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diff --git a/old/13715.txt b/old/13715.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c487649 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13715.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9575 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The History of the Fabian Society, by Edward R. Pease + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The History of the Fabian Society + +Author: Edward R. Pease + +Release Date: October 11, 2004 [EBook #13715] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY OF THE FABIAN SOCIETY *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Martin Pettit, Paul Pettit and the +PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + + +The History of the + +Fabian Society + + +By + + +Edward R. Pease + +Secretary for Twenty-five Years + + +With Twelve Illustrations + + +NEW YORK +E.P. DUTTON & COMPANY +PUBLISHERS + + + + +Preface + + +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. + +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. + +The MS. or proofs have also been read by Mrs. Sidney Webb, Mrs. Bernard +Shaw, Sir Sydney Olivier, Graham Wallas, W. Stephen Sanders, and R.C.K. +Ensor, to each of whom my cordial thanks are due for suggestions, +additions, and corrections. + +To Miss Bertha Newcombe I am obliged for permission to reproduce the +interesting sketch which forms the frontispiece. + +E.R.P. +THE PENDICLE, +LIMPSFIELD, +SURREY, + +_January_, 1916. + + + + +Contents + + +Chapter I + +The Sources of Fabian Socialism + + 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 + + +Chapter II + +The Foundations of the Society: 1883-4 + + 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 + + +Chapter III + +The Early Days: 1884-6 + + 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" + + +Chapter IV + +The Formation of Fabian Policy: 1886-9 + + 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" + + +Chapter V + +"Fabian Essays" and the Lancashire Campaign: 1890-3 + + "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" + + +Chapter VI + +"To your tents, O Israel": 1894-1900 + + 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 + + +Chapter VII + +"Fabianism and the Empire": 1900-1 + + 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" + + +Chapter VIII + +Education: 1902-5, and the Labour Party: 1900-15 + + 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 + + +Chapter IX + +The Episode of Mr. Wells: 1906-8 + + 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 + + +Chapter X + +The Policy of Expansion: 1907-12 + + 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 + + +Chapter XI + +The Minority Report, Syndicalism and Research: +1909-15 + + 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 + + +Chapter XII + +The Lessons of Thirty Years + + Breaking the spell of Marxism--A French verdict--Origin of + Revisionism in Germany--The British School of Socialism--Mr. Ernest + Barker's summary--Mill _versus_ 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 + + +Appendix I + +A. On the History of Fabian Economics. By Bernard Shaw + +B. On Guild Socialism. By Bernard Shaw + + +Appendix II + +The Basis of the Fabian Society + + +Appendix III + +List of the names and the years of office of the ninety-six +members of the Executive Committee, 1884-1915 + + +Appendix IV + +Complete List of Fabian publications, 1884-1915, with +names of authors + +Index + + + + +Illustrations + +_Frontispiece, from a drawing by Miss Bertha Newcombe in 1895_ + +The Seven Essayists + + +Mrs. Annie Besant, _From a photograph_ + +Hubert Bland, _From a photograph_ + +William Clarke _From a photograph_ + +(Sir) Sydney Olivier, _From a photograph_ + +G. Bernard Shaw, _From a photograph_ + +Graham Wallas, _From a photograph_ + +Sidney Webb, _From a drawing_ + + * * * * * + +Edward R. Pease, _From a photograph_ + +Frank Podmore, _From a photograph_ + +Mrs. Sidney Webb, _From a photograph_ + +H.G. Wells, _From a photograph_ + + + + +The History of the Fabian Society + + + + +Chapter I + +The Sources of Fabian Socialism + + 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. + + +"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. + +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 +exhausted, the "Spectator" can fill up its columns with Thought +Transference and Psychical Research. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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"! + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. 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. + +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. + +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[1] with 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."[2] 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." + +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 readers, at any rate, it suggested that +there was an alternative to the capitalistic system, and that Socialism +or Communism was worthy of examination.[3] + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 assimilated +its ideas at the time the Society was founded. + +To some of those who joined the Society in its early days Christian +Socialism opened the way of salvation. The "Christian Socialist"[4] 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[5] 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, 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. + +Thomas Davidson[6] 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 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. + +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 mediaevalism, 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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] 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. + +[2] "Political Economy," Book II, Chap. i, Sec. 3. + +[3] William Morris attributed to Mill his conversion to Socialism. See +J.W. Mackail's "Life," Vol. II, p. 79. + +[4] No. 1, June, 1883, monthly, 1d.; continued until 1891. + +[5] 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. + +[6] 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. + + + + +Chapter II + +The Foundations of the Society: 1883-4 + + 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. + + +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,[7] 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. + +[Illustration: _From a copyright photograph by Fredk. Hollyer, W_. + +FRANK PODMORE, ABOUT 1895] + +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. + +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. + +The proceedings at this meeting, recorded in the first minute book of +the Society in the handwriting of Percival Chubb, were as follows:-- + + "THE NEW LIFE" + + "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. + + "The proceedings were begun by the reading of Mr. Thomas Davidson's + paper 'The New Life,' read by him at a former assemblage, and after + it of the Draft of a proposed constitution (Sketch No. 2). [This has + not been preserved.] + + "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. + + "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. + + "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," + +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. + + "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. + + "After some discussion ... the following resolution was proposed and + agreed to:-- + + "That an association be formed whose ultimate aim shall be the + reconstruction of Society in accordance with the highest moral + possibilities" + +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. + +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. + +H.H. Champion[8] introduced the proposals of the Committee, including +the following resolution, which was carried apparently with unanimity:-- + + "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," + +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." + +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. + +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:-- + + "THE FELLOWSHIP OF NEW LIFE + + _Object_.--The cultivation of a perfect character in each and all. + + _Principle_.--The subordination of material things to spiritual. + + _Fellowship_.--The sole and essential condition of fellowship + shall be a single-minded, sincere, and strenuous devotion to the + object and principle." + +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. + +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. + +We now arrive at the birthday of the Fabian Society, and the minutes of +that meeting must be copied in full:-- + + "Meeting held at 17 Osnaburgh Street, on Friday, 4th January, 1884. + + "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. + + "Mr. Bland took the chair at 8.10 p.m. + + "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. + + "Mr. Podmore moved as an amendment the series of resolutions, copies + of which had been circulated amongst the members a few days + previously. + + "The amendment was carried by 10 votes to 4. + + [Presumably the 4 included Burns-Gibson, Chubb, and Estcourt, who + signed the defeated resolutions.] + + "Mr. Podmore's proposals were then put forward as substantive + resolutions and considered seriatim. + + "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. + + "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. + + "Carried unanimously. + + "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.' + + "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: + + "_(a)_ Hold meetings for discussion, the reading of papers, + hearing of reports, etc. + + "_(b)_ 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. + + "_(c)_ 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. + + "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 past + expenses: the sum collected amounting to 13s. 9d." + +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. + +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. + + * * * * * + +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,"[9] 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." + +In 1893 we find in "Seedtime" an Annual Report recording 12 public +meetings, 4 social gatherings, a membership of 95, and receipts L73. +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 he was on the Executive. In 1896 the membership was 115 +and the income L48. + +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," + +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. + +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. + +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. + +[Illustration: _From a photograph by