CONFESS TO ONE ANOTHER

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3161, 13 August 1917, Page 6

CONFESS TO ONE ANOTHER

Sir,—At a time like this, -when we should all be "united to win the war, it is matter for regret that there should be so much disaffection distraction within the body politic. I listened to a. sermon the other Sunday evening, in which the reverend preacher talked about* tho confession of our sins one to another, and the- idea occurred to me that if the industrial leaders and the Labour agitators were to confess to one another their various winnings, quite honestly anct without reservation, they would como nearer to mutual understanding reconciliation. If husbands wives would confess to one another their various sinnr ;s, hundreds of 'cases of connubial infelicity would never reach a •revelation in the Divorce Courts. If the publicans and sinners on the one hand,, and the scribes and Pharisees on the* other—or, perhaps I should say, the publicans and brewers on the one hand, and the prohibitionists and parsons on the other—were to sit round a common table and discuss their respective merits and not one should atand aloof from his brethren and thank God that he was a. better mftn than his neighbours, but that all should confess that they had fallen short of tho glory, I believe that a solution of the liquor question would bo discovered by mutual confessions towards a. common understanding. The publicans would have to confess that they had to fight for their f*istence with their backs to the wall every three years, and the prohibitionists would have to confess that notwithstanding the vast expenditure of energr and money oti their part, drinking and drunkenness "hud not been dim-, nished. Then they would all cometc the conclusion that an ho»eet proposition from the prohibitionists/ such as has been made by tlio Efficiency Board, vi ? , would be a settlement of the> wholedifficulty, and the ending pi the fighting, quarrelling, and back-biting on payment of "reasonable compensation. It in true this "reasonable compensation" for giving immediate effect to what the Efficiency Board reports as being 11 keeping with prohibition aims . woulo cost between four and five million step lin»; but if that were accomplished then would be no necessity for lite prohibl tioniats to raise as a fund where with to carry on this internal wai; agaim. the publicans, who will also be iput tt considerable expense in defending their estate. Two thousand years ago the scribes and Pharisees quarrelled with the publicans and sinners, and the fighting is still going .on. Let us exercitß brotherly love; let ns confess our sins one to another, and in the language of my friend, Mr. Lloyd George: Tor Heaven's sake, don't let us feht amon ourselves!" lam mire we would all think, better of one another, both m publio and in private life, if we were more ready to 1 confess our failures, our simngs and shortcomings, insteacf of imagining ourselves so much better than our neighbours.—l am, etc.,