On To Ottawa Trek Slideshow

The On-to-Ottawa

TrekDomestic Conflict in Canada

1935

1Monday, May 25, 2009

Economic Background

• problems with the economy developed shortly before the Stock Market Crash of 1929, and got quickly worse in the early 1930s, creating an economic crisis that would last 10 years - it was called the Great Depression


Economic Background

• the Great Depression brought mass unemployment to cities and towns in Canada

• people lost jobs whether they worked in natural resources (e.g. pulp & paper, mining, farming), transportation (e.g. railways), or manufacturing (e.g. factories)... hardest hit was construction

• retailing and other services were less affected


Economic Background

• no province had unemployment insurance

• some Canadians could get help when they lost their jobs, by going to municipal governments (town and city level) for relief

relief: social assistance - in the 1930s, it was also called “going on the pogey,” “going on the dole,” or simply welfare


Snapshot of life in Canada in the 1930s:*


*Amounts provided in colour were located through Statistics Canada, and are approximations and averages based on information provided for three major cities: Halifax, Montreal, Toronto. For more specific data, please see Statistics Canada online.

Snapshot of life in Canada in the 1930s:*

Building Trade Workers

Avg $ Pd/Hour

@ 44 hoursper week

Annual Income

Equals, today:

Bricklayers & Masons 0.90 $39.60 $2,059.20 $26,888.55

Carpenters, Sheet-Metal Workers, Stone Cutters

0.70 $30.80 $1,601.60 $20,913.31

Electrical Workers, Plasterers, Plumbers

0.80 $35.20 $1,830.40 $23,900.93

Painters 0.60 $26.40 $1,372.80 $17,925.70

General Labourers 0.45 $19.80 $1,029.60 $13,444.27


*Amounts provided in colour were located through Statistics Canada, and are approximations and averages based on information provided for three major cities: Halifax, Montreal, Toronto. For more specific data, please see Statistics Canada online.

Snapshot of life in Canada in the 1930s:



Metal Trade Workers

Avg $ Pd/Hour

@ 44 hoursper week

Annual Income

Equals, today:

Blacksmiths, Boilermakers 0.70 $30.80 $1,601.60 $20,913.31

Machinists, Moulders

0.60 $26.40 $1,372.80 $17,925.70



Printing Trades Avg $ Pd/Hour

@ 46 hoursper week

Annual Income

Equals, today:

Compositors, Machine & Hand (arranging type for

printing) - News0.87 $40.00 $2,080.00 $27,160.15

Compositors, Machine & Hand (see above) - Job;

Pressmen, News0.76 $35.00 $1,820.00 $23,765.13

Pressmen, Job 0.65 $30.00 $1,560.00 $20,370.11

Bookbinders 0.70 $32.00 $1,664.00 $21,728.12

Bindery Girls 0.24 $11.00 $572.00 $7,469.04



Electric Railways (e.g. trolleys)

Avg $ Pd/Hour

@ 44 hoursper week

Annual Income

Equals, today:

Conductors & Motormen 0.56 $24.64 $1,281.28 $16,730.65

Linemen, Electricians 0.60 $26.40 $1,372.40 $17,920.48

Shop and Barn 0.50 $22.00 $1,144.00 $14,938.08

Trackmen and Labourers

0.40 $17.60 $915.20 $11,950.47



Unskilled Factory Labour

Avg $ Pd/Hour

@ 44 hoursper week

Annual Income

Equals, today:

Factory Workers, in general 0.35 $15.40 $800.80 $10,456.66



If you needed to pay for... Amount per family Total $ Equals,

today:

Beef, sirloin steak 1 lb 0.29 $3.79

Beef, chuck roast 1 lb 0.16 $2.09

Pork, fresh, roast 1 lb 0.22 $2.87

Port, salt mess 1 lb 0.23 $3.00

Bacon, breakfast 1 lb 0.30 $3.92

Eggs, fresh 1 dozen 0.34 $4.44

Milk 1 qt 0.27 $3.53




today:

