In making a plea for toleration for all politicians, the Mayor of Geelong declared: “Nobody can tell me that there is any politician in this country who has deliberately and designedly entered politics with the crude idea of ruining this country.”

We have suffered, Mr Mayor, as have you,
   Yet not gladly, from the follies of the past.
With the fate of many in the hands of few
   We have suffered, but our patience does not last.
We have witnessed one man’s folly. Wreck a State,
   While cranks intrigue and agitators plot.
You mat deem these small affairs to contemplate:
   But quite frankly, Mr Mayor, we do not.


Tho’ intention, Mr Mayor, may be pure,
   Its performance, lacking wisdom, makes the wreck.
And it may become a Christian to endure;
   But we like to hold these little things in check.
When they seek our tested systems to supplant
   With their theories, their “isms” and their schools,
You may bear it, Mr Mayor; but we can’t.
   It is not the knaves that plague us, but the fools.

"Den"
Herald, 2 November 1931, p9