DR FRANK CRANE’S DAILY EDITORIAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 133, 26 August 1927, Page 14

DR FRANK CRANE’S DAILY EDITORIAL

A DEFENCE OF MR. BABBITT

( Copyright, 1927)

jI.TR. BABBITT seems to be the butt of all critics, sneerers and highbrows generally. He lives in a little town in the middle west. He is unsophisticated and sometimes referred to as the "butter and egg man” from the West. All wise sharpers select him for their victim. He does not generally belong to a church, but he goes on Sunday with his wife and family. He sends his children to Sunday School. He belongs to the Masons or some other lodge. Also he is a communicant of the Rotary, the Kiwanis or Lion Club. He speaks bad English, but he makes good money. He enjoys Pollyanna literature and rejoices in happy endings. He may be a bit frisky himself, but he does not care to read about friskiness or to see it in other people. He is generally considered a smug and narrow citizen. Still there is something to be said in his favour. Mr. Babbitt makes a living. He is not so learned or clever that he has to go about begging handouts from his friends. He has self-respect enough to stand upon his own feet and wants other people to do the same. He tells the truth in his business transactions, possibly becauses it is good policy, but anyway he tells the truth, as a rule. He is moral, perhaps because he is afraid to be immoral, but at any rate he is moral, as a rule. When war comes he shoulders a rifle and marches out to get his head blown off in the trenches. All political parties kow-tow to him because he is so numerous. He is not advanced, nor emancipated, nor anything of the sort, but just a plain, ordinary citizen. He pays his debts and believes that other people should pay theirs. In a town full of Babbitts you are not afraid of having your house burgled nor your women folk attacked. You know that whatever the laws are Mr. Babbitt respects them. Altogether he is a much more comfortable citizen to live with than any of those who are bitten with some new and flaming idea.