Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1943. ELECTION CAMPAIGN STANDARDS.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 September 1943, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1943. ELECTION CAMPAIGN STANDARDS.

JT is the plain duty of all electors to take serious account of their responsibilities and to aim at making the most of the opportunity that will arise on polling day of doing something to strengthen, for worthy ends, the political organisation ol the Dominion. ’ While these facts are established so well that their statement can be nothing else than platitudinous, it is bound to be the verdict of any level-headed man or woman that remarkably little is being done by the army of candidates now abroad in the land to assist or guide the electors to a wise use of their powers. . . In the standards set by candidates there are variations of good, bad and indifferent, but the ruling tone of the campaign —the average utterance of the average candidate—falls a long way short of what might be desired and expected in a democracy that has on the whole given a very good account of itself in peace and in war. What is needed above all things in order that the people of a country like this may secure effective representation in Parliament is a calm and straightforward discussion of facts and problems on their merits. What we are getting, lor the most part—though there are honourable exceptions—is strident advocacy from a standpoint of narrow partisanship, blatant selfglorification and adulation of party or faction, together with attacks on the other fellow ranging all the way from bellicose ferocity to sly and sinister suggestion. A great part of what passes for political appeal and advocacy is made worthless by distortion and exaggeration and by an all too evident determination to make anything and everything serve personal or party ends. Even the valour of our fighting forces and their resolute and disciplined endurance of the long strain and manifold hardships of war have been ranted about in boastful and inflated terms. On the whole an atmosphere has been created in which it is hopeless to expect a temperate, orderly and constructive discussion of questions of public concern. / _ Men and women of the finest type in all countries and in all ages have perceived and acted upon the truth that the right way to win support for good causes is to appeal directly to what is best in humanity. In these days of election clamour there is an all too common tendency-to go to the opposite extreme and to rely upon appeals to passion and prejudice. The result is nothing else than a degradation for the time being of the standards of national life and a travesty of leadership. The remedy no doubt is with the people who make and unmake £

Parliaments. Certainly it is not. in doubt that in the extent to which we succeed, as time goes on, in elevating our individual and community standards there must be a progressive elimination of the kind of election campaigning now' being conducted.