"I have broken the associations of a lifetime, and abandoned my party for my country. That duty also rests with every man who realises the urgency of concerted action." - Mr. J. A. Lyons.

Now is the day for the ultimate choice;
Now is the day when the clarion voice
   Of the people at last as an entity speaks
   Setting an end to the parties and cliques;
Calling a halt in the babble and brawl.
This, or submission, and shame for us all.
   Country or chaos, courage or fear:
The choice is with us, and the issue is clear.


Partisans clamor, and demagogues scheme;
Sophists and soothsayers drivel and dream;
Witch-doctors strutting in cap and in bells
Weave incantations and mutter their spells,
   Each with a nostrum, and each with a plan
   For the lifting of gloom and the salving of man;
Warring together with wizardry strange,
Seeing salvation in nothing but change.
   While out of it all comes the salient fact:
   If the People would triumph, the People must act.


Now comes the test for democracy's plan:
An end to the faction, an end to the clan!
   Honesty, unity only may serve,
   And the People shall gain what the People deserve.
For are we a People, or are we a herd,
To be spellbound and swayed by the high-sounding word?
   Only thro' honesty shall troubles cease;
   Only thro' unity shall we know peace.


Ours is the choice if we lose or we gain.
Chaos or country: the issue is plain.
   Ours is the blame is we falter or fail.
   If the People be strong shall the People prevail.
But chaos awaits if the People be weak.
Who's for Australia?  Who's for the Clique?

"Den"
Herald, 31 March 1931, p6