A CRITICAL BIOGRAPHY OF EDWIN JAMES BRADY - Mallacoota ...

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He believed that this attitude was partly due to the welfare state which was developing
in New South Wales, where the unemployed expected the community to support
them, even though there might be work available. 1 It was not that he resented the
public support extended, recognising it as necessary and humane in many cases, but
he was afraid it concealed indolence and led to a softening of the national fibre –
obviously a bad thing for Australia.
This love for Australia was a major concern with Brady at all times. His intense
patriotism was almost jingoistic. In his introductory letter to the people of the north
coast when he took over the editorship of The Grip, Brady wrote that his aim was the
advancement of north coast interests and the improvement of its people, “closer
settlement, equable land laws and encouragement of Agriculture, Dairying, Pastoral
and general Commercial Industries”. He wrote of the need for Patriotism as a binding
force within the Australian society, seeing it as something above and beyond all the
political issues and trends of the day. He further stated that “I am Australian to the
backbone and spinal marrow and shall always respect and regard most the men and
the parties whom I believe to be laboring in the true interests of this our free and
glorious country.” 2
In many articles Brady deplored the unpatriotic gesture, the tendency of Australians to
run down their country in speech and writing – action which he regarded as
thoroughly reprehensible. 3 Perhaps his deeply-rooted utopianism gave him this
attitude and his idealism and optimism saw that only by holding the concept of a
better country and working towards the achievement of this ideal could real
improvement be brought about; or perhaps his socialistic theories envisioned
Australia as a workingman’s paradise once the correct government was in power, and
that this desirable end could be achieved only by inspiring the average man with
idealistic and patriotic aims. Certainly the attitudes engendered by Lawson, Quinn
and Paterson supported idealism and patriotism. Brady felt that this country had more
than any other to give its citizens and that they should repay this with love and
fidelity. This patriotism would not allow him to leave Australia, although he was
sometimes in dire straits financially, even though he could have claimed American
citizenship and expatriates tempted him to go abroad. Through all his writings, from
the verse and comic serials to the best of his prose, this love of country shines
resplendently. And it obvious from his journalism that he regarded the function of a
journalist to be an important one in this process of cultivating and managing patriotic
impulses along desired lines.
In a humorous article very early in his career Brady spoke about the qualifications and
functions of journalists, whether amateur or professional. Beginning in Biblical style
he stated that “Behold he is with us even unto the consummation of the world” and
proceeded to speak of the short life and heavy demands of small magazines and the
journalist whom they employ:
The born Pressman has a natural aptitude for lying; he has read, in a general
way, a tremendous little about everything; he can remember dates; he
possesses an iron constitution, a chilled steel conscience and a copper-plated
inside
1
“The Unemployed Question: Our Great Australian Laze”. The Arrow, 14.10.1899
2
10.8.1901, p.2.
3
“The National Libel Mill and the Australian National Spirit”, The Worker, 4.3.1905