abian News," "was of opinion that a
large Committee including both the Executive and an equal number of
unofficial members should be appointed. But as Mr. Wells, the author of
the proposal, was resolutely opposed to this plan, the Executive decided
that in the circumstances it was best to fall in with his wishes, and
they accordingly appointed only those members, both Executive and other,
whom Mr. Wells nominated and who were willing to serve."

The Committee thus appointed consisted of the Rev. Stewart Headlam, Mrs.
Bernard Shaw, and G.R.S. Taylor of the Executive; Dr. Stanton Coit, W.A.
Colegate, Dr. Haden Guest, Sydney Olivier, Mrs. Pember Reeves, H.G.
Wells, and Mrs. Wells.

The Committee held its first sitting on February 28th, but its report
was not completed and presented to the Executive until the following
October, Mr. Wells having in the interval visited the United States.

"Faults of the Fabian," written before the election of 1906, gave little
indication that its author anticipated the sudden outburst of interest
in Socialism which followed the astonishing success of the Labour Party
at the polls. When Keir Hardie was chosen as leader of the party, it was
recognised that Socialism was no longer the creed of a few fanatics, but
a political force supported, actively or passively, by the great
organisations of Labour throughout the country, able to fight, and
sometimes to beat both the older parties. A new era in politics had
begun. The Tories had been defeated before by Mr. Gladstone's unrivalled
personality. Now they were defeated, as they had not been for
three-quarters of a century, by a party none of whose leaders possessed
an outstanding personality, and by a programme which contained no item
with any popular appeal. Everybody was thinking and talking politics;
every political conversation began or ended with that unknown factor,
the new Labour Party; every discussion of the Labour Party involved a
discussion of Socialism.

Perhaps Mr. Wells with the intuition of genius in fact foresaw what was
about to happen: perhaps it was only chance. Anyway his proposal for an
enlarged and invigorated society came at the precise moment, when the
realisation of his project was in fact possible; and, of course, his own
vigorous and interesting personality attracted many to us who might have
moved in other directions, or indeed never have moved at all.

The inner history of the Wells Committee has never been reveale