27 NOVEMBER 1915, Page 11

LT 0 Tits EDITOR or THE "SPECTATOR. "] Sru,—It is a comfort

to open the Spectator. One is not faced by quack advertisements, linen-drapers' portraits of women in every kind of underclothing, or by that tiresome picture of a man, in the dress of 1820, for ever striding across the page, or addressing impertinent remarks to our poor fellows at the front. Even Punch, necessary to all of us, is half spoilt by spirit distillers advertisements thrust into the middle of the paper opposite its best drawings. But these distillers' advertisements emphasize an important point in your very excellent article on " Drink and Economy" in the Spectator of November 6th. " The trade, that is the enemy." No wonder "the trade" is "going strong" when it can afford some thousands a year on full-page newspaper advertisements. Few papers can resist such offers. That is all the more reason why the Spectator should continue its excellent work ; but if there is to be compensation, surely it need not be on an extravagant scale. When it was found that yellow phosphorus matches

were doing harm to the nation. the making of them became illegal, but there was no compensation.—I um, Sir. &c.,