Butter, dairy 1 lb 0.27 $3.53

Cheese 1 lb 0.25 $3.26

Bread, plain white 1 lb 0.06 $0.78

Flour 1 lb 0.03 $0.39

Rolled oats 1 lb 0.05 $0.65

Rice 1 lb 0.09 $1.18

Green Beans 1 lb 0.06 $0.78




today:

Dried Apples 1 lb 0.18 $2.35

Sugar 1 lb 0.06 $0.78

Tea, black 1 lb 0.55 $7.18

Coffee 1 lb 0.49 $6.40

Potatoes 1 pkg 0.17 $2.22

Vinegar 1 pt 0.08 $1.04

All foods, weekly budget* 8.49 $110.86


*for more complete list of shopping items, see Statistics Canada online.



today:

Laundry starch 1 lb 0.12 $1.57

Coal, anthracite (hard) 1 ton 16.06 $209.71

Coal, bituminous (soft) 1 ton 9.84 $128.49

Hardwood 1 cord* 11.70 $152.78

Softwood 1 cord 0.30 $3.92

Coal Oil 1 gallon 0.29 $3.79

Rent 1 month 18.66 $243.66


*128 cubic feet, or 3.62 cubic metres

Results of Losing your Job in the 1930s...


Results of Losing your Job in the 1930s...

• furniture and cars bought on credit (paid for monthly) likely repossessed by the retailer

• move to cheaper place to live (voluntarily or evicted)

• reduce grocery list to bare necessities to save money

• no new clothes, shoes, or hygiene items

• hungry children, elders


family being evicted15Monday, May 25, 2009

“Workers Organize to

Protect Your Home”Jobless and Employed

start trying to fight the economic crisis...scaring

the government


Common Perspectives on Working, in the 1930s:


Common Perspectives on Working, in the 1930s:

• people needed to be responsible for themselves and their families - accepting charity was shameful

• traditionally, the government was not supposed to take care of people

• men were the breadwinners and expected to have jobs


Conflicting Points of View:


Conflicting Points of View:Government citizen

jobless young men were loitering in cities, sleeping on park benches, gathering in ‘hobo jungles’ next to railway tracks - so many together, ‘idling’, was a recipe for trouble and a threat to public order

relief rates were deliberately lower than the wages for the worst-paid forms of work, to discourage people from asking for welfare

because their families’ relief would be reduced when they turned 16, young men chose to leave home

unable to find jobs, they were forced to beg & go to charity soup kitchens for food; had to sleep wherever they could, even outdoors - building shacks out of leftover lumber and corrugated metal, using blankets for tents, they created tent cities or ‘hobo jungles’ near towns, usually close to railway tracks


Jobless Men camping in a Hobo Jungle


Unemployed, riding the rods east to look for work...


Unemployed men in

Ontario



• when jobs became available, married men were given the work first because of their status as breadwinners

• it was assumed that single men, over 16, would not burden their parents by staying home

• tended to hang out at parks and public libraries, though many working-class (blue-collar) men were illiterate, so reading was not an escape for them

• were often embarrassed and humiliated to apply for relief, especially when the answer was ‘no’



• many cities started ‘work for wages’ programs to provide their unemployed residents with small jobs around the city - the money for the programs came from municipal, provincial, and federal sources, but they were managed by city staff

• by 1932, as the economic crisis got worse, the work projects were dropped in exchange for cash relief payments or vouchers

• young single men without jobs did not qualify for many of the ‘work for wages’ programs, because they were not ‘breadwinners’ in charge of families

• by 1932, even private and religious charities, like churches and the YMCA, couldn’t cope with the numbers of young men needing assistance to survive


Searching for Solutions...


