*THE
WORKER*
BRISBANE,
JUNE 1, 1895.
The
Coming Session.
The
Queensland Parliament has been gazetted to meet on the 25th
proximo. This will be its last meet, unless the unscrupulous gang in
office unearth some senseless reason for the prolongation of the
Parliament. The Great Panjandrum hinted something of the kind at its
commencement.
*
* *
So
far as Labour is concerned there need be little speculation regarding
the contents of the Speech from the throne. It will be quite safe to
venture thereon a prophecy even at this early stage. Private
enterprise and commercialism will receive their due attention, of
course, and the usual platitudes about the gloomy past and the bright
future will be voiced by his Excellency on behalf of his Ministerial
advisers; but there will be no mention of the thousands of workless
workers and' the sufferings they have endured through the culpable
mismanagement of the colony's affairs. That, of course, will be
beneath notice in such an important document, to be read on such an
auspicious occasion. A great song will be sung about the surplus in
the colony's finances. (The Treasurer's trick in this matter was
exposed in last week's Editorial Mill.) Being probably the last
session prior to an appeal to the country, it is quite within the
range of probabilities that Boodlewraith will make some additional
attempt to gull the unthinking into believing that our present rulers
are really the clever political puritans they profess to be. With
this same object in view, special stress will doubtless be laid upon
the long-sought-for and certainly very desirable concessions recently
made to the farming community in the shape of reduced railway
freights. In case it should be overlooked, the WORKER would like to
point out that this injustice should have been removed now but for
the rapidly-increasing influence of the Labour in Politics movement
and the dread of election consequences.
*
* *
The
Speech from the throne will not, however, contain any promise of the
introduction of a proposal for grappling with the growing unemployed
difficulty. Premier Nelson's reply to the Longreach deputation, and
Colonial Secretary Toxer's altercation with the Rockhampton
deputation, would indicate that Electoral Reform will find no place
on the Government programme, notwithstanding that the majority of
Australian premiers who attended the recent Hobart conference
expressed themselves in its favour. A Wages Lien Bill and an Early
Closing Bill will certainly escape attention. These are all pressing
reforms well within the range of practical politics, and even if they
are unnoticed by his Excellency’s advisers, the omissions will not
be allowed to pass without an emphatic protest from the Labour Party.
*
* *
Electoral
reform is of paramount importance, because upon it depends, in a
great measure, most other reforms. Queensland workers want all
citizens to be equal at the ballot, and every man to have the power
to be a citizen. The one man who was in a position to obtain it for
them, diddled them out of it. If Griffith, when he professed to
espouse the cause of the people, had sought as earnestly to
convenience the common herd as he did to convenience land-grabber and
the profit-monger, the people's representatives would have occupied a
very different position to-day. But, like the bulk of the so called
Liberal's he treacherously betrayed those who worshipped him. “Cannot
the Labour Party, through its seventeen Parliamentary
representatives, secure the disfranchised the right to vote?”
*
* *
To
this query, which was put to us the other day by a fault-finding
correspondent, the WORKER replies they can only try, and, so long as
they try hard and try often, friends of theirs should not be disposed
to cavil. They tried last year and failed. It is hoped they will try
again this. Critics should make sufficient allowance for the fact
that the Party is in a considerable minority; that Labour members
have many difficulties to encounter in prosecuting their very arduous
duties. Up to the present they have fought manfully and consistently.
They have displayed, in a most unmistakeable manner, their ability to
meet Capitalism on the ground which for ages it has considered its
own. The gang at present in office occupy an almost impregnable
position. They are backed by a number of miserable serviles, who are
bound to the chariot wheels of “bankocracy,” and by men who value
their votes at the price of a beer. The contemptibility of the gang
itself has no bounds. Under these circumstances labour is heavily
handicapped.
*
* *
To
further illustrate the difficulties of labour's representatives, we
would refer the critic and the complainant to the treatment they have
received at the hands of Boodlewraith during the past two sessions –
particularly the last. Every cowardly means were resorted to in order
to discredit the party's conduct and show its incapability. That, of
course, is part of Boodlewraith's plan of campaign. Even the ordinary
facilities afforded new members for becoming acquainted with the
forms and usages of Parliament were denied them. The very drastic and
elastic Standing Orders, framed specially during the moribund period
of the last Parliament (with the assistance of Liberal Party
supporters) to meet the possibilities arising from the entrance of a
strong labour element, were stretched and twisted to suit the
purposes of a mob of political connivers. Labour men were bullied and
browbeaten, gagged and expelled. The attempt last session to place
upon the Statute Book an Electoral Reform Bill extending the
franchise to every white adult was treated by these same political
connivers as a huge joke, and practically talked out at the tail end
of a long session. Labour is repeatedly blamed for creating
industrial strife, yet when an effort was made by the Labour party to
secure conciliation it was contemptuously rejected. These and many
other indignities the party has had to suffer.
*
* *
Still
minorities have before to-day, under similarly difficult
circumstances, and under greater odds, fought and won decisive
battles for reform. Who would ever have thought, for instance, when
Charles Stuart Parnell and Joe Biggar stood alone in the British
House of Commons confronted by the opposing galaxy of talent which
that House possessed, that the battle for Home Rule would reach its
present advanced stage? It was the persistent advocacy of those two
political heroes which quickened thought and aroused public opinion
to a sense of the wrongs of their countrymen and so brought Home Rule
within measurable distance not only of Ireland, but also Scotland and
Wales. Experience teaches that Tory-ridden Queensland possesses a
Cabinet as stubbornly opposed to progressive legislation as was the
British Cabinet to Home Rule, and in the matter of electoral reform
the WORKER would earnestly suggest that the Labour Party follow the
example set by the Home Rulers in the British House of Commons and at
the very earliest opportunity (when the Speech from the Throne is
being debated) give Boodlewraith to understand that unless some
practical consideration is given to Labour's claims Boodlewraith
shall have no legislation if by any possible means Labour can prevent
it.
*
* *
In
making this suggestion the WORKER does not desire to be
misunderstood. It has never attempted, nor does it intend to attempt,
to dictate a policy to the Parliamentary Labour Party. The members of
the party are alone responsible for their actions to their
constituents and to the country. But the WORKER, it must not be
forgotten, has its duties and its responsibilities, and recognising
this, we are sure no sincere friend of the Labour Movement will be
disposed to misinterpret its well-meaning intentions. The suggestion
is offered in the best interests of the Labour Movement and the
Labour Party. We believe the party possesses the necessary ability
and courage to carry it out; and we also believe that a determined
effort to force on reform will, even if unsuccessful, have its good
results in its educational effects, and that the coming general
elections will certainly bring their pleasing reward.
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