Michael Joseph Savage

Michael Joseph Savage (1930s)

Michael Joseph Savage (born March 23, 1872 in Tatong , Victoria , Australia , † March 27, 1940 in Wellington , New Zealand ) was a New Zealand Labor Party politicianand Prime Minister of the country from 1935 to 1940.

Early life

Michael Savage was born on March 23, 1872 in Tatong , near Benalla in South Australia, the eighth and youngest child of an Irish immigrant family. His father was Richard Savage . His mother, Johanna , geb. Hayes , died in 1878 when he was five years old. Was raised Savage of his older sister Rose strict Catholic educated by his father and. After five years of attending a small school in Rothesay , where his father owned a small farm, Savage worked in a wine and liquor store in Benalla from 1886 to 1893 . During this time he attended Benalla College . Savage was active as a boxer and weightlifter and was involved in the local fire department, as well as the treasurer of a charity organization for the local hospital and homeless shelter.

After the death of his sister Rose and his closest brother Joe in 1891, Savage took on his brother's first name in addition to his name and has been called Michael Joseph Savage ever since .

Work and politics

In the wake of the Great Depression from 1873 to 1896 , Savage was unemployed in 1893 and went to New South Wales . There he worked as a wage laborer on a large farm near Narrandera . He became a member of the General Laborers 'Union (wage workers ' union ) and came into contact with the radical political theories of the American socialists Henry George and Edward Bellamy .

In 1900 he went back to Victoria , tried his hand at prospecting for gold, worked as a machinist and co-founded a bakery cooperative. Influenced by the ideas of the British socialist Tom Mann , Savage joined the Political Labor Council of Victoria , for which he ran for parliament in 1907 for the constituencies of Wangaratta and Rutherglen . After the Rutherglen pits were closed and the Socialist Federation of Australasia split off from the Political Labor Council of Victoria , Savage decided to follow his friend, unionist Paddy Webb, to New Zealand .

Political career in New Zealand

On October 9, 1907, New Zealand Labor Day , Savage reached Wellington . He went for six months in the Manawatu District to work with flax cut something to make money. He then moved to Auckland , where he found accommodation with the Alf and Elizabeth French families , with whom he lived until his death. In Auckland he worked as a cellar master at the Captain Cook Brewery in the Newmarket district , south of central Auckland . Savage became involved in the unions here too, quickly becoming president of the Auckland Brewers', Wine and Spirit Merchants' and Aerated-water Employees' Union and, in 1910, president of the Auckland Trades and Labor Councils .

In 1908 Savage became secretary of the New Zealand Socialist Party , but in 1910 he opposed the establishment of the New Zealand Labor Party because it was unwilling to include socialist programs in its statutes. In 1911 he resigned as President of the Auckland Trades and Labor Council to become chairman of the more radical New Zealand Federation of Labor (' Red Fed ') in Auckland .

For the general election in 1911, Savage ran as the Socialist Party candidate for Auckland Central , but lost to the Liberal Party candidate . In February 1912, he resigned as secretary of the Socialist Party in Auckland to return to Australia, but the workers' strike in Auckland kept him in New Zealand. In the same year he organized the strike of the miners of the gold mine in Waihi in the Bay of Plenty region . In July 1913, Savage was among the union leaders who tried at Unity Congress to bring unionists and socialist politicians together to form a new party, the Social Democratic Party .

In 1913 Savage was involved in the so-called Waterfront Dispute , the dockworkers' strike, which escalated into a general strike and in the end left the unions the losers. A year later, in the 1914 general election, Savage's candidacy for a parliamentary seat for the Social Democratic Party was again unsuccessful.

A short time later he organized the labor movement in Auckland , which led to the establishment of an Auckland Labor Representation Committee , of which Savage was secretary . He advocated the formation of a large general union, called for the nationalization of industry, and spoke out against conscription during the First World War . In July 1916 he supported the founding of the New Zealand Labor Party , of which he became vice-president in 1918 alongside chairman Harry Holland and in 1919 took on the role of the party's secretary. In the same year Savage was elected to the Auckland City Council , of which he was a member until 1923. He was also elected to parliament this year. He took over the mandate for the constituency of Auckland West , becoming one of eight MPs in his Labor Party .