Searching for Solutions...Government

Canada’s Chief of Defence Staff, Major-General McNaughton,

• was appalled by the thought of young men with no prospects for their futures, poor nourishment, suffering from listlessness (e.g. depressed)

• suggested the Prime Minister, R.B. Bennett, that the jobless young men (unmarried, homeless) should be sent to rural relief camps:


The Relief Camp Concept


The Relief Camp Concept

the men sent to the camps wouldn’t be allowed to vote, so they wouldn’t support Communist parties seen as threats

entering the camps would be voluntary, but men who refused to go would be arrested

isolating the jobless, single young men, and dividing the groups which were forming, would prevent a Communist revolution

doing work for the government would build up their morale


Relief Camp Workers26Monday, May 25, 2009


27Monday, May 25, 2009-37 in Ontario alone, e.g. near Huntsville, in Dane near Kirkland Lake, and in Kapuskasing


• 1932, set up relief camps for unemployed men

operated by the Department of Defence

located in remote areas, like interior of BC, northern Ontario, northern Quebec (to decrease possibilities of worker revolution)

work included clearing bush, building roads, planting trees, erecting public buildings, improving highways, airfields

• wanted to work and would take anything they could get rather than go on relief

• did not want to be isolated on remote work camps

• were frustrated that the government could not provide them with meaningful work

• disliked the camps - felt their time was being wasted

27Monday, May 25, 2009-37 in Ontario alone, e.g. near Huntsville, in Dane near Kirkland Lake, and in Kapuskasing

Relief Camp Barracks29Monday, May 25, 2009

Pick & Shovel Work in a Relief CAmp



• camp conditions were for subsistence living, to encourage men to find work on their own

men received room, board, medical care, an allowance of $0.20 / day to buy tobacco or other small luxuries

camp budget for medical assistance was $0.03 per day

budget for food was $0.26 / day per man

• called the camps ‘The Royal Twenty Centers’ because they were only give 20 cents a day, and they were controlled by the military; also called them ‘slave camps’

• bunked in tar-paper shacks, were given army-surplus clothing, fed army-surplus food

• worked 6 1/2 days a week, 10 hours a day

• often men sent north from Toronto couldn’t take the rigours of winter


Relief Camp Allowance32Monday, May 25, 2009

Roadwork by Relief Camp Workers (more pick & shovel)



• workers also planted gardens, which helped with their diet and the cost of camp operations

• generally men stayed in the camps for just over 3 months:

men were discharged if they found jobs

men could also be discharged if they were found to be medically unfit

• men had to make their own amusements, and depended on charities for books and magazines

• some men drifted from camp to camp looking for a change in scenery, which was hard on the long-term residents

• men did not have a chance to save any money, because they weren’t actually paid


Response of the Camp Inmates:


Response of the Camp Inmates:

• became increasingly militant - the isolation and dehumanizing conditions created an ideal situation for organizing

workers were desperate, and had the time & contacts to figure out how to take action

Relief Camp Workers’ Union formed

men shared literature on Communist theories of Marx, Lenin, Stalin

men started planning and preparing to strike for ‘work with wages’


Protest in Victoria36Monday, May 25, 2009


• the RCWU was banned in the camps by the Department of National Defence

any man found carrying a union card or union literature was immediately fired & blacklisted

many men with connections to the RCWU were arrested

• by 1934, the RCWU had grown into a strong, disciplined, democratic organization

• kept watch for police spies who infiltrated their ranks


Members of the RCWU walk in Kamloops, B.C.


April, 1935


April, 1935

1500 members of the RCWU went on strike in B.C., leaving their camps & gathering in Vancouver to demand

1. Wages, of $0.40 an hour2. 7 hours of work / day3. 5 day work week4. Better food - fresh meat, new potatoes, &

one package of tobacco every three days5. Social insurance programs such as compensation for

sickness and disability6. Better unemployment insurance for the jobless7. An end to military control of the camps8. Compensation for injuries on the job9. The right to vote in provincial and federal elections


Relief Camp Workers Union Meeting



• ignored the protests, the fundraising picnic, the tag days in Vancouver

• held controlled and disciplined demonstrations & protests; support from other citizens totaled $5,000


What happened next...

