The Socialist Orator
John Curtin's experiences as a child made a deep impression on him. He was a serious youth, who liked reading and was always looking for opportunities for self-improvement. He made a habit, for example, of using any spare time to read in Melbourne's public library. John Curtin also sought to escape his family's deprivations. He tried to do this not only in his attempts to get a job and help support his family; he also sought replacements for a family that had somehow disintegrated as a result of the economic depression of the 1890s.

John Curtin first found solace in the Salvation Army, but he soon gave up religious salvation for the promise of a more earthly solution put forward by a growing socialist movement. John Curtin

became a member of both the Victorian Socialist Party and the Labor Party. At the time, both of these parties were fighting for the rights of the workers and they had their roots in the political radicalism of the 1890s. John Curtin became a convert to their political platform, which sought to overthrow the capitalist system of labour.

While John Curtin never lost his faith in the possibility of a just and fairer society that organised itself around the rights of the worker, he did lose the revolutionary zeal of his youth. This was a period in which John Curtin formed his political opinions, learnt to write for newspapers, became a well known public orator and developed the courage to speak out for the principles he believed in.