What Richard wanted was some sort of a new show: a new recognition of
the life-mystery, a departure from the dreariness of money-making,
money-having, and money-spending. It meant a new recognition of
difference, of highness and of lowness, of one man meet for service and
another man clean with glory, having majesty in himself, the innate
majesty of the purest _individual_, not the strongest instrument, like
Napoleon. Not the tuppenny trick-majesty of Kaisers. But the true
majesty of the single soul which has all its own weaknesses, but its
strength in spite of them, its own lovableness, as well as its might and
dread. The single soul that stands naked between the dark God and the
dark-blooded masses of men. “Now, Kangaroo,” said Richard, “is in a
false position. He wants to save property for the property owners, and
he wants to save Labour from itself and from the capitalist and the
politician and all. In fact, he wants to save everything as we have it,
and it can’t be done. You can’t eat your cake and have it, and I prefer
Willie Struthers. Bolshevism is at least not sentimental. It’s a last
step towards an end, a hopeless end. But better disaster than an
equivocal nothingness, like the present. Kangaroo wants to be God
Himself, and save everybody, which is just irritating, at last. Kangaroo
as God Himself, with a kind marsupial belly, is worse than Struthers’
absolute of the People. Though it’s a choice of evils, and I choose
neither. I choose the Lord Almighty.”
Having made up his mind so far, Richard came up to the big mass meeting
of Labour in the great Canberra Hall, in Sydney. The Labour leaders had
lost much ground. Labour was slipping into disorganization: the
property-owning Conservatives and Liberals were just beginning to
rejoice again. The reduction of the basic wage had been brought about, a
further reduction was announced. At the same time the Government was
aiming a strong blow at the Unions. It had pronounced the right of every
man to work as he himself chose, and the right of employers to agree
with non-union workers as to rate of wages. It had further announced its
determination to protect the non-union worker, by holding the union
responsible for any attacks on non-union men. The leaders of a union
were to be arrested and held responsible for attacks on non-workers. In
case of bloodshed and death, they were to be tried for manslaughter or
for murder. The first to be arrested should be the chief of the union
concerned. After him, his immediate subordinates.
Now the sword was drawn, and Labour was up in arms. Meetings were held
every day. A special meeting was announced at Canberra Hall, admission
by ticket. Somers had asked Jaz if he could get him a ticket, and Jaz
had succeeded. There were two meetings: one, a small gathering for
discussion, at half-past eight in the morning; the other, the mass
meeting, at seven at night.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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