The Roaring 20’s

1. The Roaring 20’s The Famous Five Clara Bow Brewster 1921

2. Canada After the War • War propelled Canada into independence. • The war had changed the perception of war for so many people. • Canada lost 46,000 dead and wounded from the war. This led to the emergence of a lost generation

3. A Generation Lost • The Lost Generation and the arts

4. The League of Nations • Canada was a founding member of the newly created League of Nations • Americans objected to the formation of the League but once again they conceded. American Senate rejected the states from becoming members of the League. • The League pledged every member to defend the boundaries established at Versailles

5. Influenza Pandemic • World wide influenza pandemic broke out in 1918 originating (they suspect in an American Army base) • Response from Ottawa and provinces was slow (being occupied with the war) • Claimed 30,000 to 50,000 lives in Canada and around 50 million worldwide! • Rumor of peace helped to calm people down

7. Flu victims being buried. North River, Labrador, 1918

8. Trouble for Canada • At the end of the war Munitions factories were shut down • Over a quarter million workers were suddenly out of jobs • Canadian government had to pay 250 million in back pay to soldiers returning from front

9. Trouble for Canada continued • Membership in unions increased during the war from 143,000 in 1915 to 378,000 by 1919. • Many workers talked of a revolution like the one in Russia • The government became scared of threat of Communism (Red Scare)

10. Winnipeg General Strike • A general strike began in Winnipeg on May 15, 1919. • 30,000 metal and building workers walked off the job together • The general strike spread across Canada • Most employees wanted to bargain with employer not a revolution Winnipeg General Strike

11. Striker Demands • The strikers had stiff demands. • Strikers wanted higher wages and a shorter work week. • They also wanted Collective Bargaining, which meant the companies had to negotiate with the workers as a whole.

12. Crowd gathered outside old City Hall during the Winnipeg General Strike, June 21, 1919

13. Business Backlash • Business leaders, politicians and industrialists wanted to protect their own interests. • They formed the Citizen’s Committee of One Thousand to attack the strike in the press. • The committee had the support of the government.

14. Winnipeg Strike Continued • Parliament made it illegal to even talk about a revolution. • Government ordered the leaders of the strike arrested June 17th. • Protestors organized a mass rally. • On June 21, 1919, mounted police charged the crowds on Main Street Winnipeg, in a Confrontation that became known as Bloody Saturday.

15. Bloody SaturdayContinued • The mayor read the Riot Act (a law declaring a grouping of more than 12 people to be unlawfully assembled) and the RCMP charged the crowd. • CBC radio 1969 • People were killed, over thirty injured.

16. Cape Breton Coal Miners Strike 1922-1926 • Some facts about the Cape Breton coal mines in 1920… • Most towns in Cape Breton were one resource towns. That is, all the jobs depended on one industry. In this case, jobs depended on coal mining. • One company, British Empire Steel Corporation (BESCO) controlled the coal and steel industry in eastern Canada. The company also controlled stores, water and fuel supplies, homes and properties on mine company land. • Workers and their families burned BESCO coal to heat company houses illuminated by company electricity, drank company water, and bought on credit goods and supplies from the company "Pluck Me“ store.

17. Cape Breton Coal Miners Strike 1922-1926: Continued • Some more facts about the Cape Breton coal mines in 1920… • Unions had been established only recently. Union and labour organizers were trying to change the balance of power. They wanted the mines to be publicly owned (i.e., owned by the government, people or the miners). • There were two union organizations. They were competing for new members. Sometimes, the two unions openly fought each other for territory and memberships • Most of Cape Breton’s miners were from Scotland. They were very loyal to their families and friends. If one miner fell, the rest stood beside him. • Mines were long, underground shafts that reach deep under the seabed of the Atlantic Ocean. The mines were cold, wet and dangerous. Lighting and air quality were poor. Wages were also low.

19. The strikes begin… • The price for coal was dropping, and the company was losing customers. In 1922, BESCO lowered wages by one-third. • In response, the miners slowed operations, reduced coal production by one-third and restricted access to the mines. • In 1923, the Sydney steelworkers went on strike. The provincial police were sent in to physically break the strike, but the coal miners joined the strikers. The police used horses, iron bars and and fists to intimidate the miners. The fight put two union leaders in jail.

