The value of the plan for a propagandist society is largely this, that experience shows that people can only work together efficiently when they know each other.  Therefore in practice political and many other organisations find it necessary to arrange garden parties, fetes, picnics, teas, and functions of all sorts in order to bring together their numbers under such conditions as enable them to become personally acquainted with each other.  In times of expansion the Fabian Society has held dinners and soirees in London, many of which have been successful and even brilliant occasions, because the new members come in crowds and the old attend as a duty.  When new members are few these entertainments cease, for nothing is so dreary as a social function that is half failure, and a hint of it brings the series to an end.  But a Summer School where members pass weeks together is far more valuable in enabling the leaders and officials to find out who there is who is good as a speaker or thinker, or who is a specialist on some subject of value to the movement.  Moreover, gatherings of this class attract those on the fringe of the movement, and many of our members have come to us through attendance at the school.  Apart from the direct interests of the Society, a School of this character is valued by many solitary people, solitary both socially, such as teachers and civil servants, who are often lonely in the world, and solitary intellectually because they live in remote places where people of their way of thinking are scarce.

It is not necessary to describe the arrangements of the School, for these institutions have in the last few years become familiar to everybody.  We do not, however, as a rule make quite such a business of the schooling as is usual where the term is short, and study is the sole object.  One regular lecture a day for four days a week is the rule, but impromptu lectures or debates in the evenings, got up amongst the guests, are customary.  Moreover, frequent conferences on special subjects are held, either by allied bodies, such as the Committee for the Prevention of Destitution, or by a Group, such as the Education Group or the Research Department.  On these occasions the proportion of work to play is higher.  The School-house belongs to the Society for the whole year, and parties are arranged for Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide whenever possible.

After four years at Llanbedr the lease was terminated and the original Committee wound up.  The capital borrowed had all been repaid, and there remained, after a sale by auction, a lot of property and nearly L100 in cash.  This the Committee transferred to the Society, and thereupon the quasi-independence of the Summer School came to an end.  In 1911 a new experiment was tried.  A small hotel at Saas Grund, off the Rhone Valley, was secured, and during six weeks three large parties of Fabians occupied it for periods of a fortnight each.  The summer was one of the finest of recent years, and the high