FEDERAL LABOUR PARTY.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 23, 22 October 1907, Page 5

FEDERAL LABOUR PARTY.

MR. WATSON'S : RETIREMENT. BY TEIEGRAriI—MESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT. , ' Sydney, October 21. .Mr. J.'.C; Watson states that his'retirement from tho position of Leader of tho Labour party in the Federal',Parliament is duo to health reasons. ■■• AN APPRECIATION. ■: "A very tower, of strength' to those of faith in human naturo (wrote ,'F.R. lately in the 'Lono Hand '), is such a man as John Christian Watson. As lie stands to-day—his politics hated by'mn,ny people, himself hated by none; with no whisper of a crime, a folly, or even a. meanness against his name; an acknowledged ■ equal > among the learned, though he never* knew a schoolhouse in his boyhood; -simple and unaffected among a thousand flatterers; gentle and of dignity, and as such' respected in any company, though 'just a working man'—Watson is at once a' splondid proclamation for the essential' good of. our human nature; Mnco such great'qualities can be, and for;the fine freedom of-our 1 /Australian social system, since they can be recognised and rewarded .with* the highest prizes.of citizenship., Hard to say which is the greater, matter for congratulation, that such good qualities should bo, or that they should get from all sides such generous recognition. , ' ' ■" ■ ■ - '■■' , HIS HONESTY. ■ 1 "J. C. 'Watson is not merely the hero of his own class or his own party. Throughout the Commonwealth there is hardly a man who doe's not confess to an admiration of the Labour leader. I can recall, when the first Deakin Ministry, had abandoned office, hazarding the opinion in a Melbourne club that J. C." Watson would be sent for by the GovernorGeneral. The company was Conservative, and I expected some words of dismay. But there was none. • The . feeling of those around was-1 expressed by' one old pastoralist: "Well, that would be all right. Mr. Watson is an honest ' man,, and fair. If, now, lie- would. take in; with him Mr. Allan M'Lean, and one or two others who understand the country, it would bo. all right." The ; speaker knew_ little of, politics—could not see the impossibility of a Watson-M'Lean alliance—but his testimony -to Watson's character .was none the less valuable. It, represented tho general public feeling in the' Commonwealth, that Watson is 'straight.' \ ' DUTY BEFORE'AMBITION. ""/ "Nor is it .'because of any failure to fight his'"'strongest and Best'for tho Labour party that Watson wins friends in 'the enemy's' camp. Ho' is tho keenest of party men, nnd in respect of his Labour-political principles, absolutely uncompromising: At any time within 'the ' last . five years he might : have several his, own ambition, and ensured a reasonable programme of democratic, reform, by leaving the ranks of the Labourites. Always his faco /lias 'been set steadily against such proposals, however specious their guise. Those who know: liiiii best assert that if ever Watson had'.toi leaS'O- the Labour party (and, . once it, was made clear to him that the' Labour party had set. its face in the wrong direction, Watson would be forced by his own character to leave it);'lie would abandon public life. And I know that on. occasions offers have come to him, which ranged exactly with his dealWishes, and which 'he might have accepted without tho,. meanest caviller being able .to allege a; suspicion of"'dishonour',, and. have, been sturdily set aside because of a high senso of his duty, to the' Labour party. 'Duty', is, I take it, tho,.keynote ;of J. C v Watson's .character." "''-.''"'