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become a protectionist party, and if they do so now they will break their promises. Honorable members know that those are the facts. I find no fault with the man who is a Socialist, if he believes in the doctrine of Socialism; but the honorable member for Hume and the honorable and learned members for Indi and Darling Downs should make it clear that they are endeavouring to lead the protectionists into a socialistic, and not into a protectionist, alliance. It is unnecessary to dwell on the point that the Labour Party are a socialistic party. Every member of that party in the Senate has proclaimed himself to be a Socialist, and I believe that every 'member of the party here claims to be one. The honorable member for Hume has characteristically proclaimed himself to-day as at the same time a Socialist and an antiSocialist. The platform of the Labour or Socialistic Party has been described as 25 per cent. practical politics and 75 per cent. bird lime, and plank No. 4 provides for the nationalization of monopolies. Let the protectionists who have allied themselves with the Labour Party listen while I endeavour to show what will be the effect of a caucus on a party which has no fiscal principles. As honorable members know, the greatest of all monopolies is the land monopoly. No political economist who writes on the subject fails to point out that the origin of wealth and of existence is in the land, and that land is essential to production, Therefore, land nationalization or confiscation is one of the first objects of the Socialist. The Prime Minister when Premier of New South Wales knew what the views of the Labour Party were on this subject, and as he was anxious to obtain revenue from the taxation of land, he agreed with them for their support to a land tax in consideration of the removal of Customs duties. That proposal was made to and accepted by the members of a party concerning whom it is now claimed by some that they have protection bubbling out of them as oatmeal bubbles out of a Scotchman when his skin is cut. This party was approached by the Premier of New South Wales, who asked, "Will you vote to destroy the protected industries if I give you a land tax of one penny in the pound?"

Mr. GROOM.-Although the Prime Minister was then so eager to destroy protection, the honorable member is now following him.

Mr. Ewing.

Mr. EWING.-The right honorable gentleman never claimed to be a protectionist.

If my antagonist comes out into the open I am prepared to fight him. I am ready to break in an untrained colt, but I object to be kicked by the family mule. The right honorable gentleman went to the Labour Party-this great Protectionist Party-and, in response to his offer, they said that they were prepared to destroy every industry in New South Wales for the sake of a land tax of one penny in the pound. Land nationalization hung in one scale, whilst the industries of the country were on the other side of the balance. Members of the Labour Party wanted to secure a land tax, which they regarded as the thin end of the wedge of land nationalization. The honorable member for Darling and the honorable member for Yarra shout at the top of their mellifluous voices the moment tionalization is one of their principles, but that a land tax is mentioned. Land naprotection is not.

I ask the honorable member for Bourke and the honorable and

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learned member for Darling Downs to look at the platform of the Labour Party. want to know the reason why those honorable members left the Protectionist Party. The Labour Party declare themselves not to be protectionists, and there is not one word of protection in their platform. Yet the honorable members to whom I have referred have joined them.

Mr. HUME COOK.-Has not the honorable gentleman joined another party?

Mr. EWING.-The honorable member knows full well that if he had stayed with me he would have felt more comfortable now. If I had to leave political life tomorrow. I would sooner go out in the company of the honorable and learned member for Ballarat than stay for ever with the honorable member for Bourke.

And how can man die better,
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers

And the temples of his gods? If the Labour Party were a protectionist party the position might be serious, but they are a socialistic party pure and simple. I find that on all matters affecting the farmers in the Parliament of New South Wales the honorable and learned member for West Sydney, the honorable member

for Bland, the honorable member for Barrier, the honorable member for Canobolas, and the honorable member for Newcastle voted voted solidly against protection. Did they not abandon protection in order to

gain a land tax of one penny in the pound as a first step in the direction of land nationalization? I would ask any representative of Queensland what was the action of the Labour Party in New South Wales with regard to the sugar duties. Dominated as they were by miserable little coteries from the great cities, what did they care for the sugar-workers? They abandoned them in order that they might place a land tax of one penny in the pound upon the farmers. They voted against the sugar duty, and against the duties on timber. The party is entirely without fiscal principle. It is like a ship without a rudder. The Labour Party voted solidly against the duty on timber, being utterly indifferent to the interests of the timber-getters or the workers in the saw-mills. They voted against the farmers every time.

Mr. GROOM.-What did the Prime Minister care about them?

Mr. EWING. He was an open antagonist all the time. But the Labour Party went upon a free-trade debauch. The great protectionists in the Labour Party entirely ignored the interests of those who were working upon the

land. When the labour unions send their delegates among the workmen in my district, and tell them that they are in favour of giving preference to unionists, and at the same time intimate that they voted to give preference to foreign timber and sugar, they will have a very lively time. The electors in my constituency, who are as intelligent as any in the world, may be relied upon to show their resentment against those who are doing their best to deprive them of the means of earning their livelihood. Who defeated the timber duties when they were submitted in this House? The honorable member for Barrier.

