NORTHERN ADVOCATE DAILY With which is incorporated the NORTHERN MAIL DAILY WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23, 1920. THE LESSON OF THE LAW

Northern Advocate, 23 June 1920, Page 2

NORTHERN ADVOCATE DAILY With which is incorporated the NORTHERN MAIL DAILY

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23, 1920. THE LESSON OF THE LAW

Registered for transmission through the post as a newspaper.

That life must be given for life is the one great lesson to be learned from the fate of the hapless Dennis Gunn. To say this is necessary, but it is sufficient. Our children and even our adult population must be told and shown quietly that no man may take the life of another without swift and sure punishment following the crime. Beyond this we see no reason for filling our columns with further details about the final act. It is to us forbidding and not at all calculated to have a beneficial effect. Even young people nilk of the recent incident in a manner that calls parents seriously to reflect whether our children are being irained rightly how to speak of and look upon such affairs. This, to oifr mind, can be done mosi lovingly and most effectively by the parents. From their lips and from them alone should such news be first conveyed to their children, not in the, coarse, vile and sensational style, but quietly, seriously and impressively; and if any further lesson is required it is this, that our chil.lren must bo given a taste for the noble and beautiful things of life and a distaste for the wicked. Parents, you qwo this duty to your offspring. Suppose just for one moment that 3'our child were called upon to pay the great price of life for crime committed? Would it not then be too late for you to reflect whether you had created the right tastes for him in his tender years'? We presume that criminals are ■more likely to bo mido than born. To be born a cximiral is awful to contemplate, but to be made suen calls for the profoundost, thought. Parents are chiefly responsible for the las*es and desires of tbeir "hii-lren, b"' the also bears a rihn7.\ What it li-'C-i i-'i-r becomes law. and th»; swift current of new thought and new desire brought about by State-license is sometimes too great to be stemmed by the restraining hand of the parent. Two instances of this only do we give, i.e., the sensational picture and the pernicious publication. Parents know how difficult it is to repeatedly say "no" to their child's request to attend the moving picture. The State sanctions this form of entcntainmo»c ; but rarely closes the door to children. We do not. wish it to be understood that we condemn the picture show. Many of the pictures are of a highly educative character. The Buffalo Bill type and the maudlin drama do not appeal to us as being responsible for any good -U all, and to these we would positively close the doors to young and susceptible children. The picture show, on th? other hand, could .be made to bring out the good and the noble in the child. That we should encourage. With regard to pernicious publications, quite young children have had these thrust into their hands by others who have succumbed to the influence that such literature exerts upon their young minds. The writer h<n seen-these stowed away in the school desk and brought out when the readcathought the. teacher oblivious to the fact. Both author and printer of this type of book should be brought tinder St.ite surveillance. The responsibility of parenthood is never-ending, never-ceasing. It calls for right thinking and right action at all times. It demanls the giving up to the child of its best thoughts, best training and best advice. This is a noble duty. Its fulfilment can only be carried out by the denial an'l curtailment of many of its own pleasures. Above all things, parents should remember that environment, books, companions and pastimes are exorcising a daily influence over th;u'r children which ,lf not good and well directed, may eventually give them (the parents) thought for deep sorrow and grave reflection. Only another word. The public taste is daily deteriorating, not so much because this in o. great measure is natural, but because State license makes it possible. As a business proposition the author of sensations and thrills find? a better commercial market for the product of hi.s brain than the Gospel minister or reformer for his sermons. :>o it happens thqt Hie church will have 'o adopt more attractive, mpre telling methods to combat the questionable influence to which the people are subject and licensed if it

is going to play its part to effective purpose. The empty church is more a matter for grave concern than anything we, at the moment, can think of. This is understandable. '.'.'ho church is not altering its' methods at the same rate

and pace as the other organisations of I lie world, consequently it irf being left. One of the greatest mediums on earth for the spread of thought is the newspaper, and yet rarely or ever do churches make use of the tremendous influence it wields to disseminate the thoughts and inspirations which arise from careful and deep study of the gieaten of all books —the Biblr-. Why should not the church, we ask, make use of the new.-spapei' —ihe surest of uil result bringers—to direct the reading and the thinking of its people? We hope the time is long past when its columns are looked upon as boing a medium only for directing the buying nn.l selling of 1 lie world 's commerce.