TO HELP THE RADIUM APPEAL

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 116, 13 November 1923, Page 6

TO HELP THE RADIUM APPEAL

In agreeing to Mark time while the Radium (Radiation) Appeal marches on, the Wellington -•. Citizens' War Memorial movement loses no dignity; and it is to be doubted whether, in the long run, it will lose any cash. The two movements are individually distinct while kindred in their sympathetic appeal. The Wellington Citizens' Memorial is to be purely symbolical, arid its campaigners are moving to this objective by a code of procedure deemed fitting to the high purpose—a code that excludes the offering of any inducement to subscribe except the inducement of symbolising the noble effort of our glorious dead. Though its progress may be not so rapid by this lofty load, it is none the jess sure if its promoters persevere. They have lost a ceitnih amount f t»f quicklygot moaey by .tivoiitias (wticli us

not tho same thiag as condemning) all but ofiß means of fund-coiloct-ing, and by declining any alliance of their symbolistic mission with any utilitarian scheme; bub they have done this with their eyes open. The Radium Appeal, on the other hand, is to a certain extent utilitarian. 'Anything that saves life has a utilitarian side* thtfugh the utilitarian may be lost in the atmosphere of Christian charily that naturally develops around art attempt to relieve tragic human suffering; Also, this life-saving appeal for a Radium Department at the Hospital is a matter in which time is the essence of the contract: the Radium money; in order to serve its purpose, is needed quickly. decision of the Wellington Citizens' War Memorial Committee to leave the field, until the New Year^ clear lor the Radium Appeal is therefore creditable to both movements; In the absence of some system of co-ordination between campaigns for funds for public purposes, mutual give-and-take is especially useful. And the Memorial Committee has done something towards showing the way. '