What you need to do is choose one picture from the wikispace. Then write a story about the individual that you see. Make sure to mention anything relevant that you have studied so far this chapter
The 1920’s were full of being carefree and just living life to the fullest. My name is Michelle Hitsenburg. I am 36 years old, and have two wealthy children in November 1918, was finally the end of World War One. I prayed my husband would arrive home. No such luck for me, I felt like my world came crashing down. As for my close friends, a few of their husbands returned home to find that there were no steady pensions for veterans, as well as no special medical services. Because of the death of my husband, it made things very difficult because I couldn’t find a proper well paying job. As I was used to staying home to do house work and take care of my two children. People in the city of Winnipeg, got fed up and the metal and building workers walked off their jobs. The reason for this was because they wanted higher wages, shorter hours, and also collective bargaining. This ended up turning into a strike, which achieved a union movement, which suffered a setback. It feels like yesterday, when the 1930’s rolled around. It was definitely a shocker, to many of us. All of our wages dropped increasingly. The windstorms were terrible and blew all of my soil from my gardens away, as for what was left, the grasshoppers owned. The depression was brutal; King Mackenzie did not know how to deal with such a big crisis. Eventually the election came, and Bennet had won. He was the one who donated $20 million to recreate programs for work. This made the town a little less stressed, including me. The depression finally left the steps of our country, only to find World War Two knocking at our door. -NICOLECAVALIERE
“Mommy,” said Sarah as she tugged on my aunt’s shirt; “when is Daddy coming home?”
March 1934
Our families lived in the urban city of Vancouver; my parents had invited my uncle John, my aunt Tanya, and their daughter Sarah to live with us in our home. It wasn’t much, but we all fit. I shared my room with my aunt and Sarah, every day, Sarah would continuously ask her mother about her father’s absence. Little does she know, that Uncle John had left town to join one of Bennett’s work camps. “Nauseating,” I always thought to myself; uncle John always wrote about the “slave camp’s” soggy food and bug-infested beds, but the worst thing is that he has to stay there for 0.20 cents a day until conditions get better. I imagine that many men are resorting to the work camps instead of depending on that humiliating folly that the government call relief. Amazingly more than a quarter of Canada’s workforce went unemployed and Bennett has only caused more damage. He raised tariffs, spent money on programs that have improved nothing- I don’t think Bennett knew what he was doing. As for my father, he had taken over my mother’s job at the post because they believed that workingwomen had contributed to the downfall of the economy. Some people have just lost their minds. “Take a look at the paper,” my mother announced to everyone, we gathered by her side around the coffee table. Grasshoppers stalls trains and buses were the headlines of the most recent newspaper. To add on to the constant dust storms and its effects of destroying the land of thousands of farmers, a plague has now descended onto the Prairies. Sarah and her family were lucky for leaving Alberta as soon as the dust storms hit, but aunt Tanya couldn’t help but tear up when reading about the circumstances of her homeland. But what captured my attention was a picture of a woman with her two sons; beneath it, it stated We are Citizens not Transients. This woman was old, although her clothes looked torn and unwashed; she seemed to have existed within the middle-class in the past. Her two sons hid their faces behind her shoulders; both seemed to be afraid of something. The mother was also scared, her face full of worry. She bore a pretty face, but today’s events seemed to have aged it, developing wrinkles and devastation. This was a message from the Social Credit Party. The Social Credit had always believed that capitalism was a wasteful economic system, in which where banks hoarded money, preventing customers from buying large numbers of goods that capitalism produced. From what I heard the leader of the Social Credit, William Aberhart, had great ideas to release money into the economy so more could be spent to stimulate economy. He seemed like a great leader, a strong representative of Alberta. He was always talking on the radio station, “Voices of the Prairies,” and never ceased as a popular man. When I took a second look at the picture, the woman almost resembled my aunt. She was without a husband to support her, but had to stay strong in order to protect her children. Sarah had started crying because her mother was crying, my mom tried to comfort the both of them but was no use. Our home had nearly experienced eviction; but you could say we were lucky. My uncle is constantly sending money bit by bit in hope that it could help feed us, help shelter us, help us survive. I haven’t seen my father’s face because he was always coming home late from work. My mother and aunt could do nothing to support the family, we were so useless. All we can do is stay together and find strength in one another, but I could tell, things weren’t going to get any better.
I am on my way to my first job. Very excited about my first day at the stock market. I have heard about the stocks going down but I need the money so I decide to stay. I am welcomed by my co-workers and soon find out that this job will work well. Now the following events some how happen during unfortunate linked events. I wake up the next morning ready for work and all I can see down the street are angry workers with signs that say "Give us our jobs" and at this point I already know what's happened and I run away. Within the next couple of weeks I move to Canada for more work where I find that unemployed people like my self are being taken into work camps. A place where I am payed and where I can live. I am excited to get work until I see the living conditions. I live in shacks with 3 different people and sleep in bug infested beds. I stay for a little while but then decide to leave. I travel to a meeting where I hear of people wondering where to go and what to do. I think why don't we just argue with people who have real power. I yell "On to Ottawa" and this starts me on my way to Ottawa. This takes me on trips with people I have never met and I ride on trains where this takes us to Ottawa. I see fights on the trains sometimes and one time I saw another bum kick someone literally off the train and this shows how savage we can be when we are all cramped up in the same place together. We are stopped by the RCMP in Regina and are put in a stadium where we discuss what will happen to us. I hear people talking about a Grasshopper infestation but I can't hear where this happened because everyone is in a panic. Then we are beaten severely by police officers but I manage to escape the chaos. I sneak out of Regina by bribing a police officer with money. I try to buy food but cannot because it is so expensive and this scares me. "How will I eat?" I ask myself. I try to find out what will happen next but only time will tell. oh and my name is dominic. - Dylan Schwan
1918, this was the end of World War One, i saw all the returning soliders and rushed to meet my dad. He was no where to be seen, absolutely no where in sight. My mom told me he died fighting for our freedom... My sister had never met him, he left while my mom was pregnant with her, i didn't remeber him very clearly either. All the returning soliders were agngry at the prohibition of alcohol, and people started "rum-running", eventually, they got their alcohol back.
In the 20s, my mom finally moved up from nursing and become a doctor, she was making a decent income. She bought my sister and i some very lovely dresses, the nicest ones we have ever had. It was great! She loved having a little bit of disposible income, she said the economy was booming! which i assumed was a good thing, because she bought of my clothes and toys then usual.
Many people thought the economy would stay that was for ever, but little did they know what was waiting on the horizon. A stock market crash, my mom had bought a few stocks, and lost quite a bit of money, along with everyone else. The banks also started losing money, and my mom couldn't pay back the money she borrowed. She was forced to declare bankruptcy, and we had to live in a shelter. It was hard going up during, what they called the Great Depression of the 1930s. Everyday, we waited in the line up at the soup kitchen for a few hours, before getting a small bowl of hot soup. People started to get to know each other, and help each other, when someone found out about work, they'd tell us and he others in the line up.
