Mr Allen, M.P.,v. Ver= acity.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 9 October 1911, Page 4

Mr Allen, M.P.,v. Ver= acity.

{By Sam Ray.)

Not long ago Mr James Allen, M.P., made a statement tliat if Mr Massey bad wished to sacrifice' his principles ana join Sir Joseph' Ward to comhat Labour he could have had a seat in the Ministry, but that lie "•would not do a dirty thing like i/hat." Public men of high rectitude and regard for accuracy-are not in the habit of making assertions, and especially assertions so serious. as that, without being in a position to "make good" by proving the facts. _ Bub, strange to say, it is becoming quite a feature of presentday criticism of the Government to adopt the mere assertion method.of Criticism; whether that fact "be tLiie to • want of material for legitimate criticism and inability on the part of critics to use the material at hand; the public must judge. Great indignation was expressed when the date Mr Taylor declared that the Black Pamphlet was the outcome of methods of criticism so prevalent nowadays, but Mr Allen's charge is little above the Black Pamphlet standard inasmuch as it. carried .with it ■an insinuation "that Sir Joseph Ward was prepared to give 'Mr Massey' a. portfolio. AVithout.-sn.e3i meaning the statement was pointless, and yet Mr Allen's own leader; Mr "Massey, , has been forced to admit that there is absolutely not a vestige, of truth in the story so sedulously sent the rounds of the Conservative Press. In spite of this, we tluave the spectacle of Mr Allen refusing to withdraw, tunahlo to substantiate a.nd altogether in a sorry plight. Arid yet. wo are told that 'Mr Alien is one of a reform party treading the path of righteousness and holding aloft the banner of: a purer and better state of political ethics. We have, too, the spectacle of the leader and his trusty henchman accusing all and sundry of Tammanyism and all the •sins political; even our Judges have not "escaped. For years the cry. has gone up until first Mr T. E. Taylor, and later Mr L. M. Isitt, men with quite as high moral qualifications as any "reformer" in the Opposition ranks, have felt called upon to rise in protest that carried- conviction to thousands. Obviously the present Opposition has failed' in its campaign. The leaders have not lifted their own political condiuct to the plane they profess to desire established in the land. That tone of power combined with strict observonce of courtesies that governs effective debate has departed. The •last leader (Sir W. Russell) erred perhaps on the side of gentleness and jgentlemanliness especially in dealing with the late Premier's rugged methods of warfare; but he at least did not deal in assertion and. inriuen'do, and hewould have been incapable of permitting the tactics adopted by the hon. member for Bruce/ Not by the methods of to-day will the Government he unseated. Men who wish to .gbverfiS the, country jnust l6arn to'govern their utterances, for the continual use of mere unfounded scandal only recoils on the heads of those that utter it.