There is no need to draw attention to Mr. Massingham's
second statement of "The Other Side." The way in which discerning readers, though as strongly opposed to Mr. Massingham's view as we are, have welcomed his stimulating and illuminating criticism has been most remarkable. One such reader, in a private letter, speaks of the plan as " an inspiration," and considers that it "puts the Spectator first in the ranks of Reviews." That praise is too generous, but we are delighted, though not surprised, at the support we have received. We felt from the beginning that what English people like is to hear the other side, and we are also confident enough in our own principles to feel sure that they would be not injured but buttressed by a knowledge of the alternative. We are not going to worry Mr. Massingliam with controversial pinpricks, though we have two small comments to make. We cannot admit that the Coalition Government had any right to commit those who dis- believed in the Socialists' solution to a promise that there should at least be a nationalization of mines and railways. Mr. Lloyd George may have made such promises, and may also have conveyed the impression that he had power to commit the Unionist Party, though he certainly had not. In any case, our withers arc unwrung, for we not only opposed him and his policy, but warned people not to trust to his promises, whether to hang the Kaiser, or to build houses for heroes, or to give us the millennium, and "give it now."
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