Image TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage Tile
Image size: 6656x7680 Scale: 35% - PanoJS3
Page overview thumbnail

Article text

WHO THREW THE BRICK?
That is what the. O.L.P. has been
asking- itself «ii the week. Who threw
the brick,, and why? The question is
easily answered; but there is small
comfort in. the -answering of lt for the
wounded lions of the Trades Ball.
When the Albany seat became vacant
they reckoned it a sure thing for thetnT
They sought out W. D. Johnson, the
strongest candidate they could get, a
man certain of inclusion in any .con
eel rabie O.L.P. Government, and asked
him to accept a nomination. That wily 1
old* campaigner, who never takes on j
forlorn hopes, was sedulously nursing
his old constituency of Craildford, but
so rosy did the prospects appear at Al-
bany that he readily consented to en- j
ter the lists. So down went William, !
full of ardor and confidence, to the 1
southern port, and 18 spell-binders i
went with him. To release the 18
spell-binders froni- a prior engagement
the triennial OX. P. Congress was put
off io* a week. And only one voice was
raised against Johnson's and those of
his 18 spell-binders, and it belonged to
Scaddan. Alone in a whirlwind of
O.L.P. oratory be took on Johnson and
his 18 spell'-binders, and fought the.]
election On a single, issue. The odds
were heavily against him, but be waa
confident in his cause and himself. I
And the 19 O.L.P. gentlemen were con- j
fident, too. They were cocksure to the
last moment, They thought they had J
blinded the electors With rhetoric. They
had visions of mardiing in triumphal
procession -to the O.L.P. Conference
amidst ^shouts of "Up Johnson" and
"What Albany Says To-day Western
Australia Will Say To-morrow." But
when the numbers went up-well, this ¡
is wbat the numbers said:
Scaddan. Johnson. |
Albany Town Hall ... 790 705
Ring River. 22 ll
Torbay Jonction .... 91 28
Forest HÙI ,. .43 " 4
.Narrikup .. ...... 33 S
Frankland River.. .. 29 4
Tenterden ..... .. 33 22
Cranbrook ......... -70 7
Mount Barker. 224 ' lei
Denmark. 107 72
Postal votes .. ... V. 238 78
Totals .. .. .. 1680 1041
Majority for Scaddan..'. 639
There's no mistaking " what THAT ]
means "If tho Albany people want à
party that applauds violence and jus-
tifies disobedience to the' laws," we
wrote on May 25, "there is one before
them at the -present -moment, if they j
preter anarchy to responsible govern
ment they will have the right to ex er-1
else then- preference on Saturday. Mob
rule or law,^aafi order.- .* That's .the
Issue at Albany> And that was the
issue on which Scaddan fought the
election, and the people of Albany
more power to their elbows!-decided
emphatically In his favor. A "key" j
electorate has pronounced judgment on
the lawlessness openly preached at
Fremantle. It has unequivocally con-
demned that lawlessness, and every
lover of representative institutions
will rejoice that it had the clear-sight-
edness and the courage to do so. It
has not only, -repudiated. the Colliers,
iuteys and Joneses of the O.L.P., 'but
has registered a vote of no-^conOdence
lu Corboy, its Federal misrepresenta
tSveTthe young man who stridently de
dared that be would a thousand times !
rather have been wounded in a wharf
riot at Fremantle than in fighting for
"the capitalistic ruters of the world"
in France. In the absence of the pre- '
ferential system <6ince enacted) Cor- ¡
boy fluked in on a -minority vote, but '
Saturday week's figures convey a plain
warning to this exuberant youth to
make *the most of what be yet may
spend before he, too, shall to the dust
descend. In the notorious Fremantle ¡
speech in which he advised the workers
not to be too obedient' to the laws,, the :
OXi.P. leader- clamored for a general
election. Had 'his demand been acceded
to. what a shock he would have got.
Albany made it clear that this is no]
red-Bag country. The West Austra- 1
Han people- are pretty sick of "Na-
tionalism," but they haven't swang
round to Bolshevism. They-have rio
more use for Bolshevism than they
had for Prussianism, and this we be-
lieve is true of the majority of trade
unionists, Fremantle lumpers included:
indeed Mr. Johnson complained bitter
I ly at tbe declaration of the poll Uiat
"quite a number of working men and
their wives" had voted against him.
And yet with the Albany elector's boot
freshly imprinted on its hide the OÍ.P.
Congress passed one resolution object-
ing to the anti-Bolshevik policy of the
British Government, and another en-
thusiastically approving of the One Big
Union. Do these benighted blockheads
really believe that any community in
its senses would trust them to run a
[ country? _
Either there there are some darned
bad judges In England, or English
judges are a lot more blunt and out-
spoken than Australian ones in their
occasional animadversions on their
learned brethren. Thus Mr. Justice
Darling, presiding over the Court of
Criminal Appeal, which upset a con-
viction by Mr. Justice MCardle:
I am of opinion that there was
misdirection, where there was not
total omission to give any direction
at all. After serious discussion with
my brother judges, I wish to say
that we are at a loss to find foren
I sic expressions to convey our view
how bad the summing-up was.
No such sling-on* as this, even at a
¡blundering stipendiary, has ever gone,
upon the records in thia State.
$