Mr. SPENCE. In the interests of the miners.

Mr. EWING. The honorable member for Darling claims the farmers as a sacrifice in the interests of the miners.

Mr. SPENCE. The farmers are not timber getters.

Mr. EWING. Even so, the timber getter was sacrificed in the interests of the miner. Mr. HUME COOK.-What about the honorable member for Kooyong, who is sitting alongside the honorable member?

Mr. EWING. He has received absolution for anything he may have done. Eight members of the Labour Party voted against the proposed timber duties. The timber getters work as hard as any men in the

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world, and yet the representatives of labour, who profess to have such a keen regard for the interests of working men voted against giving them a reasonable amount of protection. I recognise to the full that politics makes us acquainted with very strange bed-fellows; but when honorable members vote to destroy industries in which my constituents are engaged, and ask me to believe that they are thus studying the best interests of labour, they put my credulity to too great a test, and I cannot ally myself with them.

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Mr. EWING.-We have entered into a

compact which has made our policy secure. Mr. CHANTER.-What is the compact? Mr. EWING.-That the fiscal policy which was good enough for the honorable member and the whole Protectionist Party when the Deakin Government were in power, shall remain intact.

Mr. CHANTER.-It is a case of "the lion and the lamb lying down together." Mr. EWING.-We have all heard thatThere was a young lady of Riga, Who smiled as she rode on a tiger. They returned from the ride with the lady inside,

And a smile on the face of the tiger. The honorable member is now the inside passenger. I would ask honorable members who destroyed the Protectionist Party? With all their defects and shortcomings and failures, the Protectionist Party formerly stood firm under the leadership of the honorable and learned member for Ballarat, the Minister of Trade and Customs, and the Treasurer. We stood as a solid party until we were destroyed by honorable members opposite. Upon the one side was the question of protection to native industries, which we all held so dear, and upon the other hand, there was the question whether the States should control their own railway servants. The Labour Party threw their weight in the scale against the maintenance of States rights, and destroyed our party. It did not matter to them that it

was unconstitutional for us to interfere with the rights of the States. They butchered the Protectionist Party, and this was not the first time that they had shown themselves utterly regardless of the consequences to others, so long as they could achieve their own ends.

Mr. CHANTER.-The honorable member is now sitting behind the Government which

has taken up a Bill containing the provision to which he has expressed his objection.

Mr. EWING.-That is another story. Mr. CHANTER. I always try to do right. Mr. EWING.-Such a number of stupid people do that. When a rogue, or a scoundrel, is working with you, he will not kick, but the stupid man kicks all the time, and finally upsets the apple-cart. With regard to the question of sinking the fiscal issue, we heard a pathetic statement by the leader of the corner Protectionist Party. The honorable member for Hume made an impassioned appeal to honorable members upon the subject of sinking the fiscal issue. Any one who has any knowledge of electrobiology is aware that in one aspect spiritualism is sometimes said to rest upon the power of one person to project his intelligence into the crannies of another person's brain and find out what is there. I propose to give honorable members the result of an examination of the brown tissues of the brain of the honorable member for Hume. The honorable member has stated that those who have sunk the fiscal issue are criminals and traitors. Now this is what I gather from a scrutiny of the brown tissues of the honorable member's brain. He says, in effect-" I am out of office, and it now occurs to me with special force that the products of prison labour in other parts of the world. are swelling our imports to the detriment of our local producers." It is cheering to be able to say something pleasant with regard to the honorable member for Hume. I have said many things which are absolutely true of the honorable member, and I wish now to say something pleasant of him. He has always been consistent in sinking the fiscal issue. That should be counted to him for righteousness. He has always sunk the fiscal question when in office, but has never sunk it when out of office.

Mr. CHANTER.-That is not fair; he was a member of the only Government which submitted a protective Tariff in New South Wales.

