WHAT IS WANTED.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 66, 1 November 1911, Page 4

WHAT IS WANTED.

We are certainly in entire accord with the "N./j. Times" when it asks candidates for Parliamentary honours to give us politics—not abuse. In the course of an article in its issue or yesterday, our contemporary says:— During a valedictory interval in the House of Representatives prior to adjournment the hope was expressed i,y the party leaders that the forthcoming election would be fairly fought; that no ground of complaint about "hitting below the belt" would exist at the conclusion of the campaign. This, we think, the great majority of men and women will hope to see realised. Xaturnlly enough, they look to the leading men on either side to set a go >a example. A political battle, we kn.iw, cannot be fought with feather pillows. The time is one of heat and stress, in which prejudice and personal feeling run high. Scornful phrase nrd disdainful allusion to an opponent's political faith come readily to ihe tc ngue. These represent the blows every participant in the struggle must expect to receive. But there is a limit beyond which candidates for representative office should not go, and the electors are entitled to show their disapproval of any movement in that direction. We are here referring fa the introduction of personal calumny into the domain of national politics. This is never excusable. We cannot hope, perhaps, for an election entirely free from this.sort of thing, but we can at least expect to see the party leaders restraining those headstrong individuals whose ideal of controversy finds expression in the vilification nf an adversary. The commmrty i- really unconcerned about what Smith thinks of Jones. What it has to make choice of is the policy each puts forward, and while embittered partisans of Smith may find vast satisfaction in listening to denunciation of his rival there is no doubt at all that tho price of their gratification is a degradation of public life.