-now the Social Democratic
Party--was founded in 1884 by Mr. H.M. Hyndman; but in spite of its
untiring efforts, it has never won the sympathy of the trade unions, nor
the confidence of the working-class electorate. Its Parliamentary
candidatures rarely attract attention, and it is not a force in Labour
politics. Nevertheless, indirectly, the influence of the Social Democratic
Party has been very considerable. Mr. John Burns, and many another Labour
leader, have passed through its ranks, and a social conscience has been
made sensitive to the miseries of the poor, largely by the voices--that
will not be silenced--of this comparatively small company.

The Fabian Society also began its work of educating public opinion to
Socialism in 1884, but, unlike the Social Democratic Federation, it made no
proposals for the creation of a Socialist Party or the organisation of the
working class into a separate political party. Mainly, its influence can be
seen in the increase of statistical knowledge and of State interference in
the conditions of life and labour in the working class.

The Independent Labour Party was not formed till 1892, and while professing
Socialism, it has aimed rather at securing the return of labour members to
Parliament, and to local governing councils than at the conversion of the
working class to a dogmatic social democracy. Often frankly opportunist and
experimental, the Independent Labour Party and its offspring, the Labour
Party in the House of Commons, have followed the national custom in
politics of attacking and redressing evident evils, and have done this with
considerable success.

But while the Socialists have compelled the attention of all classes to
existing social ills, and have made social reform the chief concern of all
politicians, the idea of a social democracy steadily recedes from the
political vision, and the conscious movement to Socialism falters.
Socialist workmen in Parliament or on city councils soon find themselves
absorbed in the practical work of legislation or administration, and learn
that there is neither leisure nor outlet for revolutionary propaganda. The
engrossing character of public work destroys the old inclination to break
up the existing order, for the Socialist member of Parliament, or city
councillor interested in his work, has become part of the machinery
responsible for the existing order, and without losing his sympathy for the
labouring people is content that the a