• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

The Institute of Australian Culture

Heritage, history, and heroes; literature, legends, and larrikins

  • Home
  • Articles
  • Biographies
  • Books
  • Ephemera
  • Poetry & songs
    • Recommended poetry
    • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
    • Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
    • Rock music and pop music [videos]
    • Early music [videos]
  • Slang
  • Timeline
    • Timeline of Australian history and culture
    • Calendar of Australian history and culture
    • Significant events and commemorative dates
  • Topics

To the Polls! Oh Workers! [30 March 1901]

29 May 2012 · Leave a Comment

[Editor: This article is from the “Tray Notes” column, published in The Worker (Brisbane, Qld.), 30 March 1901.]

To the Polls! Oh Workers!

Every one of the leaders of the White Australia movement in Queensland is out fighting and toiling to achieve this great principle. Every member of the Labour party is in his place striving to win a great and lasting victory for the purity of the Australian race and the future free and glorious destiny of the Australian Nation.

In the electorates the lieutenants of the movement are battling day and night arranging meetings distributing literature and generally attending to and perfecting the details of the campaign. Since the commencement of politics in Australia there has never been such a campaign organised and carried out as the Labour party are at present engaged in Queensland. With the consciousness of right to inspire them, the rank and file are steadily advancing to the goal of victory— the ballot-box. Till it tells its tale victory is uncertain and the results unforcastable.

“Till the ballot-box tells its tale.” In that sentence the whole fight is crystallised. Every man on the Labour side whose voice or pen has any value or weight is fighting to assure a victory for the people. We have convinced many opponents, but have left thousands strongly imbued, with their prejudices, and fanatics who are strong in their prejudices die hard. Everyone of these will rally round their citadel of black labour, and its capture means their political annihilation. To overcome them and plant the flag of White Australia on the summit of their fastness, every white man voter in Queensland must go to the poll. Otherwise all the speeches and writings and printings will be wasted.

Every hope and aspiration we have been treasuring for years may depend upon the votes of a handful of lazy or indifferent or unmindful men. But if every man presents himself at the polling place, makes it his business to induce every relation, friend, or acquaintance to do the same and explains how and for whom to vote then we may hope for the future. If not the old weariness, the old despair, the old lethargy will be our lot once more.



Source:
The Worker (Brisbane, Qld.), Saturday 30 March 1901, page 3

[Editor: Corrected “engaged in in” to “engaged in”.]

[Editor: The original text has been separated into paragraphs.]

Filed Under: articles Tagged With: racial attitudes, racial purity (White Australia), SourceTrove, White Australia policies, year1901

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Australian flag, Kangaroo, Wattle, 100hThe Institute of Australian Culture
Heritage, history, and heroes. Literature, legends, and larrikins. Stories, songs, and sages.

Search this site

Featured books

The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses, by Banjo Paterson A Book for Kids, by C. J. Dennis  The Bulletin Reciter: A Collection of Verses for Recitation from The Bulletin The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, by C. J. Dennis The Complete Inner History of the Kelly Gang and Their Pursuers, by J. J. Kenneally The Foundations of Culture in Australia, by P. R. Stephensen The Australian Crisis, by C. H. Kirmess Such Is Life, by Joseph Furphy
More books (full text)

Featured lists

Timeline of Australian history and culture
A list of significant Australiana
Significant events and commemorative dates
Australian slang
Books (full text)
Australian literature
Rock music and pop music (videos)
Folk music and bush music (videos)
Early music (videos)
Recommended poetry
Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
Australian explorers
Topics
Links

Featured posts

Advance Australia Fair: How the song became the Australian national anthem
Brian Cadd [music videos and biography]
Ned Kelly: Australian bushranger
Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]

Some Australian authors

E. J. Brady
John Le Gay Brereton
C. J. Dennis
Mary Hannay Foott
Joseph Furphy
Mary Gilmore
Charles Harpur
Grant Hervey
Lucy Everett Homfray
Rex Ingamells
Henry Kendall
“Kookaburra”
Henry Lawson
Jack Moses
“Dryblower” Murphy
John Shaw Neilson
John O’Brien (Patrick Joseph Hartigan)
“Banjo” Paterson
Marie E. J. Pitt
A. G. Stephens
P. R. Stephensen
Agnes L. Storrie (Agnes L. Kettlewell)

Recent Posts

  • [The new stamps] [re the new Tasmanian postage stamps, 2 January 1900]
  • The Leading Lady [poem by “Stargazer”, 31 January 1917]
  • The Naval Contingent: With the Australians in China [17 October 1900]
  • Australia Day [26 January 1953]
  • Australia Day [24 January 1953]

Top Posts & Pages

  • Australian slang
  • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
  • Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]
  • Rommel’s comments on Australian soldiers [1941-1942]
  • The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]

Archives

Categories

Posts of note

The Bastard from the Bush [poem, circa 1900]
A Book for Kids [by C. J. Dennis, 1921]
Click Go the Shears [traditional Australian song, 1890s]
Core of My Heart [“My Country”, poem by Dorothea Mackellar, 24 October 1908]
Freedom on the Wallaby [poem by Henry Lawson, 16 May 1891]
The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]
Nationality [poem by Mary Gilmore, 12 May 1942]
The Newcastle song [music video, sung by Bob Hudson]
No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest [poem by Mary Gilmore, 29 June 1940]
Our pipes [short story by Henry Lawson]
Rommel’s comments on Australian soldiers [1941-1942]
Shooting the moon [short story by Henry Lawson]

Recent Comments

  • Robert Buntine on No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest [poem by Mary Gilmore, 29 June 1940]
  • Laurie on The Geebung Polo Club [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • rob buntine on No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest [poem by Mary Gilmore, 29 June 1940]
  • Carol on Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
  • Annie Crestani on Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]

For Australia

Copyright © 2023 · Log in