Annie Osborn

“ Could anything affect women more closely than these questions do? If war is declared, who pays ultimately the cost but the women who give up their men to fight? If finance and taxation are the question of the day, who does the nation's buying but the wives and mothers? ”

“ Obviously, since the welfare of the State not only comprised the weal of the citizen as an individual, but questions of offence and defence relating to the citizens collectively, government was a complex matter. In such a community the warriors would have to take a foremost place, even as men must still do in times of war. They would hold councils of war, from which women would be excluded. These councils of war gradually evolved into councils of state, and so it came to pass that the supreme governing body consisted of men and not of women. ”

“ So our system of government is the most perfect that has yet been devised, although in recent years there has been a determined attempt to substitute government by Caucus for the rule of the people. Our system is based on such solid foundations of justice that we cannot afford to exchange it for another. There is more liberty in our old British constitutional government than in any Soviet system invented in Russia, and Australians will support the party of true nationalism rather than tolerate for one moment the uncertainty of mob rule under the Soviet. ”

“ Under our stysem of taxation it is obvious that the bulk of the money for Government must come from the pockets of those who are fairly well-to-do or rich. There is nothing in Australia corresponding to what existed in France prior to the revolution. There the poor people were taxed to support the rich; here a poor man may pay no direct tax at all, while he may and does receive many privileges at the expense of the community. ”

“ Even then we have a further safeguard of our liberties in the presence of the King's representative, who, although he makes no laws, nor does he interfere with free discussion or the making of new measures, keeps careful watch upon bills passed by Parliament, and would refuse the consent of the Crown if they infringed in any way on the broad, solid basis of our Constitution, built upon charters of freedom won by the lifeblood of our fathers, in which the privileges of the Sovereign People are embedded. ”

“ They awakened our citizens to the fact that there was in our midst a section which was willing to separate Australia from her hereditary connection with the British Empire, even though that separation would leave us at the mercy of coloured races and make Australia a splendid land to get out of for every mother of growing daughters. ”

“ We have more than material rights which we have inherited. Our most precious heritage is that *' flood of British freedom," which our forefathers won for us in many a long and stubborn fight for higher ideals and nobler nationhood. Among our inheritances must be reckoned that system of party government, which is now going through a process of change, and bringing into existence a broader and grander conception known as Nationalism. That nationalism is based upon patriotism, not upon purely material considerations. ”

“ Because the anarchical ideal has changed from the desire to liberate the masses to the determination to control everything by an extreme socialism. To effect this the Soviet form of government is to be established throughout the world—and that means ultimately government by adventurers who know how to play upon the worst passions of the mob, and who are prepared to overthrow everything we hold dear. ”

“ The extremists, who have nothing to lose if their experiments turn out to be disastrous failures, are eager to grasp the entire wealth of the community and venture upon the wildest of experimental legislation. ”

“ To ensure to every citizen, as far as possible, the right to live out the full measure of his or her days without foul play cutting them short. We live in reasonable security from violence, and we go to bed at night in the assurance that our lives will be guarded while we sleep. Why? Because the State provides protection from wrongdoers, and the policemen patrol the streets at night as well as by day. ”

“ Customs duties are paid in the first place by the importers, but they are passed on to the consumer in the form of higher prices for goods; and the housewife pays these duties when she buys the goods upon which duties have been levied.
Although taxation is a drain upon our individual resources, it is nevertheless necessary, for it provides the machinery for the working of the State. We derive many benefits from the money we pay in taxation, the protection of life and property, education, and defence being among the number. ”

“ We safeguard ourselves against the passage of hasty and ill-considered legislation by having what is known as the bi-cameral system, or two houses of legislature, the upper and the lower, each of which keeps a check upon the other. ”

“ Marriage and divorce, questions of inheritance, of the precedence of children's rights, as in the matter of the succession of the eldest son and the exclusion of daughters, the rights of the industrious in regard to the fruit of their toil, the protection of the honest from thieves, the punishment of evil-doers, the safeguarding of health—all these are questions moat vitally affecting the family and the private relationships of parents and children and husbands and wives, and yet they are the subject of legislation at every point. ”

“ Every man who wished to become a candidate for Parliament in the Labour cause had to submit his name to the Caucus and from the names submitted a choice was made. Those who were rejected had to quietly stand down. In this way the elector gave up his right of choosing a candidate to selection committees. Instead of exercising his right of individual selection, he bound himself to support the man chosen. This pre-selection of candidate, however, meant a great access of power for the Caucus, for it gave to the Caucus control over the men who were returned to Parliament by its favour. ”

“ Women and the State.
HOW POLITICS AFFECT WOMEN.
In primitive times men protected their womenfolk from outside dangers and hunted for food, while women's duties were to care for the children and to cook the food which the men provided. There are people who think that the same holds true to-day, that the duties of men and of women can be divided into separate water-tight compartments, and we are continually hearing such trite phrases as "Women's sphere is the home," and "Women our angel, not our legislator." ”

