Old Age Pensions, proposed in 1890 by Sidney Webb in Tract 17, “Reform of the Poor Law,” was definitely advocated in Tract No. 73, “The Case for State Pensions in Old Age,” written in 1896 by George Turner, one of the cleverest of the younger members.  The Society did not make itself responsible for the scheme he proposed, universal pensions for all, and the Old Age Pensions Act of 1908 adopted another plan.

In 1899 and 1900 we devoted much time to the working out of further schemes of municipalisation in the form of a series of leaflets, Nos. 90 to 97.  We applied the principle to Milk, Pawnshops, Slaughterhouses, Bakeries, Fire Insurance, and Steamboats.  These were written by various members, and are all careful little studies of the subject, but they were not issued in a convenient form, and none of the schemes advocated has yet been generally carried out.

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The Tariff Reform agitation could not pass unnoticed, and for a time Bernard Shaw showed a certain inclination to toy with it.  A tract advocating Free Trade was actually set up, but got no further.  Finally Shaw drafted “Fabianism and the Fiscal Question An Alternative Policy” (Tract 116), which we adopted with practical unanimity, though it was the occasion of the resignation of Graham Wallas.

It was perhaps the least successful of the many pronouncements written by Bernard Shaw on behalf of the Society.  A subtle and argumentative criticism of Mr. Chamberlain’s policy on one side and of the Free Trade rejoinder on the other is neither simple nor decisive enough for the general reader:  and the alternatives advocated—­reorganisation of the consular service in the interests of export trade, free ocean transit for the purpose of consolidating the Empire and nationalisation of railways as a necessary corollary together with improved technical education—­were too futurist, and appealed directly to too small and conservative a class, to attract much attention in the heat of a vital controversy.  The writer had no anticipation of the triumph of Liberalism, then so near, and Evidently expected that Mr. Chamberlain would carry the country for his policy.  The tract was also issued in a shilling edition on superior paper with a preface by the author, and it is the only one of his publications which has failed to sell freely.

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At this period we had a number of Committees appointed to investigate various problems, and one of them, which had for its reference the Birth-rate and Infant Mortality, produced a report of more that temporary significance.  When the Society was formed the Malthusian hypothesis held the field unchallenged and the stock argument against Socialism was that it would lead to universal misery by removing the beneficent checks on the growth of population, imposed by starvation and disease upon the lowest stratum of society.  Since the year 1876 the birth-rate