ent of the
Reformers embodying their policy was defeated by 122 to 27 and after the
holiday season the Reform Committed announced that their mission was
accomplished and their organisation had been disbanded[42].

"Fabian Reform" embodied no new principle all through the history of the
Society there had been a conflict between the "constitutional practice"
of political toleration, and the desire of a militant minority to set up
a standard of party orthodoxy, and to penalise or expel the dissenters
from it.

The next storm which disturbed Fabian equanimity involved an altogether
new principle, and was therefore a refreshing change to the veterans,
who were growing weary of winning battles fought over the same ground.
In order to explain this movement it is necessary to describe a new
development in the work of the Society.

In the autumn of 1912 Mrs. Webb came to the conclusion that the work of
the National Committee for the Prevention of Destitution could not be
carried on indefinitely on a large scale. Reform of the Poor Law was
not coming as a big scheme. It was true that the Majority Report was
almost forgotten, but there appeared to be no longer any hope that the
Government would take up as a whole the scheme of the Minority Report.
It would come about in due time, but not as the result of an agitation.
The National Committee had a monthly paper, "The Crusade," edited by
Clifford Sharp, a member of the Society who came to the front at the
time of the Wells agitation, had been one of the founders of the
Nursery, and a member of the Executive from 1909 to 1914. In March,
1913, Bernard Shaw, H.D. Harben, and the Webbs, with a few other
friends, established the "New Statesman," with Clifford Sharp as editor.
This weekly review is not the organ of the Society, and is not in any
formal way connected with it, but none the less it does in fact express
the policy which has moulded the Society, and it has been a useful
vehicle for publishing the results of Fabian Research.

Fabian Research, the other outgrowth of the Committee for the Prevention
of Destitution, was organised by Mrs. Webb in the autumn of 1912.
Investigation of social problems was one of the original objects of the
Society and had always been a recognised part of its work. As a general
rule, members had taken it up individually, but at various periods
Committees had been appointed to investigate particular subjects. The
important work of one of these Commi