The Alaska citizen., 1910-08-22

The mine boy who could keeI sweet tempered: the miner who could be an "agitatOr" without fuming ana ranting: the labor leader who could smile as he worked this is Andrew i Fisher, child slave in the coal pits Of Ayrshire. Scotland. and now prime minister of Australia.
 Its-Well. much like the bottom side of the hcreafter-to drag your burden, tiring, through the coal dark" underground. when you have not reached your teens. and would rather be romping on the health or fishing. or hunting
 But Andy didn't cuss the world bad as il was He smiled and whist. led. and al 20 made his way to the | gold fields of Australia. Here his cheery ways made him leader of men. He has helped to weld togeth. CT the Labor party through which he hopes to make Australia place where boys won't have to give up their boyhood to greedy capital, as Andy did.
 For the miners liked this very lik. able Fisher, and his advancement in his trade union, where hebecame i'm mediately active, and in the Labor party, was very rapid. He represent ed the party in the state parliament of Queensland in 1893, and has been in politics since. He was prime min ister in 1908, but as the Labor party did not control the law making body, he had no support Now his party controls the government en- tirely.
 He is not a brilliant orator, but speaks clearly, forcibly, and briefly.
 Never before in the history of the world has a great nation of people been absolutely governed by the la boring men. But this is the condi- ton in Australia in the year 1910. Labor, politically organized, com pletely controls the government.
 The cabinet is not filled with law yers, much less corporation lawyers. There's just one member of the bar in the ministry. W. II. Hughes. at tOrney- general, but he is a lawyer for working people and not for cap italists. Andrew Fisher, the prime minister, is q mine worker. E. L.. Batchelor, minister of foreign af- fairs, is a metal worker. Josish Thomas. Postmaster-general, is a miner. Senator Pearce, minister of | defense, is a carpeneter. F. G. Tu- dor, hatmaker is minister of trade and customs. King OMauey. a newspaper reporter, is minister of home affairs Senator McGregor. yicc-chairman of the national coun- cil, is a day laborer
 The official figures show that the election by which the Labor party 1 got full control of the government was a landslide. In the last senate the fused Conservative and Liber- al parties had 2l representatives; 1 Labor h. In the new senate Labor i has 23 representatives, while the l FusiOnists have but 13 The old | house contained 46 Fusionists, 29 La borites. In the new house there are 44 Labortes, and but 3l Fusionists l The anti-labOr majority of 23 has been reversed into a Labor major ity of 23. The Labor party elected every one of the IS senators in the six states 0here are IS others who held over from the last parliamenD, , and won h seats in the house Former Prime Minister Alfred Dea- bin's combine of free traders and protectionists is so badly declared that it will probably break up
 Among the causes of the political revolution are the action of the state government in New South Wales in playing into the hands of the coal l trust during the great strike, when it enacted a law outlawing strikes and bOycotts; the reckless eXtrava- gance of the Deakin administration, and it's refusal to enact progressive 1 legislation which had been promised 10 the working people; sham tariff 1 fights to distract the attention of the workers from their grievances; the growth of trusts, and tax-dodg- ing by the rich.
 The people smashed states rights" at the same time, in a ref erendum, by voting to natiOnaliZe state debts and centraliZing the pub | lie financial power in the national government. This is the entering wedge to make the federal power dominant, and the states subordin- ate. There is no one man rule in the new Australian scheme of things. The curse of Australia has been the ownership of great tracts of land by individual owners. Many of the greatest holdings are in the hands of men who live in England and I