Sunday 21 October 2012

1893 Election results

*THE WORKER*
Brisbane June 3, 1893

TO THE PEOPLE OF QUEENSLAND.

Manifesto of the Queensland Labour Party.

At the commencement of the campaign the Labour party laid before you a manifesto criticising their political opponents and setting forth the objects of the party. It was then recognised, as it is now, what the party has to contend against in its efforts to permanently ameliorate the condition of the people. The labour party are evolutionists seeking to attain the welfare of the people by legitimate agitation and education. Even our opponents cannot but admit that the late elections have passed over as a model of sobriety and orderliness, and in that respect afford a striking contrast to those of previous years. We do not wish to take any credit for that, for we believe it is only right that the strictest order should be maintained when appealing to the sense of a reasonable people; but we rather wish to emphasise the fact because it was the first time the Labour party contented for the suffrages of the electors throughout the whole province. And we are proud of the success that attended our efforts whilst struggling against such stupendous odds as confronted us in the late political contest.

We had arrayed against us the greater portion of the press of Queensland particularly in the metropolis, where it is wholly the bonded servant of our political opponents; as the presence of deeds, mortgages, debentures, overdrafts &c., fully prove. We recognise the power of a Free Press for good, and maintain that no newspaper can be politically free that is under monetary obligations to institutions in which the interests of those occupying prominent positions in our political life are involved. This state of affairs accounts for the gross misrepresentations of the Labour Party that appears in most of the unfortunate newspapers of the province which are compelled to voice, not the opinions of their writers, but the opinions of those who control them and fool the people. We had arrayed against us the great majority of the ecclesiastics of the province who, true to their order as in all ages, insidiously strove to retard the Progressive movement. We were called by them the godless and atheistical party who wanted to disturb and upset religions. We remind them that in the first and second centuries of our era the members of the living and fighting church were called by the ecclesiastics of the older and what were considered the more respectable churches of the day by names similar to those applied to the Labour Party now.

We tell them that the latter day ecclesiastics will become extinct, giving place to a better and nobler one; that the real essence of Christianity is brotherhood; that the object of the Labour movement is not to dole out a beggar's charity, but to effect that brotherhood by giving the de-serving poor and down-trodden the rights which their very; existence is a warrant for. We had arrayed against us generally speaking, the “pillars of society” and the propertied class, who mostly receive their politics from the newspapers referred to – persons who have been deluded by the “heroes of civilisation” into believing that progress is destruction and they registered their votes wherever an unjust electoral law allowed and cast them solidly against us. The trustees for dead men's children claimed votes for the latter's property and cast them against us. Those who were qualified as freeholders on the rolls, but whose freehold estates were so encumbered as practically left them no interest in them, did the bidding of their masters and voted against us. The 4s. per week leaseholder who rents a wooden kennel for his place of business was lured on by the catch words of “ law and order” to vote against us. Some wage-earners got the hint and had to take it that it would please their employers if the Labour Party was not supported, and some others voted against us because they have not as yet thought out the question that is before all civilised nations clamouring for solution.

Votes were cast against us by land gamblers in polling booths hundreds of miles out of the electorates for which they were recorded. Yet in spite of all this in our first effort as a party we stand erect today with many sympathisers and fifteen representatives to voice our thoughts and desires on the floor of the Queensland Legislative Assembly. People of Queensland, think of this our first stand against such odds, and when you consider the history of great political movements you cannot but say that we have had a grand support. Then investigate what we advocate. Come amongst us with honest intentions to either array yourselves on our side if you think we are going the wrong way prove it to us by convincing reason and we will listen to you. This we say in order that all animosities may be interred in the grave of the past for the common good.

Out of the total votes on the rolls approximately 10 per cent belong to persons who have more than one vote, consequently there can only be 75,005 individuals as voters. Assuming that the adult male population of the province has been stationary since the census was taken, and from the total number subtract 2700 persons prevented from voting through being Government officials, in gaol, &c., there would still remain in the province 105,416 persons eligible to vote if the electoral laws were just. This clearly shows that there are 30,411 adult males who are disfranchised, and we have every reason for believing that nearly all of them are supporters of the Labour Party. In the face of this analysis the most despondent followers of the Labour Party cannot but lay aside their pessimistic feelings. But the Labour Party must never forget what it has to contend against. “Organise! Educate! Agitate!” must ever remain our motto. We must command a press free from the enthralling influences of capitalism to plead our cause before the people and to counteract mis-representations. The Labour Party in other countries have successfully grappled with greater difficulties than will ever confront us in Australasia, and as they are progressing so will we if we have but a sincere desire to overcome difficulties.

In the industrial disputes of the past the Labour Party of Queensland has appealed time after time for peaceful conferences, and such conferences have been refused us both in and out of Parliament. We claim along with Sir Thomas M'Ilwraith's colleague for North Brisbane that the “laws of supply and demand” should not regulate the conditions under which the wage-earners are employed. We go now to advocate in parliament that which has been refused outside, in order that the vexed question that permeates the civilised world may be guided through the peaceful paths of legislation to a happy conclusion and we ask all to support us to this end. Our members in parliament cannot effect this unless our opponents are willing to agree to reason and if it is refused us by force of numbers alone theirs will be the blame and the shame. Our re-presentatives will strongly advocate all measures that are just to employed and employers, that will insure industrial peace. Adversity has been a hard task master, but we have learned some good lessons through it. And no matter what our adversaries may do to keep the Labour Movement back in Queensland the result of the elections of 1893 proves that - “ it moves”

THOMAS GLASSEY,
President Central Executive
Queensland Labour Party.


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