Mr. EWING.-In order to meet the sensitive feelings of the honorable member, I will say that, with one exception, he has always sunk the fiscal question when in office, but never when out of office. In 1899 Federation was so close to an accomplished fact that a considerable number of protectionists thought it unwise to raise the fiscal issue at all. At that time the leader

of the Opposition was the member for Hastings-Macleay, Sir Edmund, then Mr., Barton. He had pledged himself to sink the fiscal issue in order to secure the consummation of Federation. The honorable member for Hume, who was then in Opposition, was indignant. He declared that we were traitors to sink the fiscal issue, and that we ought to be lynched as renegades to the protectionist cause. I have no desire to discuss caucus secrets, but I may mention that the honorable member for Hume was then elected leader of the Opposition, and was able to displace the Government. Upon the 25th November, speaking in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, Mr. Henry Clarke, the member for Bega, made a statement concerning the honorable member, who now charges us with a special crime in having sunk the fiscal policy. Mr. Clarke said

I consider the honorable member for Hume and

his colleagues did not act fairly in the course which they took to get into power. Upon the meeting of Parliament, after the last prorogation, two meetings of the late Opposition were held. At the first of these, the honorable and learned member for Hastings-Macleay, who was then leader of the Opposition, and had convened the could not continue to hold that position, as he meeting, explained that he was afraid that he had made a promise not to interfere with the fiscal question during the existence of the present Parliament. A great many of the members of the Opposition, including myself, and the honorable member for Queanbeyan, were not satisfied that that promise should have been made. was stated that the probabilities were that we should not have a Federal Tariff for two or three years to come, in which time, unless there were an interference with the fiscal question here, this

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Colony would be flooded with goods which would come in duty free, and which we should be prevented from exporting to the other Colonies, Decause of their prohibitory Tariffs. The honorable member for Hume, and other members, stated, however, that they were not bound by any such promise, and that the only promise they had made was not to raise the fiscal question until

the Federation Bill had been dealt with.

Mr. SEE. It is not a very usual thing to disclose what takes place at these meetings.

Mr. H. CLARKE.-I do not care whether it is or is not a usual thing. I shall do it, because of the treachery and intrigue that has been displayed.

Those are the very words which the honorable member himself now uses. The extract continues

At the next meeting of the Opposition, upon the following day, the honorable and learned member for Hastings-Macleay resigned his leadership.

An HONORABLE MEMBER.—Why did he do that? Mr. H. CLARKE.-Simply because he could not break the promise which he had made. acted a manly part, and no one can find fault

He

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with him for what he did. I was in the chair during the second meeting, and the honorable member for Hume was, I believe, unanimously elected leader in succession to the honorable and learned member for Hastings-Macleay, honorable members being under the impression, because of what he had stated on the previous day, that he was not similarly bound. But, on the same evening, when a question was put to him by a member of the Government, he stated that he was prepared to sink the fiscal question, and he thus put himself in the position in which the honorable and learned member for Hastings-Macleay stood when he thought it necessary to resign. have been a strong supporter of the Protectionist Party since I entered the House, nearly thirty years ago, and I was never a free-trader, though, only a few years ago, many of those who are now strong protectionists were free-traders. submit that the Premier and other members of the Government have sold the Protectionist Party. A reply to that statement has never been forthcoming. The honorable member for Hume accepted the leadership of the Protectionist Party, under a promise to raise protection, but the moment he obtained office he sank the fiscal issue. It would require the Rontgen rays to discover his protectionist principles when the honorable member holds Ministerial office. I would remind him that when Premier of New South Wales he took Mr. B. R. Wise and Mr. Lionel Fegan-two free-traders into the Government with him. Now, however, he is astounded that a free-trader and protectionist should sit together. He selected the two free-traders whom I have mentioned as a guarantee that the fiscal issue would be sunk.

Sir JOHN FORREST.-Where is the honorable member?

Mr. EWING. He is saving a good deal of injury to his feelings by being absent from the Chamber. There are two planks in my policy. First, I believe that the main elements in our national life should be close loyalty to the mother country and the encouragement of Australian industry. My next consideration is to get as far away from the pernicious influence of men like the honorable member for Hume as I possibly can. Of course, I am referring to his political career. In looking through the Vice-Regal speech, dealing with the business which was to be submitted to the New South Wales Parliament by the Government of which the honorable member was the head, shortly after he had been elected leader of the Protectionist Party, one would require a microscope to discover any reference to protection. I find that it contains allusions to the soldiers of the Queen, and to what Lord Roberts said of our colonial troops.

There are three paragraphs devoted to the bubonic plague, and others to the Rocks resumptions, but not a word to protection. The honorable member at the time was sitting, cheek by jowl, with free-traders, and yet he now professes astonishment that a protectionist could be associated with a freetrader under any circumstances whatever. The honorable member is truly consistent. I hold in my hand the speech delivered by the Governor-General at the opening of this Parliament on the 2nd March of the present year. The honorable member was in office then. Is there in that Vice-Regal utterance any reference to the fiscal policy? Not a word. Every member of the Deakin Government had agreed to sink that issue. Nobody would have dreamt of dealing with it with only twenty-five supporters behind them. Every honorable member upon our side of the House was pledged to sink the fiscal policy and to sanction preferential trade. Again, the Tariff was good enough for the honorBut the able member whilst in office. moment he is not a member of the Government he repeats his old statement, "I am out of office, and cheap labour in other parts of the world is destroying the industries of this country." I will not say anything of the caucus or corroboree which the protectionists held in endeavouring to arrive at an arrangement for a coalition.

