The 1913 Vancouver Island Miners Strike
by Jack Kavanagh (continued)

[ Part 1 ] [ Part 2 ] [ Part 3 ] [ Part 4 ] [ Part 5 ] [ Part 6 ] [ Part 7 ]

III.

NANAIMO

On becoming aware of the situation Mr. Stockett, manager of the Western Fuel Co., announced that the mines would be closed May 2nd and 3rd in order to allow their employees to ballot on this question of striking. It was thought that if a sufficient number evinced a desire to return to work the strike would be broken.

A committee of employees, composed of topmen, clerks, etc., who were not in favor of striking, held a meeting in the Princess Theatre on the night of May 2nd. About 900 miners were present. On the question being put to the meeting only 85 stood up in favor of returning to work. The chairman of the meeting immediately declared an adjournment and stated that a regular ballot would be taken at the courthouse on the following day.

Note: The company's committee was allowed to use the courthouse in order to take a ballot. In view of the action taken by the authorities later in the year, when another ballot was being taken, it is well to remember this point.

On May 3rd about 478 men out of 2,000, that being about the number employed at Nanaimo, South Wellington, and Jingle Pot, voted on the question, 33 voting against going back to work.

The majority of those voting were company officials, clerks, carpenters, and men working around the top of the mines. A very small percentage were miners.

Within a week after the strike had been called, 95 per cent of the men who were not in the union on May 1st had joined. The Pacific Coast Coal Co.'s mines at South Wellington were left almost without a man, and the shut down in the Nanaimo district was complete. The firebosses were permitted to remain at work in order to keep the mines in repair.

The local literary mouthpiece for the Companies became almost hysterical in its denunciation of the U. M. W. of A. and its officials.

At Ladysmith, near which the Extension mines are located and at which some strike-breakers were working, various attempts were made to provoke the strikers into committing a breach of the peace, in order that the special police might have an opportunity of earning their pay.

On May 1st, as the strikers were holding a demonstration in a field near the main road, the company officials brought the strike­breakers into town from Extension, direct from the mine as they left work, and paraded them through the streets of Ladysmith.

So disgusted was the chief of the provincial police at Ladysmith at this attempt to provoke the strikers that he resigned his position, although he was within two years of qualifying for a pension.

At Cumberland the special police were ably fulfilling the purpose for which they had been sent there. It was no longer safe for a woman to be out after dark without an escort, subjected as they were to the insults of these guardians of the law.

So bad did it become that on May 14, 1913, President Foster communicated with Premier McBride protesting against the conduct of the special police in Cumberland.

The Premier replied to the effect that he had every confidence in the Superintendent of Police and declined to interfere.

Early in July Mr. Crothers, Minister of Labor, stated his intention of coming to the coast in order to look over the situation on Vancouver Island. Hopes were entertained that as he was a Dominion official the same influences would not prevail upon him as appeared to be the case in so far as the provincial ministers were concerned.

He was met at Vancouver by Mr. Farrington, the U. M. W. of A. executive officer in charge of the strike, and the situation outlined as fully as was possible in the limited time at their disposal, Mr. Crothers leaving for Victoria by the 10 a. m. boat, enroute to visit the Premier.

During his tour of the mining camps the most notable feature was the scarcity of time at his disposal when being interviewed by the strikers, and an apparent conviction that all men were liars, particularly if they happened to be miners on strike. He frequently stated that he could not believe what he heard. At South Wellington, after the strikers had waited all day in order to interview him, he was unable to accommodate them, although he had been able to spend two hours in the offices of the Coal Company.

At Nanaimo he chided the miners for coming on strike, saying that in his opinion they had done wrong by acting so precipitately in the matter of calling the strike. The balance of his address was devoted to eulogizing the Conservative member for Nanaimo.

Throughout his tour on the Island the strikers received about 20 per cent of the time devoted to the enquiry, the balance being utilized in interviewing strikebreakers and mine officials. Enquiries as to complaints were put to the men who had accepted the operators' terms and gone back to work, rather than to the men who were on strike as a result of their grievances being ignored. On one occasion, on being told that the men then at work were not qualified miners, he expressed his disbelief of the statement, whereupon President Foster requested that an impartial board of examiners be appointed, of which the Minister of Labor act as a member, stating further that if 50 per cent of those working in the mines at that time were able to answer the questions as prescribed by law, then he would advise the miners to call off the strike. This request was ignored.

Mr. Samuel Price, a special commissioner appointed as an investigator, and who accompanied Mr. Crothers, has since published his report, which same appears to have been gleaned from interviews with mine managers, strikebreakers, etc.

[ Top ] [ Next ]

Copyright South Branch Publishing. All Rights Reserved.
www.socialisthistory.ca  ▪