G.C. Baresford, S.W._ + +HUBERT BLAND, IN 1902] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[7] 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. + +[8] 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. + +[9] See complete set in the British Library of Political Science, London +School of Economics. + + + + +Chapter III + +The Early Days: 1884-6 + + 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." + + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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! + +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:-- + + "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." + + "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." + +It has been pointed out by Mr. H.G. Wells, and by others before him, +that Fabius never did strike hard; 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." + +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. + +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." + +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. + + THE FABIAN SOCIETY + + 17 Osnaburgh Street, Regent's Park + Fabian Tract No. 2 + + A MANIFESTO + + "For always in thine eyes, O liberty, + Shines that high light whereby the world is saved; + And though thou slay us, we will trust in thee." + + London: + George Standring, 8 & 9 Finsbury Street, E.C. 1884. + + A MANIFESTO + + THE FABIANS are associated for spreading the following opinions held + by them and discussing their practical consequences. + + That under existing circumstances wealth cannot be enjoyed without + dishonour or foregone without misery. + + That it is the duty of each member of the State to provide for his or + her wants by his or her own Labour. + + 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. + + 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 + dinners at one extreme and large dinners and no appetites at the + other. + + 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. + + 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. + + 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. + + 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. + + 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. + + That no branch of Industry should be carried on at a profit by the + central administration. + + 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. + + 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. + + That Men no longer need special political privileges to protect them + against Women, and that the sexes should henceforth enjoy equal + political rights. + + That no individual should enjoy any Privilege in consideration of + services rendered to the State by his or her parents or other + relations. + + That the State should secure a liberal education and an equal share + in the National Industry to each of its units. + + That the established Government has no more right to call itself the + State than the smoke of London has to call itself the weather. + + That we had rather face a Civil War than such another century of + suffering as the present one has been. + +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! + +The persistency of Mr. Shaw's social philosophy is remarkable. His +latest volume[10] 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 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. + +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. + + * * * * * + +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 L1000 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?" + +The second day was devoted to "Remedies," and 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. + +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." + +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 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."[11] + +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. + +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. + + * * * * * + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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 +Soiree. 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.[12] + +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 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! + +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 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. + +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. + +After explaining why he preferred joining the Fabian Society rather than +the S.D.F., Mr. Shaw goes on (pp. 4-7):-- + + "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 + _versus_ 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 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. + + "TORY GOLD AT THE 1885 ELECTION. + + "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 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, _'Non olet'_--'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 L8 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. + + "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: + + "'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." + +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. + +In 1886 Socialism was prominently before the public. Unemployment +reached a height which has never since 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. + +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 +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." + +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. + +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," + +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. + +The spring of 1886 was occupied with arrangements for the Conference, +which was held at South Place Chapel on June 9th, 10th, and 11th. + +Here again a quotation from Bernard Shaw's "Early History of the Fabian +Society" is the best description available:-- + + "THE FABIAN CONFERENCE OF 1886. + + "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 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 L100; and that the discussions + were kept going for three afternoons and three evenings. The + Federation boycotted us; but the 'Times' reported us.[13] 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,[14] 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 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."[15] + +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. + +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 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. + +"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," + +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. + +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. + +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 recommended; 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," + +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! + +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. + +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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[10] "Misalliance: with a treatise on parents and children," 1914. + +[11] Industrial Remuneration Conference. The Report, etc. Cassell, 1885, +p. 400. + +[12] William Clarke had attended some early meetings but dropped out and +was actually elected to the Society in February, 1886. + +[13] Presumably a "Times" reporter was present; but his report was not +published. + +[14] Later M.P. for Tyneside and a member of Mr. Asquith's Government. + +[15] 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. + + + + +Chapter IV + +The Formation of Fabian Policy: 1886-9 + + 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" + + +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 L35 19s., but as the expenditure only +amounted to L27 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. + +[Illustration: _From a photograph by Elliott and Fry, W._ + +SYDNEY OLIVIER, IN 1903] + +The future success of the Society was dependent in 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. + +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? + +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 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.[16] + +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:[17] and whilst Webb +might have been a first-class 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. + +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. + +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 abilities and opportunities, but to the +Fabian Essayists belongs the credit of creating the Fabian Society. + +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.[18] 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. + +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 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.[19] + +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. + + * * * * * + +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 _ex cathedra_ 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 of pensioners, after which Graham Wallas replied and the meeting +dispersed," + +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. + +The first meeting after the holidays was a memorable one, and a few +words of introduction are necessary. + +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. + +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. + +The crisis of the Society's policy is described in the following +passage from Shaw's "Early History,":-- + + "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: + + "'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.' + + "To this a rider was moved by William Morris as follows: + + "'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.' + + "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 + following significant note by the secretary: + + "'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.' + + 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." + +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. + +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:-- + + "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 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." + +Its history is narrated in the same Tract:-- + + "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." + +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," + +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 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. + +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. + +"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 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. + + * * * * * + +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 +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.