to Socialise Parliament
and the other estates of the realm, not to run the Press
ourselves."[1153]

Owing to these peculiar methods, by which they secured the support of
many people who did not know they were Socialists, the Fabians have
been very successful in their policy: "In 1888 we had not been found
out even by the 'Star.' The Liberal party was too much preoccupied
over Mr. O'Brien's breeches and the Parnell Commission, with its
dramatic climax in the suicide of the forger Pigott, to suspect that
the liveliness of the extreme left of the Radical wing in London meant
anything but the usual humbug about working-class interests. We urged
our members to join the Liberal and Radical Associations of their
districts, or if they preferred it, the Conservative Associations. We
told them to become members of the nearest Radical club and
co-operative store and to get delegated to the Metropolitan Radical
Federation and the Liberal and Radical Union if possible. On these
bodies we made speeches and moved resolutions, or better still, got
the Parliamentary candidate for the constituency to move them, and
secured reports and encouraging little articles for him in the 'Star.'
We permeated the party organisations and pulled all the wires we
could lay our hands on with our utmost adroitness and energy; and we
succeeded so far that in 1888 we gained the solid advantage of a
Progressive majority, full of ideas that would never have come into
their heads had not the Fabian put them there, on the first London
County Council. The generalship of this movement was undertaken
chiefly by Sidney Webb, who played such bewildering conjuring tricks
with the Liberal thimbles and the Fabian peas that to this day both
the Liberals and the sectarian Socialists stand aghast at him."[1154]
Fabians rely for their success chiefly on their artfulness. "Always
remember that, even if you cannot convert a man to Socialism, you may
get his vote all the same."[1155]

Fabian middle-class Socialism differs from the democratic Socialism of
the larger Socialist organisations which appeal to the working class:
"The Socialism advocated by the Fabian Society is State Socialism
exclusively."[1156] "We have never advanced the smallest pretensions
to represent the working classes of this country."[1157] Therefore the
Fabians are very cordially hated by the Democratic Socialists. The
Social-Democratic Federation blames them for their "cynical
opportunism."[1158] An