Its leaders, such as Prince
Kropotkin and Nicholas Tchaykovsky, were men of outstanding ability and
unimpeachable character, and the rank and file, mostly refugees from
European oppression, had direct relations with similar parties abroad,
the exact extent and significance of which we could not calculate.
The Socialist League, founded in 1885 by William Morris, Dr. Edward
Aveling, and others, as the result of a quarrel, mainly personal, with
the leaders of the Social Democrats, soon developed its own doctrine,
and whilst never until near its dissolution definitely anarchist, it was
always dominated by the artistic and anti-political temperament of
Morris. Politically the Fabians were closer to the Social Democrats, but
their hard dogmatism was repellent, whilst Morris had perhaps the most
sympathetic and attractive personality of his day.
The crisis of the Society's policy is described in the following
passage from Shaw's "Early History,":--
"By 1886 we had already found that we were of one mind as to the
advisability of setting to work by the ordinary political methods and
having done with Anarchism and vague exhortations to Emancipate the
Workers. We had several hot debates on the subject with a section of
the Socialist League which called itself Anti-State Communist, a name
invented by Mr. Joseph Lane of that body.
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