[20] + +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. + +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.[21] 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 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. + + * * * * * + +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. + +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 regularly revised and reprinted ever since and commands a +steady sale. It is now in its seventh edition. + +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. + +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:-- + +"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 _dead_! He had seen him torn and tossed +and trampled under foot. Perhaps he expected the ghost of the M.P. to +rise and conclude 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." + +It should be added that Mr. Standring did net become a member of the +Society until five years later. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + + * * * * * + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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, +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. + +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. + +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: + + "HOW TO TRAIN FOR PUBLIC LIFE. + + "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 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, 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." + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Then the tract settles down to business. London 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. + +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 _pro tanto_ +the transfer from private to public ownership of land and capital, as +demanded by Socialists. + +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 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.[22] + +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 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. + +"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. + +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.[23] + +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. + +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. + +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 +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. + +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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[16] 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." + +[17] 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." + +[18] See "The Great Society," by Graham Wallas (Macmillan, 1914), p. +260. + +[19] For a much fuller account of this subject, see Appendix I. A. + +[20] See Appendix II. + +[21] See Fabian Tract 147, "Capital and Compensation," by Edw. R. Pease. + +[22] See "Fabian Essays," p. 51, for the first point, and Fabian Tract +No. 119 for the second. + +[23] See "The Story of the Dockers' Strike," by Vaughan Nash and H. (now +Sir Hubert) Llewellyn Smith; Fisher Unwin, 1890. + + + + +Chapter V + +"Fabian Essays" and the Lancashire Campaign: 1890-3 + + "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." + + +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. + +"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 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. + +[Illustration: _From a photograph By Savony of New York_ + +MRS. ANNE BESANT, IN 1890] + +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. + +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.[24] + +A circular inviting subscriptions for the book was 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 _was_, 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 new, and at a bound the +nation was expected to reach something very like the millennium. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +"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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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! + +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 great Co-operative movement show that the authors of the Essays +were still youthful, and in some matters ignorant.[25] + +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 +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. + + * * * * * + +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 L200," 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. + +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 L1 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 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. + +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 +overwhelming. It was "briefly discussed" by a number of speakers, but +they seemed as out of place as a debate after an oratorio. + + * * * * * + +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 L100 or +L200, and approved the suggestion that it should be chiefly used for +lectures in country centres. + +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. + +A "Report" of the campaign was issued on November 4th, which says:-- + +"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, +Salford, and the district round Manchester, but also at Barnsley, +Kendal, Carlisle, Sheffield, and Hebden Bridge. + +"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." + + * * * * * + +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, 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. + +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, but this campaign may be fairly described as the +first step in an evolution, the end of which is not yet in sight. + + * * * * * + +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. + +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 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. + + * * * * * + +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 L126 to L520. 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. + +In March, 1891, just before the end of the official year, appeared the +first number of "Fabian News," 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. + +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. + +[Illustration: _From a photograph by Van der Weyde_ + +WILLIAM CLARKE, ABOUT 1895] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[24] 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. + +[25] 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. + +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. + + + + +Chapter VI + +"To your tents, O Israel": 1894-1900 + + 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. + + +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, L640 to March, 1891, rose to L1100 for 1892, and L1179 in +1893. In both these years large sums--L350 and L450--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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 +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.[26] + + * * * * * + +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 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. + +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. + + * * * * * + +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, 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 as by all sorts of other societies which required +speakers. + +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,[27] +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. + +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. + +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 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. + + * * * * * + +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 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. + +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 Mr. Gladstone and adopted by the National Liberal Federation in +1891.[28] + +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 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. + +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 L152 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. + +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 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."[29] + +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." + +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. + +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 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. + +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, 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 L30,000 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. + +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. + +In January the article was reprinted with much 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. + +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 +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. + + * * * * * + +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, 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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[26] Bernard Shaw has sent me the following note on this paragraph:-- + +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. + +[27] Tract 41. "The Fabian Society," p. 18. + +[28] Bernard Shaw has sent me the following note on this point:-- + +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. + +[29] "Fabian News," August, 1892. + + + + +Chapter VII + +"Fabianism and the Empire": 1900-1 + + 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." + + +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. + +[Illustration: _From a photograph by Emery Walker_ + +G. BERNARD SHAW, IN 1889] + + * * * * * + +We had started a lending library in boxes for our local societies, and +as these died away we offered the 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. + +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. + + * * * * * + +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 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. + +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. + + * * * * * + +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 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. + + * * * * * + +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 L9000 and +L10,000, 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 L1000, 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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + + * * * * * + +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 until +1900, when Ruskin College, Oxford, organised similar classes on a larger +scale, and our services were no longer