John Cain (19 January 1882 - 4 August 1957), Australian politician, was the 33rd Premier of Victoria, and was the first Australian Labor Party Leader to win a majority in the Victorian Legislative Assembly. He was also the only Premier of Victoria whose son also served as Premier. January 19 is the 19th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1882 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... August 4 is the 216th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (217th in leap years), with 149 days remaining. ... 1957 was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... List of Premiers of Victoria Before the 1890s there was no formal party system in Victoria. ... The Australian Labor Party or ALP is Australias oldest political party. ... The Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the parliament of Victoria in Australia. ...

Cain was born in Greendale, near Bacchus Marsh. His father, Patrick Kane, was an Irish-born Catholic who worked as a small farmer and contractor. John was one of eighteen children. As a young man he changed the spelling of his surname and converted to Anglicanism, apparently to distance himself from his family and his Irish ancestry. He left no personal papers and very little is known about his early life. He apparently had little education and from an early age worked as a farm laborer. By 1907 he had moved to Melbourne, where he worked as a fruiterer in Northcote. The term Anglican (from the Angles or English) describes those people and churches following the religious traditions developed by the established Church of England. ... 1907 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Melbourne is the capital and largest city of the state of Victoria, and the second largest city in Australia, with a population of 52,117 in the City of Melbourne (which covers only the central city area), and 3,488,750 in the Melbourne metropolitan area (census 2001 [1]). The... Northcote is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. ...

Political career

In about 1910 Cain joined the Victorian Socialist Party (VSP), a Marxist party to the left of the Australian Labor Party (although like most VSP members Cain was probably also an ALP member). In 1915 he became an organiser with the Theatrical Employees' Union, and in 1916 he became a clerk in the Defence Department. He was sacked from this job because of his involvement in opposition to conscription for World War I, and became an organiser with the Clothing Trades Union. From 1915 to 1927 he was a Labor member of the Northcote City Council. In 1921 when many VSP members joined the new Communist Party of Australia, Cain broke his connections with the left and became a mainstream Labor politician. 1910 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Marxism is the political practice and social theory based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary, along with Friedrich Engels. ... The Australian Labor Party or ALP is Australias oldest political party. ... 1915 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... 1916 is a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar) Events January-February January 1 -The first successful blood transfusion using blood that had been stored and cooled. ... Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ... 1915 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... 1927 was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1921 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... This article is about the historical Communist Party of Australia, dissolved in 1991. ...

In 1926 Cain married Dorothea Grindrod, with whom he had two children: his son John Cain was born in 1931, when he was already nearly 50. He sent his son to Scotch College, an unusual choice for a Labor politician at that time. 1926 was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1931 is a common year starting on Thursday. ...

In 1917 Cain was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly as MLA for Jika Jika, which was renamed Northcote in 1927 - a seat he held for 40 years. Victoria was Labor's weakest state, and there had never been a majority Labor state government, partly due to Labor's weakness in rural areas (dominated by the Country Party), and partly due to the strength of Deakinite liberalism among middle-class voters in Melbourne. Cain was Assistant Minister for Agriculture in the short-lived minority Labor government of George Prendergast in 1924, Minister without Portfolio in the first minority Labor government of Edmond Hogan from 1927 to 1928, and Minister for Railways and Minister for Electrical Undertakings in the second Hogan government from 1929 to 1932. 1917 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... The Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the parliament of Victoria in Australia. ... 1927 was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... The National Party of Australia is an Australian political party, originally called the Country Party, adopting the name of National Country Party in 1975 and adopting its present name in 1982. ... Hon Alfred Deakin Alfred Deakin (August 3, 1856 - October 7, 1919), intellectual leader of the movement for Australian federation and second Prime Minister of Australia, was born in Melbourne, Victoria, the son of English immigrants. ... Liberalism is a political current embracing several historical and present-day ideologies that claim defense of individual liberty as the purpose of government. ... 1924 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1927 was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1928 was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1929 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1932 is a leap year starting on a Friday. ...

