John Scaddan

JOHN RODWAY ROBERTSON John Scaddan THE PRACTICAL SOCIALIST John Scaddan was the first man in Australia to lead a state Laborgovernment with a substantial His majority victory in the Western Australian general election of October 1911 by four seats thirty to sixteen gave him a margin in the Legislative which has never since Assembly been equalled by a Labor premier in the West At thirty five he was than any younger ofhis ministers when he entered office He led a capable reforming ministry which pursued a vigorous policy until 1914 when his was reduced to two at a majority general election This setback the outbreak ofwar and the of the ravages perhaps worst drought the agricultural districts of the state have suffered this century combined to put severe restraints on Scaddan s policy innovations dissension followed Party and the defection oftwo men from his back bench his precipitated government s fall in July 1916 Then the Labor Party in the eastern states tore itself in two over conscription This led in April 1917 to a split in the ranks ofthe Western Australian branch despite valiant and sensible attempts to maintain Scaddan party unity then left the Labor Party Thereafter he moved be tween the National Labor National and Country Parties and held important port folios under Sir James Mitchell from 1919 to 1924 and again from 1930 to 1933 He died in Perth on 21 November 1934 I John Scaddan s were parents Cornish His father Richard a hard rock miner and his mother Jennifer nee Smitheram were amongst thousands who emigrated from Cornwall in the depressed nineteenth century They settled at Moonta South Australia where John one ofa was born 4 large family on August 1876 Five years later the moved to the family Bendigo district in Victoria where as a youth John worked in gold mines In 1896 he joined the gold rush to Kalgoorlie After a spell on the underground Golden Mile Scaddan qualified as an engine driver and then worked at the pit head He became a unionist and in 1904 easily won the seat of Ivanhoe for Labor at the state general election in June He was not a minister in Henry Daglish s short lived minority government of 1904 05 but on 3 139 140 WESTRALIAN PORTRAITS state Labor Party his having August 1910 he was elected leader of the predecessor he Labor s campaign in a resigned on grounds of ill health A year later opened contest between his party and the Liberal general election which was a straight out on a wide and radical government led by Frank Wilson Labor campaigned ranging the state branch congress in mid 19l0 it policy which had been largely laid down by voters who backed Scaddan by a handsome proved attractive to Western Australian margin and more those Like most Australian politicians of his generation particularly so not a great deal is from the labour movement Scaddan left no personal papers un on the were somewhat known about his private life His early years goldfields in 1900 only to be divorced soon settled He married Elizabeth Fawkner in Boulder was married this time after without the marriage producing issue In 1904 he again in his life he had a cheerful to Henrietta Edwards Whatever the tensions private Jack his standing disposition hisnickname Happy indicating public Scaddan became with experience a com Despite his limited formal education administrator he was adventurous normally capable petent public speaker As an only Lord but sometimes slapdash He proved an energetic premier By comparison more was done at the state level to Forrest and Sir David Brand were premiers when and to modify the everyday life mould Western Australia s subsequent development had associations with the West of the electorate Yet few of Scaddan s party long members in the Assembly Reflecting the gold rush influx only one ofhis Legislative were Nonetheless they were patriotic in the and only one of his ministry born here interests of the state As an example while in Lon way they sought to advance the in the up of Western don early in 1913 Scaddan began steps which resulted setting In so he declined Australia House in the Strand for the agent general s offices doing Australia House for he feared the Commonwealth government s offer of offices in a loss ofstate identity cabinet s reforming zeal With An impressive list of achievements testifies to the honouring an election to the Workers Homes Act of 191 1 Scaddan began promise homes In the following year make it easier for lower paid workers to own their workers compensation provisions much effort was expended in greatly extending Arbitration Court and in other and significantly expanding the jurisdiction of the re arbitration to benefit unionists The resulting Act ways modifying the system the day Reforms were mains the basis of the state s arbitration system to present of The status of also made in the education system and in the administration justice the minimum salary for male school teaching was raised substantially when In a similar railway employees schoolteachers was raised by 22 per cent way a day To help benefited when their minimum wage was increased to nine shillings and a income finance the various initiatives the land tax was increased graduated increased on the of war tax introduced in 1912 and greatly outbreak time to act on a host ofsmaller issues Despite its hectic programme cabinet found accommodation Problems from shop assistants weekly holidays to shearers time was taken up with ques associated with the liquor trade were tackled and much it that a reluctant civil tions of early closing and local option and when appeared JOHN SCADDAN 141 the retirement service might impede change Scaddan reacted by forcing compulsory of nine of the most senior officers in February 1912 at record length Some Cabinet s reforming ardour meant that parliament spoke not but rela rank and file supporters complained that Scaddan had done enough amicable tions between the parliamentary party and the trade unions were compared Scaddan s im with the situation then obtaining in New South Wales vigorous his trust in its plementation of many Labor planks meant that government inspired and file to accept followers a trust which was to contribute to state rank willingness a federal Labor thought it conscription for overseas war service when government necessary face of continual Quite remarkably Scaddan s achievements were made in the amended bills obstruction from the conservative Legislative Council which many In all the won only after lengthy tussles and rejected others outright government and at least bills were lost This one third of the divisions in the Upper House forty afforded the conservative was in marked contrast to the treatment governments a bill in the Upper which preceded and followed Scaddan which did not lose single the Council House The truth was that Scaddan s programme was more radical than of crown land a system of would accept For example a bill to replace the sale by Critics of Scaddan have claimed that leasing was rejected virtually without debate its by his government was secretly relieved that it could appease supporters putting the Council would them The evidence does not up radical proposals knowing reject the tried various means of over on the whole support this assertion for government coming the Council s obstruction but without success limits but in fact he Scaddan was elected on a platform calling for on borrowing much in so that the state s debt increased as stepped up the loan programme public thirteen Much of this bor his five years of office as it had in the previous years which attention railway con rowed money was spent in three areas require special of state enter struction the development of the wheat belt and the establishment prises work was construction The most important and expensive developmental railway Scaddan spent 5621465 of loan During its five years in office the government as in the twelve years Of this money on the state s railway system as much previous of war The average rate of 4480000 was spent in the three years to the outbreak annum Scaddan railway construction in the five years to 1911 had been 246 km per in the four years before war proposed to increase this to at least 322 km In fact work he 385 km per annum the brought a temporary halt to construction averaged highest rate ofbuilding in the state s history situated in the wheat belt from Yuna The lines opened for traffic were principally the Great and Ajana north of Geraldton to Gnowangerup in the south Along Katanning and Southern line railways penetrated eastwards from Wagin towards the Tambellup and loop lines from Narrogin swung out north east import the Hills Mullewa section was ant junction of Merredin Further north Wongan Geraldton some 60 km in completed providing a government railway from Perth to In South West a land from the old Midland Railway Company s line the railway 142 WESTRALiAN paR TRAITS was constructed through Boyup Brook La link up with the great Southern while the spur from Pinjarra was extended to Dwarda The government bought from Millars Timber and Trading Co Ltd the Margaret River Flinders Bay line along the far r south west coast In the North West the isolated Port Hedland Marble Bar line was opened in July 1912 In December 1911 the government tried to settle a long standing controversy by introducing a bill for a railway from the south coast port of I Esperance to Norseman joined via Coolgardie to the state network since 1909 West coast interests in the Legislative Council were able to defeat this bill but after I much more controversy a compromise

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