Although this book is written of a period in Australian history beginning exactly one century ago, a verse from a poem written in the 1890’s which Burgmann quotes on the last page of her book has poignancy for labor idealists today:

No wonder that the people turn, they are so oft betrayed
By men of mighty promises whom danger makes afraid.
O what’s the use of choosing chiefs to smash the Evil down,
If when they get into the van they end by ‘backing down’