ABSTRACT
Many men were drawn to the Labour Party at the end of the First World War because it was free of the onus of responsibility for the war effort. The new objectives adopted during the course of the First World War were embodied in the statement of principles or 'Clause Four' of the 1918 party constitution. The deeper difficulties within British socialist thought were unresolved at the end of the First World War. A brief recapitulation of the ideas of Cole, Tawney and the Webbs will serve to illuminate some of the lines of conflict within British socialist thought. The War Emergency Committee, especially in its studies of 'Labour after the War' and the 'Conscription of Riches' played an important part in this development. In this committee union officials and socialist writers worked together throughout the conflict to formulate policy on matters of direct concern to the working class.
