BRITISH CONSERVATISM AND THE PRIMROSE LEAGUE ... - ideals

156
That same year the Liberal magazine, Truth, launched a frontal
assault on the League.
The paper suggested that the actual amounts of
Tribute paid by Knights and Dames was proportionately representative of
total active membership, a figure it assessed at 200,000.51
There is
no reason to believe that active Associate membership was related to
the annual fees paid by Knights and Dames.
Nevertheless, it might be
useful to test Truth 1 s calculations based on its own set of
assumptions.
In addition to engaging in faulty arithmetic, Truth incorrectly
assumed that Knights and Dames were paying 2s6p a year.
Since the
statute revision made in April, 1887, members contributing prior to the
nineteenth of April were charged only two shillings.
Using the Truth
gauge of membership and assuming for the sake of simplicity that all
individuals pay in a timely fashion, thereby receiving the twenty
percent reduction, we divide two shillings into the total amount of
Tribute received for 1889-90, £5,690.
membership of 56,900 Knights and Dames.
The result is an active
When this figure is divided by
the total Knights and Dames listed for 1889-90, 109,591, 52
we get
fifty-two percent.
If the Truth method of calculation is then applied,
more than half the total League representative for 1889-90 (910,852),
or 473,643, were active members.
This figure represents more than twoand-one-quarter
times the magazine's estimate.
1890.
51
The Primrose League Gazette, 24 May 1890, p. 1.
52
The membership and Tribute figures are taken from The
Primrose League Gazette, 1 September 1899, p. 9; 25 May 1890, p. 10,
respectively.