"Baldwin's methods had been slow. He avoided detail; critics said that he avoided thought. He did not avoid thought about the major problem of the time. He assumed that, since constitutional safeguards would not stop socialism "if the Socialists [were] determined", persuasion had to work instead. Considering that he was a reactionary Tory, his achievement was remarkable. By the time he began his third period as Prime Minister, no politician doubted that his freedom from "high and dry Toryism" made him "totally acceptable" to his non-Conservative colleagues, to the "mugwumps", "clericals" and earnest, theoretical "liberals" who were to be found in all parties and to the many Labour politicians for whom his "quintessentially English" combination of peaceful intentions and a "modern outlook" provided a social reassurance which no other Conservative could provide. Baldwin aimed to demonstrate the humanity, responsibility and social edgelessness of industrial wealth... [H]is speeches became statements of decency and law in face of the "wild menace of totalitarianism". He talked about England and the English and did not "hesitate to speak in plain terms of Christianity"."