THE POLITICIAN OF AUSTRALIA

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3169, 21 August 1917, Page 6

THE POLITICIAN OF AUSTRALIA

AS HE IMPRESSES AN AUSTRALIAN (By "Spectator." in Hie Melbourne "Age") Wβ compel citizens to Sfo Hint liinir mime? aro on the Parliamentary roll. Fiir bettor compel (hem to visit occasionally Parliament House. It would Iμ a surer corrective of political ay:iiliy; it would revolutionise our polilic.il sysKzn. l'ew citizens have over been rhero. 'J hat circumstance oxpluins our political humiliation. Most citizens know the politicians only through the Press. .And, after the Press has dressed them np, they souiDlimcs look impressive. But go and look; go and listen. .The sensu of impreesiveness will diminish, vanish. As on<> contemplates the men. who sit in Parliaments the old problem of the fly iu the amber is revived. Houover did it get in? /

Partial light on the problem i= Buj-plied by tho man of dubious character wlio was appointed a churchwarden. To an astonished friend, who asked however tho church had come to mako him a vnrdun. the man replied: "They had just !o build the wall with the stoues that vera bandy."

Such is our political fate. Jluiiy stones arc handy, but fow are n't. And. when the stono is into the wall, it is d'ffieult to decide lvhich is the more discreditable—the disfiguremeut in tho wall, or we who built thestoiie in.

Any Parliament in the worU fur : nishee a weird psychological nluSy. No' other institution can bring (ogethor so many varied types with so many diverse motires. Our Australian collection is not free from imperfections. Uur professional politician is anything by birth, everything by occupation, an Australian by adoption, a party Bian by compulsion, and a legislator by the luck of n lifetime and the gullibility of tho Australian people. And "yet, well knowing these things, we go forth year by year to gather our grapes from our thorns, our Sg.s from our thistles. The professional politician is int destitute of qualities. The mass meeting voice, the undamablo volubility, If.o verbal picturesciueness, and, above r.li, the nu'6 gift of saying small things in the great mamior. " He can tell a. meeting that tf'O and two mako f our with the air of saying something antirely no-ve! and tremendously important. Nicolas Copernicus could not hava enuncijHed his famous theory with greater impulsiveness.

When the politician is not speaking he is posing. Playing Sphinx is a delightful role for him. And it is such a safe one. A certain Judge had ve-y ary abilities, but a very lisrir.guished presence. It was said that iio niun wos ever half so wise as that .Tuilg-3 ljok«l. That is our professional politician to a nicety. Ho is a Sphinx without a s«'iet. a thiiiß of cant'and pose. Ton and I know that, usually, he is a. mowed barbarian, or a hnrd-up charlatan. Euucationnlly lie could not be reiied lipcn .to say why old Mother Hnbbard won!, to her cupboard. Inlellectnnlly li< powers arc infinitely feebler than yo\:r ov;r ; , except on the day when you sneak into a polling booth and voto f or him. lie- g<ts a seat ill Parliament, and yuu get ic f l with the problem of how to esgiaiii your political act to your recording ang'- , ..