Instead
there was the new and vigorous Independent Labour Party, already the
premier Socialist body in point of public influence. This body took the
first step, and a meeting was held in April at the Fabian office,
attended by Hubert Bland, Bernard Shaw, and myself as delegates from our
Society. The proposal before the Conference was "the formation of a
court of appeal to adjudicate between rival Socialist candidates
standing for the same seat at any contested election," an occurrence
which has in fact been rare in local and virtually unknown in
Parliamentary elections.
As the Fabian Society did not at that time officially run candidates,
and has always allowed to its members liberty of action in party
politics, it was impossible for us to undertake that our members would
obey any such tribunal. The difficulty was however solved by the S.D.F.,
whose delegates to the second meeting, held in July, announced that they
were instructed to withdraw from the Committee if the Fabian delegates
remained. The I.L.P. naturally preferred the S.D.F. to ourselves,
because their actual rivalry was always with that body, and we were only
too glad to accept from others the dismissal which we desired. So our
delegates walked out, leaving the other two parties in temporary
possession of our office, and Socialist Unity so far as we were
concerned again vanished.
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