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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.
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