required. + + * * * * * + +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:-- + + "FABIAN ELECTORAL TACTICS. + + "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 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." + +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. + +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. + + * * * * * + +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 of literary[30] 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. + + * * * * * + +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. + +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,"[31] 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 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. + +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,"[32] 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. + +The first round in the contest was at a business meeting on October +13th, 1899, when on the advice of the Executive the members present +rejected a motion of urgency for the discussion of a resolution +expressing sympathy with the Boers. + +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." + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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 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. + +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. + +The Executive had resolved at the beginning of the war to issue a tract +on Imperialism, and at the Annual 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." + +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. + +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 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." + +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! + +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). "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). + +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 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). + +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 _laissez-faire_ 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). + +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 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). + +[Illustration: GRAHAM WALLAS, IN 1891] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[30] 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. + +[31] "Fabianism and the Empire," p. 26. + +[32] "The Fabian Society and the War: reply by the majority of the +Executive Committee to the recent circular." (Circular on the referendum +mentioned later.) + + + + +Chapter VIII + +Education: 1902-5, and the Labour Party: 1900-15 + + 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. + + +The controversy described in the preceding chapter was not the only +business that occupied the Society at the period of the South African +War. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 +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. + +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 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. + + * * * * * + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 +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." + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + + * * * * * + +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 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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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, 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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." + +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." + +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. + +In January, 1908, the Committee's Report was considered and adopted, the +important item being the decision to send a circular to every member +inviting promises to an election fund of at least L5,000, contributions +to be spread over five years. This ultimately resulted in promises +amounting to L2637--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. + +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 L316, of which the +Society paid L275, and although our candidate was beaten by 1976 votes +to 1085, the result was not contrary to our anticipations. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + + * * * * * + +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. + +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. 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. + +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,[33] 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 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. + +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," + +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. + +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. + + * * * * * + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + + * * * * * + +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 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. + +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. + + * * * * * + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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." + +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. + +[Illustration: _From a copyright photograph by Lambert Weston and Son, +Folkestone_ + +H.G. WELLS, IN 1908 At the door of his house at Sandgate] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[33] 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). + + + + +Chapter IX + +The Episode of Mr. Wells: 1906-8 + + 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. + + +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.[34] The +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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?" + +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. +To effect the desired expansion the writer proposed to raise an income +of L1000 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." + +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. + +"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." + +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. + +The Committee held its first sitting on February 28th, but its report +was not completed and presented to the Executive until the following +October, Mr. Wells having in the interval visited the United States. + +"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. + +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. + +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 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. + +Mrs. Wells acted as secretary, and the Committee took evidence from +myself and others before the report was drawn up. + +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 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. + +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 +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."[35] + +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.[36] + +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, 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, 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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, 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). 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. + + * * * * * + +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. + +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 +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. + +The new Basis proposed by the Special Committee declared that the +Society sought to bring about "a reconstruction of the social +organisation" by + + _(a)_ promoting transfer of land and capital to the State, + + _(b)_ "enforcing equal citizenship of men and women, + + _(c)_ "substituting public for private authority in the education + and support of the young." + +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.[37] + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + + * * * * * + +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 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. + +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. 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. + +The new Committee quickly settled down to work, but Mr. Wells was +already wearying of his role 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. + +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[38]), 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. + + * * * * * + +I have now traced the main stream of the subject of this chapter, though +a good deal remains to be said 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. + +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. + +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 +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +[Illustration: _From a drawing by Jessie Holliday_ + +SIDNEY WEBB, IN 1909] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[34] 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." + +This was written in connection with his support of a Liberal against a +Socialist Candidate at North-West Manchester. + +[35] In his election address referred to on p. 179. + +[36] 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). + +[37] See his "New Worlds for Old," Chapter III, The First Main +Generalisation of Socialism, which according to Mr. Wells is as +follows:-- + +"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...." + +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. + +[38] 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. + +See Fabian Tract 147 "Capital and Compensation." + + + + +Chapter X + +The Policy of Expansion: 1907-12 + + 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. + + +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 L473 in 1904 and L1608 in 1908, the high-water mark in the history +of the Society for contributions to the ordinary funds. + +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 _were_ all +right: it _was_ 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. + +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 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. + +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. Suedekum (German M.P.), +Sir John 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. + + * * * * * + +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. + +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." + +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 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, +in the political movements specially affecting women, which have been +so numerous in recent years. + + * * * * * + +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. + +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, 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 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. + +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 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. + +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 +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. + +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. + +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 Boroughs. Socialism, too, was a +novelty, and the few who knew about it were in request. