The labor world., 1917-11-10
AUSTRALIA RULED
BY LABOR PARTY
Radicals Have Been In The
Ascendency Since 1910 De:
spite Coalition.

That Australia has the most DEM
ocrat;c and one of the best managed
governments in the world and that
this is due to the vigilant efforts of
he Labor party, in the ascendancy
since 1910, is the assertion made by
=. E. NJ. Jauncey, an Australian who
5 a member of the faculty at the Uni
..ersity of Missouri. Mr.. Jauncey IL
.ery much interested in the political
md economic problems in the United
States and believes that we <could
profit by following the example of
Australia in many ways.
"Australia is a federation of states
like the United States. We have a
federal constitution, but no state con-
titutions," Mr.. Jauncey says. Trough
ly, the Australian constitution defines
upon what matters the federal parlia-
ment can legislate and leaves all other
matters to the state parliaments. This
means that any question can be legis-
lated upon by either the federal or
state parliaments. The federal con-
:stitution can be altered by the state
giving over powers or by popular ref
erendum.
People Get Quick Action.
''The federal parliament consists
Of two houses elected by universal
suffarge on a basis of representation
much like that in America. The life
Of the house of representatives is
three years or less. When any i'm
portant matter creates parliament
ary division, parliament is dissolved
and the people at once have an op-
portunity to sustain or repudiate their
legislators.
1.-The prime minister, who cores
ponds to your president. usually is
chosen from the house of representa-
party. He chooses his own cabinet.
The cabinet members sit in parliament
and always are subjected to ques-
tions, however awkward. The prime
minister and cabinet can be removed
at any time by majority vote against
them in the house of representatives.
Minister Can Be Removed.
1T is practice of the cabinet at
the beginning of each legislative ses-
tends to Introduce during the session.
If the house of representatives does
not approve of the program it can
remove the prime minister and cabs
met from office. The cabinet also
introduces a financial budget at the
beginning of each year.
Our upper house can prevent leg
islation, but it's powers in regard to
money bills are limited and it cannot
remove the prime minister and cab
met. Disputes between the two
houses which result in deadlocks usu-
ally are settled by q general election
or referendum.
mot only is the executive authority
directly responsible to the lower house,
but the lower house itself is directly
and continuously responsible to the
people, for it is the practice that the
government appealstto the country
whenever there is general feeling
that it does not have the confidence OF
the people. The lower house is res
ponsible for carrying on the govern
ment and every voter knows just
where that responsibility lies,
Party Democrattcally Managed.
'The Labor party is one of the few
political parties in the world that is
democratically managed. The party
is financed and it's program drafted
by the rank and file of it's members.
The party is composed of trades un-
ions, farmers societies and others.
These bodies send delegates to the
various state and federal conferences
and these confe- ences, instructed by
the rank and file Of the membership,
in turn instruct Labor members as to
their course in parliament. These
conferences are called at least once
a year and oftener when something
unforeseen Of importance happens. La
Dor candidates are pledged to vote in
parliament as these conferences in
struct. II member refuses, he is
dismissed from the party and that
usually means his political end, for
the workers and farmers in Australia
vote for their principles, not for in
dividuals.>
American Liberals Divided.
'"Some Americans may object that
this system takes away the freedom
of your elective representative. Well,
it does take away his freedom to go
back on his election promises And
it simplifies things immensely for the
voter. The voter reads the Labor and
the Liberalization platforms. If he
likes the Labor platform best, he votes
for it and he knowsit will be carried
out for Labor representatives always
vote as a unit.
THE puzzling thing to me about
American politics is that both the Re-
publican and Democratic parties con-
tain liberals-progressiv you call
them. It's about time that all these
progressives formed political party
of their own instead of voting against
each other. We have done this in
Australia and as q consequence the
trades unions and farmers control the
situation"
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