The Wanganui Chronicle. "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." SATURDAY, JULY 15, 1922. CATCH CRIES AND BOGEYS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18533, 15 July 1922, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." SATURDAY, JULY 15, 1922. CATCH CRIES AND BOGEYS.

A? student of politics, writing in satirical vein, affirms that no good •—or bad—politician should be without a serviceable catch cry. His reasoning appears to be sound. The virtue of a catch cry, he declares, is that it entirely eliminates the need for a policy and saves a considerable amount of troublesome thought. Moreover, if due attention be paid to its selection, broad Issues may be carefully obscured and. an appeal made to the passion and prejudice of the electors. Few men are sincerely touchy about their political beliefs. But once attack their religion or their fancied moral code, and they will rise in wrath and slay the at-' tacker. The trouble in these days is to find a plausible catch cry. The game has been piayed so strenuously of recent years that there is not much left for an unimaginative politician. Even men gifted with vivid imagination find it difficult to seize on a phrase that will have a . wide appeal, and the writer from whom we quote facetiously suggests .that a special department will have to be created with the object of manufacturing a choice selection of catch cries suitable for all occasions. The first duty of this office would be to codify past, and present slogans.

That having been done, the basis would be laid for the invention of new ones. For this purpose it would probably be necessary to originate a few research scholarships, which could be awarded to sons of men whose faith in the Government has been shaken. One great advantage of such'a step would be that an additional avenue for the expenditure of public money would be provided. Even the old Romans knew something about the political game. Cato is an excellent example. His cry, “Carthage must be destroyed,'’ has echoed down the ages. The little dramatic touch added by the originator, when he held up a fig in the Roman Senate to indicate that warlike Carthage was uncomfortably dose to Rome, was a masterly stroke, worthy of the most cunning of modern party leaders. The old Tory cry at the beginning of the eighteenth century, “The Church is in danger,’ was another exceedingly effective one, and, from a political point of view, it had the great merit of creating a clear line of demarcation between the two sections into which the community was divided. Lord Beaconsfield's “Peace with honour,” and John Bright’s “Peace, retrenchment and reform” both served their turn, in the same way as “Liberty, equality, fraternity” made a wide appeal. In modern days the manufacturing process has undergone somewhat of a change. The idea now is to put the battle-cry of a party in the form of a bribe, and among notable efforts in this direction the writer cites the Australian Labour party’s shout of “We Pay Cash” at the last Fe.deral election. The La-

bour party in Australia is a most prolific producer of catch cries—designed for the most part to raise bogeys and obscure the real issue. Thus the conscription referendum became the "Blood vote”; every party opposed to Labour became the "Lowwage,” or “Black-labour,” or “Dearfood” party. Sometimes, however the cry has been reversed, and Labour has demanded public support because it is the “Cheap-food” party, or because it stands for “justice for the workers.” Put either way, it works fairly well—up to a But once the party is placed in a position to give effect to its cries and promises, the result is not at all satisfactory. With a general election drawing near, the leaders of the fragmentary parties which constitute the Opposition in our own Parliament have been cudgelling their brains for new party cries, but the only one they have been able to coin so far is “Electoral Reform,” a flat and unappealing slogan based on the strangely unanimous advocacy of proportional representation. Messrs Holland, Wilford and Statham will have to find something much better than that of the approaching campaign is to be made at all interesting. “Electoral Reform'" as shouted by this ill-assorted alliance is merely a bogey, and it will take more than a bogey to stampede the electors from the safe shelter of the Reform fold.