ABSTRACT
The Great War gave George Elton Mayo opportunities to extend his influence among colleagues in Queensland, but when he tried he was frustrated on every point. During 1917 Mayo became interested in the application of social and psychological ideas to Australian politics. The University Senate appointed him to the John Thomson Lectureship, and he gave two public lectures on “Psychology and Politics.” In university affairs Mayo always enjoyed an effective say, and was put on the university’s War Committee when it was founded in 1915. Mayo’s active work on the committee ended in November 1915. At one meeting the members had spent time criticizing Queensland’s Labour government and carping at Mayo’s radical ideas. His view of the political problems of citizens in wartime appears in “Socialism and War,” a talk he gave to Socialists at the Trades Hall. He was both amused and annoyed by reaction at the Trades Hall.
