Stephen Sanders, took my place. When in December, 1915, he accepted a
commission for the period of the war, as a recruiting officer, Sidney
Webb was appointed to fill the vacancy.
* * * * *
The account of the part taken by the Society in the work of the Labour
Party has carried us far beyond the period previously described, and a
short space must now be devoted to the years which intervened between
the Education episode and the outburst of activity to be described in
the next chapter.
Social progress advances in waves, and outbursts of energy are always
succeeded by depressions. Up to 1899 the Society slowly grew in
membership until this reached 861. Then it slowly declined to 730 in
1904. This was symptomatic of a general lack of interest in Socialism.
The lectures and meetings were poorly attended, and the really important
debates which decided our educational policy were conducted by only a
few dozen members. Twenty years had passed since the Society was
founded. Of the Essayists Bernard Shaw, Sidney Webb, Hubert Bland, and
when in England, Sydney Olivier were still leaders of the Society, and
so until January, 1904, was Graham Wallas, who then resigned his
membership on account of his disagreement with the tract on Tariff
Reform, but really, as his letter published in "Fabian News" indicated,
because in the long controversy over education policy he had found
himself constantly in the position of a hostile critic.
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