DISILLUSIONED.

Waikato Times, Volume 114, Issue 19017, 7 August 1933, Page 3

DISILLUSIONED.

AUTHOR AND SOCIALISM. A COMMUNAL PLAN. (From a Correspondent). SYDNEY, July 22. After more than 40 years* advocacy of Socialism, the Australian author and poet, Mr E. J. Brady, Is disillusioned about Individual experiments In communal settlements. This Is the result of the failure of his co-opera-tive land settlement scheme at Mallacoota Inlet, East Gippsland, Victoria, Mr Brady, who was secretary of the first Socialistic League In Australia lit 1890 in Sydney, recently gave a group of unemployed men the use of a big area of land which he owns to form a co-operative settlement. In addition, the settlers were also provided with tents and other housing accommodation, agricultural implements, and various household accessories, and a motor boat for fishing and recreation. The plan has now been abandoned. The Victorian Government provided fares and clothing, and 16 married men wont on the land, their families In Melbourne being granted full sustenance in their absence. It is stated that some of the men refused to work and quarrels developed, as a result of which most of the men left. It is known that Mr Brady’s personal loss on the venture runs Into hundreds of pounds. Mr Brady, who Is a member of the Victorian Socialisation Committee set up by the last conference of the Victorian Labour Party, said he was now convinced, after 50 years of investigation, and as the result of his recent experience, that individual attempts at establishing co-operat!\V or communal schemes were doomed to failure.

“I am now convinced that the only way we can solve the economic problem is either by Fascist control with machine guns, or by Communist control, with machine guns and rifles,” said Mr Brady. “I stand with Upton Sinclair, the American author, for a peaceful solution of the social problem, but I am convinced as a result of my recent experiment that there is no possibility of solving it by any attempts dependent upon the human element without proper control and organisation by constitutional authority.” He explained that he placed 900 acres at the disposal of the men, and a special committee was formed in Melbourne to see that they got a ‘‘fair go.” They did get a fair go, but he had to admit that the scheme was a failure. Everything possible was done to provide for the comfort of the new settlers. =B ~77Zf\