In
October 1883 Edith Nesbit and Hubert
Bland decided to form a socialist debating group with their Quaker
friend Edward Pease. They were also joined
by Havelock Ellis and Frank
Podmore and in January 1884 they decided to call themselves the
Fabian Society. Podmore suggested that the group should be named after
the Roman General, Quintus Fabius Maximus, who advocated the weakening
the opposition by harassing operations rather than becoming involved
in pitched battles.
Hubert Bland chaired the first meeting and
was elected treasurer. By March 1884 the group had twenty members.
However, over the next couple of years the group increased in size
and included socialists such as Sydney Olivier,
William Clarke, Eleanor
Marx, Annie Besant, Graham
Wallas, J. A. Hobson, Sidney
Webb, Beatrice Webb, George
Bernard Shaw,
Charles Trevelyan, J.
R. Clynes, Harry Snell, Clementina
Black, Edward Carpenter, Clement
Attlee, Ramsay MacDonald, Emmeline
Pankhurst,Walter Crane, Arnold
Bennett, Sylvester
Williams, H.
G. Wells, Hugh Dalton, Rupert
Brooke, Clifford Allen and Amber
Reeves.
Early talks at the Fabian Society included: How
Can We Nationalise Accumulated Wealth by Annie
Besant, Private Property by
Edward Carpenter, The
Economics of a Postivist Community by Sidney
Webb and Personal Duty under the Present
System by Graham Wallas.
By 1886 the Fabians had sixty-seven members and an income of £35
19s. The official headquarters of the organisation was 14 Dean's Yard,
Westminster, the home of Frank Podmore.
The Fabian Society journal, Today, was edited by Edith
Nesbit and Hubert Bland.
The Fabians believed that capitalism had created an unjust and inefficient
society. They agreed that the ultimate aim of the group should be
to reconstruct "society in accordance with the highest moral
possibilities". The Fabians rejected the revolutionary socialism
of H. M. Hyndman and the Social
Democratic Federation and were concerned with helping society
to move to a socialist society "as painless and effective as
possible".
The Fabians adopted the tactic of trying to convince people by "rational
factual socialist argument", rather than the "emotional
rhetoric and street brawls" of the Social
Democratic Federation. The Fabian group was a "fact-finding
and fact-dispensing body" and they produced a series of pamphlets
on a wide variety of different social issues.
In 1889 the Fabian Group decided to publish a book that would provide
a comprehensive account of the organisations's beliefs. Fabian
Essays included chapters written by George
Bernard Shaw, Sydney Webb, Annie
Besant, Sydney Olivier, Graham
Wallas, William Clarke and Hubert
Bland. Edited by Shaw, the book sold 27,000 copies in two years.
William Morris, a former member of the Social
Democratic Federation, and founder of the Socialist
League, strongly criticised the Fabian
Essays in the journal Commonweal.
Morris disagreed with what he called "the fantastic and unreal
tactic" of permeation which "could not be carried out in
practice, and which, if it could be, would still leave us in a position
from which we should have to begin our attack on capitalism over again".
The
success of Fabian
Essays in Socialism (1889)
convinced the Fabian Society that they needed a full-time employee.
In 1890 Edward Pease was appointed as Secretary
of the Society. His duties included keeping the minutes at meetings,
dealing with the correspondence, arranging lecture schedules, managing
the Fabian Information Bureau, circulating book-boxes and editing
and contributing to the Fabian
News.
In
1890 Henry Hutchinson, a wealthy solicitor from Derby,
decided to give the Fabian Society £200 a year to spend on public
lectures. Some of this was used to pay Fabian members such as Harry
Snell, Ramsay MacDonald, Graham
Wallas, Catherine Glasier and Bruce
Glasier to travel around the country giving lecturers on subjects
such as 'Socialism', 'Trade Unionism', 'Co-operation' and 'Economic
History'.
Hutchinson died four years later leaving the Fabian Society £10,000.
Hutchinson left instructions that the money should be used for "propaganda
and socialism". Hutchinson selected his daughter as well as Edward
Pease, Sidney Webb, William
Clarke and W. S. De Mattos as trustees of the fund, and together
they decided the money should be used to develop a new university
in London. The London
School of Economics (LSE) was founded in 1895. As Sidney
Webb pointed out, the intention of the institution was to "teach
political economy on more modern and more socialist lines than those
on which it had been taught hitherto, and to serve at the same time
as a school of higher commercial education".
