It pursued an uneventful
but useful career, managed virtually by the secretaries of the two
societies, which divided the funds annually in proportion to the
literature supplied. Several Easter Conferences of Elected Persons were
held with varying success. Later on the nominal control was handed over
to the Joint Committee, next to be described.
The problem of Socialist Unity seemed to be approaching a settlement
when the three organisations, in 1900, joined hands with the Trade
Unions in the formation of the Labour Representation Committee, later
renamed the Labour Party. But in 1901, eighteen months after the
Committee was constituted, the S.D.F. withdrew, and thereafter unity
became more difficult than ever, since two societies were united for
collective political action with the numerically and financially
powerful trade unions, whilst the third took up the position of hostile
isolation. But between the Fabian Society and the I.L.P. friendly
relations became closer than ever. The divergent political policies of
the two, the only matter over which they had differed, had been largely
settled by change of circumstances. The Fabian Society had rightly held
that the plan of building up an effective political party out of
individual adherents to any one society was impracticable, and the
I.L.P. had in fact adopted another method, the permeation of existing
organisations, the Trade Unions.
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