A DEBATING ARENA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22723, 8 November 1935, Page 4

A DEBATING ARENA

TO THE EDITOK. Sib, —Your correspondent, Mr C. H. Chapman, writes to your columns this morning in oracular vein, drawing attention to “ the bemused state of public opinion in reference to the mechanics of money,” and, among several other recent instances of this "bemusement,” cites my letter that appeared in your columns on November 2. With quite Olympic detachment, which can come only from a consciousness of superior knowledge and attainments, he merely designates the offenders, without deigning to give details of their shortcomings. I have gone over the letter complained of, and to me the meaning is quite clear, allowance being made for the necessity of a certain degree of condensation. Mr Chapman’s own effusions, so far as I have seen them, are not themselves models of lucidity, either of thought or of style. Nevertheless it should be kept in mind that the correspondence columns of a newspaper provide a kind of debating arena to which all are welcome, and while some are doubtless better equipped than others for the discussions, all can learn something of value, even if it be only the need for the observance of the courtesies of debate. In such an arena, it seems to me, intellectual intolerance of another writer’s point of view, however crude his effort may seem, or the assumption of a “ superiority ” pose is not only out of place but unedifying.—l am, etc., S.