ce was "the formation of a
court of appeal to adjudicate between rival Socialist candidates
standing for the same seat at any contested election," an occurrence
which has in fact been rare in local and virtually unknown in
Parliamentary elections.

As the Fabian Society did not at that time officially run candidates,
and has always allowed to its members liberty of action in party
politics, it was impossible for us to undertake that our members would
obey any such tribunal. The difficulty was however solved by the S.D.F.,
whose delegates to the second meeting, held in July, announced that they
were instructed to withdraw from the Committee if the Fabian delegates
remained. The I.L.P. naturally preferred the S.D.F. to ourselves,
because their actual rivalry was always with that body, and we were only
too glad to accept from others the dismissal which we desired. So our
delegates walked out, leaving the other two parties in temporary
possession of our office, and Socialist Unity so far as we were
concerned again vanished. I do not think that the court of appeal was
ever constituted, and certainly the relations between the other two
Societies continued to be difficult.

The next move was one of a practical character. The Fabian Society had
always taken special interest in Local Government, as a method of
obtaining piecemeal Socialism, and had long acted as an informal
Information Bureau on the law and practice of local government
administration. The success of the I.L.P. in getting its members elected
to local authorities suggested a conference of such persons, which was
held at Easter, 1899, on the days preceding the I.L.P. Annual Conference
at Leeds. Sidney Webb was invited to be President, and gave an address
on "The Sphere of Municipal Statesmanship"; Will Crooks was Chairman of
the Poor Law Section. At this Conference it was resolved to form a Local
Government Information Bureau, to be jointly managed by the I.L.P. and
the Fabian Society; it was intended for Labour members of local
authorities, but anybody could join on payment of the annual
subscription of 2s. 6d. For this sum the subscriber obtained the right
to have questions answered free of charge, and to receive both "Fabian
News" and the official publications of the I.L.P., other than their
weekly newspaper. The Bureau also published annual Reports, at first on
Bills before Parliament, and latterly abstracts of such Acts passed by
Parliament as were of intere