Along with James McCombs , Savage became his party's financial policy spokesman. He campaigned for an increase in pensions and for a health system that was free for citizens. He was also instrumental in the creation of the Family Allowances Act 1926 , which at the time granted families two shillings per week child benefit for each child .

Role as prime minister

When Harry Holland died in October 1933, Savage took over the leadership of the Labor Party and put it on course. In the general election in 1935, Savage was able to convince voters of his sincerity and eloquence and that he was the right candidate for prime minister and that his party could understand the problems and desires of the people in the country and offer solutions. The Labor Party won 55 of the 80 seats that were to be awarded, thus forming a Labor government for the first time in New Zealand's history . Savage, however, was elected 23rd Prime Minister of New Zealand on December 6, 1933.

Savages Labor government acted quickly and immediately after the election paid out a Christmas bonus to the unemployed and support to those in need. She also decided to take seven-day annual leave for care workers.

In his first year in office, 1936, Savage and his government launched a barrage of laws that boosted purchasing power and stimulated the economy, thereby creating jobs. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand and private broadcasters were nationalized, guaranteed dairy prices were paid, and discrimination against Māori in the areas of labor, education, health and land rights sought to be eradicated.

Savage was a vehement critic of British foreign policy, especially the fact that he believed Britain was doing too little against the fascist Franco regime in Spain , against Japan's invasion of China, and against Hitler's claims to omnipotence and the annexation of part of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany. He also considered making New Zealand's industry more independent from Great Britain and opening up new markets in Asia.

In April 1938 his government put forward proposals to improve social security. Savage wanted a government, tax-funded health system that would be immediately free to all citizens, a means-tested pension for ages 60 and over and a universal pension for ages 65 and over. But a week after the Social Security Bill was introduced into Parliament on August 2, 1938, Savage collapsed for the first time. Diagnosis: colon cancer . But he postponed the urgently needed operation to get the law through parliament and to be available for the upcoming parliamentary election. His election campaign appearances brought his Labor Party from 46% in the polls to 56% and thus to an election victory.

On August 1, 1939, Savage collapsed a second time, but this time had an operation three days later. Physically weakened, but mentally fit, Savage had to prevail against his party opponent John A. Lee , who accused him of mental weakness because of his illness and tried to gain internal party power, for which Lee was later expelled from the party. But Savage did not return to office and the party because he could no longer recover from his cancer. He died on March 27, 1940 at his home in Wellington .

Last honor

Michael Joseph Savage was buried with a state funeral at Bastion Point in Auckland . Hundreds of thousands lined the path of his coffin, which was transported by train on the North Island Main Trunk Railway from Wellington to Auckland . The Michael Joseph Savage Memorial was erected on his grave in his honor .

Web links

• Barry Gustafson : Savage, Michael Joseph . In: Dictionary of New Zealand Biography . Ministry for Culture & Haritage , January 29, 2014, accessed February 8, 2016 . 
• Barry Gustafson : Savage, Michael Joseph (1872-1940) . In: Australian Dictionary of Biography . National Center of Biography, Australian National University , 1988, accessed February 8, 2016 . 
• Newspaper article about Michael Joseph Savage in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Barry Gustafson : Savage, Michael Joseph . In: Dictionary of New Zealand Biography . Ministry for Culture & Haritage , January 29, 2014, accessed February 7, 2016 .  
2. ^ Family benefits introduced . In: New Zealand History . Ministry for Culture & Haritage , January 7, 2013, accessed February 7, 2016 .  
3. ^ Andrea O'Neil : Michael Joseph Savage funeral provokes Wellington grief - 150 years of news . Dominion Post , September 22, 2015, accessed February 8, 2016 .  
4. ^ Michael Joseph Savage Memorial . Auckland Council , accessed February 8, 2016 .