Chapter 9: The Fabian Turtle Discovers America

Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward (1888) becomes an unexpected bestseller and political catalyst. Bellamy, a frail, tubercular former journalist known for attacking “competitive industry,” produces what is described as a highly effective piece of propaganda.

The novel is labeled “a socialist romance which never once mentioned socialism.” ⚠️ Covert socialism via fiction. The Nation (March 29, 1888) praises it as “a glowing prophecy and gospel of peace,” judging it more radical than the proposals of Henry George.

Bellamy’s vision calls for making land and “all other investments equally unprofitable,” to be achieved through a “National Organization of Labor under a single direction.” Like Uncle Tom’s Cabin, it promotes abolition—this time of “wage slavery.”

Selling “a thousand copies a day,” Bellamy becomes a symbolic leader. British Fabians assist in shaping the movement. Lawrence Gronlund’s The Cooperative Commonwealth (1884) repackages Marxism for American readers and is withdrawn to promote Bellamy’s novel. ⚠️ Marxism rebranded for U.S. audiences.

Marx and Engels are cited as believing revolution could proceed “peacefully” in the U.S. and Britain by exploiting free institutions. Early American socialism struggles due to German-language isolation, anarchist violence, and scandals involving “free love.”

Universities become key transmission points. Richard T. Ely and the American Economic Association (1885) promote municipal and national ownership ideas. Sydney Webb publishes through these academic networks, which include figures such as Woodrow Wilson.

Webb and Edward Pease visit in 1888, promoting gradualism. The Boston Bellamy Club reorganizes as the “Nationalist Club,” using patriotic language to conceal nationalization. Its declaration condemns “competition” as “brute,” praises trusts as proof of “practicability,” and urges industries to operate “in the interests of the nation.”

Chapter 10: Putting the Silk Hat on Socialism

The Bellamy movement expands rapidly. By November 1890 there are “158 nationalist clubs in 27 States,” concentrated in New York and California, which Gronlund calls “ripe for the Cooperative Commonwealth.”

The movement avoids former Confederate states and largely bypasses the Catholic Church. Bellamy presents nationalism as an American “Social Gospel,” not foreign radicalism. By February 1891 there are “165 chartered clubs” and “50 newspapers” offering support.

The Literary Digest (launched March 1890) treats Looking Backward favorably and reports socialism’s spread in British universities and churches, including the public role of Annie Besant.

Clubs are predominantly middle-class and New England–oriented, attracting figures such as William Dean Howells, Edward Everett Hale, Hamlin Garland, and theosophist John Storer Cobb. Many support socialist aims while remaining unaware of their Marxist foundations. ⚠️ Elite respectability enables “unconscious socialism.”

Women participate prominently, including Julia Ward Howe and Frances Willard. Meetings draw “the best people in town,” from luxury hotels to prominent synagogues.

Leadership rests with committed socialists: Bellamy, Gronlund, Elwood Pomeroy, and Rev. W.D.P. Bliss, who argues Christianity and socialism are compatible despite papal defenses of private property.

Nationalist clubs merge into the People’s Party in 1892 and soon collapse. Bellamy’s July 4, 1892 editorial predicts a new “Declaration of Independence” abolishing class distinctions, achieved “peaceably or forcibly.”

After anarchism is outlawed in 1894, socialism avoids prohibition. Nationalism has provided a “veneer of respectability”—“putting the silk hat on socialism.” Former nationalists go on to seed later socialist institutions.

Grammar – What They Say

• From 1945–1951, Britain’s constitutional traditions and personal liberties were dismantled by lawful parliamentary means, using reforms planned years earlier by Fabian theorists.
  • ⚠️ Claim: socialism was pre-designed and merely implemented after Labour’s victory.
• A Fabian-dominated Labour government socialized Britain’s economy, nationalizing:
  • Banking and credit
  • Utilities and energy
  • Transport and aviation
  • Communications and broadcasting
  • Iron and steel (1949)
• State control led to inefficiency, deficits, falling real production, and public inconvenience.
• Central planning imposed:
  • Wage and price controls
  • Rationing
  • Currency and export controls
  • ⚠️ Assertion: peace-time controls exceeded war-time necessity.
• Civil liberties declined:
  • Ministries entered homes without warrants
  • Job freezes compelled workers into fixed employment
  • Mass prosecutions for regulatory violations
• Social services were minimal and inflation-eroded:
  • Healthcare overstretched
  • Food rations near subsistence
  • Benefits inadequate to abolish want
• Britain avoided collapse only through external funding:
  • U.S. loans
  • IMF withdrawals
  • ⚠️ Striking claim: Labour’s survival depended on American money and Soviet tolerance.
• When funding waned, leaders admitted socialism required higher taxes, sacrifice, and lower living standards.
• Defeat in 1951 left a weakened economy but a permanent Fabian bureaucracy.
• Fabians then exported socialism abroad via:
  • Socialist International
  • Trade unions
  • Education of colonial elites
  • Independence movements