“ It therefore becomes a matter of the supremest importance for us to keep in power a Responsible Government that will act cautiously, especially as the meeting of our necessary obligations through the war must in any case impose a heavy burden upon the family purse, and therefore upon women, for a generation to come.
HOW POLITICS AFFECT OUR EVERYDAY LIFE.
Even primitive man gave over the realm of the home to women. The most conservative of present-day people agree that woman's sphere is home. Therefore, women are closely concerned with everything that affects the home. ”

“ Civilisation is being torn in two at the present time by conflicting theories regarding the ideal form of government. At one time there were but two forms of government thought possible, the monarchical and the republican. The anarchist then confined his activities wholly to the overthrow of autocrats and despots, but to-day we have the extraordinary spectacle of extremists as violently at work under the republican systems of France, America and Portugal as they used to be in the despotically governed lands of Russia and Germany. ”

“ The Political Labour Party, born of the strength gained by trades unions, came into being, and the uprise of this new factor in the political arena forced the Conservatives and Liberals to coalesce, with the result that the Conservative party as such has disappeared. Since the war there has been another highly important political change. When disloyal extremists tried to prevent reinforcements going to the aid of the fighting men already in the field, thoughtful Labourites, whose sons were the very backbone of the Australian army, were compelled to take a stand. ”

“ That nation alone is truly great whose sons are inspired to the loftiest aims, whose women are noblest and purest, whose homes are happiest, and whose prosperity is (illegible text) . "Wage slavery" takes no part in the ideals of State (illegible text) slavery of any kind, save slavery to base passions of the ideals, exists in our wonderful land to-day. It is women's duty, as the guardian of the home, to keep Australia (illegible text) and she can do this most effectively through the medium of the ballot box. ”

“ The State is anxious that every ideal shall be kept (illegible text) that the purity of family life shall be maintained, that the individual shall get the very most and best possible (illegible text) life, not, as the poor unfortunate extremists say, because the State wishes us to produce more and be more efficient, that there will be more wealth for the Capitalist (illegible text) because the only real security there is for any State founded upon the happiness of the people as a whole. ”

“ No alternative was left those who were opposed to the aims of Labour, or who feared what might come of unwise experiments, but to organise and vote in a similar way. In sheer self-defence it has become necessary to select candidates and vote solidly for them. ”

“ Men are no longer able to candidate as free and independent individuals and expound to the electors what they would do in an unfettered Parliament. This change is due to the Labour Party. After the fearfully disastrous maritime strike in 1890, that party resolved to obtain political power to accomplish its ends rather than have constant recourse to crippling "direct action." To secure this power Labour men organised with amazing thoroughness. Their leaders developed the Caucus system. ”

“ A baby is born to us. The law says that the child's birth must be registered within a few weeks, if it be born in wedlock; if born out of wedlock, its birth must be notified within three days. Why? To safeguard the new life, and in the case of the poor little "unwanted" mites, to prevent baby farming and infanticide. A marriage is to take place. ”

“ The section which refused to take this loyal and statesmanlike action took the name of the Official Labour Party. There can be no question that those who united their forces with those of Liberalism in the service of the Empire were the true representatives of Labour, for to their honour be it said, the great majority of working men chose country before selfish and ignoble ends. Yet the narrow and short-sighted advocates of Official Labour really, though unintentionally, did Australia a service. ”

“ The only escape lies in developing a true National party, which, by rising above party ends, will give liberty to all and make government by the people a reality.
TAXATION.
It is a common belief that women have no ability to understand finance, yet, strange to say, they have more to do with the spending of money in the community than men. The working man, for instance, hands his wages to his wife, who has the task of seeing that the money is spent to the best advantage. ”

“ In the early days of our history, there used to be a number of candidates—several Conservatives and Liberals offering themselves for election in each of the various constituencies—and each candidate would explain at election meetings what his views were on measures prominent at the time, and how he would vote on questions of the day if he were returned. In this way the vote was cast for men as well as for measures, and a man's character and personality counted largely for his success or failure at the polls. ”

“ The names Liberal and Conservative were brought into our early Australian politics, though the parties that bore them were not identical in all points of policy with similar parties in the old land. But in recent years a new force has made itself felt, and the old names are dying out. ”

“ Ultimately the Whigs evolved into the party known as Liberal with a left wing known as Radicals, while the Tories became Conservatives, who were so well satisfied with things as they were that they did not want to change them. ”

“ So it comes to pass that, whether women do or do not excel at mathematics, they understand from practical experience what money is, and what the spending of it involves. For the same reason they acquire a practical acquaintance with taxation.
Taxation in a modern community comes in two ways. ”

“ Government of a definite sum of money from the family income. Indirect taxation is not so apparent, but it is just as real. On almost all imported articles there is a duty fixed which may range from a small percentage of its value to a high one. ”

“ To safeguard the happiness of the two who wish to join their lives in one, and to stop the wretched trafficking of the "Marriage Shops." A death takes place. The law says that without the registration of that death burial cannot take place. ”