The transformation of Mrs. Webb from a student and writer, a typical
"socialist of the chair," into an active leader and propagandist
originated in December, 1905, when she was appointed a member of the
Royal Commission on the Poor Law. The Fabian Society had nothing to do
with the Commission during its four years of enquiry, though as usual
not a few Fabians took part in the work, both officially and
unofficially. But when in the spring of 1909 the Minority Report was
issued, signed by Mrs. Webb and George Lansbury, both members of the
Society, as well as by the Rev. Russell Wakefield (now the Bishop of
Birmingham) and Mr. F. Chandler, Secretary of the Amalgamated Society of
Carpenters and Joiners, the Society took it up. Mr. and Mrs. Webb
reprinted the Minority Report with an introduction and notes in two
octavo volumes, and they lent the Society the plates for a paper edition
in two parts at a shilling and two shillings, one dealing with
Unemployment and the other with the reconstruction of the Poor Law, some
6000 copies of which were sold at a substantial profit.
The Treasury Solicitor was rash enough to threaten us with an injunction
on the ground of infringement of the Crown copyright and to demand an
instant withdrawal of our edition. But Government Departments which try
conclusions with the Fabian Society generally find the Society better
informed than themselves; and we were able triumphantly to refer the
Treasury Solicitor to a published declaration of his own employers, the
Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, a score of years before, in which
they expressly disclaimed their privilege of copyright monopoly so far
as ordinary blue books were concerned, and actually encouraged the
reprinting of them for the public advantage.
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