Logic – How They Argue

• Fabian socialism is presented as deliberate long-term strategy, not political accident.
• Democratic procedures are used to impose outcomes voters would reject if explicit.
• Reasoning chain:
  1. Parliamentary reform → concentrated power
  2. Nationalization → inefficiency
  3. Inefficiency → scarcity
  4. Scarcity → controls and loss of liberty
• Nationalized industries must run losses unless subsidized by taxpayers or foreign creditors.
• Defeat at home is reframed as strategic repositioning, not failure.
• ⚠️ Core claim: Fabian socialism and communism are complementary methods, applied differently across societies.

Rhetoric – Why It Persuades

• Moral inversion: elite planners exploit the conscience of ordinary citizens.
• Contrast: promised “Earthly Paradise” versus lived rationing and regulation.
• Language of exposure: secrecy, understatement, and invisibility recur.
• ⚠️ Rhetorical thrust: Fabian gradualism is camouflage, not moderation.

Grammar – What They Say

• After World War I, the Labour Party, guided by Fabians, replaces the Liberal Party and becomes the main vehicle for socialist reform.
  • “Every social reform introduced by the Fabian-steered Labour Party was carefully contrived to weaken… the national economy.”
• Fabian socialists are shown alternating between gradualism and cooperation with communists, depending on political opportunity.
  • ⚠️ “All that distinguished many a Fabian socialist from the local communist… was the lack of a Communist Party card.”
• The Zinoviev Letter crisis exposes links between Labour, Fabians, and Moscow, temporarily collapsing the Labour government.
• During the interwar years, Fabians dominate education, publishing, and research, especially through the London School of Economics and the Left Book Club.
  • “Its trend was frankly Marxist and clearly catastrophic.”
• World War II is framed as the long-awaited opportunity for socialist takeover.
  • ⚠️ “The coming cataclysm was a priceless opportunity for socialist expansion.”
• The Fabian Research Bureau becomes the central planning body for postwar Britain.
  • “Privately controlled research… applied with explosive effect.”
• The Beveridge Report is presented as a Fabian psychological operation promising “cradle to grave” security.
  • “A species of state-administered insurance extending from the womb to the tomb.”
• After 1945, a Fabian-dominated Labour government dismantles the British Empire and restructures the economy.
  • “One jewel after another was plucked from the Imperial Crown.”

Logic – How They Argue

• Fabian success is attributed to elite capture, not popular mandate: universities, research, media, and bureaucracy shape outcomes in advance.
• Political parties are treated as instruments, not ends; Labour is the “chosen instrument.”
• Research and welfare promises are used as tools of mass persuasion, especially in wartime fear.
  • ⚠️ Welfare is framed as benefit, while dependency and taxation are deferred.
• Fabian anti-imperialism is argued to weaken Britain while strengthening Soviet influence globally.
• Fabian democracy is shown as procedural rather than genuine, using uninstructed delegates and co-opted executives.
  • ⚠️ “A strange example of political democracy at work.”
• The parallel between Fabian socialism and other totalitarian movements is made explicit.
  • “Hitler’s party had been elected no less legally and democratically.”

Rhetoric – Why It Persuades

• Heavy use of war, betrayal, and deception metaphors frames Fabianism as internal subversion.
• Welfare language is exposed as emotional manipulation, exploiting fear, hope, and wartime exhaustion.
• Fabian leaders are portrayed as cold planners vs. a trusting public.
  • ⚠️ “A cruel farce perpetrated… on a hungry and hopeful nation at war.”
• The Empire’s collapse is narrated as self-inflicted, achieved peacefully where enemies failed by force.
• The chapter closes with elegiac irony, turning patriotic slogans into lament.
  • “What had once been a stirring victory march became… a dirge.”