I grew up in Regina, Saskatchewan, where the "On to Ottawa Treck" wasput to a hault, my mom went outside to see what was going on and told me about it when she came back. She said that the work camps the government had set up for single unemployed men, had horrible conitions, they made 20 cents a week, it was unsanitary, bug infested, they worked long hard hours, and the food was aweful, so we heard. She told me they were protesting for better camp conditions, and are on their way to Ottawa, to confront Prime Minister Bennett about their problems. The RCMP officers only let the leaders proceed on. There ended up being a huge fight, and one man was killed, many men were injured, and the officers arressted 130!
Just when we were starting to think the Depression couldn't get any worse, the winds started picking up, skattering our crops everywhere along with our ploued soil. On top of that we were experiencing a droubt. My mom said we must've done something to make god angry, but she wasn't sure what it was. During the windstorms and the droubt, there was a huge grasshopper infestation, they were everywhere! We locked ourselves inside and prayed, we prayed for this to all go away, or for it to be some crazy dream. But it wasn't, this was reality, and this is what i grew up in.
I sat staring out through a dirty, stained window at what was left of the city around me. It was grey. How did things get so wrong? The twenties seemed so promising but now the city of Ottawa was overcrowded, the jobless wandered lifelessly as ghosts, defeated by the decade. Everything was coated with such a dirty coat or smog, so grey. Sasha and Jeremy were tightly wrapped in my arms and leaned upon me like towers as I gazed out upon my country dying. They had once again suffered a crippling blow to what should have been a wondrous and glorified childhood. The officer must have left hours ago but his words still engulfed my mind or more likely our minds like a great flood. He was dead. My beloved husband and endearing father of my children was dead. How did things get so wrong?
It wasn’t so long ago that we were happy, although it might come across as taboo, caught up in the good times. The boys were home and the economy was booming. We ourselves were simple farmers. I left the city of Ottawa as a young woman and met my husband in Saskatchewan. We got married and had two lovely children. Sasha was first, followed by Jeremy. Things were good, simple yet never too slow. Then something happened. Our wheat sales began to fall; though, this didn’t worry us. We knew it would pick up, that’s just how the economy is, up and down. Just as tides do. However, 1929 changed everything. Within a blink of an eye the stock market crashed. All investors dropped their shares like a hot potato and became bankrupt. I knew my father would be devastated; he had been buying on margin for sometime. Mother thought that they were living beyond their means, only several years earlier buying a new house. But this new reality check would only confirm her suspicion.
Two years later, the depression got even worse. A drought hit us in the prairies with an immense impact. Many were packing up and leaving for the cities, nothing was left for them here. Those located in the Palliser’s Triangle suffered the most, and with the luck of my family that was exactly where our farm lay.
1931 was the beginning of the drought, the water we tried to conserve was inconsequential under the scornful sun. We needed as much wheat was possible as things were, one bushel only brought in 38 cents. Unfortunately roughly an eighth of our crops survived. Life was taking its toll. It affected my relationship with my husband to such a degree that on some days we didn’t manage to say one word between us. As if the lack of rain wasn’t enough there was always a giant dust storm taking place somewhere on the prairies. No matter how far one went, it was impossible to escape. My own home, my sanctuary was polluted by dust. After placing anything down for five minutes there would be a film of dust already formed.
Eric, my husband, was naïve about the condition of our farm and he refused to let go. Now, when I look back, if he did he would have lost himself entirely. He must have known that. The evidence was undeniable. Two of out three horses died of starvation as well as our other farm companions and there hadn’t been a single sight of anything green in years. Still, every morning he went out to tend to the fields, producing nothing but dust.
I know it was selfish and probably killed a small part of the man but I left in 1933 during the highest recorded unemployment. I had to think of Sasha and Jeremy, so I packed our belongings to move in with my parents in Ottawa. They were forced to sell their home and move into a rundown apartment due to bankruptcy. Mother was suffering from an illness, the Depression had defeated her.
I exchanged letters with Eric for sometime, I still loved him but it was not possible to be together. I needed to support my family and he needed his fantasy. Shortly after moving in with my parents, mother died and I was to do my best to bring in some money. I applied in the field of press and continued to pursue it, finally managing a job to edit articles. It paid terribly. Our cheeks were hollow but we weren’t dead.
All hopes of restoring our paradise in the prairies was abandoned by my husband. He informed me he would catch the first train to British Colombia and stay in a work camp. I did not hear much from him after that. I tried to distract myself with work and radio broadcasting from CBC. At one point I even became quite the political critic. I looked at all the attempts Bennett made to try and help his country, like the $20 million he gave to the provinces and his plan to protect our trades. Of course they were useless, what we needed was a new deal, but I think it was even too late for that too. Everything ended up blowing up in his face but I suppose it was the decade not the man. He was just like us, grey.
Finally, in 1935, Eric wrote me again. I was so happy when I received his letter. I even forgot how far behind we were on rent for just one second. He told me of the horrors he endured at the isolated work camps and that he and thousands of others were going to Ottawa to tell the government. He promised that he would then come and stay with us, be a family again. He even managed to save up some money and was looking forward to getting a real job. Not to mention seeing the children and to love me again.
For days I followed what was called the On-to-Ottawa Trek. Even my heart followed the event; it soared when I found out how many were supporting the same idea, and fell when they were held up in Regina. Eventually, crashed when Slim Evans was denied and the trekkers battled the RCMP. One hundred thirty men were arrested and one man died as a result. I was panicked, I couldn’t rest until I knew my Eric was safe.
I never did. Instead a police officer came to my home several days later, informing me that Eric was that one man. And now I admit my heart has died, I am a ghost as the decade has taken my soul; all that can be seen is grey.
Know wonder everyone is calling these difficult times the Depression; it is so depressing not having anything. Little to no food to feed my family, no new clothes for the up coming winter, and just enough money to get us by. But only God knows how long it will last. It is the year 1935 and my two sons Andy and Benjamin, keep asking when is their father coming home. Andrew, my husband, left 2 months ago to find work. He managed to get work by being a butcher for a wealthy hunter in Regina. Lucky the hunter gives him a dollar per animal. His average is six animals a day, sometimes more, but never less. Andrew goes there every Tuesday and Thursday, giving him a salary of 12 dollars a week. I tell my boys to stop looking out the window for he just left an hour ago. I went over to my daughter, Hannah, she was crying again from the sand on her face. I wipped off the sand and put her in her crib for her nap. She was born 5 months ago in this dreadful dust and wind where are home stands. We live in Saskatoon, yet as our neighbours leave, my husband and I both agree that we are not leaving our home. His family has been farmers for generations and (to are relief) his father taught him how to butcher deer in the winter months. Eight years ago, when I heard on the radio that many people were buying stocks, I got this weird feeling something awful is going to happen. I rushed to the bank, took out all of our savings, and brought it home to put it in an empty jam jar. Andrew saw the jar full of money and ask where did it come from. I told him about the stocks and the weird feelings I was getting. He agreed with my idea, knowing that my feelings (though not always good) were proven right. A couple of weeks later, the worst happened. On October 29, 1929, the New York Stock Market crashed and everything went down hill from there. When, in 1927, the price of wheat started to fall, was when Andrew started to panic. I told him to calm down or the children will start to cry again. He did and thought over our situation. On one hand, we had the money I deposited from the bank, that would last us a few years, possibly more if we buy only what we need to survive. On the other hand, if Andrew does not find work we would need to go to charity for help and he hated charity. About two years prior to this day, a plague of grasshoppers ate what was left of our crops. It was bad enough with all the dust and windstorms, but this just nailed my temper. You could not get rid of them when there was only four or five in the crops, but it was devistating to watch the annoying pests eat what was left of our pay roll. And now we were barely making ends meet, when the miracle we were waiting for happened. The federal government passed the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration Act, which they helped us build irrigation systems and reservoirs. By the time this Act passed, many other families left the Prairies, while my family was one of the few who stayed behind.
