LTO THE EDITOR Ole THE "SPECTATOR. "] SIR, — Many will thank you
for your courageous article on this subject in last week's Spectator ; it is painful to read it ; it must have been ten times more painful to write; but the truth had to be told. Such respectable citizens as Mr. Ramsay Macdonald and Mr. Masterman may be doing much mischief when they help to promote a social creed which is essentially hostile to some of their dearest convictions. I am glad to see that Mr. Victor Grayson protests, as these gentle- men would protest, against any tampering with the institution of marriage. For one never knows what this impetuous person will say next. He was disposed to think little of the Sixth Commandment, at least as far as soldiers and police- men were concerned, and one did not know what he might say about the Seventh. It is good, therefore, to see that he is on the right side. But when he tells us that his friends generally are with him, we can only say that neither he nor they are really Socialists. Men can never be really equal as long as the home exists. From Plato downwards all logical thinkers have owned it. What Socialist leaders nowadays may be saying, I do not know; but I am sure that if they ever get a chance of putting their theories into practice they must begin by sweeping away the home, and marriage with it. The ablest exponent of the creed in recent times, William Morris, expressly said as much. As I write a curious illustra- tion of what I say presents itself. I read it some years ago in a book which described the Socialist communities of the United States. (It was a thesis presented for a degree.) One flourishing community was split up by the question,—Has a member a right to grow flowers for himself ? Is it to be believed that the man who is not allowed to keep a flower to himself will be allowed to keep a wife ?—I am, Sir, &c.,
SENEX.
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