*THE
WORKER*
BRISBANE,
APRIL 13, 1895.
Bystanders'
Notebook.
THE
NEW MAN AND POLITICAL FREEDOM.
It
is seldom that a bushman sees a metropolitan paper, but I chanced to
find a Courier of the 16th march the other day and read a very
amusing article entitled the “New Man.” It is evident that the
writer of same graduated with the late lamented Ananias. In
commenting on the “new man” the Courier,
with
the usual coolness which generally characterises its utterances when
perverting facts and indulging in misstatements, says: “The working
man, from his own point of view at least, is the politically
emancipated man.” Of course we are aware that misstatements of this
description are historical. Now I assert that the workers of this
colony are not politically free. Ever since the inception of
so-called responsible government in Queensland the majority of the
people have been disfranchised, and it is an indisputable fact that
no person in any country can claim to be represented in the
legislature who has not had, with the rest of the community, an equal
voice in the selection of representatives. Yet, in view of the fact
that hundreds of property holders in the colony posses a plurality of
votes over less fortunate people, the Courier
has
the hardihood to inform us that we are politically free. Again the
Courier goes
on to say: “Now the new man has arrived, what has he done? The
franchise has provided him with the opportunity to establish a record
of beneficent deeds. But so far his career from this point of view is
a failure, and the new movement has not yet given Australasian public
life one politician who could be truly designated a statesman,”
The
Courier very
conveniently forgot to give its readers the meaning, as it is
generally understood in Queensland, of the term “statesman.” In
the common acceptation of the term a “statesman” is one who is an
adept in the art of misleading the people, and is ever ready to
prostitute his principle and pocket his patriotism with a view to
self-advancement. In the event of being physically incapable from
actively assisting and using his political position to bolster up
tottering financial institutions, he will continue to hold a nominal
position in a Ministry, take a trip to England, pocket a salary and
do nothing in return. Queensland has produced several statesmen. The
forward movement has produced none, nor is it likely to. It is
satisfied to plod along in the future, as in the past, and content to
stand sharply-defined before a wondering world, independent and
watchful (for in its independence lies its strength), patient and
courageous, political mediocrities if you will, but mediocrities who
will endeavour to use the partial political freedom they possess as a
lever to evolve order out of the present chaos, to substitute reality
for the lifeless image which now bears the in-appropriate name of
political freedom.
JAS. BREEN. Bulloo River.
* * *
THE LONGREACH DEPUTATION.
In the name of common sense what could have induced the
deputation from the workers to wait on Nelson at Longreach to ask him
to have the Electoral Act amened in order that the bushworkers could
record their votes at the general elections! Did the deputation think
for one moment that their request would be granted? What! To ask the
first lieutenant of the unspeakable M'Ilwraith to amend an act which
was made expressly to disfranchise the bushworkers! Verily, there
must be little to do about Longreach when men can be found to waste
their time over such folly. Stay! I may be unjust to the deputation.
The object may have been to show the bushworkers that there is not
the slightest prospect of their obtaining Justice while the present
unprincipled gang is in power. If that was the object in view, then
all I can say is that the deputation succeeded admirably.
T.B. Toowoomba.
* * *
THE PROBLEM OF THE FUTURE.
John Stuart Mill in his autobiography says respecting
his conversion to Socialism: “The social problem of the future we
considered to be how to unite the greatest liberty of action, with a
common ownership in the raw material of the globe, and an equal
participation of all in the benefits of combined labour. Education, habit and the cultivation
of the sentiments will make a common man dig or weave for his country
as fight for his country. Interest in the common good is at present
so weak a motive in general, not because it can never be otherwise,
but because the mind is not accustomed to dwell on it as it dwells
from morning till night on things which tend only to personnel
advantage. When called into activity, as only self-interest now is,
by the daily course of life, and spurred from behind by the love of
distinction and the fear of shame, it is capable of producing, even
in common men, the most strenuous exertions as well as the most
heroic sacrifices.
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