Despair -------------- In 1918, Canada celebrated the end of War World I. After four long years of fighting us Canadian soldiers were finally on our way home. I came home on January 3rd 1918, I was a different man. When you sign that dotted line no one tells you about the stench of death or the screaming of men. Returning to Saskatoon I had lost my left foot to shrapnel. I came back to Canada with no steady pension, no special medical services and few jobs as I had a wife and two small children to support.
For many years with great difficulty my children and I kept our farm afloat. It wasn’t much, just 5 acres. Life was basic for us until trouble appeared in 1927 when the price of wheat on the world market began to fall; more wheat was being produced then was being sold. As our sales decreased, our income disappeared and we were no longer to meet the mortgage and loan payments on the house and on the farm. The government did not getting relief easy and the “pogey” we received was not enough to buy food and pay our mortgage, so we went hungry, it was either the farm or food.
The collapse of the wheat market had left our family struggling to survive and at the same time Saskatoon was hit by a disastrous drought which started in 1928 and lasted almost eight years. In 1929 unexpectedly the New York stock market crashed on Wall street Toronto and Montreal Stock Markets. When we thought our lives could not get any worse the winds began to pick up in 1930 and there were constant dust storms. Our valuable top-soil was blown away and with it, our last crops and hopes.
By the winter of 1933, the country was filled with young jobless, homeless men drifting from one place to another, looking for work that was never there, we were one of the luckier ones, we still had each other. In 1934 I had no choice but to leave the farm, kids and wife because we could no longer make the mortgage and I needed employment. Frustrated and tired I rode on the roof of the train and entered a work camp. The isolated work camps were well hidden in the Forrest. Seclusion was the least of my worries. The food was moldy and old, the beds were bug infested and thin, the conditions were similar to the ones I had endured in War World I.
It was finally 1935, and a movement had started called the On-To-Ottawa Trek, it was hundreds of men leaving the miserable slave camps in the interior of B.C in protest against camp conditions. Although we were not in B.C we dropped our shovels and walked toward the train station, spirits revitalized, we were going to make a difference. Crowding into and on top of freight cars, we trekkers rode through the Prairies, picking up more and more supporters along the way.
When we reached Regina, the RCMP confined us to a local stadium, allowing only the leaders to proceed to Ottawa. We resisted, battling the RCMP and the local police for hours. One man was killed, many were injured, and 130 men were arrested
Violence is never the answer and after leaving Regina to be with my wife and children the federal government passed the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration Act, which helped us farmers build irrigation systems and reservoirs. Hope had finally come to us and we had learned that if we fought in WWI as a country than we should come together as a country to beat this difficult era in Canadian history.
i was walking home 4 years ago after having a rum that my best friend jack bootlegged, boy that was good rum. why did thet have to put a ban on it anyways? its hard enough without a husband back than, but jack made a move on me that night, i never knew he liked the way i liked him. we grew increasingly in love. we got married bought a house on the praries and had 2 kids named brent and johnny. those days were easy compared to now. jack has now been forced off to work camp because he lost his job at the pulp and paper mill. the stock market has crashed and the mortgage on the house is over due and really hard for me to pay. i wrote a letter to prime minister bennate,
dear mr. prime minister due to the stock mearket crash i do not have enough money for food and to support my family. i'm heavily in debt and about to lose my house. my husband is currently in a work camp getting only 20 cents a day. its not enough to support us. please, please help us out, we need you mr. prime minister.
sincerly, joanne smith i got a letter back from the prime minister with $5. i ran outside and yelled "yes!!!!", than i turned and saw the big black cloud. i had never seen anything so big and scary before. i ran inside. after it was over i called for my children and looked everywhere for them, they were no where to be found. when my husband finally came back from the work camp he blamed it all on me and got a divorce. my life was hell and is hell to date.
The streets were filled with unemployed hungrey people searching for something more in life to survive. Unfortunetly I had become one of those people. My lfe before the depression was to good to be ture, amazing family, and an enjoyable job. When I least expected it, my life came spiraling downwards along with the stock market. Bussinesses everywhere were losing money and people were being let go because the employers could not pay their employees. I worked in a factory and when they told me I was fired, my heart sank as tears began to whell up in my eyes. I feared for how I would manage to support my family as my husband had died in WWI. Shortly we lost our home and lived on the streets trying to live. I hardly ate, most food I found I have to my children, and even then it was not enough to feed their hunger, nor mine. I knew something needed to be done or none of us would make it through these desperate times. All I could do was strive on what I did have and remain hopefull that the world would not always be this way.
These are the memoirs of a woman named Naomi River living during the depression in Canada.
Feb 28 1930: For most of our married life, Nate has been relatively well of, but our stocks have been going down a lot recently, so Nate has gotten a second job hoping to keep the income up to what it has been. I’m pretty sure we will be fine, but he thinks with a baby on the way he better make sure we can live comfortably for the next few years. He is such a good husband.
March 22 1931: Our stocks are way down and Nate is worrying a lot. He doesn’t understand that we will be fine, these things happen; stocks go up and down, that’s how the stock market works. But he insisted that we cut back, and since little Matt was born we have been burning through the money trying to keep him happy and healthy. But if Nate thinks that we should cut back, I will try and do so.
Dec 13 1931: Our funds are pretty much depleted. Nate has insisted he go to a work camp so he can make at least some money, so Matt and I can have a happy life. I really wish i did not have to be this way. He says he should be back by Matt’s 1st birthday.
Feb 1 1932: Where is he? Not only is he not back yet, I stopped receiving money. Matt and I are really suffering, I don’t know what to do, I can’t get a job cause I don’t have money to pay someone to watch Matt all day! Where am I supposed to get money! I guess if I want to survive I am going to have to get some sort of job, but I have no training, what can I do? I can always ask the neighbour’s to watch Matt, but who would hire a useless widow like me?!?
August 24 1932: It’s the end of the line; I don’t know what to do. My boss is not paying me enough while at the same time he keeps asking me if I would marry him! I can’t handle this anymore, I’m going to have to tell him of next time I go in to work, He does not seem like a very forgiving man, so I don’t know what’s going to happen, but this has to stop! And to top of this entire horrible life I have been suffering through, Matt has caught some disease that really is hurting him! I don’t know what I am going to do about it. This thing we call life is a horrible thing! Why did I have to be born at that time!? Why did Matt!? Suffering through a pointless existence just to get to the final stage, death, why wait? Why not just end it now?! No, I have to be strong! For Matt, for Nate, I have to keep living!
On April 28th Matt River died of lung cancer due to his caretaker’s negligence.
After that day Naomi River was not seen, alive, again.
