It was the raw material of Municipal Socialism, and from this time forth
the Society recognised that the municipalisation of monopolies was a
genuine part of the Socialist programme, that the transfer from private
exploiters to public management at the start, and ultimately by the
amortisation of the loans to public ownership, actually was _pro tanto_
the transfer from private to public ownership of land and capital, as
demanded by Socialists.
Here, in passing, we may remark that there is a legend, current chiefly
in the United States, that the wide extension of municipal ownership in
Great Britain is due to the advocacy of the Fabian Society. This is very
far from the truth. The great provincial municipalities took over the
management of their water and gas because they found municipal control
alike convenient, beneficial to the citizens, and financially
profitable: Birmingham in the seventies was the Mecca of
Municipalisation, and in 1882 the Electric Lighting Act passed by Mr.
Joseph Chamberlain was so careful of the interests of the public, so
strict in the limitations it put upon the possible profits to the
investor, that electric lighting was blocked in England for some years,
and the Act had to be modified in order that capital might be
attracted.[22]
What the Fabian Society did was to point out that Socialism did not
necessarily mean the control of all industry by a centralised State;
that to introduce Socialism did not necessarily require a revolution
because much of it could be brought about piecemeal by the votes of the
local electors.
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