SYDNEY LETTER.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17287, 30 September 1916, Page 12

SYDNEY LETTER.

THE LABOUR PARTY AND ITS LEADERS. ROCKS AHEAD. [From Oitk Ooubf-sponpext.] Se{>t,ember 20. For a long time past oven supporters of the Labour Party’s political platform havo watched the progress of tho organisation towards disruption witli cynical curiosity about how long they would have to- wait before tho party fell over tho. precipice it was surely moving' towards. There is still room for speculation on wlffin the disaster will happen, tWugh this lias now been greatly limited.. There is room, too, for speculative reflection upon the character of tho crash. But there is no doubt that-tho party baa moved substantially closer to the place where it is going to fall, und is now going forward at a gallop. The pa-irty' was getting into trouble when Mr Fisher packed up liis traps and went away to be; High Commissioner. ' Ho sensed what was coming. Tho conscription issue has riven it to tho foundations and skims likely to be the nominal cause of an upheaval and readjustment, of which no man can yet see tho general outline. It would, however, be indicative of the shallowest possible view to suggest that the LabPar Party’s present trials and tribula- ■ Lib us arise from divergence, on the compulsory service issue. _ This has merely . .accentuated pre-existing difficulties —have been the wind that has stirred .smouldering embers into flame. The cause of the trouble. that afflicts the- party • lias, its root in the system of regimentation devised by Labour and the.,attempt, to subordinate parliamentary. governffient to governmentby a p;;rtisan-ri'4den caucus. Viewed brigidly, Labour in politics has presented the spectacle of an electorate gagged aiid a legislature haltered. - its primary aim has been to establish , machine : by which the electors tvould bd marshalled into battalions (as ballotbox fodder, so to, speak), and members of. Parliament become walking delecrates. To V superficial extent it duocorded —that is to say. the organisation i t the electorates has beon powerful, and the grip 'on the politician was tor a time fime. ..But. these condition© were in their very nature ephemeral. . Men and women may for a time vote an they are told—but they will not do it all the time and every time—not Australians, at any rate- » pw f jn'iiciiiiie may be set up that looks per f.’ct., but penetration, by ers and adventurers is a mighty diffi ell lt thing to. {guard against.. It w wliat the Australian Labour. Party was not protected against and the jejh.iess earned bv' tho delusion that tho mere election of persons-to Parhamen represented’ the trjumph of Labour , m politics was a sinister influence Tic Mon as tho machine was- captured bv 0 clique. A 3 it stood originally ■ th o T-abohr party was identical with ti e SZ? movement, and however people might disagree with its platform only the incurably blind could deny, that R at least stood for a decent thing _ that its' ideals if translated iMo publm policy - would have been nltogothe worthy. But the ants were quickly at work. Labour attracted to itself all sorto of diverse influences and interests and ambitions. The politician saw a ladder that was easy to climb; the w ironuller a wire that only had to be grasped to move something. There were loaves and fishes m sight—billets, pa ronage and power. The pohtic.an soon had tho elector by the throat and tho elector; has known, for a long »We that' the political machine was being used to demoralise him. By tlie prodigal use of loan money a period of fictitious “prosperity” was maintained, wages advanced and many apparon concessions gained by the working crowd. But all this has had to be paid for and amid a carnival of waste and evasion and truckling to special interests t-ho elector has found that taxation was creeping up, the value of his wages falling down and the principles on which a party of reform was founded strangled by the reformers themselves. The signs of discontent have been many. In this State they came to a head a tew months ago when the industrial unions drove tho Old Guard from the place of domination in tho Political. Labour League, and after a sharp, struggle made the Premier and his colleagues eat copiously of the leek. They reached the stage of an eruption the other day when tho N.S.W., League passed a resolution oxpolling Mr Hughes, the Prime Minister, from the Labour movement. As Mr Hughes is now scornfully repudiating the league and cnlling.it “a secret junta” and ;i collection of irresponsibles,” you will see that the • joss-destroying campaign has fairly started. Will Mr Hughes break Labour or will Labour break liimP It is an interesting point for speculation. My own view is that the Labour Party we all knew is broken already and that Mr .Hughes and Mr Holman have to plough a. lonely furrow, They may survive for a time—but beyond next elections who can see? Certainly not Mr Hughes or this writer. AIR HUGHES AND THE UNIONS. That great changes are pending is certain, for we now have the extraordinary spectacle of the Labour Party repudiating its leader. The immediate effect of this expulsion of Mr Hughes is difficult to see. As the labour organisations all over the Commonwealth are up in arms against him, one question that arises i 3 what effect this will havo on Labour members of the rank and file in the Federal Parliament? Will those who follow him be cast out also? Of course bis expulsion cannot effect his position as a member of Parliament, but one would imagine that it greatly weakens his position in caucus. Those members who depend for their political life on the support of tho Labour organisations, will have to walk warily or they will find themselves in the wilderness—for those organisations will be. ruthless against those who defy them. A heavy vote at next month’s plebiscite in favour of conscription will give the Labour politicians little comfort, for that will not be the vote they could hope to receive at a general election; It will be largely Liberal. And there is nothing more certain than that the anticonscription vote is going to be large, for as the campaign has opened it seems clear to be one in which the real issue will be as between the Hughes following plus the Liberals on one side and the anti-Hughesites on the other. Mr Hughes lias set Labour by the ears; and it is oxcedingly doubtful now whether he dare attempt to address a purely Labour meeting in any large centro of population in the Commonwealth. He spoke to a meeting of Labour delegates in Sydney a week ago for the purpose of explaining his policy. From this meeting reporters were excluded, but it is known that Air Hughes got severely handled, and there was a very painful scene. On Alonday evening Air Hughes returned to .Sydney from Alelbourne apd addressed a public meeting at the Town ■Hall , for tne puiqjose of launching tho plebiscite campaign. It was an enormous meeting and wildly enthusiastic. Fully 4000 people were /present, and a resolution supporting Air Hughes was carried with tremendous cheers. . On the platform wore leading members of