The Webbs first approached Graham Wallas,
now one of the most prominent members of the Fabians, to become the
Director of the LSE. Wallas agreed to lecture there but declined the
offer as director, and W. A. S. Hewins,
a young economist at Pembroke College, Oxford,
was appointed instead. With the support of the London
County Council (LCC) the LSE flourished as a centre of learning.
On 27th February 1900, Edward Pease represented
the Fabian Society at the meeting of socialist
and trade union groups at the Memorial Hall in Farringdon Street,
London. After a debate the 129 delegates decided to pass Hardie's
motion to establish "a distinct Labour group in Parliament, who
shall have their own whips, and agree upon their policy, which must
embrace a readiness to cooperate with any party which for the time
being may be engaged in promoting legislation in the direct interests
of labour."
To make this possible the Conference established a Labour
Representation Committee (LRC). This committee included two members
from the Independent Labour Party, two from
the Social Democratic Federation, one member
of the Fabian Society, and seven trade unionists.
Some members of the Fabian Society had doubts about this and Edward
Pease personally paid the affiliation dues.
(1)
Edward Pease, The History of the Fabian
Society (1918)
At
the second meeting of the Fabian Society 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 a long series of Fabian fortnightly lectures
which have been continued ever since.
(2)
Edith Nesbit, letter to Ada Breakell (February,
1884)
On Friday we went to Mr. Pease's to
tea, and afterwards, a Fabian meeting was held. The meeting was over
at 10 - but some of us stayed till 11.30 talking. The talks after
the Fabian meeting are very jolly. I do think the Fabians are quite
the nicest set of people I ever knew. Mr. Pease's people are Quakers
and he has the cheerful serenity and self-containedness common to
the sect. I like him very much.
(3)
Edith Nesbit, letter to Ada Breakell
(April, 1884)
I should like to try and tell you a little about the Fabian Society
- it's aim is to improve the social system - or rather to spread its
news as to the possible improvements of the social system. There are
about thirty members - some of whom are working men. We meet once
a fortnight - and then someone reads a paper and we all talk about
it. We are now going to issue a pamphlet. I am on the Pamphlet Committee.
Now can you fancy me on a committee? I really surprise myself sometimes.
(4)
Edward Pease, The History of the Fabian
Society (1918)
Fabian
Essays, the work of seven writers (George Bernard Shaw, Annie
Besant, Sydney Olivier, Sydney Webb, William Clarke, Hubert Bland,
Graham Wallas) 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. 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.
None of us at that time were sufficiently experienced in the business
of authorship to appreciate the astonishing success of the venture.
In a month the whole edition of 1,000 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.
(5)
Beatrice Webb, diary entry (21st September,
1894)
A few weeks ago Sidney
(Webb) received a letter from a Derby solicitor informing him that
he was left executor to a certain Mr Hutchinson. All he knew of the
man (whom he had never seen) was the fact that he was an eccentric
old gentleman, member of the Fabian Society, who alternately sent
considerable cheques and wrote querulous letters about Shaw's rudeness,
or some other fancied grievance he had suffered at the hands of some
member of the Fabian Society. When Sidney heard he was made executor,
he expected that the old man had left something to the Fabian Society.
Now it turns out that he has left nearly £10,000 to five trustees
and appointed Sidney chairman and administrator - all the money to
be spent in ten years. The poor old man blew his brains out.
The question is how to spend the money. It might be placed to the
credit of the Fabian Society and spent in the ordinary work of propaganda.
Or a big political splash might be made with it - all the Fabian Executive
might stand for Parliament. Sidney has been planning to persuade the
other trustees to devote the greater part of the money to encouraging
research and economic study. His vision is to to found, slowly and
quietly, a 'London School of Economics and Political Science' - a
centre not only of lectures on special subjects, but an association
of students who would be directed and supported in doing original
work.
(6)
Beatrice Webb, diary entry (23rd January,
1895)
Last night we had an informal
conference with the ILP leaders. Ramsay MacDonald and Frank Smith
(who are members both of the Fabians and the ILP) have been for some
time harping on the desirability of an understanding between the two
societies. To satisfy them Sidney (Webb) arranged a little dinner
of Keir Hardie, Tom Mann, Edward Pease and George Bernard Shaw and
the two intermediaries. I think the principals on either side felt
it would come to nothing. Nevertheless, it was interesting.
Tom Mann said the Progressives on the LCC were not convinced Socialists.
No one should get the votes of the ILP who did not pledge himself
to the 'Nationalisation of the Means of Production'. Keir Hardie,
who impressed me very unfavourably, deliberately chooses this policy
as the only one which he can boss. His only chance of leadership lies
in the creation of an organisation "against the government";
he knows little and cares less for any constructive thought or action.