Living during the “Roaring twenties” and the “Dirty Thirties” was something else. I had five older brothers and I was the youngest. When my dad left for the war, my mom started to work because the employers needed employees, she started in the newspaper business the money was not much but it got us through. My oldest brother Josef, 20, also started working to help out our mom. After the war was over we waited and waited for our dad to return. Days then weeks then months passed he never did come home. It tore my mom apart. She had to give back the job because all the men came back and they had the right to work before the women. We barely had any money to buy anything, my other two brothers got very sick from ammonia, and nobody wanted a sick person working for them. My mom spent night crying and Josef spent his time trying to find a job. We got into this program were we had a house provided for us and we got enough money to last us a week. For some reason after a month we had to move to the Prairies, everything was going so well, I never understood why we had to leave but mom said we had to no questions asked. So mom, my four brothers, and I moved to Alberta. We moved into an old farm house it was not very nice, it was small cramped, two rooms a bathroom that was outside, a small broken up kitchen but we all managed. It was not as nice as our old house before the war started. My older brother was sent to a work camp, he wanted to come home but could not afford to, so the government sent him to a working camp, he said the work was hard, the food was terrible and the beds were infested with bugs. In 1935, Josef was one of the thousands of men that left the work camps and was on-to-Ottawa trek. On our side the farm suffered from harsh droughts and terrible sand storms that filled the window sills with sand and all our good soil just flew away. I remembered one day we were all outside playing when all of a sudden in the distance there was a sand storm approaching fast, mamma was yelling telling us all the get into the house fast, we all ran but Johnny was still in the potty mom ran back to the outhouse. I thought she would not make it back; Johnny was not a light kid to carry. I saw her running with the dust cloud closing in behind her, mom made it just in time; she slammed the door behind her. It was dark and hard to breathe. The next morning when the sand settled, we all boomed off the porch. Mom just collapsed on the porch, she just sat there staring into the distance we all just sat round her not knowing what to do. One day we all heard about the train to Ottawa was stopped in Regina and the men on it were attacked by the police, waiting for them. Josef was one of them, he got hurt bad but he said he would be o-Kay. I wondered if life would every just be o-Kay again.
“Hey grandma what was it like growing up in the early 1900’s.” “when I was growing up in the 20’s and 30’ was very different. There were times that we were living in a nice house with good income, and there was times we had no money and no food. But living through this experience changed everyone in the world. In general I think that my personality changed for the best and the way I see myself and everything else. Why do you ask” “In my social 11 class we just were studying this time. From the prosperity of the 20’s until the slums of the 30’s. And for review of the chapters we were tasked of writing on the events of this time, and I just wondering if you could help me out with it?” “no problem dear. I am just glad that you are taking such an interest in the history of Canada. After the war the veterans came back at a peak of the prosperity of Canada, but there were no pensions for them, or no medical plans for the soldiers who were wounded, and to make it worse their weren’t very many jobs. In this time is were the workers would respond. They demanded higher wages, better working conditions, and in some cases the right to join unions. If these demands were long and harsh disputes, in some cases the employers held out for months. “I thought that after the war there were lots of jobs and new technology’s introduced into the economy.” “yes, but during the war there were many jobs providing to the war effort. The areas that were most hit were the coal and steel workers on the cape Breton. Many workers had to find work in lower paying jobs. And then on the west coast is where the most ground was gained in the push for unions. In 1917 the “One Big Union” formed and their goal was to gain control of the industries and government in a peaceful manner.” “what about the Winnipeg strike” “oh yes it was called the Winnipeg general strike, it was when the Winnipeg metal and building workers walked off the job and demanded higher wages and shorter working weeks, they also wanted the right of collective bargaining. After the Winnipeg trade and labour council found out they organized a general strike in support of these principles.” “My review has a lot about the King-Byng Crisis, and I am not to sure what that is could you help me out with that one?” “I am glad that you asked me, that was a historical event. It was the first time that a governor General said no to the prime minister. It was after the 1925 election when the conservative party had 116 seats and the liberal had 101 and the progressives 24. In order to stay in power the liberals depended on the progressives. Soon after there was a bootlegging scandal found in Canadian Customs Department, and the liberal lost the support of the progressives and the conservatives called for a motion of censure. Later the liberal party asked Governor General Byng for a election and he refused until the censure was Over. Byng was eventually forced to call the election. ” “is the Belfour report the same year as the Belfour Report?” “No it was the next year, and it was introduced at the Imperial conference of 1926. It was the greatest progress that Canada made towards change in Canada’s legal independence of Brittan. And all the dominions of the British Empire, wanted the freedom to govern themselves . They were also to be known as the British Commonwealth instead of the British Empire. The biggest sift in this time was that there were more us investor investing in Canada instead of British Investors. Instead of giving money to Canadian business owners, the Americans opened Branch Plants.” “when did Canada start to become more urbanized?” “this stated in 1931 when new technologies started being introduced into the work force. Especially the farms where being mechanized and people had to find jobs in the city.”
“what do you think was the main cause for the parries to be hit so hard during the depression?” “ I think that the depression was so hard on the parries because they had a drought that made it hard to grow crops, and to make it worse the remaining crops were eaten by a lotus infestation. During this time they had massive storms that picked up the soil and took it away from the massive winds. It also was hard to conduct world trade because Canada put so many tariff on goods trying to protect Canadian businesses but they ended up hurting them.” “what happened to all the people who were unemployed and homeless?” “the men that had no work were forced into work camps. It was hard work for low pay, they made 20 cents a day. Most of the work was building roads, bridges, railroads, and to clear land. And at these camps it was horrible. They had dieses, and bad bug problems, the food was also horrible. And with the men fete up with the conditions they started a mass protest witch was called the on-to-Ottawa trek. Witch ended at Regina by the RMCP.”
Mother says everything will be okay. She says it will be more like it was in the old days: Water, food and happiness. The blowing sand will stop and the locust will disappear. She says the crops will return and food will fill our bellies. She says a lot of things…
Dear Diary, august 30th, 1930
I saw moth writing a letter earlier today, she left it on the table when she went to run some errands. I read what she wrote. It said:
Dear Prime Minister Bennet
I am one of the few souls still in the prairies. It is a rough life here with my two children. We do not have much in the ways of food and have been surviving off captured animals. We are in dire need of relief. Anything you can do would be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely, Lucy Mires
I’m not too sure what she is asking this Prime Minister Bennet person, but if she wrote a letter to him, we must be in trouble…
Dear Diary, September 5th, 1930
Mother told me today why things are the way they are. I didn’t understand much, she said stuff about unemployment and 4.5 percent, and she said that something called the stock market crashed (She didn’t say what it crashed into though) last year and made things the way they are now. I asked her why they couldn’t just fix the stock market, it wouldn’t be too hard. Daddy taught me how to fix the tractor back when he was around. It’s probably just a bigger machine. I asked mother where daddy went, she said that he went to work up north to help get money.
