"DILLY" AND "JUDDY."

NZ Truth, Issue 144, 21 March 1908, Page 8

"DILLY" AND "JUDDY."

THE CHARGE OF MOCK MORALITY.

The " Blue-view of Blue-views."

Are its Conductors Unchristian ?— And Disseminators of Immoral Teachings? — Commissioner Beale Says " Yes."

(From Melbourne "Truth.")

* l Truth" has no intention or desire j ■to take any part m the partisan, and commercially interested controversy between "Joe" Dillon and "Willie" Judkins. But there is a public interest m a section of the dispute inasmuch as the latter is just now posing as the champion moralist and regenerator of society. Billon declares that he challenges Judkins to prove that certain statements contained m the report by O. C. Beale on Secret Drupes and Nostrums were untrue. He states, moreover, that. the temperance party had been able- through influence to secure the suppression of Beale's report, but adds that if "Juddy" cannot give a satisfactory explanation of the paragraphs he "should retire from the position he falsely occupies at present." "Juddy" retorts by remarking that Dillon practically says :— "Here is something I have found which will smother you with contempt. I am afraid to pick it up and throw it at you. Please , THROW IT OVER YOURSELF." He proceeds to say "under cover of a Royal Commission of one man, and that man a layman, and a biassed partisan at that, I ami the business interests I represent were most shamefully maligned and misrepresen- . ted." But Judkins cannot separate his "business interests" from his public position, and he will now have to stand or fall by the result of the public challenge thus issued to him. If he can wriggle out of the consequences he will be even more supine than even yet. he has shown himself to be. For, actually, Commissioner Bcale has issued m his report a truly damning indictment of that Mock Moralist, William T Stead, the conductor of the "Review of. Reviews," and that indictment must necessarily comprise W. H' Judkins, Stead's Aus-Slalian henchman, and the editor of the "Australasian edition" of that precious periodical of Puritanism, Plutdsm, Puerility, and Pornic Passion. Bcale., of course, may be wrong m his conclusions, but his statements bear the' authority of a Royal Commissioner and the imprimateur of the Government Printing Office^ whence hi,s report was issued. It is idle for Judkins to say that lie was ignorant of the charges of practical connivance at ' IMMORAL AND UNCHRISTIAN TEACHINGS, levelled against Stead >and himself by. Beale (and presented to. Parliament and ordered to be printed on August S last), and his silence . on the subject up to the present must carry its own coiMtemnation. For the Australian associate of Stead, therefore, to continue his sell-assumed office (it conductor of a campaign against immoral i'ty and '-the social evil" while he proceeds to derive an income from a source which has thus been so , severely and trenchantly and officially cauterised, miust, if it is persisted m, arouse m the public mind more than a suspicion of hypocrisy and of a desire while running with the Mam*monistic and commercial hounds to keep pace with the Wowserly /sectarian hare. With this preliminary, we proceed to give a few extracts from the expurgated edition of Commissioner Beale's scathing report : — Dealing wdtyi an article extracted from '"The Review of Reviews for Australasia," dated February 1, 1907., with reference to an .effusion by Mrs . Aimie Besant m, the "Annuls of Physical Science" for the preceding November on "Hatha-Yoga and RajaYosja," and dealing with "'the marvellous control some Yogis have aver their bodies" Commifssionex . Beade, remarks: "Such are the deceptions and THE DISGUSTING DISTORTIONS of the natural functions, which are held up to our admiration by the»editor of y the 'Review of Reviews,' one of the snippet serials , which live, like epiphytes, upon the juices of healthy journalism. It exists by and for advertisements, and of what kind are they ? Alcoholdc frauds, alleged drink cures, and amongst others the swindle which contains, or does not contain, a little copper salt, just as the notion takes the vendors. It is easy for the editor who receives >the coin which "comes from the pitiable sufferer to say that he himself believes m the alleged cure. So he pretends to believe, that a pagan wizard x can really create a vacuum man absolutely flaccid tube— the colon— and then by peristalsis against the resistance of the sphincter and the whole gastro-intestinal tract and aesophagus, can PLAY A FOUNTAIN, like a force pump, out of his mouth \ Suppose it had been recorded of : the Christ, the Saviour of mankind, that He had performed m public such a useless prodigy to prove his Holiness. The suggestion is intolerable and yet we are asked to turn from that Face which was 'full of affection and honesty,' from the Healer of minds and bodies, from the only Exemplar Whose beauty but increases by distance, from the Figure which is ever i amongst us ; Whose Law is the only law; Whose Life is the only life • Whose Way is the only way for. mankind whilst the earth be habitable—we are to turn from Him— the first and last hope for this or any nation, to trust m the filthy tricks of thaumaturgists and others,, as taught by Mrs Annie Besant !'" "Suppose again that Our Lord,. m-: stead of welcoming the Nazarene mothers, instead of blessing and caress* ing their children (parvulos — 'darlings'), had scolded the women for having babies, and had told them how; to prevent or get rid of these BY UNNATURAL ACTS. That supposition revolts even more than the former, nor could such a gospel have lived. But these are the good tidings /according to Besantj \ held up as a prophetess by Mr Steaifi

