socialization of the
means of production, distribution, and exchange," will then work out
automatically without interference with the citizen's private affairs.

Another subject which has hardly yet been touched, and which also must
begin with deductive treatment, is what may be called the
democratization of democracy, and its extension from a mere negative and
very uncertain check on tyranny to a positive organizing force. No
experienced Fabian believes that society can be reconstructed (or rather
constructed; for the difficulty is that society is as yet only half
rescued from chaos) by men of the type produced by popular election
under existing circumstances, or indeed under any circumstances likely
to be achieved before the reconstruction. The fact that a hawker cannot
ply his trade without a licence whilst a man may sit in Parliament
without any relevant qualifications is a typical and significant anomaly
which will certainly not be removed by allowing everybody to be a hawker
at will. Sooner or later, unless democracy is to be discarded in a
reaction of disgust such as killed it in ancient Athens, democracy
itself will demand that only such men should be presented to its choice
as have proved themselves qualified for more serious and disinterested
work than "stoking up" election meetings to momentary and foolish
excitement. Without qualified rulers a Socialist State is impossible;
and it must not be forgotten (though the reminder is as old as Plato)
that the qualified men may be very reluctant men instead of very
ambitious ones.

Here, then, are two very large jobs already in sight to occupy future
Fabians. Whether they will call themselves Fabians and begin by joining
the Fabian Society is a question which will not be settled by the
generation to which I belong.

G.B.S.

Appendix II

The Basis of the Fabian Society

The Fabian Society consists of Socialists.

It therefore aims at the reorganisation of Society by the emancipation
of Land and Industrial Capital from individual and class ownership, and
the vesting of them in the community for the general benefit. In this
way only can the natural and acquired advantages of the country be
equitably shared by the whole people.

The Society accordingly works for the extinction of private property in
Land and of the consequent individual appropriation, in the form of
Rent, of the price paid for permission to use the earth, as well as for
the advantages