POLITICIAN'S NEW WEAPON.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 111, 13 May 1938, Page 6

POLITICIAN'S NEW WEAPON.

The problem of organised opposition at political meetings is an old one, though in every campaign the candidates who suffer from it usually declare that their experience is unprecedented in degree. But it is not a problem affecting politicians only; their audiences, too, are concerned. The number of people who like a meeting to be "lively" is probably offset by the number who stay away because they do not. Since radio broadcasting has enabled political leaders to speak to immense audiences there has been reason to fear that the power of organised interrupters at meetings would be proportion. But Mr. Hamilton, in his recent address was able 1 to show not only that this fear is unfounded, but that the public man has at his disposal a decisive weapon for use against interrupters. In the liveliest moments at the Wellington meeting the speaker had only to go a little closer to the microphone and the loud-speaker equipment in the hall made his voice audible above everything else. He overcame noise by more noise. The prospects of the systematic interrupters of political 'meetings (but not, we may hope, those of the mart and relevant interjector) would therefore seem to be poor. They may shout until their throats are raw, but the speaker will be unaffected. For the majority of people, who go to a meeting because they want to hear what the speaker has to say, it is a most ■cheering prospect.