The Socialist League, founded in 1885 by William Morris, Dr. Edward Aveling, and others, as the result of a quarrel, mainly personal, with the leaders of the Social Democrats, soon developed its own doctrine, and whilst never until near its dissolution definitely anarchist, it was always dominated by the artistic and anti-political temperament of Morris.  Politically the Fabians were closer to the Social Democrats, but their hard dogmatism was repellent, whilst Morris had perhaps the most sympathetic and attractive personality of his day.

The crisis of the Society’s policy is described in the following passage from Shaw’s “Early History,":—­

“By 1886 we had already found that we were of one mind as to the advisability of setting to work by the ordinary political methods and having done with Anarchism and vague exhortations to Emancipate the Workers.  We had several hot debates on the subject with a section of the Socialist League which called itself Anti-State Communist, a name invented by Mr. Joseph Lane of that body.  William Morris, who was really a free democrat of the Kropotkin type, backed up Lane, and went for us tooth and nail.  Records of our warfare may be found in the volumes of the extinct magazine called ‘To-day,’ which was then edited by Hubert Bland; and they are by no means bad reading.  We soon began to see that at the debates the opposition to us came from members of the Socialist League, who were present only as visitors.  The question was, how many followers had our one ascertained Anarchist, Mrs. Wilson, among the silent Fabians.  Bland and Mrs. Besant brought this question to an issue on the 17th September, 1886, at a meeting in Anderton’s Hotel, by respectively seconding and moving the following resolution: 

“’That it is advisable that Socialists should organize themselves as a political party for the purpose of transferring into the hands of the whole working community full control over the soil and the means of production, as well as over the production and distribution of wealth.’

      “To this a rider was moved by William Morris as follows: 

“’But whereas the first duty of Socialists is to educate the people to understand what their present position is and what their future might be, and to keep the principle of Socialism steadily before them; and whereas no Parliamentary party can exist without compromise and concession, which would hinder that education and obscure those principles, it would be a false step for Socialists to attempt to take part in the Parliamentary contest.’

“I shall not attempt to describe the debate, in which Morris, Mrs. Wilson, Davis, and Tochatti did battle with Burns, Mrs. Besant, Bland, Shaw, Donald, and Rossiter:  that is, with Fabian and S.D.F. combined.  Suffice it to say that the minutes of the meeting close with the following significant note by the secretary: 

      “’Subsequently to the meeting, the secretary received notice from
      the manager of Anderton’s Hotel that the Society could not be
      accommodated there for any further meetings.’