CONSERVATE SOCIALISM " SIR,—Mr. Hamilton Fyfe's letter raises several interesting
points: that agreement about fundamentals is essential to the working of democracy ; that there is a general acceptance of the necessity for Socialism or the omnicompetent State ; and that in the times of James II and George III the nation had decided it would not endure absolutism, whether claiming Divine right or working in the guise of Parliamentarism. Now, while an omnicompetent State might be splendid, are we not much more likely to produce an omni- incompetent State if we go in whole-heartedly for State-run busi- nesses? And how is absolutism to be prevented or checked under a Socialist regime? No doubt the State will, and ought to, take over more of the national services than it had done pre-war ; and supervise in the national interest others (perhaps all others) that it does not take over, but I am sure that there is no general acceptance of complete Socialism, and no general belief in any omnicompetent
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