ABSTRACT
The Local Government Act of 1894, commonly called the Parish Councils Act, which constituted out of chaos a system of local government for rural England, gave the Society an opportunity for practising that part of its policy which includes the making the best use of all forms of existing legislation. A vote on the policy of the Government would have given an overwhelming adverse majority, but it would have destroyed the Society. At the election of the Executive Committee in April, 1900, the Society by another vote confirmed the previous decision. All the old members were re-elected, and those of the majority party polled the heaviest votes. “The Fabian Society and the War: reply by the majority of the Executive Committee to the recent circular.” Bernard Shaw has accomplished many difficult feats, but none of them excels that of drafting for the Society and carrying through the manifesto called “Fabianism and the Empire.”
