THE ETHICS OF STRONG LANGUAGE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 828, 19 April 1910, Page 4

THE ETHICS OF STRONG LANGUAGE.

Under this heading, Mr Wilfrid Wai'd in his Dublin Rcviciv, while disavowing all partisan motives, sets out to justify Mr Balfour’s strong language about Mr Ure, in the form of a general study of the right to use strong words in controversy, lie quotes from Cardinal Newman, who said that experience had taught him that on some occasions nothing but strong language can convince the public. Therefore, he used words denoting an anger which he did not feel. Newman said “ I have ever felt from experience that no one would believe me in earnest if I spoke calmly. When again and again I denied the repeated report that I was on the point of coming back to the Church of England, I have uniformly felt that if I simply denied it, this only made newspapers repeat the report more confidently ; but if I said somethingsharp, they abused me for scurrility against the church I had left, but they believed me.” With this as preface, Mr Ward proceeds to Mr Balfour, and says;— “ Anyone with experience ' in managing public opinion knows that when once an idea becomes fixed in the people’s minds no amount of argument can eradicate it. A prompt, decisive, and irresistible blow had to be struck in time to prevent Mr Ure from going on with his poisoning operations on the public mind until it was too late to stop the fatal results. He had to strike at once and as hard as possible. He had to arouse universal attention by the shock his words administered. He must so speak that never again would the electorate for a moment doubt that their pensions were safe. What did it matter if some people said that he had gone too far, that he had broken the laws of good manners ?”