[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR2] SIR,-If I may
be permitted to say so, I think you are tackling the question of a league of public safety in quite the right fashion, first putting forward the skeleton of the idea, and then allowing your readers free speech in discussing the appli- cation of it. And nothing will help more to a proper decision in this latter respect than the discussion now taking place in your columns as to whether it should be an entirely independent organization or part of a present existing one. Personally, I am all for the former, because I realize how very pertinent is the point of view of "A Well-wisher" and Mr. Bankes. Try as you will, you cannot hope to make any existing society or union take a back seat in order to allow a rival organization to obtain " kudos " at the expense of its retire- ment. Is it likely, for instance, that the Sheffield branch of the British Empire Union is going to allow all the advertisement it gets for its work—and it is only by such advertisement it can hope to get funds !—to go to assist in increasing the import.. mice of the Middle Classes Union in the eyes of the public, or that the Glasgow workers, having built up their organization in such splendid fashion, leaving all questions of amour propre out of the question, are going to run the risk of its effectiveness being impaired by the introduction of new methods of pro- cedure and control? Surely not. I am afraid Colonel Pretyman Newman's letter in your last issue leaves me quite cold. I hold the view, with others, that when the "acid test" was applied at the beginning of the present trouble the Middle Classes Union failed to rise to the occasion. Those in control of that organization must have known some time ahead of the coming trouble. If they had had that imagination which should attach to the role they essay to play in our public life, they would have urged the Union to make a call to the three hundred odd branches they claim to have to organize a public opinion throughout the country, which would justify their president, Lord Askwith, a man whose name and position must always command respect in connexion with labour matters, in demanding, on their behalf, a seat at the confer- ence table, where owners, miners, and Government argue, without the voice of the vast majority of the public, whose vital interests are imperilled, being given a chance of being heard.
I do not imagine that any of us are particularly well pleased with the position of things to-day, with so many different societies existing and so much money being dissipated in sub- scriptions to each of them. But in the particular case of the Middle Classes Union, I must frankly confess to a sense of keen disappointment. We have had a lot of talk about the
mistrust in the miners' mind as regards mine-owners and Government alike, but not a word of distrust whenever Lord
Askwith's name has been mentioned in the Press. And yet, with the willing services of this eminently intelligent and capable gentleman, possessed of such splendid equipment for the task, completely at their disposal, those in control of the
Middle Classes Unipn have failed entirely to grasp occasion by
the hand in taking advantage of his experience and well-known powers of treatment on behalf of the outside community. Perhaps I should add that I do not know Lord Aakwith, and, therefore, there is nothing personal in my references to him, nor is there any unfriendly interest behind my criticism of the Middle Classes Union, but the present is a time for plain speaking, and at a moment when Mr. Lloyd George is setting the fashion, in his dealings with the owners and miners, it may be useful to address a few words of like import to those who claim to represent the other and chief party concerned. No, Sir, I hope you will not run the risk of failure by advocating the absorption of your contemplated league by any other existing body. If, on the other hand, you think well of opening a subscription in your columns for the establishment of an independent organization. I shall be very glad to send you a P.S.—I have written freely, counting upon the well-known assertion that the Editor is not responsible for the views expressed by his correspondents, and that the ideas I have expressed will be accepted as purely personal.
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