Maude, Aylmer, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_180'>180</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Middle Class Socialist Party, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_153'>153,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_172'>172,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_178'>178,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_180'>180</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Mill, John Stuart, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_18'>18,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_21'>21,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_216'>216,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_244'>244,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_259'>259</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Minority Report of the Poor Law Commission, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_215'>215</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Money, Sir Leo Chiozza, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_169'>169,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_224'>224</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Morris, Miss May, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_88'>88</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Morris, William, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_23'>23,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_57'>57,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_66'>66,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_90'>90,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_183'>183,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_204'>204,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_259'>259,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_264'>264</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Motto, Fabian, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_39'>39,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_165'>165</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Municipalisation, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_81'>81,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_159'>159,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_242'>242,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_247'>247</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>N + +<ul> +<li>National Committee for the Prevention of Destitution, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_219'>219</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>National Insurance, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_223'>223</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Newcastle Program, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_112'>112</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Nursery, The Fabian, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_189'>189</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>O + +<ul> +<li>Oakeshott, J.F., + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_36'>36,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_131'>131,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_158'>158</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Old Age Pensions, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_159'>159,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_223'>223</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Olivier, Sir Sydney, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_25'>25;</a></li> + +<li class="subitem">joins, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_46'>46;</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li class="subitem">secretary, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_65'>65;</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li class="subitem">"Capital and Land," + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_73'>73;</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li class="subitem">Governor of Jamaica, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_128'>128;</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li class="subitem">Wells' Committee, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_166'>166;</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li class="subitem">opinions, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_263'>263,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_264'>264</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Owen, Miss Dale, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_30'>30,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_31'>31</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Owen, Robert, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_23'>23,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_241'>241</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>P + +<ul> +<li>Pankhurst, Mrs., + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_57'>57,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_133'>133</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Parish Councils, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_121'>121,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_141'>141</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Parliamentary League, Fabian, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_68'>68,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_73'>73</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Pease, Edward R., + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_29'>29,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_59'>59,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_80'>80,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_93'>93,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_149'>149,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_159'>159,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_232'>232</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Phillips, W.L., + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_39'>39,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_73'>73</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Podmore, Frank, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_28'>28,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_39'>39,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_48'>48,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_53'>53,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_57'>57,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_73'>73,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_80'>80</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Poor Law, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_14'>14,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_46'>46,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_213'>213</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Portsmouth Election, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_155'>155</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Positivism, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_14'>14,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_18'>18</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>R + +<ul> +<li>Reeves, Mrs. Pember, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_166'>166,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_177'>177,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_180'>180</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Reform Committee, Fabian, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_255'>255</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Research Department, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_227'>227</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Ritchie, Professor D.G., + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_75'>75,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_116'>116</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Ruskin, John, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_27'>27,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_263'>263</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>S + +<ul> +<li>Salt, Henry S., + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_36'>36,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_131'>131,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_133'>133</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Sanders, W. Stephen, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_125'>125,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_155'>155,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_156'>156,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_172'>172,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_191'>191,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_232'>232</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>School Boards, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_142'>142</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Shaw, G. Bernard, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_25'>25,</a></li> + +<li class="subitem">joins, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_40'>40;</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li class="subitem">first tract, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_40'>40;</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li class="subitem">on Burglars, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_45'>45;</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li class="subitem">Fabian Essays, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_87'>87;</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li class="subitem">"Quintessence of Ibsenism," + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_94'>94;</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li class="subitem">on Newcastle Program, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_112'>112;</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li class="subitem">on Fabian policy, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_126'>126;</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li class="subitem">Vestryman, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_127'>127;</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li class="subitem">"Fabianism and the Empire," + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_134'>134;</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li class="subitem">Tariff Reform, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_159'>159;</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li class="subitem">versus Wells, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_173'>173;</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li class="subitem">retires from Executive, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_223'>223;</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li class="subitem">on Economics, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_258'>258;</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li class="subitem">on Guild Socialism, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_265'>265</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Shaw, Mrs. Bernard, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_123'>123,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_166'>166,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_172'>172,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_187'>187,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_190'>190</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Sidgwick, Henry, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_258'>258</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Slesser, Henry H., + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_208'>208,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_222'>222,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_225'>225</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Small holdings, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_47'>47,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_228'>228</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Smith, Samuel, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_15'>15,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_24'>24</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Snell, Harry, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_155'>155</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Social Democratic Federation, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_49'>49,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_61'>61,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_89'>89,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_106'>106,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_203'>203</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Socialist League, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_66'>66,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_89'>89</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>South African War, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_128'>128</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>"Spectator," The, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_14'>14</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Spencer, Herbert, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_18'>18</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Standring, George, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_74'>74,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_172'>172</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Stepniak, Sergius, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_94'>94</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Summer School, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_199'>199</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Syndicalism, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_229'>229,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_254'>254</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>T + +<ul> +<li><a name='Page_288'></a>Tariff Reform, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_159'>159</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Taunton Election, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_154'>154</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Tchaykovsky, Nicholas, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_66'>66</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Tillett, Ben, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_113'>113</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Tobacco, State cultivation of, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_59'>59</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>"Tory Gold," + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_50'>50,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_63'>63</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Trade Unionism, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_44'>44,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_91'>91,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_112'>112,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_114'>114,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_228'>228</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Turner, George, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_159'>159</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>U + +<ul> +<li>Unemployment, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_52'>52,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_57'>57,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_69'>69,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_215'>215</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Unity, Socialist, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_202'>202,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_253'>253</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>University Fabian Societies, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_103'>103,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_191'>191,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_193'>193</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>University Socialist Federation, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_195'>195</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>W + +<ul> +<li>Wallas, Graham, joins, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_47'>47;</a></li> + +<li class="subitem">lectures, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_65'>65;</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li class="subitem">London School Board, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_127'>127;</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li class="subitem">resigns, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_156'>156;</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li class="subitem">ideas, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_262'>262</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>War of 1914, The + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_233'>233,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_234'>234</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Webb, Sidney, joins, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_46'>46;</a></li> + +<li class="subitem">Executive, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_52'>52;</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li class="subitem">"Facts for Socialists," + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_69'>69;</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li class="subitem">""Facts for Londoners," + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_83'>83;</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li class="subitem">elected to L.C.C., + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_109'>109;</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li class="subitem">Education Acts, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_142'>142;</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li class="subitem">co-operation with Mrs. Webb, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_212'>212;</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li class="subitem">on Mill, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_259'>259</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Webb, Mrs. Sidney, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_114'>114,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_177'>177,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_187'>187,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Chapter_XI'>Chapter XI</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Wells, H.G., + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_39'>39,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_153'>153,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Chapter_IX'>Chapter IX,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_250'>250</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Wicksteed, Philip, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_260'>260</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Williams, E.E., + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_205'>205</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Wilson, Mrs. C.M., + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_48'>48;</a></li> + +<li class="subitem">Tract 4, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_54'>54;</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li class="subitem">Women's Group, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_189'>189;</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li class="subitem">Executive, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_222'>222</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Woolwich Election, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_155'>155</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Women's Group, The, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_189'>189</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Women's Suffrage, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_175'>175,</a></li> + +<li><a href='#Page_204'>204</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Workmen's Compensation, + +<ul> +<li><a href='#Page_122'>122</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> + +<h3>THE END</h3> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13715 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + |