It does not ask the English people to join the Fabian Society."
In old days acting on this view of our "mission" we deliberately allowed
the Society to remain small. Latterly we tried to expand, and in the
main our attempt was an expensive failure. The other Socialist bodies
have always used their propaganda primarily for recruiting; and they
have sought to enlist the rank and file of the British people. In this
they too have substantially failed, and the forty or fifty thousand
members of the I.L.P. and B.S.P. are roughly no larger a proportion of
the working class than the three thousand Fabians are of the middle
class. If the advance of Socialism in England is to be measured by the
"making of Socialists," if we are to count membership, to enumerate
meetings, to sum up subscriptions, the outlook is gloomy. Thirty-four
years ago a group of strong men led by Mr. H.M. Hyndman founded the
Democratic Federation, which survives as the British Socialist Party,
with Mr. Hyndman still to the fore; the rest have more or less dropped
out, and no one has arisen to take their places. Twenty-two years ago
Keir Hardie founded the Independent Labour Party: he has died since the
first draft of this passage was written, and no one is left who commands
such universal affection and respect amongst the members of the Society
he created. Of the seven Essayists who virtually founded the Fabian
Society only one is still fully in harness, and his working life must
necessarily be nearing its term.
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