The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-11-25

- INC queensland AdpOI EdIIy--0tato
| Monopolies and Their Probable Out
come-A .Cursory View Of Australian
| Especial Correspondence N. Y. Post.)
Sydney, Nov. 25.-In less than de-
cade a complete change has taken place
on the face Of Australian politics In
or twelve years old, and for the greater
part of that time it has held the bal
ance Of power. For five years it kept
a free trade ministry<in office, and ex-
tracted from it a system of taxation
conceived to be in the interests of the
workingmen. Unable to wiring from it
other measures it had still more at
heart, it turned out the ministry and
| placed and kept the protectionists in
office for another five years term. The
! growth of the labor party in the other
states has been slower, but more strik-
general elections held the other day it
! swelled to thirtyfour members in a
house Of seventy-two Hardly five years
old in West Australia, it has there just
defeated a the the ministry and taken ia its
South Australia the ministry and the
opposition have coalesced to keep the
labor party out Of office, which they do
by just one vote; and in the common
wealth a by brid ministry of. free trad
ers and protectionists is maintaining a
ject. In sorely tried Victoria heroic
effort of the saner portion of the popu-
lation was needed to defeat the labor
party and fling out the ministry it sup
ported. A similar victory has just been
won in New South Wales. Over the
other, political struggles are being re-
duced to single confict-that between
labor and the rest of the community
The fable Of the old Roman senator is
threatening to prove literal fact. If
4 Australia is not exactly being governed
by it's belly (the unskilled laborers), it
4 is being largely governed by it's hands
and feet (the skilled artisans). What
are their claims and what their qualif
cations for the task they have deliber
4 ately assumed9 ..-. ~
Extent of the Labor Party.
First, it is contended that the politi
cal labor party is not coextensive with
: Of, the 423,O0O handworkers in New
South Wales only 10000 are brigadec
= into unions. Nor do unionist artisans
always vote at the crack Of the labo,
M " New At s fS W TSsGnt Heen ~
r boring men and women voted agains
r the labor. candidates. Almost a yea
q ago the electors Of the same state wer,
). called on to vote in connection will
: one of those referendums by which
Q colonial ministry escapes from its diff
n culties. The question was, should tn
n first chamber be reduced in numbers
! and, it so, in what proportionP Tho
/ reduction was imperative in the inter
g ests Of economy (for the more legisla
e tors there are, the more public work
t are eonstructed), the labor party siren
succeeded in fixing a limit below whicl
s no reduction could be voted for. Non
l. the less, reduction was carried by al
y immense majority, and it was NANTES
t from, the numbers polling that larg
q proportion, of the { laboring. class mus
n labor leaders. z.u..s ~. i. ..... . :
It 1t is, moreover, estimated that tn
t, laborihg class does not produce NOR
% than quarter of the wealth annual
produced in Australia: Of this quartz
t. it may perhaps be said that .two-third
le captains of industry-the Capitalist
,r who personally direct Industrial produt
N ton. Employers continually complai
b. that the men are not worth the wage
the unions, compel then. to. pay. The
It. are lazy, handless, and without IT
O1Co
ID wholly incompetent. Without il
IF eessant supervision and constant il
fusion Of energy on the part Of tn
ne employers, their labor would be fulfil
a Lastly, the labor. party owes il
is Ideals, not to itself, but to thinkers an
be Gronlund and Henry George purveye
~ tho socialist policy which New Zealan
~ and the Australian states are carryin
+ out. It was initiated in New Zealan
o.. %. by a commercial traveller, who afte
he wards became q newspaper proprieto
As who succeeded him in the premiershi
lc- An old Highland shepherd devised
as scheme of land purchases and land te
I'm ures that embodied the nationalizatie
re of the land: But by far the most il
2, portant; of the socialistic measures
in carried into law in New Zealand by Il
49, son Of newspaper proprietor who W
: a bit of an Oxonian, and it was deve
he oped and expanded in New, South Wal
Mt, by a cultured Oxonian who is one
re the few instructed men in Australi;
on AS in all else, the colonies here ,
at peat the history Of older countrit
ng Grant Allen remarked that the radio
he leaders, have usually been men Of fal
3D. lily and education. So have the soci;
is, ist leaders. Lassalle arrogantly clai5
'ba culture of his century, (what did
ri. know Of scienceO, and Louis Bla
~, might have made a similar boast
s :oh North Lanarkshire, the other day, t
~ labor candidate was a well-known pu
,ne licist who collects old editions Of T
'a S cretius and first editions of Fitch
lat And it is noticeable that as soon as t
lag Australian. labor leaders acquire t
Der necessary leisure, they set themselv
an to remove their Deficiencies, read
len cessantly, and steadily improve as p,
ng lie speakers. Renan, indeed, believ
ian that the interests of culture were sal
The in the hands of Caliban than in thu
tly Of Prospero or his degenerate succe
en- ors, and it can be affirmed as a f.
csc that government officers in the co
MES are both more literally and M
vas courteously used by uneducated leg
bo- lators and ministers than by those W
,.4 a tinnt1,ro Of oI1ltix1o