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +Sixty delegates were present at the 1911 Conference, held at Clifford's +Inn, who, after rejecting by a seven 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. + +In 1912 the Conference was still large and still concerned in the +position of the Society in relation to Labour and Liberalism. + +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. + + * * * * * + +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. + +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. + +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, fetes, +picnics, teas, and functions of all sorts in order to bring together +their numbers under such conditions as enable them to become personally +acquainted with each other. In times of expansion the Fabian Society +has held dinners and soirees 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. + +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 belongs to the Society for the +whole year, and parties are arranged for Christmas, Easter, and +Whitsuntide whenever possible. + +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 L100 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. + +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 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. + + * * * * * + +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. + +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 and 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. + +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:-- + + An eight hours law. + + Prohibition of child labour for wages. + + Free Maintenance for all necessitous children (a compromise in which + Fabian influence may be traced by the insertion of the word + "necessitous"). + + Equal payment of men and women for equal work. + +(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.) + +To resume the programme:-- + + An adequate minimum wage for all adults employed in Government and + Municipal services or in any monopolies such as railways enjoying + State privileges. + + Suppression of all sub-contracting and sweating (an ignorant + confusion between a harmless industrial method and its occasional + abuse). + + Universal suffrage for all adults, men and women alike. + + Public payment for all public service. + +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." + +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! + +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. + +Accordingly, as soon as the Manifesto had been published resolutions +were tabled pledging the constituent societies to concentrate their +efforts on 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. + +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. + +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. + +As the Fabian Society did not at that time officially run candidates, +and has always allowed to its members 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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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[39]. + +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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[39] The Labour Party Conference held in January, 1916, unanimously +accepted the affiliation of the British Socialist Party. + + + + +Chapter XI + +The Minority Report, Syndicalism and Research: 1909-15 + + 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. + + +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. + +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. + +[Illustration: MRS. SIDNEY WEBB, IN 1909] + +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 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. + +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. 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 is so recent as to have actually been unknown before the +early nineties[40]. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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 _ad hoc_. + +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. + +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. + + +In the summer of 1911 Mr. and Mrs. Webb left England for a tour round +the world, and Mrs. Webb 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. + +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. + + * * * * * + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + + * * * * * + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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! + + * * * * * + +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 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 role 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 _fait +accompli_; 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. + +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, and generally encouraged the duchesses and farmers who +passively resisted it; but their endeavour to defeat the Bill was a +failure. + +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. + + * * * * * + +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."[41] 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 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[42]. + +"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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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 +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. 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. + +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. + +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 was founded. The +Society is old, but it does not consist, in the main, of old people. + +What its future may be I shall consider in the next, and concluding, +chapter. + + * * * * * + +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. + +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. + +[Illustration: EDWARD R. PEASE, IN 1913] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[40] 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. + +[41] Manifesto on Fabian Policy issued by the Fabian Reform Committee, 4 +pp., 4to, November 28th, 1911. + +[42] "Fabian News," November, 1912. + + + + +Chapter XII + +The Lessons of Thirty Years + + Breaking the spell of Marxism--A French verdict--Origin of + Revisionism in Germany--The British School of Socialism--Mr. Ernest + Barker's summary--Mill _versus_ 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. + + +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 accomplished and what may be the +future of its work. + +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. + +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. + +Accepting the great principle that the reconstruction of society to be +worked for is the ownership and control 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. In his +study of the Fabian Society[43] M. Edouard 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:-- + +"Les premiers de tous les Socialistes, les Fabiens out inaugure le +mouvement de critique antimarxiste: a une epoque ou les dogmes du maitre +etaient consideres comme intangibles, les Fabiens out pretendu que l'on +pouvait se dire socialiste sans jamais avoir lu le Capital ou en en +desapprouvant la teneur; par opposition a Marx ils out ressuscite +l'esprit de Stuart Mill et sur tous les points ils se sont attaques a +Marx, guerre des classes et materialisme historique, catastrophisme et +avant tout la question de la valeur-travail."[44] + +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 +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,[45] 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. + +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 to think for +themselves, but merely to work for the realisation of his ideas. + + * * * * * + +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. + +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. + +The Fabians regarded Socialism as a principle 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. + +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."[46] 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. + +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 slower had the manual workers been left to fight their own +battle. + +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. + + * * * * * + +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. + +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. + +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. + + * * * * * + +The influence of the Fabian Society on political thought is already the +theme of doctoral theses by graduates, especially in American +universities, but 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."[47] 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[48] has said Webb was the Bentham and Shaw +the Mill.[49] Without assigning roles 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.[50] In either case we have a small circle of 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."[51] + +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.'" + +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 _and interest_"! 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 unearned +incomes, and thus the State is to be endowed, not with rents alone, but +with all unearned incomes.[52] 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.[53] 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! + +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 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.[54] + +I will proceed with quotations from Mr. Barker, because the view of a +historian of thought is weightier than anything I could say. + +"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 _class_ 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 +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. + +"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 of a gradual amelioration of social conditions by a gradual +assertion of social control over unearned increment.