Grammar – What They Say

• The chapter profiles Sidney and Beatrice Webb as central architects of Fabian socialism, portraying their marriage as a strategic alliance.
  • “The marriage was something of a milestone in Fabian history.”
• Beatrice Webb is credited with developing Fabian Research: fact-gathering designed to justify predetermined conclusions.
  • ⚠️ “Organized fact-finding designed to lend weight to predetermined opinions.”
• Fabian research is described as voluminous, technical, and misleading, shielding conclusions from scrutiny.
  • “The Fabian way was to bury an opponent… under mountains of exhaustive detail.”
• The Fabian Society’s true mission is defined as creating a socialist elite, not mass conversion.
  • “The particular mission… was to develop a socialist elite.”
• Universities—especially Oxford, Cambridge, and the London School of Economics—are presented as key indoctrination centers.
  • “England’s great universities were traditionally the hatcheries for members of Parliament.”
• The London School of Economics is depicted as a Fabian project disguised as neutral scholarship.
  • ⚠️ “Nothing of a socialistic tendency would be introduced.” (contradicted by Webb’s diary)
• Fabian organization is described as concentric circles: inner leadership, selected members, and a wide ring of sympathizers.
  • “The work of the Fabian Society is the sum of its members’ activities.”

Logic – How They Argue

• The author argues that elite capture is more effective than mass revolution, especially in advanced capitalist societies.
• Fabian secrecy is framed as method, not accident: concealment enables long-term power accumulation.
• Universities and research institutions are presented as leverage points, shaping future leaders before they reach power.
• Fabian socialism is portrayed as Marxism adapted to Anglo-American conditions, not a separate ideology.
• Later open support for the Soviet Union by Webb and Shaw is used as retrospective confirmation of intent.
  • ⚠️ “Perhaps they had always known what the journey’s end must be.”
• The alleged ghostwriting of Soviet Communism: A New Civilization by Soviet officials is cited as proof of intellectual collaboration.

Rhetoric – Why It Persuades

• The tone combines biographical detail with moral indictment, personalizing ideological danger.
• Irony and sarcasm undercut Fabian claims of neutrality and benevolence.
  • ⚠️ “A polite conspiracy… peaceful, constitutional, moral.”
• Religious imagery is inverted to portray Fabian leaders as profane zealots.
• The chapter repeatedly contrasts respectability vs. reality, exploiting reader distrust of elites.
• The Fabian method is framed as psychologically manipulative rather than openly violent, increasing perceived threat.

Grammar – What They Say

• Fabian socialism is portrayed as a covert, elite-driven movement undermining constitutional government in Britain and the United States.
  • “A revolutionary secret society behind a beguiling false front of benevolence and learning.”
• The author claims Fabian socialism and communism share the same final goal, differing only in tactics.
  • ⚠️ “The ultimate objective of the Fabian socialist movement is no different than the ultimate objective of the communist movement.”
• Fabian strategy is defined by gradualism, symbolized by the tortoise and the motto Festina lente (“Make haste slowly”).
• The United States is depicted as already deeply infiltrated through bureaucracy, executive agencies, and elite intellectual circles.
  • “Fabians were more successful in capturing administrative than legislative posts.”
• Chapter One introduces Turtle Bay as an American Fabian hub linking intellectuals, editors, and policy influencers.
• The origins of Fabianism are traced to late-19th-century Britain, rooted in secularized, middle-class intellectual discontent.

Logic – How They Argue

• The argument relies on historical progression: Fabian success in Britain → similar methods applied in the U.S. → inevitable socialist outcome.
  • ⚠️ Implied premise: What worked once will work again if unopposed.
• Fabian secrecy (“obscurantism”) is treated as proof of revolutionary intent, not prudence.
• Socialists and communists are framed as strategic partners, not rivals.
  • ⚠️ “The Communists can be regarded as frontline troops while the Socialists serve as the big guns in the rear.”
• Growth in federal bureaucracy is used as quantitative evidence of Fabian advance, assuming ideological causation.
• Individual figures (e.g., Schlesinger, ADA officials) are cited to generalize about systemic capture.

Rhetoric – Why It Persuades

• Persistent war metaphors cast politics as existential struggle rather than policy debate.
• Strong elite-betrayal framing: respectable, educated figures are portrayed as masking revolutionary aims.
  • ⚠️ “Endow social revolution with an aura of lofty respectability.”
• Moral absolutism: Fabianism is associated with decay and death; resistance with survival and freedom.
• Appeals to reader vigilance flatter the audience as awakened truth-seekers.
  • “Instead of being anesthetized by slogans or lulled by promises.”
• Scholarly citations are blended with alarmist tone to combine authority and urgency.