ive Movement," and together they were at work on
their famous "History of Trade Unionism."

The "Questions" for local governing bodies issued in 1892 were full of
such matters as fair wages, shorter hours, and proper conditions for
labour, and it was speedily discovered that this line of advance was the
best suited to Fabian tactics because it was a series of skirmishes all
over the country, in which scores and hundreds could take part. Each
locality had then or soon afterwards three or four elected local
councils, and hardly any Fabian from one end of the country to the other
would be unable in one way or another to strike a blow or lift a finger
for the improvement of the conditions of publicly employed labour.

But the Government of Mr. Gladstone had not been in office for much more
than a year before a much more ambitious enterprise on this line was
undertaken. In March, 1893, Sir Henry (then Mr.) Campbell-Bannerman had
pledged the Government to "show themselves to be the best employers of
labour in the country": "we have ceased," he said, "to believe in what
are known as competition or starvation wages." That was a satisfactory
promise, but enunciating a principle is one thing and carrying it into
effect in scores of departments is another. Mr. Gladstone, of course,
was interested only in Home Rule. Permanent officials doubtless
obstructed, as they usually do: and but a few members of the Cabinet
accepted or understood the new obligation. The Fabian Society knew the
Government departments from the inside, and it was easy for the
Executive to ascertain how labour was treated under each chief, what he
had done and what he had left undone. At that time legislative reforms
were difficult because the Government majority was both small and
uncertain, whilst the whole time of Parliament was occupied by the
necessary but futile struggle to pass a Home Rule Bill for the Lords to
destroy. But administrative reforms were subject to no such limitations:
wages and conditions of labour were determined by the department
concerned, and each minister could do what he chose for the workmen
virtually in his employment, except perhaps in the few cases, such as
the Post Office, where the sums involved were very large, when the
Chancellor of the Exchequer had the same opportunity.

Bernard Shaw and Sidney Webb then decided that the time had come to make
an attack on old-fashioned Liberalism on these lines. The "Fortnightly
Review" acc