Dear diary, September 25th, 1930
We got some money in the mail today, from a person named R.B. Bennet. He must be related to Prime Minister Bennet or something. I guess he got my mothers letter. R.B. Bennet says that this money will help us for a month, to get back on our feet. I asked mother if we could get dad back from the work up north with this money. She says we need every penny, and dad would want us to keep it for ourselves.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteViews of the 1920’s and 1930’s
ReplyDeleteThe 1920’s were full of being carefree and just living life to the fullest. My name is Michelle Hitsenburg. I am 36 years old, and have two wealthy children in November 1918, was finally the end of World War One. I prayed my husband would arrive home. No such luck for me, I felt like my world came crashing down. As for my close friends, a few of their husbands returned home to find that there were no steady pensions for veterans, as well as no special medical services. Because of the death of my husband, it made things very difficult because I couldn’t find a proper well paying job. As I was used to staying home to do house work and take care of my two children. People in the city of Winnipeg, got fed up and the metal and building workers walked off their jobs. The reason for this was because they wanted higher wages, shorter hours, and also collective bargaining. This ended up turning into a strike, which achieved a union movement, which suffered a setback. It feels like yesterday, when the 1930’s rolled around. It was definitely a shocker, to many of us. All of our wages dropped increasingly. The windstorms were terrible and blew all of my soil from my gardens away, as for what was left, the grasshoppers owned. The depression was brutal; King Mackenzie did not know how to deal with such a big crisis. Eventually the election came, and Bennet had won. He was the one who donated $20 million to recreate programs for work. This made the town a little less stressed, including me. The depression finally left the steps of our country, only to find World War Two knocking at our door.
-NICOLECAVALIERE
“Mommy,” said Sarah as she tugged on my aunt’s shirt; “when is Daddy coming home?”
ReplyDeleteMarch 1934
Our families lived in the urban city of Vancouver; my parents had invited my uncle John, my aunt Tanya, and their daughter Sarah to live with us in our home. It wasn’t much, but we all fit. I shared my room with my aunt and Sarah, every day, Sarah would continuously ask her mother about her father’s absence. Little does she know, that Uncle John had left town to join one of Bennett’s work camps. “Nauseating,” I always thought to myself; uncle John always wrote about the “slave camp’s” soggy food and bug-infested beds, but the worst thing is that he has to stay there for 0.20 cents a day until conditions get better. I imagine that many men are resorting to the work camps instead of depending on that humiliating folly that the government call relief. Amazingly more than a quarter of Canada’s workforce went unemployed and Bennett has only caused more damage. He raised tariffs, spent money on programs that have improved nothing- I don’t think Bennett knew what he was doing. As for my father, he had taken over my mother’s job at the post because they believed that workingwomen had contributed to the downfall of the economy. Some people have just lost their minds. “Take a look at the paper,” my mother announced to everyone, we gathered by her side around the coffee table. Grasshoppers stalls trains and buses were the headlines of the most recent newspaper. To add on to the constant dust storms and its effects of destroying the land of thousands of farmers, a plague has now descended onto the Prairies. Sarah and her family were lucky for leaving Alberta as soon as the dust storms hit, but aunt Tanya couldn’t help but tear up when reading about the circumstances of her homeland. But what captured my attention was a picture of a woman with her two sons; beneath it, it stated We are Citizens not Transients. This woman was old, although her clothes looked torn and unwashed; she seemed to have existed within the middle-class in the past. Her two sons hid their faces behind her shoulders; both seemed to be afraid of something. The mother was also scared, her face full of worry. She bore a pretty face, but today’s events seemed to have aged it, developing wrinkles and devastation. This was a message from the Social Credit Party. The Social Credit had always believed that capitalism was a wasteful economic system, in which where banks hoarded money, preventing customers from buying large numbers of goods that capitalism produced. From what I heard the leader of the Social Credit, William Aberhart, had great ideas to release money into the economy so more could be spent to stimulate economy. He seemed like a great leader, a strong representative of Alberta. He was always talking on the radio station, “Voices of the Prairies,” and never ceased as a popular man. When I took a second look at the picture, the woman almost resembled my aunt. She was without a husband to support her, but had to stay strong in order to protect her children. Sarah had started crying because her mother was crying, my mom tried to comfort the both of them but was no use. Our home had nearly experienced eviction; but you could say we were lucky. My uncle is constantly sending money bit by bit in hope that it could help feed us, help shelter us, help us survive. I haven’t seen my father’s face because he was always coming home late from work. My mother and aunt could do nothing to support the family, we were so useless. All we can do is stay together and find strength in one another, but I could tell, things weren’t going to get any better.
I am on my way to my first job. Very excited about my first day at the stock market. I have heard about the stocks going down but I need the money so I decide to stay. I am welcomed by my co-workers and soon find out that this job will work well. Now the following events some how happen during unfortunate linked events. I wake up the next morning ready for work and all I can see down the street are angry workers with signs that say "Give us our jobs" and at this point I already know what's happened and I run away. Within the next couple of weeks I move to Canada for more work where I find that unemployed people like my self are being taken into work camps. A place where I am payed and where I can live. I am excited to get work until I see the living conditions. I live in shacks with 3 different people and sleep in bug infested beds. I stay for a little while but then decide to leave. I travel to a meeting where I hear of people wondering where to go and what to do. I think why don't we just argue with people who have real power. I yell "On to Ottawa" and this starts me on my way to Ottawa. This takes me on trips with people I have never met and I ride on trains where this takes us to Ottawa. I see fights on the trains sometimes and one time I saw another bum kick someone literally off the train and this shows how savage we can be when we are all cramped up in the same place together. We are stopped by the RCMP in Regina and are put in a stadium where we discuss what will happen to us. I hear people talking about a Grasshopper infestation but I can't hear where this happened because everyone is in a panic. Then we are beaten severely by police officers but I manage to escape the chaos. I sneak out of Regina by bribing a police officer with money. I try to buy food but cannot because it is so expensive and this scares me. "How will I eat?" I ask myself. I try to find out what will happen next but only time will tell. oh and my name is dominic. - Dylan Schwan
ReplyDelete1918, this was the end of World War One, i saw all the returning soliders and rushed to meet my dad. He was no where to be seen, absolutely no where in sight. My mom told me he died fighting for our freedom...
ReplyDeleteMy sister had never met him, he left while my mom was pregnant with her, i didn't remeber him very clearly either. All the returning soliders were agngry at the prohibition of alcohol, and people started "rum-running", eventually, they got their alcohol back.
In the 20s, my mom finally moved up from nursing and become a doctor, she was making a decent income. She bought my sister and i some very lovely dresses, the nicest ones we have ever had. It was great! She loved having a little bit of disposible income, she said the economy was booming! which i assumed was a good thing, because she bought of my clothes and toys then usual.
Many people thought the economy would stay that was for ever, but little did they know what was waiting on the horizon. A stock market crash, my mom had bought a few stocks, and lost quite a bit of money, along with everyone else. The banks also started losing money, and my mom couldn't pay back the money she borrowed. She was forced to declare bankruptcy, and we had to live in a shelter. It was hard going up during, what they called the Great Depression of the 1930s. Everyday, we waited in the line up at the soup kitchen for a few hours, before getting a small bowl of hot soup. People started to get to know each other, and help each other, when someone found out about work, they'd tell us and he others in the line up.
I grew up in Regina, Saskatchewan, where the "On to Ottawa Treck" wasput to a hault, my mom went outside to see what was going on and told me about it when she came back. She said that the work camps the government had set up for single unemployed men, had horrible conitions, they made 20 cents a week, it was unsanitary, bug infested, they worked long hard hours, and the food was aweful, so we heard. She told me they were protesting for better camp conditions, and are on their way to Ottawa, to confront Prime Minister Bennett about their problems. The RCMP officers only let the leaders proceed on. There ended up being a huge fight, and one man was killed, many men were injured, and the officers arressted 130!
