ike were perfectly orderly. Who'd ever do
that but Griffith? And what can we expect from a government that did such
a thing?"

"The Brisbane men do seem sore over that," agreed Nellie. "The man who
told me vowed it would be a long time before he'd do policeman's work
again. He said that for him Government might keep its own order and see
how soon it got tired of it."

"Well, it's the same thing going on now. I mean the Government and the
squatters fixing up this military business between them just to
dishearten our fellows. Besides, they've got it into their heads,
somehow, that most men are only unionists through fear and that if
they're sure of 'protection' they'll blackleg in thousands."

"That's a funny notion," said Nellie. "But all employers have it or
pretend to have it. I fancy it comes through men, afraid of being
victimised if they display independence, shifting the responsibility of
their sticking up for rules upon the union and letting the boss think
they don't approve of the rules but are afraid to break them, when
they're really afraid to let him know they approve them."

"That's about it, Nellie, but most people find it easy to believe what
they want to believe. Anyway, I've got it straight from headquarters that
the squatters expect to get blacklegs working under enough military
protection to make blacklegging feel safe, as they look at it, and then
they think our unions will break right down. And, of course, what maddens
our crowd is that blacklegs are collected in another part of the world
and shipped in under agreements which they can be sent to prison if they
break, or think they can, which amounts to the same, and are kept guarded
away from us, like convicts, so that we can't get to them to talk to them
and win them over as is done in ordinary strikes in towns."

"That's shameful!" said Nellie. "The squatter governments have a lot to
answer for."

"And what can we do?" continued Ned. "They won't let us have votes. There
are 20,000 men in the back country altogether and I don't believe 5000 of
them have votes and they're mostly squatters and their managers and
'lifers' and the storekeepers and people who own land. I've no vote and
can't get one. None of the fellows in my lot can get votes. We can't
alter things in Parliament and the law and the government and the
military and the police and the magistrates and everything that's got
authority are trying to down us and we can't help ourselves. Do