LABOUR'S VICTORY.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13714, 22 April 1910, Page 8

LABOUR'S VICTORY.

THE FEDERAL ELECTIONS.

WHY 3IR FISHER WON

(FROM OVR AUSTRALIA-* COaRESFONOENT.) SYDNEY, April 16.

The Fusion has been absolutely wrecked at the polls, as you have learned by cable. Various causes aro put forward to account for the debacle. Mr Deakin himself thinks it was largely duo to the superior organisation of tne Labour party, and Mr Cook abo recards this as an important factor. On the other hand, Mr Hughes, -who vnU be tho Attorney-General in the «£ Fisher Cabinet, as. he was in the-last one, ridicules this idea. Our* was no .better than gat of fhe Fusion," he writes. '/TheyJ had the Press with them, which is better than all the organisation in th© world. « we had had the Press with, us there would not have been the faintesttrace of tho Fusioniste remaining. fco rar Z I have seen, in all the discussion of the subject, one of the leading causes has been almost, if not entirely, lost sight of-namely, the P«>S"f "™ -* nd tax There is no doubt that the Labour party, which makes this tax a leading plank of tho platform, gamed a tremendous lot of votes people who otherwise might have supported tho Fusion. The feeling against the possession of big estates close to towns is very strong in some of the country districts of New South Wales, and this .radii v- accounts for the big show which Labour, contrary to expectation, has made in the rural constituencies. The farmers, to a large extent, J»«d against this taxation, for even though the exemption of £5000 is proposed, as in New Zealand, the fear which invariably exists that tho smah man might be dragged into the net in some way or other, whether it be justified or not, undoubtedly exercised some influence. , It was tho farmers' vote which coved Mr Deakin. who has had the run of bis life at Ballarat against a young man of 25, Mr D. P. Russell, who never was -supposed to havo had a chance. Even his friends of the Trades Hall could not see any prospect that Mr Ruasell would get anywhere near victory. Yet he ran tbe Prime Minister to a couple of hundred votes. He is an Australian, a miner by occupation, cousin of Senator one of tho Labour members of the Senate for Victoria, and brother of Fireman Russell, who was killed in the recent railway accident, et Beaufort. At the election of 1906, Mr Doakin had a majority of 6026 over a stronger opponent, Mr J. H. Scullin, the general organiser for the Australian Workers' Union, who wins the Corangimito seat this time for tho Labour party by nearly 2000 votes. . The angry Protectionists of Victoria, led by the "Age," and furious at the sinking of the fiscal issue when the Fusion was established, threw their forces into tho scale agiainst Messrs Deakin and Cook. It has been claimed that Protection had nothing whatever to do -with the Labour victory in Victoria, since Mr Mauger, Mr Humo Cook, the Government Whip, nnd Mr Crouch, all staunoh friends of Protection, were amongst the great rejected. But this argument cuts the other way equally well. Is it not extremely probable that they were rejected because-, they were supporters ot a Government which has thrown Protectiou overboard? When Mr Deakin", the advocate pf higher duties, end Mr Cook, Freetrader from New South Wales, joined forces, they quietly thrust the fiscal -issue* under the table. ' It was too inconvenient a, subject to bo discussed by. - Cabinet of such uncompromisingly hostile views. The first chance the Protectionkt electors got to express their yiijws about this arrangement came on Wednesday fcst, and Mr Deakin, to hiii astonishment, found himself fighting for his life against a man whom nobody had ever heard of. Then in New South Wales there was bitter resentment on the part of the ... j , n __ 6 a S ai -st what is called Wades Coercion Act. This is the new passed last session of the •State Parliament, in face of. the coal war,' to make it a .penal offence not only to strike, but even to mee-t to discuss -a strike. Even outside the ranks of Labour this "was felt to be unnecewjaruy severe, and, in fact, likely to defeat its own object. One requires to proceed with extreme caution and tact-in seeking to deprive men of rto right to me-et together and discuss their grievances!, especially at a time when they are inflamed against tneir .employers. Hence Labour resolved to wait its opportunity, and thus it voted to a man against the Fusion. What the Fusion had to j3o with the Coercion, Act, passed by a State Parliament, is not in any way clear; but the, electors are not the most logical body of people in tbe world. Mr W. Itf. Hughes, whose chances,in Weat Sydney were never very much in doubt, won by about 8000 votes. This, is also a very strong Labour constituency, but the significant feature OT the contest is that the ex-Attprney-General was opposed-bv a ■socialist, Mr Holland, whose candidature tested effectively the question of how far the Labour electors generally "°__ n avoUr of'-to*' red-flag mouthings ot the demagogues who wish to -engraft on the Labour movement in Australia «>me of the features of Continental "socialism. The answer was tinmistakeable. _Mr Hughes polled over 12,000 votes, Mr Holland only 620. This ig an effective answer ako to" tho claim put forward the other day by a correspondent _? _* i ette r *« one of the newspanere that Peter Bowling, though in prison, was tlie active force in the triumph of Labour at the elections. Mr Hughes, the determined opponent of the Bowlm* Sr_f y - J wen _ i - m wi tb flying colours; Air Holland, whcee policy is very much a tin to that-of Bowling, never had a g°P?V x ln %, saino "**7> the three Socialist candidates nominated for the ■ n * t %, are out of the running. Even Mr John Norton has beaten them, and he is about 12,000 votes be- ."!_;.*&„ ne:rt ' man - "•"•'&>. in his turn. u-v 30.000 votes below the lowest of the three men now in the lead—all Labourites. Tbe Labour success has enabled the party to capture the three Senate sets m -\ew South Waks. Indieed, though the counting of the returns is not yet over, for the -whole State is the constituency, it seems probable that Labour will send back a solid phalanx of Senators. At present there is not a- single Liberal in the first threetnywhere except, in Queensland, where i G'assey is at present in third place. [Later figures gave Labour all the Senate seats contested throunh the Commonwealth.—Ed., "Press."*) _ Mr Fisher now gets his great chance. For the first time in the history of the Australian Federation, there is a jfartv in power with an absolute majority independent of alliance with any. other section of the House. It will be 0 f the greatest, interest to see bow Mr Fisher, himself a cautious and moderate man wT .-"SL&S - an 2- a! i l,< *. "PPOrtnnity. Ho is pledged to the land tax. and this •will be one of the first measures proposed- He * pfedged also to tho nationalisation of monopolies, and the p j y _r eimid him wants this just as *Tdently as the land tax. How will he nationalise monopolies?—that is the question. And, how will he deal with the party behind them if they want to travel too quickly.