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The last year or two have been of special importance to our Movement. And when all is told, it will be the I.L.P.—its methods and its conception of Socialism, and above all its creation of the Labour Party as the instrument and medium of the Socialist advance—that will stand out as the great creative political force of these years. Where the members of the I.L.P. have not muddled their minds by becoming members of Socialist organisations with different methods and standpoints, and where the I.L.P. itself has kept clear of joint action with sections which have nothing in common with it but a name, Socialism has flourished; but where dual membership has been common, Socialism has not flourished, the public have been confused, the distinctive features of the I.L.P. have been obscured, and the work of many years thrown away. Dogmatism and narrow-mindedness are alien to the spirit of the I.L.P. The I.L.P. was started for a purpose. There was Socialism in this country before the I.L.P. was founded at Bradford in 1893, and it was because the propaganda of Socialism before that seemed to many Socialists to be conducted in a way which was only retarding the cause, that the new organisation was formed. To-day, there is some reversion to the old ante-I.L.P. methods, and yet these methods are more certainly foredoomed to failure than ever they were. Those of you who know the history of Socialism in this country, more particularly those of you who have made that history and grown up with it, will have to see to it that, during the next two or three years, this reversion does not become strong inside our organisation, and that the work done with so much effort is not undone in a month or so of thoughtless riot and sentimental excess.

Every stage accomplished brings new problems which demand solution, and in bidding you farewell as your Chairman, I should like to dwell for a minute or two upon an important group which I see ahead, and which has matured during the time I have held this position. The problems I refer to deal with the relation between Socialist propaganda and Parliamentary government.

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