THE DANGER OF PROTECTION.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]
Stn,—I have been reading year views as to the political out- look in your last issue with much interest, but I cannot agree with you that Protection has received a severe blow at the present General Election. On the contrary, in my opinion it has become dangerous for the first time. Mr. Chamberlain's Protection is a dilettante affair,—a false dawn. The true dawn broke with the advent of the Labour Party as an appreciable element in the new Parliament. Labour is just getting to its 'feet, and is using the Liberal walking-stick, which happens at present to be labelled " Free-trade" ; but Labour has learned its power now. At the next General Election it will dictate, and, like other Labour parties in other lands, it will go for Protec-
We agree that the Labour Party may prove a grave danger if leaders of the Unionists adopt towards it the attitude taken up by Mr. Chamberlain in his speech at Halesowen. . As we have urged elsewhere, what is most needed at the present moment is a patriotic as opposed to a factious Opposition.—En. Spectator.]
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