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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. Parliamentarians were openly twitted with being mere mouthpieces, and they had no answer to the charge. In order to make effective this system of pre-selection there was adopted another undesirable measure, namely, "Voting the Ticket." This meant that the Labour machine extracted a pledge from every individual of the Labour rank and file to vote blindly for the Labour candidate, while free and independent electors continued to give their votes to the men who most appealed to them, and so scattered the votes. What was the result? The Labour Party achieved a great and surprising success. In many cases they swept the polls. In every State but Victoria—and even there for two days—they were able to establish Labour Governments, and in the Commonwealth Parliament it seemed as if control had passed to them for ever. 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. Yet in so doing we cannot but be alive to the danger of fettering individual judgment unduly. 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.
