ready the
demand for his recall as unofficial Speeder-up of Patriotism is
simmering.

What of the man behind this drama of almost unparalleled performance?

To see Hughes in action is to get the impression of a human dynamo
suddenly let loose. His face is keen and sharp: his mouth thin: his
cheeks are shrunken: his arms and legs are long and he has a curious way
of stuffing his clenched fists into his trousers pockets. Some one has
called him the Mirabeau of the Australian Proletariat. Certainly he
looks it. He has a nervous energy almost beyond belief. By birth,
temperament, experience and point of view he is a firebrand, but with
this difference: he is a Human Flame that reasons.

Only Lloyd George surpasses him in force and fervour of eloquence. He
has a marvellous trick of expression that never fails to make a winning
appeal. His speeches are the Bible of the Australian worker, and they
are fast becoming part of the Gospel of the wide-awake and progressive
British wage-earner.

Since he was the first Statesman of the Empire to appreciate the grave
business responsibilities that will come with peace, it is interesting
to get his ideas on the relation between Trade and Government. In one of
his impassioned speeches in England he declared:

"The relations between modern trade interests and national welfare are
so intimate and complex that they cannot be treated as though they were
not parts of one organic whole. No sane person now suggests that the
foreign policy of the country should be dealt with by the
_laissez-faire_ policy. No one would dare openly to contend that the
national policy should be one of 'drift,' although I admit that there
are many most excellent persons who by their attitude seem to resent any
attempt to steer the ship of State along a definite course as being an
impious attempt to usurp the functions of Providence, whose special
business they conceive this to be.

"I want to make one thing quite clear, that what I am advocating is not
merely a change of fiscal policy, not merely or even necessarily what
is called Tariff Reform--although this may, probably will, incidentally
follow--but a fundamental change in our ideas of government as applied
to economic and national matters. The fact is that the whole concept of
modern statesmanship needs revision. But England has been, and is, the
chief of sinners. Quite apart from the idea of a self-contained Empire
there is the idea of Britain as an org