Wanted a change June 15, 1895.

*THE WORKER*

BRISBANE, JUNE 15, 1895.

Wanted, a Change.

ED. WORKER – The deplorable condition of the colony through class legislation and class administration is standing disgrace to our present Government and the Governments which have preceded them. They who should be the guardians of the public welfare have through incompetence or culpable neglect permitted the affairs of the colony to drift into a hopeless mess, and I venture to think there are few people who will deny that the time has arrived when we should have – when we must have – a change in our administrators and in our administration.

We have a colony of vast area, with a rich soil capable of producing almost everything necessary for the comfort and well-being of the people – a colony in which both temperate and tropical crops can be raised in the greatest abundance; in which magnificent timbers of various kinds are obtainable in almost unlimited quantities; in which, on the testimony of the most competent geologists and mineralogist there exists enormous mineral wealth. Yet in face of those well-known facts, there are vast numbers of people who are idle through no fault of their own, and very many families who are being fed, or partly fed, at the public expense, undoubtedly to their ultimate injury and loss of independence.

We want a change!

We want economic freedom and we want political freedom. But before we have economic freedom we must secure the enfranchisement of every eligible person, males and females, in the colony. Of the males adults there are fully 50,000 out of about 130,000 who have no votes, and of the females there about 76,000 who are entirely outside the pale of the constitution. Thus we have the lamentable spectacle of something like 126,000 grown men and women without a voice in the making of the laws all are expected to obey, the colony being governed by about 70,000 persons who posses from one to six or more votes. Two-thirds of the manhood and womanhood of Queensland absolutely denied a voice in the government of the colony!

We want a change!

It is now evident from the late utterances and conduct of our present Premier we are not likely to have reform at his hands or the hands of his followers. His reply to the deputation at Longreach is sufficient to show that he has no sympathy with electoral reform, and his action in accepting the presidency and doing the work of the notorious Queensland Political Association proves that in the interests of the pampered and privileged class to which he belongs he is prepared to outrage all the laws of common political decency known in other lands, and by surreptitious means to so use the present unequal electoral law that he may secure a further lease of power.

To insure a change in the administration of the country's affairs, it is necessary that the number of labour members in the legislature be increased. Seventeen men out of seventy-two is not a fair representation of the views of the brain and hand workers of Queensland. Sufficient Labour representatives must be returned to the Legislative Assembly to force the placing on the Statute book of a number of wise and just laws in keeping with the spirit of modern progress and the best interests of every man, woman, and child in the community.

In order that the number of Labour representatives may be increased at the next general election, which may take place within a few months, and which must take place within twelve months, funds must be forthcoming to meet the necessary expenditure incurred in running Labour candidates. I would suggest (and I may say I do so with some hesitation, for I know too well the extreme poverty that exists) that an Elections Fund be established by means of weekly subscriptions of 1d. per week. Persons who can afford more need not confine their contributions to 1d. per week. Persons who cannot afford 1d. per week need not subscribe at all. I would suggest that committees be formed in every township in each electorate, with a central committee in the town in which the poll is declared. Persons desirous of subscribing to such a fund, who are in the Government service or in the employ of private firms likely to victimise them on account of their sympathy with the Reform Movement, would, I am sure, have their names kept in the strictest confidence.

I make these suggestions believing that it is time something was done to prepare for the coming contest – a contest which will no doubt be a very severe one, but which, if we act with promptness, courage, and decision, may result in the election of a Reform Parliament conferring great happiness on our young nation – Yours, &c., THOMAS GLASSEY. 

P.S. - Should such a fund as I have suggested be established, I shall have much pleasure in at once contributing as much as my moderate means will permit. - T.G.