in May, 1915,
only small minorities supported the plan of reconstruction, and Mr. Cole
then and there resigned his membership of the Society, and was
subsequently followed by a few other members. A little while later the
Oxford University Fabian Society severed its connection with the parent
Society, and Mr. Cole adopted the wise course of founding a society of
his own for the advocacy of Guild Socialism.

This episode brings the history of the Society down to the present
date, and I shall conclude this chapter with a brief account of its
organisation at the time of writing, the summer of 1915.

At the end of 1913 my own long term of service as chief officer of the
Society came to an end, and my colleague for several previous years, W.
Stephen Sanders, was appointed my successor. The Executive Committee
requested me to take the new office of Honorary Secretary, and to retain
a share in the management of the Society. This position I still hold.

The tide of Socialist progress which began to rise in 1905 had turned
before 1914, and the period of depression was intensified by the war,
which is still the dominant fact in the world. The membership of the
Society reached its maximum in 1913, 2804 in the parent Society and
about 500 others in local societies. In 1915 the members were 2588 and
250. The removal to new premises in the autumn of 1914 was more than a
mere change of offices, since it provided the Society with a shop for
the sale of its publications, a hall sufficiently large for minor
meetings, and accommodation in the same house for the Research
Department and the Women's Group. Moreover a couple of rooms were
furnished as a "Common Room" for members, in which light refreshments
can be obtained and Socialist publications consulted. The finances of
the Society have of course been adversely affected by the war, but not,
so far, to a very material extent.

The chief new departure of recent years has been the organisation of
courses of lectures in London for the general public by Bernard Shaw,
Sidney Webb, and Mrs. Webb, which have not only been of value as a means
of propaganda, but have also yielded a substantial profit for the
purposes of the Society. The plan originated with a debate between
Bernard Shaw and G.K. Chesterton in 1911, which attracted a crowded
audience and much popular interest. Next year Mr. Shaw debated with Mr.
Hilaire Belloc: in 1913 Mr. and Mrs. Webb gave six lectures at King's
Hall on "Soc