[55] 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, 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. + +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. + + * * * * * + +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? + +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. + +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. + +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,"[56] and he at any rate meant +by his phrase, "make members of Socialist societies." + +The older and better Fabian doctrine is set out in the opening +paragraphs of Tract 70, the "Report on Fabian Policy" (1896). + + +"THE MISSION OF THE FABIANS + +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. + +The Fabian Society endeavours to pursue its Socialist and Democratic +objects with complete singleness of aim. For example:-- + +It has no distinctive opinions on the Marriage Question, Religion, Art, +abstract Economics, historic Evolution, Currency, or any other subject +than its own special business of practical Democracy and Socialism. + +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. + +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. + +It does not ask the English people to join the Fabian Society." + +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 +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. + +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. + +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. + +I do not mean that the founders of the three societies 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. + +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. + + * * * * * + +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 +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. + +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.[57] + + * * * * * + +The work of the Fabian Society has been not to make Socialists, but to +make Socialism. I think it may be 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. + +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. + +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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[43] "La Societe Fabienne et le Mouvement socialiste anglais +contemporain." By Edouard Pfeiffer, Paris, F. Giard and E. Briere, 1911; +an excellent volume but full of errors. + +[44] "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." + +[45] Published in English by the Independent Labour Party in 1909 as +"Evolutionary Socialism." + +[46] Address to the International, 1862, quoted from Spargo's "Karl +Marx," p. 266. + +[47] Home University Library, Williams and Norgate, 1915, 1s. + +[48] 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. + +[49] 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. + +[50] But see chapter VIII for its influence before 1906; and see +Appendix 1. A. for a much fuller discussion of this subject. + +[51] The same idea is expressed by a Canadian Professor:-- + +"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." + +"Socialism: a critical analysis." By O.D. Skelton, Ph.D., Professor of +Economic Science, Kingston, Canada. (Constable, 1911.) p. 288. + +[52] Mr. Barker erroneously uses the word "increment" for "income" in +several places. Unearned increment is quite another thing. + +[53] See "Socialism and Superior Brains: a reply to Mr. Mallock," by +G.B. Shaw. Fabian Tract 146. + +[54] Mr. Barker emphasises the "discrimination advocated by the Fabians" +in favour of profits in a later passage (p. 224) not here quoted. + +[55] This should read "incomes." + +[56] "Faults of the Fabian," p. 9. + +[57] See Appendix I. B. + + + + +Appendix I + +Memoranda by Bernard Shaw + + +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. + + +A + +ON THE HISTORY OF FABIAN ECONOMICS + +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; 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 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 +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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, 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. + +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 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. + + +B + +ON GUILD SOCIALISM + +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, 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +G.B.S. + + + + +Appendix II + +The Basis of the Fabian Society + + +The Fabian Society consists of Socialists. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +For the attainment of these ends the Fabian Society looks to the spread +of Socialist opinions, and the social and political changes consequent +thereon, _including the establishment of equal citizenship for men and +women._[58] 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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[58] The words in italics were added in 1907. See page 177. + + + + +Appendix III + +List of the names and the years of office of the ninety-six members of +the Executive Committee, 1884-1915 + + +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. + +Alden, Percy, M.P., 1903-7. +Allen, Clifford, 1912 to date. +Anderson, R. Wherry, 1898-1903. +Atkinson, Miss Mabel, 1909 to date. + +Ball, Sidney, 1907-8. +Banner, Robert, 1892. +Barker, Granville, 1907-12. +Bentham, Dr. Ethel, 1909-14. +Bentinck, Mrs. R. Cavendish, 1911-13. +Besant, Mrs. Annie, 1886-90. +Bland, Hubert, 1884-1911. Honorary Treasurer 1884-1911. +Blatch, Mrs. Stanton, 1894-5. +Bray, Reginald A., 1911-12. +Brooke, Miss Emma, 1893-6. + +Cameron, Miss Mary, 1893-4. +Campbell, Rev. R.J., 1908-9. +Charrington, Charles, 1899-1904. +Chesterton, Cecil E., 1904-7. +Clarke, William, 1888-91. +Cole, G.D.H., 1914-15. + +Davies, Emil, 1911 to date. +Dearmer, Rev. Percy, 1895-8. +Dell, Robert E., 1890-3; 1898-9. +De Mattos, W.S., 1890-4. +Dodd, F. Lawson, 1900 to date. Honorary Treasurer 1911 to date. + +Ensor, R.C.K., 1907-11; 1912 to date. +Ervine, St. John G., 1913 to date. + +Fairfield, Dr. Letitia, 1915 to date. + +Galton, F.W., 1901-7. +Garnett, Mrs. Constance, 1894-5. +Gillespie, H.J., 1914. +Green, J.F. 1899-1900. +Griffith, N.L., 1892-3. +Grover, Miss Mary, 1890-2. +Guest, L. Haden, 1907-11 + +Hammill, Fred, 1892-5. +Harben, Henry D., 1911 to date +Harris, Mrs. O'Brien (Miss Mary O'Brien), 1898-1901. +Headlam, Rev. Stewart D., 1890-1; 1901-11. +Hoatson, Miss Alice, 1890-2. Assistant Hon. Secretary 1885-6. +Hobson, Samuel G., 1900-9. +Holding, H. Bond, 1894-6. +Hutchins, Miss B.L., 1907-12. + +Keddell, Frederick, 1884-5. Honorary Secretary 1884-5. + +Lawrence F.W. Pethick, 1907-8. +Lawrence, Miss Susan (L.C.C.), 1912 to date. +Lloyd, C.M., 1912-15. +Lowerison, Harry (Bellerby), 1891-2. + +Macdonald, J. Ramsay (M.P.), 1894-1900. +Macpherson, Mrs. Fenton, 1900-1. +Macrosty, Henry W., 1895-1907. +Mallet, Mrs. L.T., 1890-2. +Mann, Tom, 1896. +Martin, John W., 1894-9. +Massingham, H.W., 1891-3. +Matthews, John E. (L.C.C.), 1901-2. +Maude, Aylmer, 1907-12. +Money, (Sir) Leo Chiozza (M.P.), 1908-11. +Morley, Professor Edith, 1914 to date. +Morris, Miss May, 1896-8. +Morten, Miss Honor, 1895-8. +Muggeridge, H.T., 1903-5. +Murby, Miss M.B., 1907-13. + +Oakeshott, Joseph F., 1890-1902. +Olivier (Sir), Sydney (K.C.M.G.), 1887-1899. Honorary Secretary 1886-9. + +Pease, Edward R., 1885-6; 1890 to date. Honorary Secretary + 1886, and 1914 to date. Secretary 1890-1913. +Phillips, Dr. Marion, 1913-14. +Phillips, W.L., 1887-8. +Podmore, Frank, 1884; 1886-8. +Priestley, Miss (Mrs. Bart Kennedy), 1896-8. Assistant Secretary, 1892-5. + +Reeves, Mrs. Pember, 1907 to date. + +Sanders, W. Stephen, 1904 to date. Organising Secretary + 1907-13. General Secretary 1914 to date. +Sandham, Mrs., 1891-3. +Sharp, Clifford D., 1909-14. +Shaw, G. Bernard, 1885-1911. +Shaw, Mrs. Bernard (Miss Payne Townshend), 1898-1915. +Slesser, Henry H., 1910-14. +Smith, Miss Ellen, 1915 to date. +Snell, Harry, 1912 to date. +Snowden, Mrs. Philip, 1908-9. +Sparling, H. Halliday, 1892-4. +Squire, J.C., 1914 to date. +Standring, George, 1893-1908; 1909-11. + +Taylor, G.R.S., 1905-8. +Townshend, Mrs. Emily C., 1915. + +Utley, W.H., 1892-4. + +Wallas, Graham, 1888-1895. +Webb, Sidney, 1886 to date. +Webb, Mrs. Sidney, 1912 to date. +Wells, H.G., 1907-8. +Wells, Mrs. H.G., 1908-10. + +West, Julius, 1915 to date. Secretary of Research Department, etc., 1908-12. +Whelen, Frederick, 1896-1901; 1902-4. +Williams, Ernest E., 1893-4. +Wilson, Mrs. C.M., 1885-7; 1911-15. +Wood, Mrs. Esther, 1902-3. + + + + +Appendix IV + +Complete List of Fabian Publications, 1884-1915, with names of authors + + +FABIAN TRACTS + +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." + +No. + + +1884. + +1. Why are the Many Poor? 4 pp. _W.L. Phillips_. + +2. A Manifesto. 4 pp. _G. Bernard Shaw_. + + +1885. + +3. To Provident Landlords and Capitalists: A Suggestion and a Warning. +4 pp. _G. Bernard Shaw_. + + +1886. + +4. What Socialism Is. 12 pp. Mrs. C.M. Wilson and others. + + +1887. + +5. Facts for Socialists. 16 pp. _Sidney Webb_. + +6. The True Radical Programme (Fabian Parliamentary League). 12 pp. +_G. Bernard Shaw_. + + +1888. + +7. Capital and Land. 16 pp. _(Sir) Sydney Olivier_. + + +1889. + +8. Facts for Londoners. 56 pp. _Sidney Webb_. + +9. An Eight Hours Bill. 16 pp. _Do._ + +10. Figures for Londoners. 4 pp. _Do_. + + +1890. + +11. The Workers' Political Programme. 20 pp. _Sidney Webb_. + +12. Practical Land Nationalisation. 4 pp. _Do_. + +13. What Socialism Is. 4 pp. _Bernard Shaw_. + +14. The New Reform Bill. 20 pp. _J.F. Oakeshott and others_. + +15. English Progress towards Social Democracy. 16 pp. Sidney Webb. + +16. A Plea for an Eight Hours Bill. 4 pp. _Sidney Webb_. + +17. Reform of the Poor Law. 20 pp. Sidney Webb. + +18. Facts for Bristol. 20 pp. _(Sir) Hartmann W. Just_. + +19. What the Farm Labourer Wants. 4 pp. _Sidney Webb_. + +20. Questions for Poor Law Guardians. 4 pp. _S.W. Group_. + +21. Questions for London Vestrymen. 4 pp. _C. Foulger_. + +22. The Truth about Leasehold Enfranchisement. 4 pp. _Sidney Webb_. + + +1891. + +23. The Case for an Eight Hours Bill. 16 pp. _Sidney Webb_. + +24. Questions for Parliamentary Candidates. 4 pp. _Do_. + +25. Questions for School Board Candidates. 4 pp. _Do_. + +26. Questions for London County Councillors. 4 pp. _Do_. + +27. Questions for Town Councillors. 4 pp. _Rev. C. Peach_. + +28. Questions for County Council Candidates (Rural). 4 pp. _F. Hudson_. + +29. What to Read. 48 pp. _Graham Wallas_ (1st edition). (Fifth edition, +1910, not included in the series.) + +30. The Unearned Increment. 4 pp. _Sidney Webb_. + +31. London's Heritage in the City Guilds. 