But with Tom Mann it is different. he is possessed with the idea of
a 'church' - of a body of men all professing exactly the same creed
and all working in exact uniformity to exactly the same end. No idea
which is not 'absolute', which admits of any compromise or qualification,
no adhesion which is tempered with doubt, has the slightest attraction
to him. And, as Shaw remarked, he is deteriorating. This stumping
the country, talking abstractions and raving emotions, is not good
for a man's judgment, and the perpetual excitement leads, among other
things, to too much whisky.
I do not think the conference ended in any understanding. We made
clear our position. We were a purely educational body, we did not
seek to become a 'party'. We should continue our policy of inoculation,
of giving to each class, to each person, that came under our influence
the exact dose of collectivism that they were prepared to assimilate.
(7)
The Fabians became very interested in the Hull
House Settlement project in Chicago.
Several members, including H. G. Wells, Sidney
Webb and Beatrice Webb, visited the
settlement. A resident of Hull House, Alice
Hamilton, wrote about these visits in her autobiography, Exploring
the Dangerous Trades (1943)
Our English visitors sometimes
surprised us by combining social radicalism with a total lack of democratic
feeling, which to our way of thinking was most inconsistent. A Fabian
Socialist amused me very much when one morning I took him out into
our neighborhood. He was talking eagerly about the need of vacation
schools for London slum children as we stepped out into our courtyard,
which was crowded with children waiting to go on a picnic in the country.
He never saw them, at least not as slum children like those he was
eager to help; he only saw them only as obstacles in his way, and
he pushed them aside impatiently as if they were so many chickens,
all the time telling me about the pitiful children in London. I thought
to myself, "You may love humanity, but you certainly do not love
your fellow man."
We found we could not always trust English radicals and Socialists
to be nice to their American "comrades" when the latter
were from an inferior social level, as most of them were, and we had
some painful and embarrassing experiences when what was supposed to
be a joyful meeting of kindred souls proved to be a meeting of the
snubbers and the snubbed.
(8)
Clement Attlee, As It Happened
(1954)
My elder brother, Tom, was an architect and a great reader of Ruskin
and Morris. I too admired these great men and began to understand
their social gospel. My brother was helping at the Maurice Hostel
in the nearby Hoxton district of London. Our reading became more extensive.
After looking into many social reform ideas - such as co-partnership
- we both came to the conclusion that the economic and ethical basis
of society was wrong. We became socialists.
I recall how in October, 1907, we went to Clements Inn to try and
join the Fabian Society. Edward Pease, the Secretary, regarded us
as if we were two beetles who had crept under the door, and when we
said we wanted to join the Society he asked coldly, "Why?"
We said, humbly, that we were socialists and persuaded him we were
genuine.
I remember very well the first Fabian Society meeting we attended
at Essex Hall. The platform seemed to be full of bearded men: Aylmer
Maude, William Sanders, Sidney Webb and Bernard Shaw. I said to my
brother, "Have we got to grow a beard to join this show. H. G.
Wells was on the platform, speaking with a little piping voice; he
was very unimpressive.
(9)
J. R. Clynes, Memoirs
(1937)
George
Bernard Shaw agreed to take the chair for me at a Fabian Society meeting.
The meeting was a great success. Shaw has always been a brilliant
speaker as well as a provocative writer. During the early years of
the Fabian Society he spoke constantly at public meetings, drawing
crowded audiences. He always gave of his best, whether there were
two thousand listeners or only twenty. That is the hallmark of the
true artist.
(10)
Morgan Philips Price, My Three Revolutions
(1969)
The Labour Party in those
days suffered considerably from the anarchy of conflicting ideas,
and it was not easy for me to fit in anywhere. From 1923 onwards I
used to attend meetings and conferences organized by the Fabians and
the I.L.P. The Fabians were serious people, rather with Civil Service
minds, extremely rational and full of common sense. But they were
too quiet to get the public ear. Their influence was with the 'high-ups'
and a few of the people who mattered.
The I.L.P. had the mass
appeal and the means to get their ideas across. But what a chaos,
if the solid trade union people were not there to give it some stability!
There were a large number of young women with short hair and young
men with long. There were also the old pioneers who had been active
in the movement before these young people were born. They thought
that what Keir Hardie had said in the year one and the resolution
passed by a conference in the 1890s was gospel and that it was sacrilege
to alter it for something more practical in the 1920s. Socialism with
these people was of the Utopian kind, a mixture of Robert Owen, William
Morris and of the mid-Victorian social reformers. But they believed
in democracy and thought that by propaganda a Parliamentary majority
could be obtained for revolutionary changes.
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