" POLITICAL DISHONESTY."
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—In an editorial article in last Saturday's issue occurs this passage :—
" Our readers will call to mind the example of the London County Council, which tried to kill the motor-omnibus traffic along roads on which the omnibuses competed with the County Council tramways. This kind of political dishonesty must never be tolerated."
It would be to the public advantage, and in the interests of historic truth, if you would state when this "political dishonesty" took place, and the methods by which it was attempted to be carried out. On that reply, I, for one, shall venture to ask you to permit
[We should have said not " the London County Council " but " the Progressive Party in the London County Council." Our readers may remember that the tramways policy of the London County Council introduced by the Progressives was afterwards threatened by disaster owing to the unforeseen competition of the motor-omnibuses. The Moderates, or " Municipal Reformers," who were by this time in power, permitted the competition of the motor-omnibuses, and the Progressives framed a popular policy which they hoped would bring them back to power. This policy amounted to assisting the tramways at the expense of the omnibus companies and to the detrime'ht of the London traveller. We can see no other motive in the Progressive pro- posal that the L.C.C. should become the Traffic Board for London. We remember very well that no one helped more in those days (particularly in October, 1912) to secure fair treatment for the motor-omnibuses than Sir Cyril Jackson, the leader of the Muni- cipal Reformers. Of course the Progressives in their attempt to penalize those who competed with the Council's tramways were by no means the first to act in such a way. Exactly so did the Post Office desire to kill the telephone when it threatened the telegraph monopoly. Again, the Post Office would have liked to prevent the introduction of Boy Messengers. If our correspondent feels himself compelled to make any comment upon these remarks, we must ask him to write at no greater length than we have done. —ED. Spectator.]
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