CHAPTER X 



STATE SOCIALISM AND THE LABOUR PARTY 



THE Australian answers truly to Aristotle's 

 description of man as " a political animal," 

 and his interest in politics may be set down as the 

 inevitable result of the intimate relations existing 

 between the people and the State. The choice of 

 his rulers is a matter of the deepest concern to a 

 man who encounters the results of their adminis- 

 tration at every turn, and as the tendency in Aus- 

 tralia is to increase rather than to diminish the 

 functions of the State, the Australian not un- 

 reasonably bases his political opinions upon the 

 events of his everyday life. Those who dwell in 

 the bush have the State for landlord, and can, in 

 bad seasons, obtain the remittance or postpone- 

 ment of the collection of rent. The State owns 

 the railways which carry their produce to the sea- 

 ports, and, by an increase or reduction of freights, 

 may materially affect their prosperity. The State 

 undertakes the education of their children, estab- 

 lishing the schools and maintaining the teachers, 

 while grants of money for the construction of 

 roads and bridges may also be obtained from the 



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