20. The strikes continues… • In 1923, a miner paid 90% of his earnings to rent and food for his family. Contract workers actually paid more for rent and food than they received in weekly wages. • The militia was called in by the company to protect company property. Machine gun was position around the mine processing plants and other company sites. • The 1923 strike lasted eight months and in the end the men returned to work with an 18 per cent cut in pay from the 1921 rates

21. The Strikes still continue… • By 1925, the mines were operating full time, but miners were paid $3.65 per hour and working only part-time. • Due to competition from other mines, BESCO reduced wages by 10%. Once more, the miners went on strike for better wages. • To break the strikers, the company stopped giving credit at the company stores, evicted families from company homes and cutoff water from the company-owned water supplies.

22. The Strike turns bloody • The 1925 strike lasted five months. • On 11 June 1925, 3 000 miners marched to the power plant on Waterford Lake. They were confronted by over 100 mounted company police. • The crowd charged the police, and the bloody Battle at Waterford Lake began. Fearing for their lives, the police fired on the approaching miners. Coal miner William Davis was killed by company police. • In July 1925, the Nova Scotian Premier met with BESCO. The company withdrew its private police force. Wages were restored to 1922 levels…a reduction of 8% from 1920. • The union and the miners had succeeded in partially protecting their standard of living. • The struggle led to the 1937 Nova Scotia Trade Unions Act protecting workers’ rights to collective bargaining. It also raised the Canadian consciousness about the working class and worker’s rights.

23. Think/ Pair/ Share Think/Pair/Share: • What is collective bargaining? What do you think are some of the advantages and disadvantages of this system. • Should the government have been allowed to use force to stop the Winnipeg General Strike and/ or the Cape Breton Strikes? Explain the benefits and drawbacks of using force against workers to force their compliance.

24. Disgruntled Canadian Farmers • Farmers were very unhappy • The price of wheat was determined by government Wheat Board. • In 1919 the board set the price at $2.15 per bushel just when world price rose to $3.15 per bushel • The next year the government dissolved the board just as a bumper crop in Europe dropped the prices to $1.11 per bushel, forcing many farmers who had borrowed money on the original price into bankruptcy

25. The Election of 1921 • Borden didn’t run in the election. • The leader of the Liberal party was William Lyon Mackenzie King. • The election brought the emergence of a new party representing the needs of farmers known as the Progressives • Arthur Meighen was the Conservative leader

26. The Election 1921 Continued • For the first time, Canadians had three choices. • The election brought in the creation of Regionalism as a result of different parts of the country having such different needs. • King won forming Canada’s first minority government and leading Canada into a time of economic boom. • The election of 1921 and the emergence of the third party system

27. Government and Crisis • The progressives did not last long but they were influential in creating pensions. They also allowed the political conditions that led to the King/Byng controversy. • In 1922 when Britain announced its planned invasion of Turkey, PM Mackenzie King said Canada would not support Britain. • This is known as the Chanak crisis • We had officially challenged Britain’s stranglehold on Canadian international affairs.

28. The Improving Economy • The 1920’s started in depression. • Then the US started investing in Canada and our economy grew. • US Companies set up ‘Branch Plants’ which operated here but for American business men. • With the increase in employment and economic prosperity few Canadians questioned the long term effects of American involvement.

29. Bootlegging the Border • The Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU, was also instrumental in the women’s suffrage movement) pushed prohibition into legislation in Canada and the US. • By 1921 provincial governments were overturning the decision because of its unpopularity. • The US, however, enforced it until 1933. Canadians sold illegal alcohol over the border for about 10 years.

30. Prosperous Times • With the new booming economy Canadians were afforded more opportunities to enjoy the luxuries of life. • Motor cars were becoming affordable and popular. • Telephone lines were becoming commonplace for all houses in cities. • Professional sports were also increasing in popularity.

31. Canadian Athletes of the 1920’s Tom Longboat : In 1907 he won the Boston Marathon in a record time and in 1909 won the title of Professional Champion of the World. He served as a dispatch runner in France in World War I while maintaining a professional career. He retired following the war. Fanny ("Bobbie") Rosenfeld : A Canadian athlete, who earned a gold medal for the 400 metre relay and a silver medal for the 100 metre at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam. Called the "best Canadian female athlete of the half-century" and a star at basketball, hockey, softball, and tennis. She also was called Bobbie for her "bobbed" haircut. The Bobbie Rosenfeld Award is named in her honour.

32. Acrostic Poetry • As a way to take a break from writing so many notes you will now be given time to use the more creative part of your brain! • Create an Acrostic poem on the Winnipeg General Strike. The Chanak Crisis, the Progressive Party or the Women’s Christian Temperance Union

33. The Group of Seven • The group was made of painters from the 1920s (Franklin Carmichael, Lawren Harris, A. Y. Jackson, Frank Johnston, Arthur Lismer, J. E. H. MacDonald, and Frederick Varley). • They were influenced by European Impressionism had bright colours, unique brush styles, interesting view angles, and a large inclusion of nature.

