Protection, the Labour Members admit, raises prices to the consumer; but they contend that, if prices are high, employers can afford to pay high {293} wages, and that the strength of Trades Unionism should be sufficient to enforce them. To put their argument, such as it is, in a nutshell, it is better to have high prices and high wages than low prices combined with low wages and uncertain employment. Then, as combination is expected to keep wages at a high point, it is obvious that it can be exercised most effectually over a small area, and we find the South Australian Labour Members voting against a resolution in favour of inter-provincial Free Trade, and Labour Members generally imbued with an actual, if not avowed, opposition to Federation, the first result of which would, it is believed, be the removal of fiscal barriers. They profess, indeed, a desire for Federation on a democratic basis, but are, as far as their material interests are concerned, under the influence of a patriotism which is intensely provincial and does not take account of national, much less of imperial, considerations. If he lives under a protective tariff, the workman asks himself of what use is it to exclude the products of cheap labour if the cheap labourer be allowed to enter the country and compete with him on the spot. The agitation against Asiatic immigrants has, I am prepared to admit, a wider basis, and rests largely upon physical repugnance and the fear that they might enter in such large numbers as to swamp the white population. To that extent it appeals to the Free Traders of New South Wales, who have not been backward in their support of anti-Chinese {294} legislation, and meets with the general support of Australians, as was shown by the unanimity with which the Premiers, assembled in Conference early in 1896, decided against participation in the Anglo-Japanese treaty and in favour of the extension to other coloured races of the restrictions placed upon the influx of the Chinese. But, from the point of view of the working classes, antipathy is felt, principally, towards competitors who have a lower standard of comfort, and the difficulties placed in the way of Imperial statesmanship are persistently ignored.