RYAN IN SYDNEY

Waikato Times, Volume 92, Issue 14253, 2 January 1920, Page 3

RYAN IN SYDNEY

A FIRST IMPRESSION. ABSENCE OF CELTIC FIRE. j ORATOR WHO "DOESN'T REGISTER" This is how Montague GroverJ editor of the Sunday Sun, Sydney, felt when first he gazed on Thomas Joseph : Ryan). i There was a big crowd gathered about Bondi Junction. From the informal debates which mildly animated the little groups into which they, the ] electors, formed themselves from 8 - o'clock, and from the reception of the : different speakers later, it appeared that .about one-third were supporters! of Labour a sprinkling were supporters I of Nationalism, and the rest were I members of that large body—this time seemingly larger than at any previous . election —the neutrals. | The writer was especially interested. Mr Ryan was the only one of those who loom large in Federal politics whose speeches he had not heard, j The rest —Nationalist and Labour—he has known intimately for years. Most of the neutrals seemed to ne cynically indifferent. They had come to see Ryan, the sturdy Norseman who was to save Australia, and having had a look at him, as they would have looked at the bearded lady or the 1 learned pig or any other celebrity of the hour, they were ready to go home content—as many did an hour later. Here and there were neutrals of another kind. "Ryan—aw; Hughes — aw," observed one ! chinless, round- j shouldered youth, with the deepest disgust, "what the Capitalists want is a little direct action. That's the only thing to shift 'em." To Labour's credit, be it said, Labour did not take him seriously. It delivered to him the supreme insult; it told him to "get work." Then it fixed its eyes on the flare lamps before which the star turn of the evening would shortly appear. Preliminaries. For the present, the turn was anything but a star one. Like vaudeville managers, political organisers put on fll-up turns at the commencement and "emptiers" at the end. The trouble is that a General Election provides the only opportunity most of these performers ever get, and they take full advantage of it. Candidates, Labour and Nationalist alike, would do well to pray to be saved from their friends., It. is a difficult task to silence the fill- | up performer and let the public hear the man it has waited for. It is the chance of a and he isn't going to miss it. He tries to reply to ihterjectors and gives the wrong answers. He takes up the subject we don't want mentioned. He delivers himself and his candidate to the hands of an enemy which, were it a trifle better informed would take his trenches and consolidate its gains. Not that this particular friend of Mr Ryan was lacking in tact. He did nothing foolish; he only bored people. Perhaps that was because he was making an appeal for funds. People are generally bored when the collection plate appears. On this occasion the plate was a box carried among the electors. "Why, you've got more ;n that box already than there is in the whole Treasury of Queensland," observed an agent of Capitalism to a lady collector. The lioness bereft of her cubs was dovelike compared whh that lady collector. She made the agent of Capitalism sorry he had spoken, and mar'ched off triumphant like a very Valkyrie. : "Hark: The Cry Is Astor." There was a hush. Then a cheer. It was Ryan! He was given a co> : dial reception, but scarcely an en- | thusiastic one. There was no fienz;:, no hysteria apout the audience, nothing to resemble the Wild outbursts which have been accorded say Mr Jo!m Storey from crowds of similar dimensions. ;

Theu Mr Ryan spoke. Though many of them did no:, and would not, shape their thoughts, there could have been few who were not disappointed, j Labour's White Hope is a flueni, man, though he does not make the mistake or so many fluent men, and speak at a rate too fast to allow his points to reach the listener. His pace is moderate, his voice strong, his enun'cia- ] tion clear. On the outskirts of a large and not altogether silent crowd, within sound of heavy street traffic, every j word was audible.

■But more things are needed for an crator than strength and clearness, j especially for one who has to depend! on his oratory to swing that large j mass of neutrals which stands cynic- I ally in between the two parties. And it is not too much ;to say that Mr I Ryan's oratory ds of the type which will not move a single vote. Except for those of his own political faith, he leaves his audience co'.d. Of course, if you believe hard enough that he is a great orator, he will he one. But that ds (Christian Science applied to politics. Anglo-Saxon Speech. In appearance he reminds you oi the police captain . in the American crooks drama—Mr Lincoln Plumefs parts. - .'..-■ Hearing him without; seeing him you would say that this man is an j Australian of purely English parentage. An Irish-Australian has seldom any touch of the brogue, but the moment he speaks the fire ©f the 'Celt bursts out, frequently to become destructive to himself and his party. Mr Ryin seems pure Anglo-Saxon. The late John Hancock, of Victoria, used to say of his fellow-Labourite, George Michael Prendergast: "Let George speak, but be careful of Michael." Mr Ryan might be more effective had he been christened differently. Patrick Aloysius Ryan might have made Australia rise as one man. Also Patrick Aloysius Ryan would probably have said things calculated to make the hair of his party stand on end. But not so Thomas Joseph Ryan. Organised Labour need have no fear that he will ever say the wrong thing. The trouble is that he says the fight thing just as 100,000 Labour orators have said it before and with precisely the same manner as 90,000 of th o lesser lights have said it before. Throughout his speech Mr Ryan did not utter a telling phrase, nor put a new fact. Worse than that, he did not give expression to the old phrases and "facts in an original manner, or even a telling manner. He put the case for Labour, he denounced the actions of Mr Hughes with the same expression as the little girl recites "Mary had a Little Lamb/' In movie parlance, he "doesn't register." P.len for H.Q. Work. The critics'of Lord Kitchener arc saying that he was a very line organiser but a very poor soldier. Mr Ryan may be a magnificent organiser, a magnificent administrator, a scourge oi all 'Capitalists when he has su-.li power in the Commonwealth'as he had in Queensland, tout he is not a political soldier. His metier may be the office of the administrator; it is certainly not the political firing line. Like Kitchener, he has no use for the h.e. He may have illimitable staying powers, but be is not a shock troop. In brief, Ryan, of .Queensland, PS the man who is to sweep neutral Australia over lo Labour by the shoe? force o'f his oratory, is a Jud.

The Leader of the Federal Labour Party (Mr Frank Tudor) possessed, when in health and vigour, 10 the power in handling a crowd. Frank Anstey, M.H.R., or Guy Higgs, M.H.R., unaided by the reputation which Mr Ryan brought from Queensland, in the same position, would have been worth a whole battalion of Ryans. It is quite possible that Mr Ryan may save Australia, according to timetable, if sufficient electors vote for his party, but those votes would have been just as- numerous had Mr Ryan remained to save Queensland. The re.il power of Mr Ryan is his reputation. Many electors who haven't heard him may be deeply impressed.