"
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.
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