The History of the Fabian Society | Page 2

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