Sir JOHN FORREST.-It was a meeting of the party.

Mr. EWING.-The difference between Our caucuses and those of honorable members opposite is that whereas they are bound by the decisions arrived at we merely meet for discussion. At that meeting it was obvious what would happen. It was perfectly apparent that about six honorable members would join the Socialists, whilst the others would stand together as the Protectionist Party. I knew that the honorable member for Hume would never cross to this side of the House. When men, by a long chapter of accidents and errors, have endeared themselves to the public, and become high politicians, they usually develop fat. One result of a long public career is that a man grows very stout. was obvious when the present Prime Minister laid down in the political trough that there would be no room for the honorable member for Hume. I realized that the honorable member for Hume and the honorable and learned member for Indi would not support the Government. There were so many able lawyers round the Prime

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Minister, and he objected to crowding. Some honorable members were so startled by the appearance of the socialistic banner over the political horizon that they were bound to join the Labour Party. There is no need, therefore, to make any special reference to what happened in the caucus. In my judgment, there were two occasions upon which the honorable member for Hume would have done well to sink the fiscal question.

He has never sunk that issue when it would have been good for protection, but he has always sunk it when it was good for himself.

Mr. WATKINS.-Did the Prime Minister sink it when he voted for the duty upon sugar?

Mr. EWING.-The honorable member himself voted in the same way.

Mr. WATKINS.-1 was not a professed free-trader.

Mr. EWING.-No; the honorable member was a pledged labour representative. He voted. it is true, in the Parliament of New South Wales, to destroy industries.

Mr. WATSON.-That statement is as inaccurate as the honorable member usually

is.

Mr. EWING. I have the records, which cannot be incorrect. I wish to cite one or two occasions upon which it would have been wise to sink the fiscal issue, but upon which the honorable member for Hume refused to do so. When we secured the Dibbs Tariff in New South Wales-a Tariff which was not a very satisfactory one, but which was the best we could get, because the protectionists of that State were always hopelessly defeated when associated with the honorable member for Hume

Mr. WATSON.-Did not the honorable member sink the Dibbs Party for a railway upon one occasion?

Mr. EWING.-Not at all.

Mr. WATSON.-The honorable member was one of the four northern members.

Mr. EWING.-With regard to that rail

way

Mr. SPEAKER.-Does the honorable member think that the railway has anything to do with this question?

Mr. EWING.—I do not think it has, Mr. Speaker, but you will agree with me, that I was not the first to import it into the debate. It was incontinently dragged in by the leader of the Opposition, and I need only say, with respect to it, that I am very proud of it, and New South Wales is, too.

Mr. WATSON.-New South Wales has had to bear the brunt of it.

Mr. EWING.-I knew a great deal more of the subject than did the people who opposed the railway. To-day every one is in favour of it, but for a long time I and my colleagues advocated it in politics almost alone.

Mr. WATSON.-New South Wales is losing £30,000 a year on it, I understand.

Mr. EWING.-What is that to New South Wales? Why does the honorable member not say £1,000,000? In other words, I do not intend to further discuss the question. Having done a great

deal of work in connexion with other phases of of political life, life, Sir Henry Parkes, as honorable members are aware, was anxious to finish his public career by bringing into existence an Australian Union. He came to us as protectionists, when we had the Dibbs' Tariff in New South Wales, and offered to maintain that Tariff if we would help him with Federation. When that offer was made I knew perfectly well what would happen at the next election, and said so, as did other protectionists, and we urged the honorable member for Hume in every way we could to accept the offer, but he said, as usual, "I am out of office. Foreign labour is flooding us with cheap goods," and all the rest of it. If the honorable gentleman then had sunk the fiscal issue New South Wales would have come into the union without such a bigoted feeling in favour of free-trade. She would have been to some extent accustomed to protection, and would not have had to make such a change as has been necessary, and New South Wales would also have had the advantage of the Dibbs' duties till union was accomplished. Again we could see what Federation would do. We were Australian protectionists, and we reached out our hands to men like the honorable and learned member for Ballarat. allies.

We could see that they were our The honorable member for Hume had destroyed us in New South Wales, but we knew that we had friends over the border in Victoria, and we opened our arms wide to them, and reached out to them with both hands. Honorable members are aware that we could not get more than four men to represent protection in New South Wales in the Federal Parliament, and if we had had to depend upon feeling in New South Wales alone, protection was hopeless. What did we do? We turned to our brother protectionists in the other States, and held out our hands to them. But what did the honorable member for Hume do? The honorable

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