4 pp. _Sidney Webb_. + +32. The Municipalisation of the Gas Supply. 4 pp. _Do_. + +33. Municipal Tramways. 4 pp. _Do_. + +34. London's Water Tribute. 4 pp. _Do_. + +35. The Municipalisation of the London Docks. 4 pp. _Do_. + +36. The Scandal of London's Markets. 4 pp. _Do_. + +37. A Labour Policy for Public Authorities. 4 pp. _Do_. + +38. Welsh Translation of No. 1. + + +1892. + +39. A Democratic Budget. 16 pp. _J.F. Oakeshott_. + +40. Fabian Election Manifesto. 16 pp. _Bernard Shaw_. + +41. The Fabian Society: What it has done and how it has done it. 32 pp. +G. Bernard Shaw. + +42. Christian Socialism. 16 pp. Rev. Stewart D. Headlam. + +43. Vote! Vote! Vote! 2 pp. _Bernard Shaw_. + + +1893. + +44. A Plea for Poor Law Reform. 4 pp. _Frederick Whelen_. + +45. Impossibilities of Anarchism. 28 pp. G. Bernard Shaw. + +46. Socialism and Sailors. 16 pp. B.T. Hall. + +47. The Unemployed. (Rt. Hon.) John Burns. + +48. Eight Hours by Law. _Henry W. Macrosty_. + + +1894. + +49. A Plan of Campaign for Labour. 28 pp. _G. Bernard Shaw_. + +50. Sweating: Its Cause and Remedy. 16 pp. _H.W. Macrosty_. + +51. Socialism: True and False. 20 pp. Sidney Webb. + +52. State Education at Home and Abroad. 16 pp. J.W. Martin. + +53. The Parish Councils Act: What it is and how to work it. 20 pp. +_(Rt. Hon.) Herbert Samuel_.* + +54. Humanising of the Poor Law. 24 pp. J.F. Oakeshott. + +55. The Workers' School Board Programme. 20 pp. _J.W. Martin_. + +56. Questions for Parish Council Candidates. 4 pp. _(Rt. Hon.) Herbert +Samuel_.* + +57. Questions for Rural District Council Candidates. 4 pp. +_(Rt. Hon.) Herbert Samuel_.* + +58. Allotments and How to Get Them. 4 pp. _(Rt. Hon.) Herbert Samuel_.* + +59. Questions for Candidates for Urban District Councils. 4 pp. + +60. The London Vestries: What they are and what they do. 20 pp. Sidney Webb. + + +1895. + +61. The London County Council: What it is and what it does. 16 pp. +_J.F. Oakeshott_. + +62. Parish and District Councils: What they are and what they can do. +16 pp. (No. 53 re-written.) + +63. Parish Council Cottages and how to get them. 4 pp. _Edw. R. Pease_. + +64. How to Lose and how to Win an Election. 2 pp. _Ramsay Macdonald_. + +65. Trade Unionists and Politics. 2 pp. _F.W. Galton_. + +66. A Program for Workers. 2 pp. _Edw. R. Pease_. + + +1896. + +67. Women and the Factory Acts. 16 pp. Mrs. Sidney Webb. + +68. The Tenant's Sanitary Catechism. 4 pp. _Arthur Hickmott_. + +69. The Difficulties of Individualism. 20 pp. Sidney Webb. + +70. Report on Fabian Policy. 16 pp. _Bernard Shaw_. + +71. The (London) Tenant's Sanitary Catechism. 4 pp. _Miss Grove_. + +72. The Moral Aspects of Socialism. 24 pp. Sidney Ball. + +73. The Case for State Pensions in Old Age. 16 pp. _George Turner_. + +74. The State and Its Functions in New Zealand. 16 pp. The Hon. W.P. +Reeves.* + + +1897. + +75. Labour in the Longest Reign. 20 pp. Sidney Webb. + +76. Houses for the People. 20 pp. _Arthur Hickmott_. + +77. The Municipalisation of Tramways. 16 pp. F.T.H. Henle. + +78. Socialism and the Teaching of Christ. 16 pp. Rev. John Clifford, D.D. + +79. A Word of Remembrance and Caution to the Rich. 16 pp. John Woolman.* + +80. Shop Life and its Reform. 16 pp. _William Johnson_. + +81. Municipal Water. 4 pp. _C.M. Knowles_.* + +82. The Workmen's Compensation Act. 20 pp. _C.R. Allen, junr_. + +83. State Arbitration and the Living Wage. 16 pp. _H.W. Macrosty_. + +84. The Economics of Direct Employment. 16 pp. Sidney Webb. + +85. Liquor Licensing at Home and Abroad. 16 pp. Edw. R. Pease. + +86. Municipal Drink Traffic. 20 pp. _Edw. R. Pease_. + + +1899. + +87. A Welsh Translation of No. 78. 16 pp. + +88. The Growth of Monopoly in English Industry. 16 pp. Henry W. Macrosty. + +89. Old Age Pensions at Work. 4 pp. _Bullock_. + +90. The Municipalisation of the Milk Supply. 4 pp. _Dr. G.F. McCleary_. + +91. Municipal Pawnshops. 4 pp. _Charles Charrington_. + +92. Municipal Slaughterhouses. 4 pp. _George Standring_. + + +1900. + +93. Women as Councillors. 4 pp. _Bernard Shaw_. + +94. Municipal Bakeries. 4 pp. _Dr. G.F. McCleary._ + +95. Municipal Hospitals. 4 pp. _Do_. + +96. Municipal Fire Insurance. 4 pp. (1901). _Mrs. Fenton Macpherson_. + +97. Municipal Steamboats. 4 pp. (1901). _S.D. Shallard_. + +98. State Railways for Ireland. 16 pp. _Clement Edwards (M.P.)._ + +99. Local Government in Ireland. _C.R. Allen, junr_. + +100. Metropolitan Borough Councils: Their Powers and Duties. 20 pp. +_Henry W. Macrosty_. + +101. The House Famine and How to Relieve it. 52 pp. Various. + +102. Questions for Candidates: Metropolitan Borough Councils. 4 pp. +_H.W. Macrosty_. + +103. Overcrowding in London and its Remedy. 16 pp. W.C. Steadman, M.P. + +104. How Trade Unions Benefit Workmen. 4 pp. _Edw. R. Pease_. + + +1901. + +105. Five Years' Fruit of the Parish Councils Act. 24 pp _Sidney Webb_. + +106. The Education Muddle and the Way Out. 20 pp. _Sidney Webb_. + +107. Socialism for Millionaires. 16 pp. Bernard Shaw. + +108. Twentieth Century Politics: A Policy of National Efficiency. +16 pp. Sidney Webb. + + +1902. + +109. Cottage Plans and Common Sense. 16 pp. Raymond Unwin. + +110. Problems of Indian Poverty. 16 pp. S.S. Thorburn.* + +111. Reform of Reformatories and Industrial Schools. 16 pp. H.T. Holmes. + +112. Life in the Laundry. 16 pp. Dr. G.F. McCleary. + + +1903. + +113. Communism. 16 pp. William Morris.* Preface by Bernard Shaw. + +114. The Education Act, 1902. How to make the best of it. 20 pp. +_Sidney Webb_. + +115. State Aid to Agriculture. 16 pp. T.S. Dymond.* + + +1904. + +116. Fabianism and the Fiscal Question: An Alternative Policy. 28 pp. +_Bernard Shaw_. + +117. The London Education Act, 1903: How to make the best of it. 20 pp. +_Sidney Webb_. + +118. The Secret of Rural Depopulation. 20 pp. Lieut.-Col. D.C. Pedder.* + + +1905. + +119. Public Control of Electric Power and Transit. 16 pp. S.G. Hobson. + +120. After Bread, Education. 16 pp. Hubert Bland. + +121. Public Service versus Private Expenditure. 12 pp. Sir Oliver Lodge.* + +122. Municipal Milk and Public Health. 20 pp. F. Lawson. Dodd. + +123. The Revival of Agriculture: A National Policy for Great Britain. +24 pp. Henry W. Macrosty. + +124. State Control of Trusts. 16 pp. Henry W. Macrosty. + +125. Municipalisation by Provinces. 16 pp. W. Stephen Sanders. + + +1906. + +126. The Abolition of Poor Law Guardians. 24 pp. Edw. R. Pease. + +127. Socialism and Labour Policy. 16 pp. _Hubert Bland (Editor)._ + +128. The Case for a Legal Minimum Wage. 20 pp. _W. Stephen Sanders_. + +129. More Books to Read. 20 pp. _Edw. R. Pease_. + + +1907. + +130. Home Work and Sweating: The Causes and Remedies. 20 pp. Miss B.L. +Hutchins. + +131. The Decline in the Birth-rate. 20 pp. Sidney Webb. + +132. A Guide to Books for Socialists. 12 pp. "The Nursery." + +133. Socialism and Christianity. 24 pp. Rev. Percy Dearmer, D.D. + +134. Small Holdings, Allotments, and Common Pastures. 4 pp. Revised +edition of No. 58. + +135. Paupers and Old Age Pensions. 16 pp. Sidney Webb. + +136. The Village and the Landlord. 12 pp. Edward Carpenter. + + +1908. + +137. Parish Councils and Village Life. 28pp. Revised version of No. 105. + +138. Municipal Trading. 20 pp. _Aylmer Maude_. + +139. Socialism and the Churches. 16 pp. Rev. John Clifford, D.D. + +140. Child Labour Under Capitalism. 20 pp. Mrs. Hylton Dale. + + +1909. + +141. (Welsh Translation of No. 139). + +142. Rent and Value. 12 pp. Adapted by Mrs. Bernard Shaw from Fabian +Essays, The Economic Basis. + +143. Sosialaeth Yng Ngoleuni'R Beibl (Welsh). J.R. Jones. + +144. Machinery: Its Masters and its Servants. 20 pp. H.H. Schloesser +(Slesser) and Clement Game. + +145. The Case for School Nurseries. 20 pp. Mrs. Townshend. + +146. Socialism and Superior Brains. A Reply to Mr. Mallock. 24 pp. +Bernard Shaw. + +147. Capital and Compensation. 16 pp. Edward R. Pease. + +148. What a Health Committee can do. 16 pp. _Miss B.L. Hutchins_. + + +1910. + +149. The Endowment of Motherhood. 24 pp. Henry D. Harben. + +150. State Purchase of Railways: A Practicable Scheme. 24 pp. Emil Davies. + +151. The Point of Honour. A Correspondence on Aristocracy and Socialism. +16 pp. Mrs. Ruth Cavendish Bentinck. + + +1911. + +152. Our Taxes as they are and as they ought to be. 20 pp. Robert Jones. + +153. The Twentieth Century Reform Bill. 20 pp. Henry H. Schloesser +(Slesser). + +154. The Case for School Clinics. 16 pp. L. Haden Guest. + +155. The Case against the Referendum. 20 pp. Clifford D. Sharp. + +156. What an Education Committee can do (Elementary Schools). 36 pp. +The Education Group. + +157. The Working Life of Women. 16 pp. Miss B.L. Hutchins. + +158. The Case Against the Charity Organisation Society. 20 pp. Mrs. +Townshend. + +159. The Necessary Basis of Society. 12 pp. Sidney Webb. + +160. A National Medical Service. 20 pp. F. Lawson Dodd. + + +1912. + +161. Afforestation and Unemployment. 16 pp. Arthur P. Grenfell. + +162. Family Life on a Pound a Week. 24 pp. Mrs. Pember Reeves. + +163. Women and Prisons. 28 pp. Helen Blagg and Charlotte Wilson. + +164. Gold and State Banking. A Study in the Economics of Monopoly. 20 pp. +Edward R. Pease. + +165. Francis Place: The Tailor of Charing Cross. 28 pp. St. John G. +Ervine. + +166. Robert Owen: Social Reformer. 24 pp. Miss B.L. Hutchins. + +167. William Morris and the Communist Ideal. 24 pp. Mrs. Townshend. + + +1913. + +168. John Stuart Mill. 24 pp. Julius West. + +169. The Socialist Movement in Germany. 28 pp. W. Stephen Sanders. + +170. Profit-Sharing and Co-partnership: A fraud and a failure? 16 pp. +Edward R. Pease. + +171. The Nationalisation of Mines and Minerals Bill. 16 pp. Henry H. +Schloesser (Slesser). + +172. What about the Rates, or Municipal Finance and Municipal Autonomy. +12 pp. Sidney Webb. + +173. Public versus Private Electricity Supply. 20 pp. C. Ashmore Baker.* + + +1914. + +174. Charles Kingsley and Christian Socialism. 28 pp. Colwyn E. Vulliamy. + +175. The Economic Foundations of the Women's Movement. 24 pp. M.A. +_(Mabel Atkinson_). + +176. War and the Workers. Handbook of some immediate measures to prevent +Unemployment and relieve distress. 24 pp. Sidney Webb. + + +1915. + +177. Socialism and the Arts of Use. 16 pp. A. Clutton Brock. + +178. The War; Women; and Unemployment. 28 pp. The Women's Group Executive. + + + + +BOOKS AND SPECIAL PAMPHLETS. + +Those without any publisher's name were published by the Society. + +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. _Sidney Webb_ and _Frank +Podmore._ + +Fabian Essays in Socialism. Edited by Bernard Shaw. 1889. 1st edition, +6s. Subsequent editions published by Walter Scott. + +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. + +Labour in the Longest Reign: 1837-1897. By Sidney Webb. A reprint of +Tract No. 75. Grant Richards, pp. 62. 