?^6 



The Review of Reviews. 



April to, I90e 



Part}- it should not matter. Time was when Parties 

 considered it necessary to oppose anything sug- 

 gested by the other, but it is a good thing that that is 

 going; and because it is going, the composition of 

 Parties is less a matter of electoral conoern than are 

 men. This applies generally in the mind of the 

 <'lector (at any rate apart from the Labour Party, 

 for they themselves make the choice, and the voting 

 goes for the chosen ones en bloc). 



But the elections of last year have 



The Basis of brought out very prominently the 



Alliance. importance of the man above the 



Party. This will obtain at the 

 next election probably, too, so that if Mr. Deakin 

 had sketched out a progressive policy, it is certain 

 that he would have been supported by all sections 

 of the House which are not rigidly reactionary, and 

 there would have been no need to have held out a 

 tentative hand of union to any particular Party 

 in tlie House. Mr. Deakin made it clearly under- 

 stood that a hard and fast union with the Opposition 

 was impossible, but hinted that it might be possible 

 to secure one with the Labour Party. He is not to be 

 blamed, but rather commended, for trying to secure 

 the support of those who are in favour of his legisla- 

 tion ; but the same end would have been better se- 

 cured, and from a wider area, if a clear course of ac- 

 tion had been indicated. The Labour Party rightly 

 refuses to be drawn beyond the point where they say 

 they will be prepared to support any measures that 

 fit in with their own objects. This is expressed in 

 not too academic language, and there is not much 

 care taken to gild the pill, so that it is very evident 

 that nothing definite can be expected from them ; 

 nor are thev to be blamed. Every measure ought to 

 be judged solely upon its own merits. The fighting 

 " Party " in the House is becoming out of date. The 

 temper of the populace inclines to the discussion of 

 necessary measures, apart from Party rancour, and 

 a determined and clear expression of the Progressive 

 programme would ha\e met with the warmest support 

 from all sections of the community and the House. 

 Mr. Watson, of course, wants a definite land policy 

 more than he wants anything else. The Government 

 wants high jirotection more than it wants anything 

 else. Mr. Reid does not know what he wants, ex- 

 cept that he dees not want .Socialism, which he stead- 

 fastly refuses to define, and the only chance for 

 political safety on right lines lies in the Government 

 ignoring Parties, and devoting itself to progressive 

 legislation, which Members from all Parties can 

 support. There are indications that no Parliament 

 ever had finer opportunities of beginning the system 

 of an elective executive, leaving the House free to 

 express its opinion without the necessity for the con- 

 stant compromise and opportunism that is engen- 

 dered hv our miserable svstem of Partv politics. 



BuUetin.'i Potiphars Wife 



Gre.at efforts are being made by G 



Protectionist vote on 



H. Eeid to calch the 

 the anti-Socialist ticket. 



Mr. Reid has started out on his 

 Mr. Reid and the 'anti-Socialistic" fight. One gets 

 Indefinable tired of reiterating the news, and 

 yet it forms part of the history 

 of the month. The matter has received a little im- 

 petus from a debate between Mr. Reid and Mr. Hoi- 

 man (the select of the Labour Party in Sydney). 

 Judging from the newspaper reports, Mr. Reid had 

 rather the best of it from an oratorical point of view, 

 and the two were hardly matched in debate : but 

 Mr. Reid must have a more definite policy if he is 

 going to win any electoral favours. It is one thing 

 to please a meeting, but another to sway a conti- 

 nental contest. Mr. Reid must be constructive as well 

 as destructive. Mr. Deakin's estimate of his " neck- 

 lace of negatives" was a correct one. The amazing 

 part about the whole thing is that so old a politician 

 as Mr. Reid cannot see the incompleteness of his 

 premises, and is so utterly blind to the growing in- 

 telligent spirit in the community, which is beginning 

 to see its way through the ever-evolving social pro- 

 blem, and is keenly pursuing it. Mr. Reid is like 

 a man standing still while the community ru.shes by 

 .at top speed in the march of social and economic re- 

 form, and crying out. " T am opposed to it." but 

 doing nothing to stop it or divert it. The march can- 

 not be stopped, and if Mr. Reid is opposed to it, why 

 in the name of all that is reasonable doesn't he get 

 in front of it and lead it to where he thinks it ought 

 to go? Surely he loses cognisance of the fact that 

 the term includes as many shades of opinion as does 



