28 OCTOBER 1911, Page 16

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] have read in the

Spectator the correspondence with reference to the newspapers virtually owned by the Messrs. Cadbury, Rowntree, and others, and have found the letters on both sides of the question at issue strangely interesting. I am neither a Quaker nor a betting man, nor am I boEtile to the Quakers, or even to the man who bets and can afford to lose. But I have seen in the course of a long professional career so much poverty, misery, and crime from the induce- ments held out by the betting newspapers to men and women who cannot afford to lose even a few pence out of their weekly income that I most heartily wish these papers could be suppressed or at least compelled to omit their tempting and treacherous baits. The searching investigation made by Sir Edward Fry throws a strong and not very pleasing light upon the management of the papers alluded to, and everyone, I am sure, would be pleased to know that Messrs. Cadbury, Rowntree, and others had amended their methods of conduct-

ing their journalistic business.—I am, Sir, &c., M. D. Birmingham.