1897. 1s. + +Fabianism and the Empire. A Manifesto by the Fabian Society. Edited by +Bernard Shaw. pp. 101. Grant Richards. 1900. 1s. + +Fabianism and the Fiscal Question: An Alternative Policy. Special +edition of Tract 116; with a preface by Bernard Shaw. pp. 39. 1904. 1s. + +This Misery of Boots. By H.G. Wells. Cover designed by A.G. Watts, pp. +48. 1907. 3d. + +Tract Index and Catalogue Raisonne of Tracts Nos. 1 to 139. Pp. 35. +1908. 3d. + +Those Wretched Rates, a dialogue. By F.W. Hayes, pp. 16. 1908. 1d. + +Ballads and Lyrics of Socialism, 1883-1908. By E. Nesbit (Mrs. Hubert +Bland), pp. 80. A.C. Fifield. 1908. 6d. and 1s. + +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 +_Sidney_ and _Beatrice Webb._ + +The Remedy for Unemployment. Being Part II. 1909. pp. 345. 1s. By +_Sidney_ and _Beatrice Webb_. + +A Summary of Six Papers and Discussions upon the Disabilities of Women +as Workers. + +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. + +Issued for private circulation only by the Fabian Women's Group, pp. 24. +1909. + +Summary of Eight Papers and Discussions upon the Disabilities of +Mothers as Workers. + +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. + +Issued for private circulation only by the Fabian Women's Group, pp. 32. +1910. + +What to Read on + +Social and Economic Subjects. 5th edition. Earlier editions published as +Tract No. 29. pp. 52. P.S. King and Son. 1910. 1s. + +Songs for Socialists, compiled by the Fabian Society. A.C. Fifield. +1912. 3d. + +The Rural Problem. By Henry D. Harben. pp. 169. Constable and Co. 1913. +2s. 6d. net. + +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. + +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. + + +BOUND TRACTS. + +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. + + +FABIAN SOCIALIST SERIES. + +Published for the Society by A.C. Fifield at 6d. and is net each. + +I. Socialism and Religion. Reprint of Tracts, Nos. 42, 78, 133, and 79. +pp. 87. 1908. + +II. Socialism and Agriculture. Reprint of Tracts, Nos. 136, 118, 115, +and 123. pp. 94. 1908. + +III. Socialism and Individualism. Reprint of Tracts, Nos. 69, 45, 72, +and 121. pp. 102. 1908. + +IV. The Basis and Policy of Socialism. Reprint of Tracts, Nos. 5, 7, 51, +and 108. pp. 95. 1908. + +V. The Common Sense of Municipal Trading. By Bernard Shaw. Reprint with +a new preface, pp. 120. 1908. + +VI. Socialism and National Minimum. Papers by Mrs. Sidney Webb and Miss +B.L. Hutchins, and reprint of Tract No. 128. pp. 91. 1909. + +VII. Wastage of Child Life, as exemplified by Conditions in Lancashire. +By J. Johnston, M.D.* A reprint, pp. 95. 1909. + +VIII. Socialism and Superior Brains. Reprint of Tract, No. 146. pp. 59. +1910. + +IX. The Theory and Practice of Trade Unionism. By J.H. Greenwood. +Preface by Sidney Webb. pp. 70. 1911. + + +RESEARCH DEPARTMENT PUBLICATIONS. + +New Statesman Supplements: + + Industrial Organisation in Germany, Report. By W.S. Sanders. 1913. 8 + pp. folio. + + National Insurance Act. First Draft Report of the Insurance + Committee. March 14, 1914. 32 pp. folio, 1s. + + Co-operative Production and Profit-Sharing. February 14, 1914. 32 pp. + folio. 2s. 6d. + + 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. + + Industrial Insurance. March 13, 1915. 32 pp. folio, 1s. + + State and Municipal Enterprise. Draft Report. By Mr. and Mrs. Sidney + Webb. May 8, 1915. 32 pp. folio, 1s. + + Suggestions for the Prevention of War. + + Part I. By L.S. Woolf. July 10, 1915. 24 pp. folio, 1s. + + Part II. By the International Agreements Committee July 17, 1915. 8 + pp. folio, 1s. + + English Teachers and their Professional Organisation. Monograph by + Mrs. Sidney Webb. + + Part I. September 25, 1915. 24 pp. folio. 6d. + + Part II. October 2, 1915. 24 pp. folio. 6d. + +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. + + + + +Index + +Of the principal references to people and subjects + + +A + +Agriculture, 15, 47, 157, 228 +Alden, Percy, 153, 172, 231 +Allen, Clifford, 195, 225, 234 +Anarchism, 49, 53, 66 +Arts Group, The, 188 + + +B + +Balfour, Rt. Hon. Arthur J., 45, 142 +Ball, Sidney, 103, 180, 183 +Barker, Ernest, 244, 258 +Barker, Granville, 180, 186 +Barnett, Canon, 16 +Basis, The Fabian, 71, 169, 177, 178, 231, 269 +Bax, Belfort, 66 +Beale, Mr., 112 +Bentham, Jeremy, 244 +Bernstein, Edward, 239 +Besant, Mrs. Annie, joins, 47; + her position, 64; + Fabian Essay, 92; + resigns, 98; + lecture, 187 +Birth-rate, 160 +Bland, Hubert, 31, 35, 222, 223, 265 +Book-boxes, 121 +Brooke, Miss Emma, 190 +Brooke, Rupert, 234 +Brooke, Rev. Stopford, 69 +Burns, Rt. Hon. John, 67, 83, 110, 217 +Butler, Samuel, 105 + + +C + +Campbell, Rev. R.J., 187 +Carpenter, Edward, 36 +Champion, H.H., 25, 31, 69, 75 +Charrington, Charles, 131, 133 +Christian Socialism, 25, 83 +Chubb, Percival, 29, 69 +Clarke, William, 31, 33; + joins, 47; + position, 64, 123 +Clifford, Dr. John, 129 +Cole, G.D.H., 230 +Comte, Auguste, 14, 18, 263 +Conference, of 1886, 55; + of 1892, 106; + of later years, 197 +Conscription, 137 +Co-operation, 44, 92, 114, 228 +Cox, Harold, 46 +Crane, Walter, 66, 71, 75, 88, 129, 131, 133, 264 +Crooks, Rt. Hon. Will, 129, 152, 155 + + +D + +Darwin, Charles, 15 +Davidson, Thomas, 26, 28 +Decline of birth-rate, 160 +De Mattos, W.S., 93, 105, 123 +Democratic Federation, 24, 38, 49 +Dock Strike, 75, 83, 114 +Dodd, F. Lawson, 129, 131, 172, 202 +Drink Trade, Municipal, 159 + + +E + +Edgeworth, Professor, 260 +Education, 142 +Education Group, 185 +Eight Hours Bill, 84, 203 +Elections, of 1892, 108, 112; + of 1906, 152; + of 1910, 220 +Ellis, Havelock, 29, 36 +Ensor, R.C.K., 180, 221 +Evolution, 15, 17 + + +F + +"Facts for Londoners," 80 +"Facts for Socialists," 69 +"Fair Wages," 109, 114, 241 +"Family, The," 15, 69, 175, 181 +Feeding school children, 148, 203 +Fellowship of the New Life, 28, 32, 35 +Finance, 1884, 35; 1886, 60; 1891, 99; 1893, 100; 1908, 185 + + +G + +George, Henry, 16, 19, 25, 28, 38, 45, 260 +"Government Organisation of Unemployed Labour," 57 +Green, J. Frederick, 131, 133 +Groups, Fabian, 104, 195 +Guild Socialism, 230, 254 + + +H + +Haldane, Lord, 74, 111 +Hampstead Historic, The, 65 +Harben, Henry D., 222, 224, 227, 228 +Hardie, J. Keir, 113, 167, 253 +Headlam, Rev. Stewart D., 25, 57, 75, 94, 142, 166, 168, 172 +Henderson, Rt. Hon. Arthur, 152, 155 +Hobson, S.G., 130, 150, 172 +Housing, 140 +Huddersfield Election, 155 +Hutchinson, Henry H., 95, 123 +Hutchinson, Miss, 123 +Huxley, T.H., 18 +Hyndman, H.M., 24, 38, 51, 202, 252 + + +I + +Ibsen, 94 +Imperialism, 135 +Independent Labour Party, 63, 97, 101, 129, 202 +Industrial Remuneration Conference, 44 +"Intercepted Letter, An," 118 +International Socialist Congress, 126, 209 + + +J + +Jevons, Stanley, 260 +Joint Standing Committee, 202 + + +K + +"Kapital, Das," 24, 64, 236, 258 +Keddell, Frederick, 31, 52 +Kropotkin, Prince, 49, 66 + + +L + +Labour Party, The, 97, 116, 148, 167, 171 +Lancashire Campaign, 95 +Land, 47, 244, 260 +Land taxation, 21, 25, 73 +Lavelaye, Emile de, 16, 19 +Leasehold Enfranchisement, 94, 110, 113 +Lecturing, 77, 105, 108, 124 +Library, 120 +Local Fabian Societies, 99, 102, 191 +Local Government Information Bureau, 206 +London County Council, 79, 92, 109 +London School Board, 109 +London School of Economics, 123 + + +M + +Macdonald, J. Ramsay, 35, 125, 127, 129, 133, 249 +Macrosty, Henry S., 131, 157, 172 +Martin, J.W., 158 +Marx, Karl, 23, 45, 61, 89, 236, 260 +Massingham, H.W., 109, 116, 117 +Maude, Aylmer, 180 +Middle Class Socialist Party, 153, 172, 178, 180 +Mill, John Stuart, 18, 21, 216, 244, 259 +Minority Report of the Poor Law Commission, 215 +Money, Sir Leo Chiozza, 169, 224 +Morris, Miss May, 88 +Morris, William, 23, 57, 66, 90, 183, 204, 259, 264 +Motto, Fabian, 39, 165 +Municipalisation, 81, 159, 242, 247 + + +N + +National Committee for the Prevention of Destitution, 219 +National Insurance, 223 +Newcastle Program, 112 +Nursery, The Fabian, 189 + + +O + +Oakeshott, J.F., 36, 131, 158 +Old Age Pensions, 159, 223 +Olivier, Sir Sydney, 25; + joins, 46; + secretary, 65; + "Capital and Land," 73; + Governor of Jamaica, 128; + Wells' Committee, 166; + opinions, 263, 264 +Owen, Miss Dale, 30, 31 +Owen, Robert, 23, 241 + + +P + +Pankhurst, Mrs., 57, 133 +Parish Councils, 121, 141 +Parliamentary League, Fabian, 68, 73 +Pease, Edward R., 29, 59, 80, 93, 149, 159, 232 +Phillips, W.L., 39, 73 +Podmore, Frank, 28, 39, 48, 53, 57, 73, 80 +Poor Law, 14, 46, 213 +Portsmouth Election, 155 +Positivism, 14, 18 + + +R + +Reeves, Mrs. Pember, 166, 177, 180 +Reform Committee, Fabian, 225 +Research Department, 227 +Ritchie, Professor D.G., 75, 116 +Ruskin, John, 27, 263 + + +S + +Salt, Henry S., 36, 131, 133 +Sanders, W. Stephen, 125, 155, 156, 172, 191, 232 +School Boards, 142 +Shaw, G. Bernard, 25; + joins, 40; + first tract, 40; + on Burglars, 45; + Fabian Essays, 87; + "Quintessence of Ibsenism," 94; + on Newcastle Program, 112; + on Fabian policy, 126; + Vestryman, 127; + "Fabianism and the Empire," 134; + Tariff Reform, 159; + versus Wells, 173; + retires from Executive, 223; + on Economics, 258; + on Guild Socialism, 265 +Shaw, Mrs. Bernard, 123, 166, 172, 187, 190 +Sidgwick, Henry, 258 +Slesser, Henry H., 208, 222, 225 +Small holdings, 47, 228 +Smith, Samuel, 15, 24 +Snell, Harry, 155 +Social Democratic Federation, 49, 61, 89, 106, 203 +Socialist League, 66, 89 +South African War, 128 +"Spectator," The, 14 +Spencer, Herbert, 18 +Standring, George, 74, 172 +Stepniak, Sergius, 94 +Summer School, 199 +Syndicalism, 229, 254 + + +T + +Tariff Reform, 159 +Taunton Election, 154 +Tchaykovsky, Nicholas, 66 +Tillett, Ben, 113 +Tobacco, State cultivation of, 59 +"Tory Gold," 50, 63 +Trade Unionism, 44, 91, 112, 114, 228 +Turner, George, 159 + + +U + +Unemployment, 52, 57, 69, 215 +Unity, Socialist, 202, 253 +University Fabian Societies, 103, 191, 193 +University Socialist Federation, 195 + + +W + +Wallas, Graham, joins, 47; + lectures, 65; + London School Board, 127; + resigns, 156; + ideas, 262 +War of 1914, The, 233, 234 +Webb, Sidney, joins, 46; + Executive, 52; + "Facts for Socialists," 69; + "Facts for Londoners," 83; + elected to L.C.C., 109; + Education Acts, 142; + co-operation with Mrs. Webb, 212; + on Mill, 259 +Webb, Mrs. Sidney, 114, 177, 187, Chapter XI +Wells, H.G., 39, 153, Chapter IX, 250 +Wicksteed, Philip, 260 +Williams, E.E., 205 +Wilson, Mrs. C.M., joins, 48; + Tract 4, 54; + Women's Group, 189; + Executive, 222 +Woolwich Election, 155 +Women's Group, The, 189 +Women's Suffrage, 175, 204 +Workmen's Compensation, 122 + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The History of the Fabian Society +by Edward R. 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