lin Ms 'Review of Reviews,' an : d only I too widely accepted by our race m | this the twentieth century after Christ. Worse than anarchic, worse even than Autinomian, this gospel of nihilism leads further than was intended "by the socialist Mr Malthus, its forerunner ; the Manchester economist, Mr Mill, its missionary ; and Mrs Besant, its seer and specific promulgator. She, the esoteric, the would-be regeneratrix of mankind, so placed the evil leaven that it should not fail. Her gospel pollulates and spreads^-a true Zymotic scourge. Pity that all three' names-^out of many such-^-are British, and as sure as Eratostratus of immortal remem.brance." Again. Beale quotes from the "Review of Reviews" of May 1, 1907, an article by Mrs Alfred Macfayden on "tha LIMITATION OF THE FAMILY from .the mother's point of view," and 1 advocating ""the rational regulation of births." This article, originally published m the "Nineteenth Century," stated, inter alia: — "No man with a spark of imagination or chivalry would wish to force upon the woman dearest, to him unwilling motherhood. . . . Nothing but the regulation of the number of children can make early marriage possible. . . . She (Mrs ' Macfayden) laments the" great evils produced by the refusal of the -medical profession to recognise 'that the mother's claim is right within proper limits.' She 'adds significantly, 'If the doctor/ passes by on the other side, the quack is always at hand.' " Commenting upon these extracts, Commissioner Bcale remarks : "Mrs Macfaycien's is a strange apostate, but she does' not inform the AngloSaxon world through which her travels have led her, as to whether it be self-assumed or by proper appointment by the chiefs. The suggestion contained m the last paragraph quoted is probably the \ .MOST COMPREHENSIVELY WICKED that was ever placed upon paper by man or woman. Its promulgation by the reckless Mr Stead can only help along the 'decadence, and do irreinedi-i able mischief m so far as it operates. It is the Besantine gospel through its apostles, but it must have startled the clientele of the 'Nineteenth Century.' On the opposite "page m the same number of' Mr Stead's Australian edition is quoted, without approbation this time, a sarcastic suggestion : 'Wily should not a German invasion and conquest he welcomed as adding a much-needed virility to our composite character ? , A German conquest may hereafter be looked back to with as much pride as the Norman conquest !' " "Another conquest," proceeds Mr f Beale, "more cheerful and bloodless'J would be that our nation regain its own liberties from -quacks and their coadjutors, thenceforward keeping these and all other TRAITORS TO SOCIETY well under foot." On page 29Y (paragraphs 1013, advocacy of a certain alleged drink etc.) Beale condemns Stead for his euro and proceeds (pages 344 and 345) :— "Mr W. T. Stead claims ttra,t ephemeral literature, meaning the owners and directors of it, is really the First Estate. His own paper, the 'Review of Reviews,' actuaily guarantees the efficacy of the nostrums, the respectability, of the drugpackers, and actively recommends their drink cures, alcohol and consumption cures !" And he quotes from the "Review" :— ''Whether it be machinery or tea, buggies or hair restorer, gates or biscuits, patent medicine's or books that you require, write our advertisers and test their goads. . . . The appearance of an advertisement m the 'Review of Reviews' is a proof that the firm advertising is a reputable one, and that its representations are genuine." Awl Beale also writes of the "managing proprietor \ of a great Australian paper, a potent force m forming pub- • lie opinion, who said recently, <i have often noticed that when we print a PARTICULARLY WICKED 'ADVERTISEMENT m the (his weekly) paper it will be on' the back of a sermon.' He thought it a merry joke." That a similar state of commercial cupidity and pecuniary peculiarity continues to prevail on the part of these mock moralists could, if necessary, be proved by . the most recent issues of the "Blue-view of Blue-views," a "magazine for the family {/V) But as 'the dispute is now a triangular one as between "Dilly,-" "Juddv" and Beale, they may be left for the present to battle it out.