Three bye-election wins for Labour

*THE WORKER*

Brisbane June 23, 1894

THE EDITORIAL MILL.

Our Motto: “Socialism in our time.”

Townsville! Ipswich! Burke! Three bye-election wins for Labour in the space of six months. This is good. And what a majority in the Burke contest! 313 to 81 – a majority of nearly four to one. Labour will surely be getting “swelled-head.” But Labour must not become afflicted with that enlarged self-esteem for which the Americans have found so appropriate a name. There is much work yet to be done. A vast amount of education is necessary before the country will grant that majority of seats to enable the putting into law those proposals which Socialist economists agree must be placed on the statute book before every man, woman, boy and girl can get that equality of opportunity which a sense of justice dictates should be given to all. Labour must not forget its chief aim in Parliament: Education! Education! Education! all the time. While a majority of the electorates return Anti-Labour Politicians the Labour members in the House, even with scanty support of the Opposition, can do little, if anything, to force Labour legislation through both chambers. Their policy, it would appear to the writer, is to obstruct the unjust measures of of the M'Ilwraithians, to avail themselves of the forms of the House to introduce their own Labour bills and by this means educate the people through the pages of HANSARD and the daily press: and to use their railway passes in stumping the country as freely as their ₤2. 17s. 8d. per week will allow. This is a stiff programme it is true, but it will never do for Labour to sit down and gloat over past victories. Labour must only rest when there are no more political worlds to conquer.

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The WORKER is more than glad Mr. Glassey has been returned with such a splendid majority. If he had been defeated this time, his defeat would have been to the Burke what his defeat at the last general election is to Bundamba, a lasting disgrace. Wage-earners are sometimes prone to forget past services, and thoughtless ingratitude is then the reward of the agitator who might have saved his health and many an hour's bitterness and worry by choosing a more rosy path in life. Numbers of those who work for wages and whose lot the agitator endeavours to improve, sometimes silence their easy consciences by saying: “Ah, well! he's doing it to gain his own ends, or to gratify a hobby.” Of course, if the reformer has the grit and the health to stick to his task. Recognition is sure to come in the long run. But he often has neither the grit nor the health and “goes under” to join what Justin M'Carthy calls the great army of the unappreciated.

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Mr. Glassey will probably be elected leader of the Labour Party. (We say “probably,” because the Parliamentary Labour party is not a one-man show like the M'Ilwraith Government, and each man has a voice in the selection of the leader.) If elected leader, Mr. Glassey will have a splendid opportunity of pursuing the stern and uncompromising course of fidelity to Labour which characterised him in the last Parliament . He is a Socialist, and will be ably and well supported by the other Socialists and not-now-but-will-be Socialists in the party. He has publicly stated that the only solution of the Labour problem is the State ownership of the means of production and distribution of wealth, and that augurs well for his career in the future. He has spurned with contempt the suggestion of a coalition, and Labour has therefore nothing to fear from that quarter. He is too much of a man to follow the leader of the Opposition, Mr. Charles Powers, who, with his little seven or eight supporters, must in future give up their tail-wagging-the-dog-tactics, and take a back seat.

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One man should not be forgotten in connection with the Burke victory, and that man is John Plumper Hoolan. Mr. Hoolan is a man of marked ability as speaker. His readiness to follow any anti-Labour politician and dress him down is spoken of with amused admiration, and he is one who will be sorrowly missed by more than the Labour Party. He has his peculiarities, of course, like every other man; and was not well accustomed to that discipline in Labour circles which requires everything undertaken officially on behalf of Labour to be duly agreed to by the majority; but all must clap their hands in grateful appreciation of his action in resigning his seat for Mr. Glassey, and in piloting that gentleman so successfully to the winning post. The Labour Party must hold his name in reserve as one who must not be forgotten.

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Our friend the enemy, the Daily Press, has suggested that there will be dissensions in the Labour Party. Perhaps there won't. The members of every party have civil growl sometimes. They would not be men if they didn't. That Human Nature the Courier and Telegraph so often trot out as the objection to Socialism (which by the way is no valid objection to State ownership and control) will see that they don't nestle together in caucus like a number of turtle doves; but the members of the Parliamentary Labour Party are not above heeding the warnings of experience. Having observed the ill effects of the want of unity in other Labour Parties, they know that if they fall out the only persons who will benefit by the split will be the capitalist Individualists whom they were sent into Parliament to fight. The present Queensland Labour members have passed through their most trying time – the first session in Parliament. Having safely preserved their unity, their friendship for one another, and having received the commendation of grateful constituents for so doing, it will take more than the cunning of the opposite side to break them up for many years to come.

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Sir Thomas M'Ilwraith is “ but a subordinate member of the Ministry.” So the gentleman himself stated. Yet the legislative business of this immense territory must await consideration until he has recovered from some complaint caused probably by high living. To the WORKER it appears nearly time the province awakened to the fact that no one man is indispensable to the country's welfare. Each individual of us might cease to exist to-morrow and cause no more interference with the current of progress than a needle falling into a river. New South Wales once thought it couldn't get along without Sir Henry Parkes; then it found that Parkes was superfluous and Dibbs a necessity. Now our southern elderly sister proposes at an early date to do without both of these political despots who consider a Parliament incomplete without them. And Queensland must see that Sir Thomas M'Ilwraith , far from helping the colony out of the troubles into which he and other individualist politicians have placed it, is only hindering it from righting itself. Don't let us indulge in any sham crocodile's tears over his indisposition. Not a man amongst us who had lived the life he is said to have led would expect anything else. It is the duty of the community to be kind and even generous; but it must be even handed kindness and even handed generosity. Sir Thomas M'Ilwraith is not the only Queenslander who is ill at the present time. There are thousands of men, women, boys and girls on this end of Australia who are ill – not from OVER – feeding, but from UNDER – feeding brought about by the legislation which Sir Thomas and his “strong personality” have forced through both Houses of Parliament.

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There are hundreds of men and hundreds of women ill in body and in mind through want of employment and through over employment, who require redress and will not get it till the whole tribe of M'Ilwraithians are thrown out of Parliament or compelled to legislate in the direction of radical reform. The sensitive nerves of opponents of the WORKER will be quite shocked at the vulgar brutishness of anyone who would say anything against Sir Thomas M'Ilwraith at the present juncture. We know all about that. As we write we can see their hands raised in unspeakable horror at our want of common decency. And perhaps not a few working man will join them in their surprise. But then are object to cant and hypocrisy every time. If Sir Thomas is really ill, we are prepared that he shall receive at State expense the very best medical attention and advice; but we can't silently see the Parliament of the country closed until M'Ilwraith is reconstructed, while men are driven to beg, steal, or starve, women are driven to vice and despair, and girls are driven to the streets for want of that work which it is the duty of Parliament to provide for all who ask it. Until the country is on its legs again and the people are prosperous Parliament should be sitting for at least nine months out of the twelve. This, of course, does not suit the politicians who would “legislate” for three months in the year and holiday-make for the remaining nine. The WORKER doesn't suppose it's much use calling public meetings about the further prorogation. The anti-Labor press will excuse the delay by bemoaning M'Ilwraith's illness. Long-suffering Labour must only bear its burden a little longer. Old Father Time heals many wounds. Perhaps he will soon heal M'Ilwraith.                                                    W. G. H.