Page:Confessions of an Economic Heretic.djvu/127

 Liberalism. As Sir John Marriott has pointed out, most of the State interferences with private enterprise and laisser-faire, i.e. with capitalist dominion, were carried out by Conservative Governments in the teeth of Liberal opposition. Though in later times most industrial magnates have left a decaying Liberalism for the more potent and reputable Conservatism which they have helped to transform into a safeguard for Capital versus Labour, the Conservative Party still retains some of its traditional humanitarianism in the conduct of industry. The large increase of public expenditure on social services since the beginning of the nineties met much approval and but little opposition from Conservative statesmen, while their far-reaching influences have brought immense gains to the social and economic well-being of the working classes.

Though the direct contributions of the employees to many of these services, together with the indirect