The Daily News. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1919. A DEPLORABLE TENDENCY.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 December 1919, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1919. A DEPLORABLE TENDENCY.

The heresy that "all is fair in love, war, and politics" has long since been exploded. . There is but one standard of fairness and anything outside that is . unfair play. We had enough of the latter during the war to last for centuries to come, yet the present election campaign is being allied by tactics which have been universally condemned. Extreme partianship and bitterness are being exhibited in, this campaign' both by the parties engaged therein, and by sections of the Press, which is prostituting its true mission of f delity to truth and mirroring actual happenings by giving colored reports of speeches, and printing onfy what will serve the purpose of the particular party it espouses, besides running riot and working itself up to frenzy point in its editorial columns. It is deplorable that an election contest should not he conducted on sane and honorable lines, when the best interests of the country | should be paramount, and the most fit men find favor, irrespective of party or creed. Party warfare is sufficiently sordid in these days without any other discordant element. All right thinking people cannot feel anything but indignation at the introduction of the sectarian cry. A man's religion—or irreligion for that matter—is his own affair. The battle for religious and political freedom was fought and won long years ago, and yet the demon of intolerance is to-day fouling the political arena and desecrating the cherished heritages we have secured. If a man's religion is to be made a target, either in public, private or business affairs the world will revert to its primitive condition when every man's hand was against his neighbor. No controversy can be settled by resorting to vilification, misrepresentation or slander, and those who use such means only expose the weakness of their cause and their deficiency in sound argument. The true test of any man's worth is to be found in the rectitude of his principles, the soundness of his views, and the correctness of his actions, and any candidate for the confidence of the public in connection with representative offices should be measured by his sound sense, foresight, administrative capacity, reliability, loyalty and freedom from hypocrisy, and if he passes these tests it may safely be inferred that whatever his religion may be it is a force for good and not for evil. Two great needs of the age are chivalry and charity. Instead we find fierce animosity, dishonorable methods and the exploitation of half truths, directly or indirectly. For instance, we have the persistent endeavors made to associate Sir Joseph "Ward, and all his supporters, with the Labor extremists, in face of the well-known fact that he has recently declared most definitely that he will have nothing to do with them. Mr. Massey has been equally, but not more, definite on this point. Nothing could be more clear than that neither party will remain in power at the dictation of Extreme Labor, preferring to resign rather than be tossed to and fro by the Reds. If the two main parties in the House are so numerically equal as to permit of Extreme Labor holding the balance of power, there is bound to be a regrouping of the sane members so as to form a strong Government, That is why it is so essential that only the sound andreliable men now before the electors should be elected. There are party slaves in plenty, but the men who place the true interests of the country before party exigencies are those who may be relied upon to steer the ship of State into smooth waters and avoid the rocks ahead. We are convinced that irremediable harm will result if the public does not denounce the efforts of extreme, single-eyed partisans to bracket men of proved loyalty and capacity with the extremists. To blacken their characters in this manner is on all fours with the tactics of the Labor extremists who refuse a hearing to candidates other than their -own. Both courses are unfair, un-Eritish and impolitic, besides tending to destroy political life, and therefore to be deplored.