The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, July 8, 1918, Page 10

i L annual dues and on signing the party platform. The po- litical campaigns and propa- ganda of the Labor party are financed by the dues paid by the direct members and by the affiliated unions paying so much per capita for their membership. The platform of the party for a state election is drawn up by a state conference of delegates elected from the local leagues and affiliated unions. The state conference also criticizes and instructs Labor members of the state parliament as to their actions and tactics in parliament. All questions at the conference have previously been threshed out in the local leagues and unions before the election of delegates. The platform is therefore an expression of the opinion of the rank and file of the party. In this way the Labor members of parliament are kept in touch with, and amenable to, the sentiment of the rank and file of the party; in other words, the Labor members of parliament are looked upon as instructed dele- gates rather than as free rep- resentatives. In addition to the above functions, the state conference, which meets in each state, elects a state executive council. This Central Executive, as it is called, attends to all matters arising between conferences and keeps in touch with the Labor members of parliament. EVERY CANDIDATE IS PLEDGED The candidates at the state parliamentary elec- tions who carry the Labor nomination are chosen by a vote of the rank and file of the Labor party. In Australia there are no primary election laws as in the United States. In most of the states, the members of the lower house are elected from districts returning one member, and all the voter has to do is to vote for the member from his dis- trict. The names of the candidates on the ballot paper are arranged in alphabetical order with no party designations whatever. Some time before the parliamentary election, all candidates for the Labor .indorsement for a particular district must be members of a Labor league or a union of at . least one year’s standing. The names of the eli- gible candidates are then submitted to the state central executive for approval. This approval is given unless there is some particular reason for refusing it. The names of the -approved candidates are then submitted to a vote of the rank and file of the party in the district. If there are more than two candidates for the Labor nomination, a preferential system of voting is used—the choice of the party must have a majority and not merely a plurality. Before the names of the candidates are submitted to a vote of the party membership, Here is how the Australian farmers haul their wheat. the grain is sacked and laid out in the open in great piles. terioration results from this method of storage. During the war, great stocks of Australian wheat have accumulated, due to the lack of shipping facilities. A plague of rats has descend- ed on these stores and is causing great loss. The annual crop in the southern continent is about 50,000,000 bushels. each of these candidates is required to sign the . following pledge: “I hereby pledge myself not to oppose the selected candidate of this or any other branch ° of the Political Labor league. I also pledge myself, if returned to parliament, on all oc- casions to do my utmost to insure the carry- Our F ight "Tis for us the unbeckoned by the call of guns, In this tragic, sad drama of God’s little ones, To sit tight and row in Democracy’s boat, * To hold the right course and keep her afloat; That the sons who return from this tragical fate May sail calmly on in a safe ship of state. Aye! Freedom’s course, we must ever assume While they, midst the shot and the cannon’s boom ; Lie shattered and torn in the hell of the fight; That men may be free, that nght may be might. The course that brings us to that state Where life is love, where there is no hate; Where “All for each and each for all” To every man is the common call; . Where Equality of Chance is: Democracy’s twin, Then and there will a new era begin.- —HOLGER LYNGHOLM, Two Buttes, Col. The chief city of Australia is Sydney, New Sonth Wales, with‘a papnlnfion o 150,000 Snn Franeisco is 7,000 nules, and what mth’the war’s'demxm shipping’: There aré no grain elevators, so all The climate is dry and little de- ing out of the prineiples: embodied in the Labor platform, and on all ques- tions, especially on ques- tions affecting the fate of a government, to vote as’ a majority of the Labor party may decide at a duly constituted caucus.” 3 The caucus consists of the Labor members of parliament. The object of the pledge is to create solidarity. The Labor party always votes solidly in parliament on Labor measures. In addition to the state con- ferences, a federal conference is called every three years, the life of the federal parliament being three years. The federal conference bears the same re- lation to the federal parlia- ment as the state conferences do to the state parliaments. Labor members of parliament who go back upon the pro-- gram of the Labor party are: expelled from the party. In the federal elections of 1914, the Labor candidates polled some 1,050,000 votes out of a total vote of about 2,000,000. Australia has wom- an suffrage, and therefore the number of men who voted for Labor was about 550,000. In 1914 there were 500 870 male trade unionists in Austtalia, the great majority of whom are affiliated with the Labor party. At the very lowest-estimate, 60 per cent of the men who vote the Labor ticket are also dues-paying members of the party and have a vote in the control of the party. It will be seen that this organization i similar to the National Nonpartisan league, while at the same time there are some important differences. The differences are possibly due to differences in the governmental systems of the United States and Australia. However, the great fact remains that THE LABOR PARTY IS FIGHTING THE PROF- ITEERS IN AUSTRALIA JUST AS THE NON- PARTISAN LEAGUE IS IN AMERICA. These two organizations, together with the British Labor party in England and the producers of wealth in Russia, France, Italy and other countries, are all fighting the same battle. THIS GREAT MOVE- MENT AGAINST THE PROFITEERS AND BIG BUSINESS IS INTERNATIONAL IN ITS SCOPE. GOVERNMENT POWDER PLANTS START Two. of the contemplated government-owned powder plants, one near Charleston, W. Va., and one near Nashville, Tenn., have started operations two months ahead of schedule. They are manu- facturing sulphuric and nitric acids, constituent parts in the making of smokeless powder.h The construction of other plants is going ahead rapldly. The $120,000,000 allotted for such purpose is ex- - pected to give the government a smokeless powder capacity equal to that of all other American plants combined. This program will not only give the government an important war need at cost but will in time remove one of the vicious vested interests working for militarism.