SOCIALISM AND LIBERALISM.
(TO THts MDITOR Op Tall "SPRIOTLTOR.'1
SIR,—In your issue of March 6th a letter appears from Mr. Arthur Ponsonby, M.P., who cannot imagine any circum- stances in which Liberals and Tariff Reform Unionists could fight shoulder to shoulder against Socialism. Mr. Ponsonby adds that had Mr. Smith, the unsuccessful Socialist candidate for Taunton, been returned, he and Mr. Ponsonby would ninety-nine times out of a hundred have found themselves in the same lobby. It would be interesting to know how many Liberal M.P.'s share Mr. Ponsonby's views. Lord Rosebery, whom no doubt Mr. Ponsonby would label as
"Tory," a few months ago expressed his opinion that Tariff Reform was preferable to Socialism. Several Liberal MP.'s are connected with the Anti-Socialist Union, and are actually fighting shoulder to shoulder with Tariff Reformers against a common enemy, a thing which Mr. Ponsonby does not con- sider possible in any conceivable circumstances. No doubt Tariff Reform has aided Socialism by dividing men of moderate views. Deplorable as dissensions among Unionists are, it is some consolation to think that the differences cannot be so great as those which divide Mr. Ponsonby and his non- Socialist colleagues. The political situation at present is, in Mr. Ponsonby's words, cloudy and unideal. If Mr. Ponsonby and those who think with him in their attempt "to break down obstacles and push steadily one step further forward"
could see their way to calling themselves Socialists, it might help to scatter the clouds which darken the vision of plain
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