Just when we were starting to think the Depression couldn't get any worse, the winds started picking up, skattering our crops everywhere along with our ploued soil. On top of that we were experiencing a droubt. My mom said we must've done something to make god angry, but she wasn't sure what it was. During the windstorms and the droubt, there was a huge grasshopper infestation, they were everywhere! We locked ourselves inside and prayed, we prayed for this to all go away, or for it to be some crazy dream. But it wasn't, this was reality, and this is what i grew up in.
-- Jessica.M
A Decade of Despair
ReplyDeleteI sat staring out through a dirty, stained window at what was left of the city around me. It was grey. How did things get so wrong? The twenties seemed so promising but now the city of Ottawa was overcrowded, the jobless wandered lifelessly as ghosts, defeated by the decade. Everything was coated with such a dirty coat or smog, so grey. Sasha and Jeremy were tightly wrapped in my arms and leaned upon me like towers as I gazed out upon my country dying. They had once again suffered a crippling blow to what should have been a wondrous and glorified childhood. The officer must have left hours ago but his words still engulfed my mind or more likely our minds like a great flood. He was dead. My beloved husband and endearing father of my children was dead. How did things get so wrong?
It wasn’t so long ago that we were happy, although it might come across as taboo, caught up in the good times. The boys were home and the economy was booming. We ourselves were simple farmers. I left the city of Ottawa as a young woman and met my husband in Saskatchewan. We got married and had two lovely children. Sasha was first, followed by Jeremy. Things were good, simple yet never too slow. Then something happened. Our wheat sales began to fall; though, this didn’t worry us. We knew it would pick up, that’s just how the economy is, up and down. Just as tides do. However, 1929 changed everything. Within a blink of an eye the stock market crashed. All investors dropped their shares like a hot potato and became bankrupt. I knew my father would be devastated; he had been buying on margin for sometime. Mother thought that they were living beyond their means, only several years earlier buying a new house. But this new reality check would only confirm her suspicion.
Two years later, the depression got even worse. A drought hit us in the prairies with an immense impact. Many were packing up and leaving for the cities, nothing was left for them here. Those located in the Palliser’s Triangle suffered the most, and with the luck of my family that was exactly where our farm lay.
1931 was the beginning of the drought, the water we tried to conserve was inconsequential under the scornful sun. We needed as much wheat was possible as things were, one bushel only brought in 38 cents. Unfortunately roughly an eighth of our crops survived. Life was taking its toll. It affected my relationship with my husband to such a degree that on some days we didn’t manage to say one word between us. As if the lack of rain wasn’t enough there was always a giant dust storm taking place somewhere on the prairies. No matter how far one went, it was impossible to escape. My own home, my sanctuary was polluted by dust. After placing anything down for five minutes there would be a film of dust already formed.
Eric, my husband, was naïve about the condition of our farm and he refused to let go. Now, when I look back, if he did he would have lost himself entirely. He must have known that. The evidence was undeniable. Two of out three horses died of starvation as well as our other farm companions and there hadn’t been a single sight of anything green in years. Still, every morning he went out to tend to the fields, producing nothing but dust.
I know it was selfish and probably killed a small part of the man but I left in 1933 during the highest recorded unemployment. I had to think of Sasha and Jeremy, so I packed our belongings to move in with my parents in Ottawa. They were forced to sell their home and move into a rundown apartment due to bankruptcy. Mother was suffering from an illness, the Depression had defeated her.
I exchanged letters with Eric for sometime, I still loved him but it was not possible to be together. I needed to support my family and he needed his fantasy. Shortly after moving in with my parents, mother died and I was to do my best to bring in some money. I applied in the field of press and continued to pursue it, finally managing a job to edit articles. It paid terribly. Our cheeks were hollow but we weren’t dead.
All hopes of restoring our paradise in the prairies was abandoned by my husband. He informed me he would catch the first train to British Colombia and stay in a work camp. I did not hear much from him after that. I tried to distract myself with work and radio broadcasting from CBC. At one point I even became quite the political critic. I looked at all the attempts Bennett made to try and help his country, like the $20 million he gave to the provinces and his plan to protect our trades. Of course they were useless, what we needed was a new deal, but I think it was even too late for that too. Everything ended up blowing up in his face but I suppose it was the decade not the man. He was just like us, grey.
Finally, in 1935, Eric wrote me again. I was so happy when I received his letter. I even forgot how far behind we were on rent for just one second. He told me of the horrors he endured at the isolated work camps and that he and thousands of others were going to Ottawa to tell the government. He promised that he would then come and stay with us, be a family again. He even managed to save up some money and was looking forward to getting a real job. Not to mention seeing the children and to love me again.
For days I followed what was called the On-to-Ottawa Trek. Even my heart followed the event; it soared when I found out how many were supporting the same idea, and fell when they were held up in Regina. Eventually, crashed when Slim Evans was denied and the trekkers battled the RCMP. One hundred thirty men were arrested and one man died as a result. I was panicked, I couldn’t rest until I knew my Eric was safe.
I never did. Instead a police officer came to my home several days later, informing me that Eric was that one man. And now I admit my heart has died, I am a ghost as the decade has taken my soul; all that can be seen is grey.
Feb. 9th, 2009 at 4:39 PM
ReplyDeleteNot Giving into the Depression
Know wonder everyone is calling these difficult times the Depression; it is so depressing not having anything. Little to no food to feed my family, no new clothes for the up coming winter, and just enough money to get us by. But only God knows how long it will last. It is the year 1935 and my two sons Andy and Benjamin, keep asking when is their father coming home. Andrew, my husband, left 2 months ago to find work. He managed to get work by being a butcher for a wealthy hunter in Regina. Lucky the hunter gives him a dollar per animal. His average is six animals a day, sometimes more, but never less. Andrew goes there every Tuesday and Thursday, giving him a salary of 12 dollars a week.
I tell my boys to stop looking out the window for he just left an hour ago. I went over to my daughter, Hannah, she was crying again from the sand on her face. I wipped off the sand and put her in her crib for her nap. She was born 5 months ago in this dreadful dust and wind where are home stands. We live in Saskatoon, yet as our neighbours leave, my husband and I both agree that we are not leaving our home. His family has been farmers for generations and (to are relief) his father taught him how to butcher deer in the winter months.
Eight years ago, when I heard on the radio that many people were buying stocks, I got this weird feeling something awful is going to happen. I rushed to the bank, took out all of our savings, and brought it home to put it in an empty jam jar. Andrew saw the jar full of money and ask where did it come from. I told him about the stocks and the weird feelings I was getting. He agreed with my idea, knowing that my feelings (though not always good) were proven right. A couple of weeks later, the worst happened. On October 29, 1929, the New York Stock Market crashed and everything went down hill from there. When, in 1927, the price of wheat started to fall, was when Andrew started to panic. I told him to calm down or the children will start to cry again. He did and thought over our situation. On one hand, we had the money I deposited from the bank, that would last us a few years, possibly more if we buy only what we need to survive. On the other hand, if Andrew does not find work we would need to go to charity for help and he hated charity.
