SIR EDWARD FRY AND THE " CADBURY AND ROWNTREE NEWSPAPERS."
[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR.") SIR,—After more than twenty-five years in fellowship with. the Spectator I am tempted to write you my first letter, feel- ing that you must wish to be perfectly fair to even your• businens rivals, for in such light those good people appear to. your readers. I trust, therefore, that you will give equal prominence to the reply of the Cocoa Press to that accorded: to Sir Edward Fry's attack. It must have appalled you, as. it has myself, to find one Quaker attacking another with. "facts" so slim, and favoured with an apparent- spite- and venom that are usually dissociated from a judicial mind. That you will admit the strength of the Rowntres and Cadbury case, is more than human nature can expect,. and yet we do expect the Spectator to appreciate honest. convictions. 'Yet you start out by calling them hypocrites. Now either they personally advocate betting or they do not. It must surely be clear to anyone that they da. not; that they verily hate the betting news which appears in some of their more recent acquisitions ; that they seek ways. highand low for curtailing this feature ; that they take not• one penny out of these papers ; and that the betting news is. only retained for the time being out of fairness to the bulk of the other shareholders whose capital is invested. Now it may be more or less inconsistent with the personally expressed opinions of one of the Cadburys to retain betting news in some of the syndicate's papers even for a day; but no one- with the real facts in view, and knowing the exceptional+ bighmindedness of these families, could call this hypocrisy, for a business man would call it common sense. You hold. up your hands week after week in horror at the thought- of making money out of doubtful novels. Who is making any money out of " tips" ? Certainly not the people whom. you attack, notwithstanding Sir Edward Fry's innuendoes. They are losing money every day on their investments, besides putting up with endless abuse in a cause which they believe to be right. What pecuniary sacrifices have you made towards. suppressing these novels P Have you ever bought up any publishers of such- literature with the idea of cleansing an, Augean stable P I often see "moonshine" where others see a. halo, but you have almost taught me to regard the Rowntrees. and Cadburys as Christian martyrs and Sir Edward Fry as a
The incriminated papers are not our business rivals. We. were not appalled by Sir Edward Fry attacking fellow Quakers. Sir Edward Fry is not inspired by Spite. He has no doubt performed a very disagreeable duty, but it is one.
which we are not the least surprised at seeing Sir Edward Fry undertake. He is a man who is never deterred from a public service by the fact that it is disagreeable to him to perform it. The suggestion that he was actuated by any but the highest motives is inconceivable to those who know him.—En.- Spectator.]
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