the State Labour Ministry, of the Federal and Stato Opposition. But no good' purpose would bo served by hiding tho fact —that admission was by ticket only and that tho tickets were distributed bv tho Liberal organisation. Labour was not there—or, at any rate, recalcitrant Labour was not—and if there were 4000 citizens cheering Mr Hughes inside, it cannot be denied that there were 8000 outside in the surrounding streets frantically cheering other people who were saying something very different from’Air Hughes. All this may be unpleasant to near about, but it is part of what is going on and has to bo reckoned with, just as the resignation of Mr Tudor, the Alimster of Customs, has to bo. It may presage a “fuse” between the Hughes Labour wing and tho Opposition in Federal politics and the Holman lies and the Liberals in the State. That would bo an exceedingly, interesting experiment. I think it quite possible that something of the kind may happen. _ But whether it does or not, there, is no .getting away from this—that Air Hughes and other Labour politicians are having a mighty rough time, that they for the present arc losing their grip on what supported them in the past, and that we have entered upon a period ol uproar and earthquake. UNREALISED HOPES.

Apart from this issue of compulsory service there appears among all sections of the Labour Party a. consciousness of failure. It has been easy to hope* for things and easy to promise them. It was not difficult to build- up a political system which looked watertight. It was hard to keep it so in practice.. Labour Ministries have gone into office with their mouths full promises to “ the people” and carrying in their hands plans and specifications ter the millenium. But the milleiuum is no nearer. Ministries found thcio were limitations to their powers an defects in their plans. And beyond spending money with almost incredib-o extravagance tlieso Ministries 4 aT ® done little or nothing. They have lived by the distribution of doles. With continual interference from outside committees and leagues representative government has been reduced to & farce. Neither in Commonwealth or State lias there of lute' years been anything ot tho sort. There has been government by leagues, Lib. and Lab. Most of tile outside unions are strongly infected by tho Socialistic theory. They want, or say they want, Socialism at once, but how’ or by wha.t means they can get it they have not the most remote idea, unless perhaps it be by encouraging tlie principle m “Go Slow ”. and fomenting strikes.* And the poh'ticans have found that there is a limit to borrowing, for the promotion of “booms.” The consequence is. that nmong Labour electors and parliamentarians there has for a long time been strong suspicion of having been engaged in a. sham fight—of wasting energy and time on achieving mnjoriti«s in Parliament which were helpless and hopeless. All those “great economic problems” which Labour was going to solve remain either where they Tore or'have grown more complicated. Protection lias be«tn a failure except) as a method of raising tremendous, revenues and increasing prices. Land settlement has proceeded at a snail’s pace even where jt has not gone backwards. Wages have been forced up by prodigal borrowings, but not sufficiently to keep pn.ee with the cost of living. Indeed the position now is that borrowing is necessary to keep the country from being flooded with unemployed. Tliis is not what Labour sot out to achieve, hub it is nn incontrovertible cpitomisntion of what has happened under Labour administrations. Thero is little reason to wonder that the electors should he crowing discontented and becoming disillusionised. Tlie Labour movement on the confession of its warmest supporters, in spite of a magnificent. organisation for voting purposes, has been a failure, except that it has taught the people many lessons. The best evidence of this is that now in tho hour of Australia’s greatest trial Labour should bo split into warring camps, casting out devils, and be bankrupt in imagination and leadership.