TRUTH AND ITS OPPOSITE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19440, 28 October 1925, Page 5

TRUTH AND ITS OPPOSITE

(To the Editor)

Sir,—You have doubtless heard the old saying—‘‘Speak the truth and shame the devil.” Josh Billings, the clever American humorist remarks, “Yet, lots of people can shame the devil—it’s the other thing that bothers them.’’ In a recent issue of “Cheerio,” the official mouthpiece of the licensed liquor traffic, appeared a statement to the effect that a certain “Colonel W. L. Butler,” head of the Northern Division of the Salvau*n Army (U.S.A.) had said that since prohibition came into force girls of 14 and 15 years of age were now being sent to the Army’s Rescue Homes. “Cheerio made a big mistake. It should have waited to the final issue before mhk- • ing a statement like that, and then there would have been no time to contradict it. A cable was sent to the Salvation Army in the United States and back came the reply, “No Colonel W. L. Butler in the Army in Amcncti. Later it was ascertained that there was a Colonel Baxter in charge of the division under consideration, and that he positively denied having said anything of the kind. The facts were placed before the management of “Cheerio,” but they (of course!) declined to correct, their msistatement. An honourable journal would have put matters right, but not “Cheerio. Well, the final issue of this truthful (!) publication is now to hand, crammed with statistics and figures, no doubt of the same value as the one about the mythical Salvation Army officer and his equally mythical statement. Who is going to put any reliance upon figures from‘such’ a source! Why, nobody but those who are willing

to be misled. By tho wky, I did not notice in any of the issues of “Cheerio” anything in the way of backing to what Dr. Blackmore' said in Christchurch the other day. He said that in some of the dances of to-day unscrupulous men were in the habit of giving drink “in I the form of cocktails, liqueurs and other I insidious forms” to young girls for immoral purposes, a practice which ought to be stamped out with the same ruthlessness as the plague. Some of there poor girls are being admitted to rescue homes, not of far away America, but to the rescue homes of our own New Zealand. Oh no! “Cheerio” is not interested in saving young people from the consequences of indulgence in intoxicating drink. Far ' from it. Young people are the “Paw material” of the liquor traffic. That traffic speedily kills off its customers, and young people must be had to keep it going. Will New Zealand once more vote to perpetuate this!—l am. etc., J. AITKEN.