CONSERVATIVE DEMOCRACY AND THE TARIFF PROBLEM.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sia,—In the *article under above heading you express your thanks to Mr. Ramsay MacDonald for making it much easier for Unionist Free Traders to vote for Protectionist candidates by defining the issue at the coming Election as, not between Protection and Free Trade, but between Protection and the Labour policy as a whole, including the Capital Levy.
No doubt, if one were shut up to these two alternatives, your comfortable conclusion would be justified. But what of the party under Mr. Asquith and Mr. Lloyd George, which is neither Protectionist nor Labour ?
Are not those especially who, like yourself, were originally Liberal Unionists placed in an exceptionally difficult position by the heedless and needless action of Mr. Baldwin, more particularly as there is, 'thus far, no reason at all to believe that the Government contemplate following the course you advocate, viz., the submission of the Tariff bill, when framed, to a Poll of the People ?
Any guidance you can give is much needed by, and will be very welcome to many, including myself.—! am, Sir, &c.,
Dundee. A PERPLEXED UNIONIST FREE TRADER. [We have dealt with this letter in one of our leading articles.—En. Spectator.]
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