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.
Pages:
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54