Political Suicide Mr. Stanley Bruce

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 799, 21 October 1929, Page 14

Political Suicide Mr. Stanley Bruce

NATIONALIST DEBACLE MYSTERIOUS MR. SCULLIN (Written for THE SUN) SYDNEY, October 16. If ever a man committed political suicide, it was the Right Hon. Stanley Melbourne Bruce, for almost seven years Prime Minister of the Australian Commonwealth. When I forecast a fortnight ago that the Nationalist Government would be displaced by an Administration led by Mr. J. H. Scullin, Leader of the Labour Party, it was impossible to foresee such a debacle. The new Prime Minister will be in the fortunate position of commanding a good majority of the entire Chamber. His Government w r ill not be at the mercy of that band of Nationalist malcontents led by the former Prime Minister, Mr. Hughes, the “little Digger,” who undoubtedly dug the grave for the party he once so triumphantly led.

In the hour of defeat, one has much sympathy for Mr. Bruce, who despite the fact that he misjudged the pulse of the people so sadly on arbitration and on every other issue, deserves well of the Australian people. Thoroughly sincere, above petty intrigue, and at all times imbued with a genuine desire to serve his people, the loss of Mr. Bruce must be keenly felt. There was no mistaking the anxiety of Australia, however, to replace him. The most bitter blow of all. however, is his rejection by his own constituents at Flinders. Mr. Bruce is a much misunderstood man. The great mass of Australians never liked him. His popularity at most was party-machine manufactured. If there were times when Mr. Hughes was execrated, there were times, too, when he was adored as probably no other man in Australia has been worshipped. Whereas Mr. Bruce was merely respected. To the average Australian, he not only represented Big Business, but he stood for something alien. The Prime Minister’s spats were undoubtedly one of the causes of his political extinction! OVERDOSE OF POWER Neither can Mr. Bruce be entirely free from the charge of swollen head. It takes an exceedingly steady man to stand seven years of office. A few weeks ago I was with a party of about 20 correspondents who interviewed Mr. Bruce in his suite at the Australia Hotel. The Prime Minister, obviously, was in a bad humour. To one pressman who asked a perfectly reasonable question concerning an Imperial matter, Mr. Bruce rudely replied that he should attend a school for the study of Imperial procedure. This was a very different Mr. Bruce to the one 1 had first met several years before—suave, aloof, so coldly distant, and gentlemanly. It gave some little indication of the Prime Minister’s altered outlook. The poise we all knew was gone. Mr. Bruce was generally what the average schoolboy would term “rattled.” In politics this sort of thing often precedes a fall. When a Cabinet Minister goes out of his way to be unnecessarily rude to a pressman, the assumption, invariably correct, is that he is suffering from an overdose of power.

Press opinion at this juncture is interesting. Tliat Government stalwart, the “Sydney Morning Herald,” says it is time that the Nationalist machinery was overhauled. The party, it declares, wants young life, new organisation, and some semblance of enthusiasm in its electoral branches “if it is to elicit its due confidence as a free and virile organisation.” It would not have suffered the outrages upon it of Mr. Hughes and Mr. Marks (both of whom were returned with enormom majorities), “if it had not already injured and weakened itself.” The “Herald” finds grim satisfaction in the defeat of the Speaker. Sir Littleton Groom, in Queensland. There will not be any tears shed, it remarks, over his dismissal. Mr. Mann, another of the “Free” Nationalist band, has “gone to his own place.” The victory of the Labour Party, after 13 years in the political wilderness, is fairly acknowledged. LED INTO THE MIRE “The Sun,” which frankly espoused the cause of Messrs. Hughes and Marks, says:—“lf ever a party was led into the mire by leaders without political nous, it was the unhappy party which followed Mr. Bruce into battle upon an issue which was foredoomed to destroy it. The Prime Minister induced the Governor-General to grant a dissolution, which political observers felt must result in disaster.” The following day “The Sun” called for the head of Mr. Bruce, by no means an unusual occurrence with a fallen leader. It demanded the inauguration of a new political organisation to be known as the Australian Party. It is quite possible that this course will he followed. The Nationalist Party, as we have known it, is dead. “The News” and the "Daily Telegraph Pictorial” (now both under the control of the "Sun” group) adhere to much the same line of argument. The “Guardian,” always candid where Mr. Bruce is concerned, says that he might well echo the cry of the defeated Roman general: “Varus, Varus, give me back my legions!” It accuses him of committing the most spectacular suicide ever known in Australian political history. NEW PRIME MINISTER

“Who is Mr. Scullin?” This question is being asked continually, not only abroad, but in Australia as well. To the bulk of the people the new Prime Minister will govern for the next few years he is unknown. Mr. Scullin’s first decision not to reside in the palatial Prime Minister’s “Lodge” at Canberra, from which Mr. Bruce is at the moment removing his personal belongings, is a wise one. Everyone knows that Mr. Bruce has been out of pocket through holding office. Canberra at the best (of times is expensive. The new Labour Prime Minister, James Henry Scullin, was born at Trawalla, near Ballarat, ou September 18, 1876. After an education gained in the country districts, which he followed up by study at night school, he went into business in Ballarat. His growing ability as a vigorous platform speaker soon won him prominence in the Australian Natives’ Association, and in political circles. His services, too, as a judge in elocutionary and debating competitions, and as a lecturer among young men’s societies, were in wide request. For

14 years—l am indebted to “The Worker” for these details —he was honorary adjudicator at the Ballarat Competitions. Joining the Labour Party in 1903, Mr. Scullin had his first attempt at Parliament three years later. He essayed no less a feat than to wrest the Ballarat seat In the Federal House from Mr. Alfred Deakin. then Prime Minister. The object in standing was to keep Mr. Deakin occupied in his own electorate as much as possible, and in this Mr. Scullin succeeded admirably. It was this fight that really won Mr. Scullin a reputation in Labour circles, though, of course, he was defeated. He entered Parliament in 1910 in the Labour interests for Corangamite, by defeating the sitting member, Dr. Grattan Wilson. But in the following election, he lost this seat to Mr. J. C. Manifold. Mr. Scullin, always interested in political journalism, then became managing-editor of the “Ballarat Echo,” a Labour evening journal. This post was retained until 1922, when on the death of Mr. Frank Tudor he was chosen to contest the Yarra seat. He has held this constituency without any difficulty since then. Though Mr. Scullin’s career in the Federal Parliament was not as spectacular as that of Mr. Bruce, it was certainly rapid. His appointment to the leadership of the party came when Mr. Matthew Charlton resigned from that position in March of last year. Even the most shrewd of political observers were amazed to find that the inconspicuous Mr. Scullin, almost unknown outside of Victoria, had defeated the Australian wide-known Mr. Theodore, fresh from his Queensland triumphs, for that distinction. ERIC RAMSDEN.