About two years prior to this day, a plague of grasshoppers ate what was left of our crops. It was bad enough with all the dust and windstorms, but this just nailed my temper. You could not get rid of them when there was only four or five in the crops, but it was devistating to watch the annoying pests eat what was left of our pay roll. And now we were barely making ends meet, when the miracle we were waiting for happened. The federal government passed the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration Act, which they helped us build irrigation systems and reservoirs. By the time this Act passed, many other families left the Prairies, while my family was one of the few who stayed behind.
Despair
ReplyDelete--------------
In 1918, Canada celebrated the end of War World I. After four long years of fighting us Canadian soldiers were finally on our way home. I came home on January 3rd 1918, I was a different man. When you sign that dotted line no one tells you about the stench of death or the screaming of men. Returning to Saskatoon I had lost my left foot to shrapnel. I came back to Canada with no steady pension, no special medical services and few jobs as I had a wife and two small children to support.
For many years with great difficulty my children and I kept our farm afloat. It wasn’t much, just 5 acres. Life was basic for us until trouble appeared in 1927 when the price of wheat on the world market began to fall; more wheat was being produced then was being sold. As our sales decreased, our income disappeared and we were no longer to meet the mortgage and loan payments on the house and on the farm. The government did not getting relief easy and the “pogey” we received was not enough to buy food and pay our mortgage, so we went hungry, it was either the farm or food.
The collapse of the wheat market had left our family struggling to survive and at the same time Saskatoon was hit by a disastrous drought which started in 1928 and lasted almost eight years. In 1929 unexpectedly the New York stock market crashed on Wall street Toronto and Montreal Stock Markets. When we thought our lives could not get any worse the winds began to pick up in 1930 and there were constant dust storms. Our valuable top-soil was blown away and with it, our last crops and hopes.
By the winter of 1933, the country was filled with young jobless, homeless men drifting from one place to another, looking for work that was never there, we were one of the luckier ones, we still had each other. In 1934 I had no choice but to leave the farm, kids and wife because we could no longer make the mortgage and I needed employment. Frustrated and tired I rode on the roof of the train and entered a work camp. The isolated work camps were well hidden in the Forrest. Seclusion was the least of my worries. The food was moldy and old, the beds were bug infested and thin, the conditions were similar to the ones I had endured in War World I.
It was finally 1935, and a movement had started called the On-To-Ottawa Trek, it was hundreds of men leaving the miserable slave camps in the interior of B.C in protest against camp conditions. Although we were not in B.C we dropped our shovels and walked toward the train station, spirits revitalized, we were going to make a difference. Crowding into and on top of freight cars, we trekkers rode through the Prairies, picking up more and more supporters along the way.
When we reached Regina, the RCMP confined us to a local stadium, allowing only the leaders to proceed to Ottawa. We resisted, battling the RCMP and the local police for hours. One man was killed, many were injured, and 130 men were arrested
Violence is never the answer and after leaving Regina to be with my wife and children the federal government passed the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration Act, which helped us farmers build irrigation systems and reservoirs. Hope had finally come to us and we had learned that if we fought in WWI as a country than we should come together as a country to beat this difficult era in Canadian history.
By : Ali Matour
i was walking home 4 years ago after having a rum that my best friend jack bootlegged, boy that was good rum. why did thet have to put a ban on it anyways? its hard enough without a husband back than, but jack made a move on me that night, i never knew he liked the way i liked him. we grew increasingly in love. we got married bought a house on the praries and had 2 kids named brent and johnny.
ReplyDeletethose days were easy compared to now. jack has now been forced off to work camp because he lost his job at the pulp and paper mill. the stock market has crashed and the mortgage on the house is over due and really hard for me to pay. i wrote a letter to prime minister bennate,
dear mr. prime minister
due to the stock mearket crash i do not have enough money for food and to support my family. i'm heavily in debt and about to lose my house. my husband is currently in a work camp getting only 20 cents a day. its not enough to support us. please, please help us out, we need you mr. prime minister.
sincerly, joanne smith
i got a letter back from the prime minister with $5. i ran outside and yelled "yes!!!!", than i turned and saw the big black cloud. i had never seen anything so big and scary before. i ran inside. after it was over i called for my children and looked everywhere for them, they were no where to be found. when my husband finally came back from the work camp he blamed it all on me and got a divorce. my life was hell and is hell to date.
by: darryl
The streets were filled with unemployed hungrey people searching for something more in life to survive. Unfortunetly I had become one of those people. My lfe before the depression was to good to be ture, amazing family, and an enjoyable job. When I least expected it, my life came spiraling downwards along with the stock market. Bussinesses everywhere were losing money and people were being let go because the employers could not pay their employees. I worked in a factory and when they told me I was fired, my heart sank as tears began to whell up in my eyes. I feared for how I would manage to support my family as my husband had died in WWI. Shortly we lost our home and lived on the streets trying to live. I hardly ate, most food I found I have to my children, and even then it was not enough to feed their hunger, nor mine. I knew something needed to be done or none of us would make it through these desperate times. All I could do was strive on what I did have and remain hopefull that the world would not always be this way.
ReplyDelete-Linae Snow
These are the memoirs of a woman named Naomi River living during the depression in Canada.
ReplyDeleteFeb 28 1930: For most of our married life, Nate has been relatively well of, but our stocks have been going down a lot recently, so Nate has gotten a second job hoping to keep the income up to what it has been. I’m pretty sure we will be fine, but he thinks with a baby on the way he better make sure we can live comfortably for the next few years. He is such a good husband.
March 22 1931: Our stocks are way down and Nate is worrying a lot. He doesn’t understand that we will be fine, these things happen; stocks go up and down, that’s how the stock market works. But he insisted that we cut back, and since little Matt was born we have been burning through the money trying to keep him happy and healthy. But if Nate thinks that we should cut back, I will try and do so.
Dec 13 1931: Our funds are pretty much depleted. Nate has insisted he go to a work camp so he can make at least some money, so Matt and I can have a happy life. I really wish i did not have to be this way. He says he should be back by Matt’s 1st birthday.
Feb 1 1932: Where is he? Not only is he not back yet, I stopped receiving money. Matt and I are really suffering, I don’t know what to do, I can’t get a job cause I don’t have money to pay someone to watch Matt all day! Where am I supposed to get money! I guess if I want to survive I am going to have to get some sort of job, but I have no training, what can I do? I can always ask the neighbour’s to watch Matt, but who would hire a useless widow like me?!?
August 24 1932: It’s the end of the line; I don’t know what to do. My boss is not paying me enough while at the same time he keeps asking me if I would marry him! I can’t handle this anymore, I’m going to have to tell him of next time I go in to work, He does not seem like a very forgiving man, so I don’t know what’s going to happen, but this has to stop! And to top of this entire horrible life I have been suffering through, Matt has caught some disease that really is hurting him! I don’t know what I am going to do about it. This thing we call life is a horrible thing! Why did I have to be born at that time!? Why did Matt!? Suffering through a pointless existence just to get to the final stage, death, why wait? Why not just end it now?! No, I have to be strong! For Matt, for Nate, I have to keep living!
On April 28th Matt River died of lung cancer due to his caretaker’s negligence.
After that day Naomi River was not seen, alive, again.
