Eleven of the
Executive list, nine of the Reformers, and myself constituted the new
Committee. In fact it was an able and effective body. The Old Gang
brought in Mr. Granville Barker; the Reformers included Mr. Wells, Mrs.
Pember Reeves, Aylmer Maude, R.C.K. Ensor, Dr. Haden Guest, Sidney Ball,
F.W. Pethick Lawrence, and Miss B.L. Hutchins--most, if not all, of whom
received support from the friends of the Old Gang. Scarcely anything
less like revolutionists can be imagined than this list. Mr. Pethick
Lawrence, it is true, has since then done some hard fighting in another
cause, but he has always acted with seriousness and deliberation. Most
of the others might as well have figured on one ticket as the other. The
Old Gang including myself had 12 votes and all the experience, against 9
on the other side. But the two sides did not survive the first meeting
of the new Committee. There was, as I have already said, no differences
of principle between the two parties. The expansion of the parent
Society had come about, local Societies were growing up all over the
country; Mr. Wells said no more about public authority over the
young--indeed his election address made no reference to it--and Mr. Shaw
did nothing to establish his Middle-Class Socialist Party.
The new Committee quickly settled down to work, but Mr. Wells was
already wearying of his role as political organiser.
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