CORRESPONDENCE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9709, 3 February 1910, Page 6

CORRESPONDENCE.

To The Editor. gj rj —Under the heading of "An Absurd Telegram" you go out of your way to throw mud at a gentleman named Bennet. You seem to suppose that a telegram announcing that Bennet, a Socialist orator, who while j speaKing at a public meeting sudden-1 ]y collapsed, seems to be to you an j illustration of drivel. Now, sir, if i that reverend gentleman that you speak so highly of on the same page in the same issue oi your paper was to suddenly collapse while speaking in the pulpit, would you consider that t was drivel or would you consider that it would be of interest to other than those in the immediate vicinity. You, like your brother pressmen, seem to take very little interest in anything that may be of interest to the workers. In your article you talk of Bennet being a virtually unknown Socialist Now, sir, Comrade Scatt Bennet is an ex-Member of the N.S.W. Assembly, and not only is he well-known throughout Australia and New Zealand, but is known by repute in Great Britain and America as an able speaker in the Socialist movement, a movement not only national but international. Therefore

Id my opinion what you consider ■ o be drivel does not seem to be bo in the eyas of those who make it their business to give intelligent news that would interest the general public. You take, the trouble to write an article which is not void of sarcasm and then you express your sympathy tiwards Bennet, and you also trust that his indisposition is only of a temporary character. How much is your sympathy worth? I am sure Scott Sennet is very grateful to you, and must himself highly honoured as very few Socialists are sympathised with by newspaper editors. You say in your article "One wonders why this item of 'news could not have been inflicted on the evening papers, which would, perhaps, have appreciated it but had Scott Beennet done some trivial offence, no doubt the Press Association would have had it in time for the evening papers, and you would •only have been too pleased to have had it in yours. Mankind ought to he thankful for "The Free Press" that describes a gentleman becoming unwell and collapsing in a chair in such a manner as "harrowing deSails of affair,." I fully reccgnise the position of the gentleman who wrotß the article entitled "An Absurd Telegram. The Economic Law dominates and we are compelled (especially press men) to do things which are not in line with our reason. Let us hope •that the day is close at hand when a man won't require to write for, the sake of "bread and butter," that which is not in accordance with his reason or convictions.— I am, etc., WILLIAM HAMILTON. Sonoma House, Masterton, February Ist, 1910.

(It is evident from the first few lines of the above effusion that our correspondent did not understand in the least the drift of the article to which he refers. We would remind him that wholesale abuse is not argument, neither is it Socialism. Apparently the only virtuous men m the world are those who call themselves "Socialists. Until our correspondent mentioned it we were not aware of this interesting fact. —Ed. W. A.) _____