'doing their bit" 



© Underwood & Underwood 



Both well over their allotted threescore and ten, these two Australian women — the one 

 on the right the mother of the commander-in-chief of Australia's oversea forces — are never- 

 theless contributing their share of assistance in maintaining their country's contingent at the 

 front. They spend most of their waking hours cutting up clean rags to be used in pads for 

 the wounded. 



training, need of a big navy, and other 

 matters relating to national development. 

 He hears in general the language of On- 

 tario, but the variation in individuals, 

 families, and communities is closely simi- 

 lar to that in the United States, plus a 

 bit of cockney. 



Many of the numerous Australianisms 

 are also Americanisms, but would require 

 an interpreter in England. In some min- 

 ing towns and outlying villages the local 

 dialects of the United Kingdom are said 

 to prevail, but there is probably nothing 

 in Australia like Dunedin or Christ- 

 church, New Zealand, where the peculiar- 

 ities of speech of southern Scotland and 

 middle England are found in an exag- 

 gerated form. 



It seems to me that two things mark the 

 Australian as a class from Americans — 

 their attitude toward work and their atti- 

 tude toward wealth. The percentage of 



men who do no productive labor, loafers 

 and "idle rich," is probably about the 

 same in the two countries, but the number 

 of men and women who voluntarily work 

 long hours and gladly assume uncon- 

 genial tasks with the idea of demonstrat- 

 ing their usefulness and "getting ahead" 

 is very much greater in America. In 

 Australia the species finds an uncongenial 

 environment. 



On the basis of doing a moderate 

 amount of work amidst agreeable sur- 

 roundings, most Australians are workers. 

 Short hours are the rule, and there is a 

 tendency to ward off competition by legis- 

 lative enactments rather than to meet and 

 overcome it. 



The desire for money is in most cases 

 a desire to secure a competence, not to 

 secure power and prestige by amassing a 

 huge bank account. Wealth is so diffused 

 that nobody is really poor and few are 



5i7 



