History of the New England newspaper press 21 - How David Drummond won the election

 

Tattersalls Hotel Emmavillel. Campaigning at Emmaville, Bruxner finally got Drummond into a pub where he drank a soda water! 

This is the twenty first in a series on the history of the media and especially the newspaper press in New England, the fourteenth column on the emergence of the NSW Country Party. I am resting the series for a little while to focus on other things. It has become very long! 

As the other candidates in the March 1920 elections swung to the countryside Drummond turned his attention to the towns. There he made one major tactical error.

Certain that Bruxner would have a large surplus vote in his Tenterfield home base, Drummond decided to campaign heavily in Tenterfield hoping to pick up Bruxner's second preferences.

Although Bruxner did poll well, he did not secure a quota till the sixth count and Drummond's Tenterfield campaign was wasted.

The two men seem to have had considerable contact during the campaign. Bruxner liked Drummond immediately, but there were considerable differences in outlook between the polished grazier and the young farmer. At one point Ray Doolin organised a combined meeting for them at the mining village of Emmaville.

 “Anxious that our two colts would work together, I asked the Colonel how he was getting on with Dave. He replied ‘Oh Dave is coming on, I got him into the Pub and he drank a soda water.’ After the meeting I asked about the Colonel - Dave replied ‘Ray, he is a very fine and able man, but I think he is a bit of a lad!’"

 The difference in temperament between the two men did result in at least one clash, but after that “temperate but straight speaking episode” the two became firm friends and allies.

The Northern press played an important role in the Progressive's campaign, as did a resurgent campaign for Northern self-government. The two were linked, because most newspapers were supporting the self government cause.

While the separatist campaign was non-party, it benefited the Progressives most. They supported self-government and could campaign for it without the entanglements affecting Labor and Nationalist candidates.

Press support was particularly important for the lesser known Drummond. Drummond's old friend, Ernest Sommerlad, campaigned for him strongly through the Glen Innes Examiner. Sommerlad was also able to persuade the supporters of sitting member F.J. Thomas to grant preferences to Drummond.

Election day, 20 March 1920, saw the Progressives poll well, with 49 per cent of the vote as compared with Labor's 37.2 per cent and the Nationalists' meagre 13.8 per cent. As expected, Bruxner, with 23.5 per cent of the vote, was the second candidate elected after Labor's McClelland.

This left Drummond with 10 per cent of the vote competing for the third spot against the remaining candidates. In the end, it was enough.

The result was a surprise to many. As the The Land put it some years later:

 Mr Drummond was a young farmer of Inverell. He had ideas, and had been active in the Farmers and Settlers' Association. No one knew much about him, but that was of no consequence. He proceeded to tell them. There were no widely signed requisitions for him to contest Northern Tablelands. They were not required. He had made up his mind. He informed the electors he knew about politics, and would be able to run the country as it ought to be run. At first he was not taken seriously, but he was quite confident the people would elect him to Parliament, and they did.

Note to readers: This post was prepared as a column for the on-line edition of the Armidale Express. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015,  here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018, here 2019, here 2020