Tract--The Tory Gold controversy--"What Socialism Is"--The Fabian
Conference of 1886--Sidney Webb's first contribution, "The Government
Organisation of Unemployed Labour."


The Fabian Society was founded for the purpose of "reconstructing
society," based on the competitive system, "in such manner as to secure
the general welfare and happiness." It is worth noting that the word
"Socialism" had not yet appeared in its records, and it is not until the
sixth meeting, held on 21st March, 1884, that the word first appears in
the minutes, as the title of a paper by Miss Caroline Haddon: "The Two
Socialisms"; to which is appended a note in the handwriting of Sydney
Olivier: "This paper is stated to have been devoted to a comparison
between the Socialism of the Fabian Society and that of the S.D.F." The
Society, in fact, began its career with that disregard of mere names
which has always distinguished it. The resolutions already recorded,
advocating the reconstruction of society on a non-competitive basis with
the object of remedying the evils of poverty, embody the essence of
Socialism, and our first publication, Tract No. 1, was so thorough-going
a statement of Socialism that it has been kept in print ever since. But
neither in Tract No. 1 nor in Tract No. 2 does the word Socialism occur,
and it is not till Tract No. 3, published in June, 1885, that we find
the words "the Fabian Society having in view the advance of Socialism in
England." At this stage it is clear that the Society was socialist
without recognising itself as part of a world-wide movement, and it was
only subsequently that it adopted the word which alone adequately
expressed its ideas.

At the second meeting, on 25th January, 1884, reports were presented on
a lecture by Henry George and a Conference of the Democratic Federation