LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

THE OTHER SIDE.

[To the Editor of the Spneutron.] Bin,—It is to be feared that the well-known courtesy always annul by the Spectator to its opponents may sometimes have unfortunate results. In publishing Mr. Massingham's second article on "The Other Side" you have administered a dose a deadly poison to the reading public. You are confident that you are in a position to administer effective antidotes, but the responsibility of first distributing the poison is very serious indeed. Writers of Christian apologetic literature in former times nearly always did more harm than good, because people remember the startling argument of the assailant and forget the prosaic reply of the defender.

The article you have published fills me with indignation. It is a piece of deceitful sophistry from the beginning to the end. Fallacy is piled on fallacy and the mischievous tendency is concealed by an appearance of sweet reasonableness :—

"'Socialism.' says Mr. Massingham, quoting 'Mark Rutherford,' 'is an idea, and is therefore in the line of progress.'"

Can there be anything more monstrous than to assert that an idea, no matter how evil or diabolical, is in the line of progress ?

" It is inconceivable,' writes Mr. Massingham, 'that the British Labour Party will follow Lenin and Co. to the brink of perdition.'"

When once belief in private property and private enterprise is destroyed, what guarantee have we that they will not go over the brink ?

There must be no fooling in the presence of a terrible menace.

There is no halfway house of safety, and if the Socialist Party manceuvre themselves into a position of power at an election

all is lost. There is no protection whatever in our Consti- tution, no effective Second Chamber, no Referendum, no Second Poll, no barrier behind which the common sense of the people could get a little time to rally.

But there are the admirable moderate men, whose voice is all for gentle methods, Mr. This and Mr. That—fortisque Gyas, fortisque Cloanthus ! Everybody can now see that they will be discarded by Socialism in the day of its power. The violent spirits of the movement will direct the storm. Mr. Snowden, who has been engaged in the Morning Post in doping the public into the belief that Labour, once in power,

will be constitutional and peaceful in its methods, has already been denounced as a blackleg. Where will Mr. Ramsay MacDonald be, who is unable to control his Party in the House of Commons at a time when it is vital to their success that the electorate should not be frightened ?

"'Communism,' says Mr. Massingham has taken no root in England—its one member is not a member of the Labour Party. Its leaders are practised politicians—breathing our native air of compromise and arrangements—trained diplomatists.'" Does Mr. Massingham live in a balloon and not on the solid earth of reality ? Have the Socialist Party, every man of them, not proclaimed their intention of having an immediate capital levy, if once in power ? This they can do if they have

a majority of one in the House of Commons, for the House of Lords cannot stop them.

Do they not advocate the lowering of interest on War Loans, which would leave us defenceless in the event of another war? When in power they will control the Army, the Navy, the Civil Service and the Police. Everything that is intended for our protection will be used for our destruction.

When men are once committed to the destruction of private property, the difference between the Socialist and the Com- munist is much like the difference between the alligator and the crocodile.

"Capitalism has failed to produce a millennium." What is Capitalism but the employment of property accumulated by thrift and industry reinforced by science for the benefit of its possessors, and in a far greater degree for the benefit of their employees ? Before we speak of failure, there must be

some obligation. Where is the obligation to provide work on their own terms and comfort for everybody in an over- populated country where there is not enough to go round ? The remedy for these things is not to be found in any "ism,"

and, least of all, in Socialism or Communism, as the object-

lesson of Russia conclusively shows. The children born of it are Anarchy, Slavery, Murder and Famine. But Socialism, he says, is a religious idea and in harmony with the spirit of Christianity. The teaching of the Socialist Sunday-schools Is an answer to this audacious assertion.

"It was left to the Labour Party to kindle the zeal for culture; to paint the picture of the ennoblement of the workman's life." This is a quaint method of describing the furious class-hatred preached at every meeting and street corner, and the incite- ment of those who have not to appropriate the property of those who have anything.

"They (the workmen) have been cruelly, cynically cheated of certain reforms in the matter of Houses, Railways, Mines."

Is every wild aspiration of a demagogue Minister to be honoured in a manner that would bring ruin on the whole country ? Does any sane, experienced man now believe, in his heart, that State control of railways and mines would be as good for the working classes as private enterprise ? To refuse to embark on this folly is said to be cruel and cynical cheating. The lack of houses, as he well knows, is owing to the builders working too little and asking too mush.

Away with such stuff from the columns of the Spectator ! Among the orderly, sensible working classes there is not much to be feared from the ravings of the men of violence and their exploded Marxism. The real danger is that specious, plausible men like Mr. Massingham may delude the demo- cracy into thinking that at the next General Election Labour should get its chance. This simply means not a mere change of Government, but the end of our civilization, and brought

about by a vain, restless and greedy minority. The first duty of the present Government is to provide sonic constitu- tional protection against a sudden cataclysm. If this is not attended to and attended to at once, we shall richly deserve the ruin that will speedily be upon us.—I am, Sir, &c., VINDEX.