1 JANUARY 1927, Page 7

Everyone who cares for the decencies of political life devoutly

hopes that the incidents of the Smethwick election will not be repeated elsewhere. There was not only vilification, rowdyism and suppression of free speech, but on the part of Mr. Mosley a shameful mis- representation of what the Prime Minister had said about wages. Mr. Baldwin, who surely has a right to be believed, solemnly declared that he had never said that there would have to be a general reduction of wages. Yet Mr. Mosley continued unabashed to attribute that statement to Air. Baldwin. Mr. Clynes set Mr. Mosley a good example in manners when he said that he accepted Mr. Baldwin's word. Mr. Mosley's critics should have made much more of his lowering of the standard of civility in public life, and much less of his affluence and his wife's title.

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