THE PRINTED WORD.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 97, 11 May 1937, Page 4

THE PRINTED WORD.

"Most people will not read matter with which they do not agree; it is too much a strain on the temper," remarked Mr J. R. Elliott in an address which he gave this week to members of the Wellington Library Association. "I was always interested to note in London," he went on to say, "that people took the newspaper which had the same opinions as they had, and looked at no other. But in conversation they were pleased to seek out people with the opposite opinions and argue. Erom this may come truth; the other course means bigotry. "Moreover, .because the author cannot be asked for further explanations many people take tho easy path of assuming, if they have no knowledge or strong opinions themselves on fche matter, that he must be right, and thus a sort of halo lies round the printed ,/ord, simply because it is printed. And this can be a real danger, above all in a democracy. it ought to be compulsory for all partisan and tlieoretic writings to be bound in conflicting piairs. If authors tried out their writings on the dog, as it were, by arguing a theory with- disbelievers or testing a novel on their friends — or enemies— much expense and labour would be saved. But this is too much to hope for, and we are committed to an ever-increasing, f lood of books, "