Stonecutter to Premier....
He entered politics, helped found the Labor Party and rose to the highest office in the state, the first premier from a labor party in the entire British Empire.
His ideals of expanding the right to vote, improving condition for workers, opening markets for farmers and establishing free public education were advanced during his tenure.
He was ahead of time, driving South Australia into new social territory, pushing for improvements in health and a social safety net a generation before the United Kingdom and the United States did so. A social progressive, during a generation when women had reduced legal rights and no right to vote in the U.K. and USA, he led his party in the emancipation of women, including Aboriginal women.
Nor can we overlook the contributions of Annie, his wife and mother of their many children. She became the first female Justice of the Peace and Acting Magistrate in the Empire.
Several years ago, my wife and I met the author of this biography, Steph McCarthy, a dynamo of ideas and inquisitiveness, and an accomplished playwrite and author in Australia. At the time she told us she was working on a biography of her great grandfather, Tom Price, first Labor premier of her home state of South Australia. A premier is the equivalent of the governor of a U.S. state. Steph has been a regular contributor to this blog, and has kept me apprised of her work on this tome.
Over the holidays, she mailed me a copy of Tom Price, and over a lengthy sea cruise, I immersed myself in a world that I thought would be alien to my historical knowledge. What I found was this nascent colony on the edge of the British Empire was experiencing the same problems concerning industrialization, political power and unequal personal wealth that Western Europe and North America also were confronting at the time. Under Tom's leadership, South Australia addressed these issues and moved toward a more equal and just society.
Tom was not just ahead of his time. One could say, as far as advancement of human happiness, he moved 'time' forward, setting an example for the modern industrialized nations. In the 1890s, the Fabians in England were only holding seminars, the U.S. Senate was controlled by wealthy trusts and a newly centralized Germany was only considering old age pensions. But in South Australia, a land of sunshine, wheat farmers and vine yards, leaders such as Tom Price were demanding and achieving social gains that were a generation ahead of older societies.
This then is amazing story worthy of study by political scientists and historians the world over, but the tale gets better as Steph brings to life her great grandfather's personal struggles. Born in Wales in 1852 to an alcoholic father and an illiterate mother, Tom moved with the family to Liverpool and attended 'penny school' until going to work at age 9 as a stone cutter apprentice. He found the energy to enroll in the Liverpool Mechanics Institute for night school and was deeply influenced by the Methodist Church and the strong Sunday School movement of his time.
He advanced in his trade, even starting his own business. But the stone cutter disease, the inhaling of dust, weakened his lungs. At age 32, seeking a warmer, drier climate, he took his new bride to southern Australia, and there he prospered as a laboring man. Know for his speaking abilities and philosophy of equal opportunities for all, he soon was involved in the Trades Union movement, the formation of the Labor Party and after several decades of struggle, became the first Labor premier! The stone cutter's disease, which destroyed lungs, eventually took Tom at the relatively young age of 57, but he had made his mark.
Below, the author, Steph McCarthy, left, and another descendant of the British Empire, Nancy Marshall of Ontario, Canada in Vienna, 2014.
The author has done an immense amount of research, bringing to life a person, a place, a time and the politics of an era facing rapid technological and social change. Political biographies can be a bit dry, but this one is not. Steph's talents of keeping the reader engaged as she walks one through numerous political debates and parliamentary sessions is a wonder. I found myself eagerly returning to Tom Price day after sea day, wondering what Tom would do next to further his political goals, seemingly forever stymied by reactionary forces.
In the end, Tom Price made a huge difference in the lives of millions, and although he died early, he left the foundations for institutions that thrive to this day in Australia. And his great grand daughter, very much a chip off this stone cutter's dynastic block, has written a work that should engender historians to look more closely at the progressive movement in Australia. The history of 'Down Under' has lessons for leaders of the 21st Century concerned about unequal distribution of wealth and human rights and justice.
Thanks Steph for your time and energy in resurrecting a noble life, a man who stood for values central to our humanity.
Tom Price from Stonecutter to Premier, 421 pages, was published by Wakefield Press, 16 Rose Street, Mill End, South Australia 5031in 2015. Their web site is www.wakefieldpress.com.au .
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Comments always welcome....GNH
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