FREEDOM OF SPEECH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22371, 19 September 1934, Page 14

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

TO THE EDITOR. g IR —You often make valuable corrections'to my letters which I fully appreciate, but I confess that I. do not see the point when you change the word “ joker ” for the word “jokes” I wrote" 1 think I can beat that with the joker.” Perhaps my handwriting was at fault. ‘Regarding your correspondent, “Amused,” and his references to E. W F. and C 0.,” I presume that he intends to include me in the "Co.” May I inform him that I think that he is barking up the wrong tree? Neither my friend nor myself is a soapbox orator. I suggest that “Amused” is somewhat rattled and. like Mr Coates, ,needs time to think! One thing stands out prominently in his letter—that is, that he is much more concerned about what the crowd thinks, or seems to him to think, than he is about the merits of the subject under discussion. In plain terms, he is an intellectual slave, afraid of the crowd. —I am, etc., John Law. [A typographical error, which we regret. explains the substitution of the word “jokes” for the word “joker.”— Ed. O.D.T.]