43Monday, May 25, 2009-the leaders of the strike pinned the mayor and government officials in city hall, refusing to let them out - they said they were prepared to wait as long as he was prepared to go hungry (reminding him that they could outlast him as they’d been hungry a lot more often than he’d been)


the strikers decided to go directly to Ottawa with their demands - 1600 men left, riding CPR boxcars for transportation




were fed by supporters along the way: women’s groups, service clubs, labour councils, churches, unions, caring citizens




were fed by supporters along the way: women’s groups, service clubs, labour councils, churches, unions, caring citizens

in Calgary, they demanded & received 3 days of relief assistance from the city, and were joined by hundreds of Alberta men



45Monday, May 25, 2009-railways were ordered to treat the strikers as trespassers-RCMP was directed to bolster troops in Regina to disperse the trekkers


number of men was up to 2,000 by the time they reached Regina, Saskatchewan in mid-June

in Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, and Toronto, thousands more were waiting to join the On-To-Ottawa Trek

Prime Minister Bennett ordered the RCMP to stop the strike

the railways were forbidden to take the men any furtherRCMP were ordered to prepare to use revolvers, gas grenades, spare batons, and handcuffs

45Monday, May 25, 2009-railways were ordered to treat the strikers as trespassers-RCMP was directed to bolster troops in Regina to disperse the trekkers

The Delegation to Ottawa

46Monday, May 25, 2009-the strikers noticed an RCMP officer hidden behind a curtain in the room, suggesting the PM feared trouble

The Delegation to Ottawa

• PM Bennett agreed to meet with 8 representatives of the striking relief camp workers in Ottawa

➡the meeting lasted over an hour, and the strikers were not offered seats

➡Bennett constantly interrupted as the leader, ‘Slim’ Evans, presented their demands

46Monday, May 25, 2009-the strikers noticed an RCMP officer hidden behind a curtain in the room, suggesting the PM feared trouble

Bennett’s Response to the Strikers’ Demands


Bennett’s Response to the Strikers’ Demands

• accused them of trying to create a revolution, to destroy law and order

• said there had been absolute contentment and happiness in the camps until the RCWU had formed

• refused to recognize camp committees elected by the inmates to take up grievances with the authorities

• accused them of not trying to get work

• called the head of the delegation, ‘Slim’ Evans, a thief - Evans then called him a liar, which made it to headlines



• Bennett was determined to arrest the leaders, who had gone back to disband the protest

• the RCMP were given orders to carry out a raid on a meeting of strikers


The Regina Riot - July 1, 1935


The Regina Riot - July 1, 1935

• several hundred strikers were meeting in Regina’s Market Square to discuss strategy, when they were interrupted:

backs of vans opened & Mounties armed with baseball bats got out

strikers erected barricades & threw stones

Mounties retaliated with .38 revolvers


The Aftermath


The Aftermath

• 1 police detective died

• 40 protestors & 5 citizens were wounded

• 130 men arrested

• property wrecked; sidewalks covered in broken glass

• men who were not jailed drifted to other towns & cities, or back to the work camps


The End...


-170,248 men had stayed in the camps between 1932 and 1936

The End...• 1936 - industry began to recover

• work camp allowances were changed to $15 / month wages ($0.50 / day), giving the workers more dignity

• Bennett’s Conservative government lost the next election; the Liberals promised to close the camps, which they did by the end of the year

• work still could not be found for jobless men

• seeds were sown for effective unemployment insurance programs


-170,248 men had stayed in the camps between 1932 and 1936

...was also the Beginning.

54Monday, May 25, 2009On to Ottawa Historical Society, Vancouver BC, www.ontoottawa.ca, 11/02/02

...was also the Beginning.

• many Trekkers, as they came to be known, continued to work for helping labourers

• joined other protest movements soon after

• volunteered to fight in the Spanish Civil War

• joined politics to fight for union rights, unemployment insurance, social welfare, and medicare...until called to fight in WWII

54Monday, May 25, 2009On to Ottawa Historical Society, Vancouver BC, www.ontoottawa.ca, 11/02/02

On To Ottawa Trek Slideshow

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