When Hogan's government collapsed during the Great Depression and Hogan himself was expelled from the Labor Party, Cain became party Deputy Leader to Thoman Tunnecliffe. Tunnecliffe was notoriously in the pay of the gambling boss John Wren, and Cain himself was long suspected of being a "Wren man." The truth of his relationship with Wren has never been fully clarified. It was Wren's influence which led Labor to support the minority Country Party government of Albert Dunstan from 1935 to 1943. Cain succeeded Tunnecliffe as Labor Leader in 1937. The Great Depression was the global economic slump that began in 1929 and bottomed in 1933. ... John Wren (3 April 1871 - September 1953), Australian businessman, has become a legendary figure thanks mainly to a fictionalised account of his life in Frank Hardys novel Power Without Glory, which was also made into a television series. ... 1935 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1943 is a common year starting on Friday. ... 1937 was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Cain's three governments

In September 1943 Dunstan resigned when his government lost a vote of confidence in the Assembly. Cain became Premier for four days while the conservative parties composed their differences. Dunstan then resumed office and retained it with Labor support until November 1945, when he again resigned. After a brief Liberal government under Ian McFarlan, Cain again became Premier. His parliamentary position was much stronger than it had been in 1943, since the 1945 state elections had given Labor 31 seats to the Country Party's 18 and the Liberals' 13, with three independents. 1943 is a common year starting on Friday. ... 1945 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian liberal conservative political party. ... 1943 is a common year starting on Friday. ... 1945 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ...

With a majority in neither House, Cain's government was unable to pass much legislation. In 1947 the Legislative Council blocked his government's budget to show its opposition to the federal Labor government of Ben Chifley, which had announced plans to nationalise the private banks. Although this issue had nothing to do with state politics, Cain was forced to resign and call an election, at which Labor was heavily defeated. 1947 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of Victoria, Australia. ... Rt Hon Ben Chifley Joseph Benedict Chifley is gay (September 22, 1885 - June 13, 1951), Australian politician and 16th Prime Minister of Australia, was one of Australias most influential Prime Ministers. ... Nationalization is the act of taking assets into state ownership. ...

The 1950 election, however, gave Labor 24 seats to the Liberals' 27 and the Country Party's 13. Since the Liberals and Country Party hated each other, no stable majority government was possible, and this, together with the unpopularity of the new federal Liberal government, gave Cain his opportunity. In October 1952 the Country Party Premier, John McDonald, resigned and called early elections. Labor won 37 seats, the first time it had won a majority in the Assembly, and Cain formed his third government. 1950 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1952 - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ...

Cain's government was hampered by the hostility of the Legislative Council (which was elected on a restricted property-based franchise and so always had a conservative majority), and also by tensions within his own party. During the war the Communist Party had grown greatly in strength in the trade unions which controlled and funded the Labor Party, leading a faction of anti-Communist Catholics to form within the party to fight Communist influence. (This body, known as The Movement, was organised by B.A. Santamaria and supported by the Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, Daniel Mannix). Conflict between left and right in the Labor Party grew increasingly bitter in the Cold War atmosphere of the 1950s. Bartholomew Augustine Santamaria ( 14 August 1915 - 25 February 1998), (known in public as B.A. Santamaria and in private as Bob), Australian political activist and journalist, was one of the most influential political figures in recent Australian history, but never held public office or joined a political party. ... Statue of Daniel Mannix outside St Patricks Cathedral, Melbourne Daniel Patrick Mannix (4 March 1864 - 2 November 1963), Irish-born Australian Catholic clergyman, Archbishop of Melbourne for 46 years, was one of the most influential public figures in 20th century Australia, and certainly the most powerful cleric in Australian... The Cold War (1947-1991) was the open yet restricted rivalry that developed after World War II between groups of nations practicing different ideologies and political systems. ...

