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18

        Volunteers were alloted tasks.   Letterboxes were filled.   Polling booths were manned on election day.   We put our hearts into an effort to save democracy, as we conceived it.   But, in the polling booth, the majority of Australians did not choose to support the Whitlam Government.   Instead they voted to legitamise the action of an autocratic Governor-General, a relic of the colonial past.

        Amid accusations of betrayal and conspiracy, many people became disheartened about having any influence   on their nation's progress.   The old epithet, used against conservatives, of a   class "born to rule" seemed only too true.

        My own interest had been aroused in the technique of campaigning at the grassroots level.   I had made new friends and we had endured the political smoke and fire together.   Our candidate in Warringah had been soundly beaten.   Nevertheless, we had showed our colours and had enjoyed a good fight for a worthwhile cause.   Hence, without much soul-searching I determined to continue my membership of the ALP.   It seemed the natural thing to do.

        By joining the Labor Party, I had finally crossed the Rubicon.   My antecedents were rural on both sides of the family.   While practicing agrarian socialism my forebears had preached laissez-faire politics.   After

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