 He was described "The Courier-Mail" upon his death as "a speaker of great force" and "an apt interjector" in the House.Mathews was always opposed to war and militarism, and campaigned against conscription in the bitter referendums of 1916 and 1917.In 1917, he was one of several political figures prosecuted under the War Precautions Act with having "made false statements of a kind likely to affect the judgment of the electors" in the referendum, but represented himself and was acquitted.