The Dominion. TUESDAY, JULY 19, 1910. PUBLIC PROTESTS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 872, 19 July 1910, Page 4

The Dominion. TUESDAY, JULY 19, 1910. PUBLIC PROTESTS.

The deputation fch.at waited on the Pjuaiß Minister yesterday to demand the repeal of the bookmakers' charter was so. obviously powerful and so plainly representative of the best elements in the community that the Government must have been very deeply impressed by it. We are therefore strongly inclined to hope that the Statute-book really will show this year a, straightforward recognition of the public's desire in this matter. The practical objections to the conferring of a privileged status on' the professional gambler are so large and patent that there is really no need to elaborate them. It is a little surprising, however, that none of the speakers emphasised what we think is almost the strongest of the many objections to the bookmakers' charter—namely, the spiritual injury to the nation in the provision ot' national protection for a vicious and anti-social calling. Parliament has certainly fallen largely 'in public esteem in this country, but there, are a great many people to whom it still appeals as something high and sacred, and to these it must have appeared a species of sacrilege' to use the machinery of government for the base purpose that lias at last called forth a protest that must be attended to. It must have proved equally perturbing to them to find at the head of the Government of the country one lacking the courage to give a bold load to Parliament on an important question of this nature, and sheltering timidly behind a professed desire to give members'a free hand. Quite' apart from these aspects of the situation, however, it is manifestly treason against the spirit of law . and • order to place upon the Statute-book an enactment that can only weaken the public respect for legislation and make the national Parliament an object of contempt. In the meantime the agitation that culminated in yesterday's appeal to the Government suggests a few reflections upon the general question of public protests. That the' necessity for destroying the bookmakers' charter fully warrants tho present outburst of public feeling nobody will dispute; but are there not many still greater public evils for the destruction of -which the public's unofficial leaders and organisers show none of the concern which they have displayed in the light against the professional gambler'! "Wd admire and are grateful for the zeal of those who have conducted the present campaign, but \ye should feel more hopeful about the forces of righteousness if such ,n depututiou as that of yesterday were to wait upon the Government to protest against any one of half a dozen great national evils that we could name. Bishop Wam.is, Jlr. Firth, Mr. North, Mr. Aitken, and Mr. Hctciieson must all, we are perfectly sure, realise that it is gravely injurious to the nation's interests that Parliament should degenerate from a national assembly into a House of local delegates the majority of whom are unconcerned with the nation's interests and inspired only by a desire to get as much as possible', and as much more than justice as is'possible, for their hungry constituencies. In the long event, this feature of our national life may work an amount of evil to the national character and the national well-being fifty times as great as the evil that can be done by the professional gambler. Yet we do not find our_ leading citizens directing the public in a grand remonstrance on this matter.-.

It cannot be urged that in thi» case we select united action is ren* d'cred impossible by sincere differences of principle amongst those unofficial leaders of public opinion who unite so freely on other occasions. In France all parties'and all leaders are united in their anxiety-to find a cure for just this very evil. In Great Britain the Government and the Opposition have showed themsolver! at one in their anxiety to keep the "roads and bridges'' member from entering the House of Commons and dragging it down from its splendid eminence as the fines). national assembly in the world. In America there is developing a splendid war against the baleful system of. rings and bosses and sectional and local interests, and it is from the wholesome clement in the ruling .party that the reform movement has received its motive power. There is therefore no legitimate reason why, to put our point in concrete form, the deputation of yesterday should not come along to-day and demand that the Government should establish an independent Board to administer the Public Works Fund.

Hut of course that will not hrtppen. The l'oa&on is not far to seek. People are more easily and- more deeply stirred, and made more keen to stir others, when. the thing to be attacked is simple, and the parent o£ plain and immediately visible evils, ret the hidden evil, the silent slow- 1 working poison, is often far more important to be. attacked . than the crude and obvious things of which all men can see the badness at a glance. It is hard to stir men up to protest against the toll exacted by a high tariff, bad labour laws, or wasteful State action, but easy to rally an army against a direct impost of one-tenth _ the amount. At the same time it is more than possible, it is even probable, that if those who oppose the bookmakers' charter were to display, an equal earnestness in^ calling on the public to protest against national evils less oLvious_ but even graver, they would meet with a success that would surprise them.