The attitude of the parent society towards its branches has always been somewhat unusual.  In early days it made admission to its own ranks a matter of some difficulty.  A candidate resident in London had to secure a proposer and seconder who could personally vouch for him and had to attend two meetings as a visitor.  We regarded membership as something of a privilege, and a candidate was required not only to sign the Basis, but also to take some personal trouble as evidence of zeal and good faith.  To our provincial organisation the same principle was applied.  If the Socialists in any town desired to form a local society we gave them our blessing and received them gladly.  But we did not urge the formation of branches on lukewarm adherents, and we always recognised that the peculiar political methods of the London Society, appropriate to a body of highly educated people, nearly all of them speakers, writers, or active political workers, were unsuitable for the groups of earnest workmen in the provinces who were influenced by our teaching.  In fact the local Fabian Societies, with rare exceptions, of which Liverpool was the chief, were from the first “I.L.P.” in personnel and policy, and were Fabian only in name.

This somewhat detached attitude, combined with the recognition of the differences between the parent society and its offspring, led to the adoption of a system of local autonomy.  The parent society retained complete control over its own affairs.  It was governed by a mass meeting of members, which in those days elected the Executive for the year.  It decided that a local Fabian Society might be formed anywhere outside London, by any body of people who accepted the Fabian Basis.  The parent society would send them lecturers, supply them with literature and “Fabian News,” and report their doings in the “News.”  But in other respects complete autonomy was accorded.  No fees were asked, or subventions granted:  no control over, or responsibility for, policy was claimed.  Just as the political policy of each Fabian was left to his own judgment, so we declined the impossible task of supervising or harmonising the political activities of our local societies.  When the I.L.P. was founded in Bradford and set to work to organise Socialism on Fabian lines, adopting practically everything of our policy, except the particular methods which we had selected because they suited our personal capacities, we recognised that provincial Fabianism had done its work.  There was no room, except here and there, for an I.L.P. branch and a local F.S. in the same place.  The men who were active in the one were active also in the other.  We made no effort to maintain our organisation against that of the I.L.P., and though a few societies survived for some years, and for a while two or three were formed every year at such places as Tunbridge Wells, Maidstone, and Swindon, they were bodies of small importance, and contributed scarcely anything to the sum of Fabian