34. Emily Carr • Emily Carr was from Victoria and is considered one of Canada’s most important painters ever. • She was impressed by the Group of 7 and took this style to her paintings of the west coast lifestyle.

35. Odds and Ends, by Emily Carr

36. The Forgotten Ones… Aboriginal peoples • Even after serving in WWI Aboriginal people were still not legally considered adult people. • Reserve conditions were poor. • Aboriginal peoples were split on whether they should accept a British style of living. • The Potlatch, an important Aboriginal celebration, was banned and people were thrown in jail. • The government had been taking land from Aboriginal people as they saw fit.

37. The Forgotten Ones… The Allied Tribes • Formed in 1916 to protect Aboriginal land and protest the racist decisions they faced from the government. • They wanted to seek a resolution to land claims in BC through negotiations with the federal and provincial governments. • In 1927 they were made illegal by the federal government who changed the Indian Act. • For more extensive information, see “Native Issues” power point, in a file folder near you.

38. The Forgotten Ones… African Canadians • African immigrants were discouraged but never blocked from immigrating. • Some provinces set up a separate school system and many public areas excluded coloured minorities.

39. The Forgotten Ones… Other Immigrants • Employers often welcomed new immigrants to Canada because it was assumed they would work cheaper. • For this reason unions hated immigrants. They believed immigrants cut down the wages they could achieve.

40. The Forgotten Ones… Women in the 1920’s • The Person’s Case • Emily Murphy was at the centre of one of Canada’s most famous cases regarding the rights of women. • This is known as the Persons case • Emily was appointed magistrate of the police court in Edmonton. Making her the first female judge in the British Empire • She was challenged in her right to sit in judgment by a defense lawyer on the grounds that she could not stand in judgment against anyone as under the terms of the Canadian Constitution Emily Murphy was not legally a person, because she was a woman.

41. The Persons Case • Legally this was true, women were not persons under the terms of the BNA act. In 1920, however the supreme Court of Alberta ruled that every woman had the right to be a judge. • So a group of women petitioned Prime Minister Robert Borden for a woman to be appointed to the Senate. • They were refused on the grounds that women were not persons under the B.N.A act and were therefore not eligible for the Senate. • By law any group of five citizens can petition the Supreme court of Canada for the interpretation of a point in the B.N.A act. • A group of women who would become known as the “Famous Five” or the “Alberta Five” petitioned Ottawa to determine if under the Act women were persons.

42. The Persons Case: The Decision of the Canadian Supreme Court • The decision of the courts was that: Under British common law the status of women is this… “Women are persons in matters of pains and penalties, but are not persons in matters of rights and privileges” • the Supreme Court delivered a unanimous ruling. Since women did not have the vote in 1867, they were not eligible to become senators. So women were not considered “qualified persons” • Discouraged but not defeated Emily Murphy and the “Famous Five” (Nellie McClung, Louise McKinney, Henrietta Edwards and Irene Parlby) decided to appeal the decision to the Privy Council in London. • In 1929, the Privy Council in London (the highest court of appeal in Canada at that time) reversed the decision of Canada’s Supreme • The ruling noted that excluding women from the term person was a “relic of days more barbarous than ours”

43. And Then It Crashed… • The prosperity of the 1920’s was deceiving, it was largely based on American investment through branch plants and exporting to the international market. • Also much of the industry in Canada was based on the primary sector of the economy. This is when the economy is largely dependent on making direct use of natural resources. • This can include agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining, and extraction of oil and gas. • This is contrasted with the secondary sector, producing manufactured goods, and the tertiary sector, producing services. • Much of Canada’s prosperity in the 1920’s was based on American secondary and tertiary industry • By 1927 the price of wheat was dropping and the world market showed weakness. • People still believed that the post-war world had infinite economic possibilities and that things would keep getting better.

44. Stock Market Crashof 1929 • Then, on ‘Black Tuesday,’ a flurry of stocks suddenly plummeted. • People lost billions and rushed to protect the money they had. • The great depression was on… Crowd gathering on Wall Street after the 1929 crash

45. Questions for Thought Think/Pair/Share • Why is art important in history? What does it tell us? • Why was the stock market crash felt so heavily? Was the world prepared? • Who was Emily Carr? What do you think her art can do for Victoria and western Canada more generally.