For the first eight years or so of the Socialist
movement the problem of unity did not arise. Until the publication of
"Fabian Essays" the Fabian Society was small, and the S.D.F., firm in
its Marxian faith, and confident that the only way of salvation was its
particular way, had no more idea of uniting with the other societies
than the Roman Catholic Church has of union with Lutherans or
Methodists. The Socialist League was the outcome of an internal dispute,
and, if my memory is correct, the S.D.F. expected, not without reason,
that the seceders would ultimately return to the fold. The League ceased
to count when at the end of 1890 William Morris left it and
reconstituted as the Hammersmith Socialist Society the branch which met
in the little hall constructed out of the stable attached to Kelmscott
House.
In January, 1893, seven delegates from this Society held a conference
with Fabian delegates, and at a second meeting at which S.D.F. delegates
were present a scheme for promoting unity was approved. A Joint
Committee of five from each body assembled on February 23rd, when
William Morris was appointed Chairman, with Sydney Olivier as Treasurer,
and it was decided that the Chairman with H.M. Hyndman and Bernard Shaw
should draft a Joint Manifesto. The "Manifesto of English Socialists,"
published on May 1st, 1893, as a penny pamphlet with the customary red
cover, was signed by the three Secretaries, H.
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