CHECKING LOOSE STATEMENTS

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 117, 13 November 1935, Page 10

CHECKING LOOSE STATEMENTS

Electors in the mass are not well versed in all the details o£ politics. They do not follow events so closely or remember so well that they can check the criticism that is placed before them. ■ In consequence there is much loose criticism that is accepted as accurate when a careful check would disclose that it does not fairly present the facts. Mr. 0. C. Mazengarb, National Government candidate for Wellington East, is performing a public service by subjecting such criticism to close scrutiny as he did last night when he examined some of the points made by his Labour opponent, Mr. Semple. It is easy to say, as Mr. Semple said, that 80,000 people had lost their savings, that business men had nothing left but the names above their doovs. and that the Government is responsible for this and other forms of ruin. It is much harder to discover what are the facts and present them accurately. Were Mr. Mazengarb so inclined, he could follow the example of the loose critics and make general assertions in extravagant language. He has the platform ability to carry this off as well as the most trenchant critic of the Government. 'He has chosen instead to make his appeal on a higher plane, to give-the people facis and reasoned argument, the product of inquiry and thought. He pays the electors the compliment of regarding them as reasoning and reasonable, and we hope the voters will repay the compliment.