THE RADIUM APPEAL

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 107, 2 November 1923, Page 7

THE RADIUM APPEAL

WHY MONEY IS NEEDED

A SORT OF SCUFFLE ALL MAY JOIN IN.

Cancer, in 1921, killed about 50,----000 people in Great Britain, and more than a thousand of our New Zealand population. In any one year there are three times as many cases as there are deaths, and in countries where' deaths are recorded there must be half a million people dying- of cancer every year. About one in eleven deaths 'in New Zealand is a cancer victim. The above passage is taken from a leading article in the "New Zealand Medical Journal." The same article contains the observation that New Zealand, like other parts of the Empire, should supply money for cancer-fighting, "but when public health becomes a part of politics, that vulgar scuffle for power, one almost despairs of good results. Let anyone take up a daily newspaper and read what is occupying- the time of Parliament and the columns of the Press, and see what trifles and rodomentade we are paying for. If public health is not to j be divorced from politics, the only hope I is that there may arise somewhere a Health Minister who will realise that his portfolio is the moat important in the Cabinet, and that he has a glorious opportunity ior doing good." While the above passage occurs in an article with which the Radium campaigners are vitally concerned, it in itself is something with which the Radium Appeal has nothing to do. The reproach

levied against politics—whether rightly or wrongly—does not affect the Eadium campaign, which is an Appeal to the People. Whether public health is or is not all that it should be in political hands, the people know this—that the Radium Appeal is in* their own hands. Governments may come and Governments may go, but an Appeal like the Radium Appeal is a Referendum in the | finest sens© of the word/ and in a sense quite non-political. Will the people- see to it? Will they put their hands in their own pockets for their own betterment—because a disease that "accounts for one in eleven deaths i 3 no respecter of persons, no respecter of sex,-, and." not-'always- a respecter of age. Practically the whole of our population is in the firing line. It is being shot at. Will it shoot back? If so—put your hand in your pocket. Tins is one of, those occasions when it is true to say that money talks. Money talks through the mite or through the million. So there is absolutely no one who is prevented from having. a say. 'All the same, it needs big men and big money to lead the way. Don't wait for better times—cancer won t -wait. Forget about any "vulgar scuffle for power, and indulge in a refined scuffle to the office of Mr. G. MJtche.ll, secretary of the Radium Appeal, Exchange Buildings, Lambton quay and Dominion avenue. Fire your shot in the Radium campaign now.