The Awful Australian

This strange, topsy-turvey country, not content with having fruit with

stones on the outside, has made the unique experiment of handing over its

government to its peasantry! Other lands have at times fallen under the

sway of the hoi-polloi, but this has always been temporary, and the result

of some hysterical upheaval. But in Australia this has not been the case.

The electors calmly and deliberately voted the Labour Party into power in

April, 1910, and, since then, two of the six ridiculous States that this

country of four and a-half millions has divided itself into have also calmly

and deliberately decided, by majorities, to entrust their national guidance

to butchers and bakers and candlestick-makers.

That any body of people should do this¿even in a country where every

man and woman, irrespective of education, wealth, or social position has a

vote¿seems unintelligible to the English visitor. It certainly was

unintelligible to me at first. It grew more of a mystery when I saw and

heard several of the Labour leaders. Then I saw and heard the Liberal

leaders, and I no longer wondered.