Nevertheless the Cain government was able to pass more legislation than any previous Labor government in Victoria had done. Major reforms were carried out in the areas of workers' compensation, tenancy law, long service leave, hospitals, public transport, housing, charities and the Crimes Act. Even some reforms to the electoral system were carried through the Council, where Labor and Liberal members united to reduce the malapportionment which had given the Country Party disproportionate representation since the 1920s. In its first two years the Cain government won the approval of the Melbourne daily papers The Age, The Herald and The Argus. Cain's public image as an avuncular pipe-smoking figure concealed his ruthless party management and excellent sense of what the public wanted. Categories: Australian newspapers | Newspaper stubs ... The Herald Sun is a newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that is published by The Herald and Weekly Times Ltd, a subsidiary of Rupert Murdochs News Corporation. ... The Argus was a newspaper in Melbourne. ...

The Labor Split

In 1954, however, the federal Labor Party suffered a public split when the Leader, Dr H.V. Evatt, blamed Santamaria and his supporters in the Victorian ALP for Labor's defeat at the 1954 federal elections. Santamaria exercised strong influence in the Cain government through "Movement" linked ministers such as William Barry and Frank Scully. Protestant and left-wing ministers strongly opposed the Movement faction. In December 1953 the Lands Minister, Robert Holt, resigned rather than introduce a Santamaria-influenced bill which would have promoted the settlement of Italian immigrants as small farmers in Gippsland (a favourite Santamaria scheme which was seen as a plot to create a Catholic peasantry). 1954 was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Rt Hon Dr H V Evatt Herbert Vere Evatt (April 30, 1894 - November 2, 1965), Australian jurist and politician (popularly known as Doc Evatt or H V Evatt) was born in Maitland, New South Wales, to a working-class family of Anglo-Irish origin. ... 1954 was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1953 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... Gippsland is a large rural region in Victoria, Australia. ...

In early 1955 the Labor Party's Federal Executive began to expel Santamaria's supporters from the party. The Victorian branch then split between pro-Evatt and pro-Santamaria factions, and in March the pro-Evatt State Executive suspended 24 members of State Parliament suspected of being Santamaria supporters. Four ministers were forced to resign from the government. When the Parliament met on 19 April, the expelled Labor members crossed over to vote with the Liberal and Country Party members to defeat the government. At the election which followed in May, Labor was heavily defeated, winning only 20 seats to the Liberals' 34 and the Country Party's ten. Only one of the expelled Labor members was re-elected. 1955 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... April 19 is the 109th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (110th in leap years). ...

Cain was now 73, although he remained outwardly vigorous and his real age was a well-kept secret. He retained the leadership and declared that he would fight the next election against the Liberal Premier, Henry Bolte. In 1957, however, the ALP split spread to Queensland, and Cain went to campaign for Labor at the state election which followed the fall of the Queensland Labor government. In Townsville on 9 August he suffered a stroke and died within a few hours. Labor remained in opposition in Victoria until 1982, when Cain's son John Cain led the party back to government. Hon Sir Henry Bolte Sir Henry Edward Bolte (20 May 1908 - 4 January 1990), Australian politician, was the longest serving Premier of the state of Victoria. ... 1957 was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Motto: Audax at Fidelis (Bold but Faithful) Nickname: Sunshine State/Smart State Other Australian states and territories Capital Brisbane Government Governor Premier Const. ... Townsville might refer to: Townsville, Queensland, Australia Townsville, North Carolina. ... August 9 is the 221st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (222nd in leap years), with 144 days remaining. ... 1982 is a number and represents a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar Events January January 6 - William Bonin is convicted of being the freeway killer. January 8 - AT&T agrees to divest itself of twenty-two subdivisions January 11 - Mark Thatcher, son of the British Prime...

(Note: Cain is now commonly refered to as "John Cain senior," but this term was never used in his lifetime. His son is sometimes refered to as "John Cain, Jr," but he dislikes this term and does not use it himself. The younger John Cain's son, a prominent Melbourne lawyer, is also often known as John Cain, Jr.)