We cannot, however, help being amused at Mr. Asquith's anxiety
lest any one should take him for "apoliticalecoiaom ist of the old school" and not for " a practical man." He was at pains to show that his refusal to deplete supply by fixing prices was based not upon essential considerations, but upon the failure of the German experiment. It was as if a man were to say that he had beard that the Germans had attempted to assert officially that 2 and 2 made 5 and bad failed in the attempt, and that be should be guided by this piece of practical wisdom and not by musty old prejudices and abstract aasertions that 2 and 2 always make 4. No doubt Mr. Asquith knows his audience, and thought it would be beat not to irritate the Labour Party by an undue insistence upon economic common. sense or the principles of Free Exchange. We may men- tion that Mr. Asquith announced that the nine ships now used to house prisoners will be at once set free for supply pur- poses—a proposal strongly urged by ns last week. We do not, of course, imagine for a moment that the Government took the suggestion from us. In these days the Government motto is that newspapers should be censored, not heard.
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