~Ryan Simon♥
Living during the “Roaring twenties” and the “Dirty Thirties” was something else. I had five older brothers and I was the youngest. When my dad left for the war, my mom started to work because the employers needed employees, she started in the newspaper business the money was not much but it got us through. My oldest brother Josef, 20, also started working to help out our mom. After the war was over we waited and waited for our dad to return. Days then weeks then months passed he never did come home. It tore my mom apart. She had to give back the job because all the men came back and they had the right to work before the women. We barely had any money to buy anything, my other two brothers got very sick from ammonia, and nobody wanted a sick person working for them. My mom spent night crying and Josef spent his time trying to find a job. We got into this program were we had a house provided for us and we got enough money to last us a week. For some reason after a month we had to move to the Prairies, everything was going so well, I never understood why we had to leave but mom said we had to no questions asked. So mom, my four brothers, and I moved to Alberta. We moved into an old farm house it was not very nice, it was small cramped, two rooms a bathroom that was outside, a small broken up kitchen but we all managed. It was not as nice as our old house before the war started. My older brother was sent to a work camp, he wanted to come home but could not afford to, so the government sent him to a working camp, he said the work was hard, the food was terrible and the beds were infested with bugs. In 1935, Josef was one of the thousands of men that left the work camps and was on-to-Ottawa trek. On our side the farm suffered from harsh droughts and terrible sand storms that filled the window sills with sand and all our good soil just flew away. I remembered one day we were all outside playing when all of a sudden in the distance there was a sand storm approaching fast, mamma was yelling telling us all the get into the house fast, we all ran but Johnny was still in the potty mom ran back to the outhouse. I thought she would not make it back; Johnny was not a light kid to carry. I saw her running with the dust cloud closing in behind her, mom made it just in time; she slammed the door behind her. It was dark and hard to breathe. The next morning when the sand settled, we all boomed off the porch. Mom just collapsed on the porch, she just sat there staring into the distance we all just sat round her not knowing what to do. One day we all heard about the train to Ottawa was stopped in Regina and the men on it were attacked by the police, waiting for them. Josef was one of them, he got hurt bad but he said he would be o-Kay. I wondered if life would every just be o-Kay again.
ReplyDeleteJay gill
“Hey grandma what was it like growing up in the early 1900’s.”
ReplyDelete“when I was growing up in the 20’s and 30’ was very different. There were times that we were living in a nice house with good income, and there was times we had no money and no food. But living through this experience changed everyone in the world. In general I think that my personality changed for the best and the way I see myself and everything else. Why do you ask”
“In my social 11 class we just were studying this time. From the prosperity of the 20’s until the slums of the 30’s. And for review of the chapters we were tasked of writing on the events of this time, and I just wondering if you could help me out with it?”
“no problem dear. I am just glad that you are taking such an interest in the history of Canada. After the war the veterans came back at a peak of the prosperity of Canada, but there were no pensions for them, or no medical plans for the soldiers who were wounded, and to make it worse their weren’t very many jobs. In this time is were the workers would respond. They demanded higher wages, better working conditions, and in some cases the right to join unions. If these demands were long and harsh disputes, in some cases the employers held out for months.
“I thought that after the war there were lots of jobs and new technology’s introduced into the economy.”
“yes, but during the war there were many jobs providing to the war effort. The areas that were most hit were the coal and steel workers on the cape Breton. Many workers had to find work in lower paying jobs. And then on the west coast is where the most ground was gained in the push for unions. In 1917 the “One Big Union” formed and their goal was to gain control of the industries and government in a peaceful manner.”
“what about the Winnipeg strike”
“oh yes it was called the Winnipeg general strike, it was when the Winnipeg metal and building workers walked off the job and demanded higher wages and shorter working weeks, they also wanted the right of collective bargaining. After the Winnipeg trade and labour council found out they organized a general strike in support of these principles.”
“My review has a lot about the King-Byng Crisis, and I am not to sure what that is could you help me out with that one?”
“I am glad that you asked me, that was a historical event. It was the first time that a governor General said no to the prime minister. It was after the 1925 election when the conservative party had 116 seats and the liberal had 101 and the progressives 24. In order to stay in power the liberals depended on the progressives. Soon after there was a bootlegging scandal found in Canadian Customs Department, and the liberal lost the support of the progressives and the conservatives called for a motion of censure. Later the liberal party asked Governor General Byng for a election and he refused until the censure was Over. Byng was eventually forced to call the election. ”
“is the Belfour report the same year as the Belfour Report?”
“No it was the next year, and it was introduced at the Imperial conference of 1926. It was the greatest progress that Canada made towards change in Canada’s legal independence of Brittan. And all the dominions of the British Empire, wanted the freedom to govern themselves . They were also to be known as the British Commonwealth instead of the British Empire. The biggest sift in this time was that there were more us investor investing in Canada instead of British Investors. Instead of giving money to Canadian business owners, the Americans opened Branch Plants.”
“when did Canada start to become more urbanized?”
“this stated in 1931 when new technologies started being introduced into the work force. Especially the farms where being mechanized and people had to find jobs in the city.”
“what do you think was the main cause for the parries to be hit so hard during the depression?”
“ I think that the depression was so hard on the parries because they had a drought that made it hard to grow crops, and to make it worse the remaining crops were eaten by a lotus infestation. During this time they had massive storms that picked up the soil and took it away from the massive winds. It also was hard to conduct world trade because Canada put so many tariff on goods trying to protect Canadian businesses but they ended up hurting them.”
“what happened to all the people who were unemployed and homeless?”
“the men that had no work were forced into work camps. It was hard work for low pay, they made 20 cents a day. Most of the work was building roads, bridges, railroads, and to clear land. And at these camps it was horrible. They had dieses, and bad bug problems, the food was also horrible. And with the men fete up with the conditions they started a mass protest witch was called the on-to-Ottawa trek. Witch ended at Regina by the RMCP.”
Dear Diary, august 6th 1930
ReplyDeleteMother says everything will be okay. She says it will be more like it was in the old days: Water, food and happiness. The blowing sand will stop and the locust will disappear. She says the crops will return and food will fill our bellies. She says a lot of things…
Dear Diary, august 30th, 1930
I saw moth writing a letter earlier today, she left it on the table when she went to run some errands. I read what she wrote. It said:
Dear Prime Minister Bennet
I am one of the few souls still in the prairies. It is a rough life here with my two children. We do not have much in the ways of food and have been surviving off captured animals. We are in dire need of relief. Anything you can do would be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely, Lucy Mires
I’m not too sure what she is asking this Prime Minister Bennet person, but if she wrote a letter to him, we must be in trouble…
Dear Diary, September 5th, 1930
Mother told me today why things are the way they are. I didn’t understand much, she said stuff about unemployment and 4.5 percent, and she said that something called the stock market crashed (She didn’t say what it crashed into though) last year and made things the way they are now. I asked her why they couldn’t just fix the stock market, it wouldn’t be too hard. Daddy taught me how to fix the tractor back when he was around. It’s probably just a bigger machine. I asked mother where daddy went, she said that he went to work up north to help get money.
Dear diary, September 25th, 1930
We got some money in the mail today, from a person named R.B. Bennet. He must be related to Prime Minister Bennet or something. I guess he got my mothers letter. R.B. Bennet says that this money will help us for a month, to get back on our feet. I asked mother if we could get dad back from the work up north with this money. She says we need every penny, and dad would want us to keep it for ourselves.