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I have had the
privilege of leading the Labour Party for nearly
four years. They have not been easy times and it has
not been an easy job. It is a man-killing job and
would be impossible if it were not for the help of
my colleagues and members of the movement.
No Labour Minister or
leader ever has an easy job. The urgency that rests
behind the Labour movement, pushing it on to do
things, to create new conditions, to reorganise the
economy of the country, always means that the people
who work within the Labour movement, people who
lead, can never have an easy job. The job of the
evangelist is never easy.
Because of the turn
of fortune's wheel your Premier (Mr McGirr) and I
have gained some prominence in the Labour movement.
But the strength of the movement cannot come from
us. We may make plans and pass legislation to help
and direct the economy of the country. But the job
of getting the things the people of the country want
comes from the roots of the Labour movement - the
people who support it.
When I sat at a
Labour meeting in the country with only ten or
fifteen men there, I found a man sitting beside me
who had been working in the Labour movement for
fifty-four years. I have no doubt that many of you
have been doing the same, not hoping for any
advantage from the movement, not hoping for any
personal gain, but because you believe in a movement
that has been built up to bring better conditions to
the people. Therefore, the success of the Labour
Party at the next elections depends entirely, as it
always has done, on the people who work.
I try to think of the
Labour movement, not as putting an extra sixpence
into somebody's pocket, or making somebody Prime
Minister or Premier, but as a movement bringing
something better to the people, better standards of
living, greater happiness to the mass of the people.
We have a great objective - the light on the hill -
which we aim to reach by working the betterment of
mankind not only here but anywhere we may give a
helping hand. If it were not for that, the Labour
movement would not be worth fighting for.
If the movement can
make someone more comfortable, give to some father
or mother a greater feeling of security for their
children, a feeling that if a depression comes there
will be work, that the government is striving its
hardest to do its best, then the Labour movement
will be completely justified.
It does not matter
about persons like me who have our limitations. I
only hope that the generosity, kindliness and
friendliness shown to me by thousands of my
colleagues in the Labour movement will continue to
be given to the movement and add zest to its work.
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