Mr. J. S WOODSWORTH (Winnipeg North Centre):

Mr. Speaker, I desire to ask leave to move the adjournment of the house to discuss a definite matter of urgent public importance, namely, the serious situation existing in Vancouver as a result of the eviction of single unemployed men from the post office, and in order at once to stop disturbances.

And leave having been granted:

Mr. WOODSWORTH:

Mr. Speaker, the situation in Vancouver is so serious that we have no other course than to bring it to the attention of the house and of the government. On various occasions a number on this side of the house have endeavoured to call attention to the situation which was gradually becoming more dangerous in Vancouver owing to the occupancy of the art gallery and the post office by single unemployed men. I bring forward this resolution not to advocate greater police action, but on the other hand once more to attempt to get the government to take action in a critical situation- constructive action, not the action that has recently been taken by the police.

It is not necessary for me to spend any length of time in bringing to the attention of the house the causes of the trouble of yesterday. A number of these men had been in the camps. They came back to Vancouver and could find no work. In desperation they took possession of the lower floor of the art gallery and of the post office, and there for a month have been bivouacked. Strangely enough, it would seem- that they have received on the whole the support of the citizens of Vancouver.

Action has been urged by us along the line of providing work. The leader of the opposition (Mr. Bennett) took occasion to urge that the post office should be vacated. But the government offered no alternative place to which the men could go. As I see the matter, the men took the only means available

tMr. Crerar.J

to them of calling attention to their plight. They did not resort to arms; they did not resort to force. They simply attempted to bring their condition to the attention of the provincial and the federal governments. This government offered them one alternative and one only, namely, that they should be returned to their places of origin. As we have pointed out again and again, the majority of these men cannot very well establish residence anywhere. They belong to the great army of unemployed transients. They may be employed one year or one month in Winnipeg, the next in northern Ontario, the next in Vancouver. They are men of a class which has been called upon to do rough pioneer work all over this country. And they are not fools by any means. They know perfectly well that they cannot establish residence, and if they are returned from Vancouver to Winnipeg or Toronto or Montreal they will not be in one whit better position than they are in Vancouver to-day. So the only alternative so far as we can gather which the government offered them was of no value.

We have pointed out here again and again that if this kind of thing were allowed to go on, there would be some occasion when some incident would force trouble. In this particular case it seems that the authorities did not wait for the men to riot, but themselves took forcible action and used tear gas bombs and clubs for the purpose of evicting them from the post office. According to the press, the orders came from Ottawa; apparently there was some request from the premier of British Columbia.

I should like to ask the government very frankly, what choice had these men? They could not be sent to their places of origin. They could only go out in the streets. They did not resort to force of arms. They simply took a rather spectacular way of bringing their plight to the attention of the public. It is unfortunate, of course, that in their flight, after having been evicted, they smashed windows in a number of stores and caused, according to the press, thousands of dollars' worth of damage. The report which I had stated that these men were gas-crazed as a result of the gas attack. I do not know whether the gas used brings on craziness of that kind, but I can well imagine that if most of us were treated in that fashion we would be willing blindly to hit at almost anything that showed itself; I think that would be the natural reaction. After all, these men are not criminals-the house should be reminded of that-but poor fellows out of work, deprived of the opportunity of making a living. I am sorry, as we all are, that

Unemployment-Vancouver Situation

windows were broken. I am glad to know that when, in the afternoon, they congregated before the police cells, wiser counsels prevailed. One of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation members of the legislature there urged that they should disperse, and I believe that was done. But no one will be able to control the feelings of resentment which have been stirred up by such an unwarranted act on the part of the government.

On a Sunday.

Mr. WOODSWORTH:

I do not care

whether it was on Sunday or any other day; it was an unwarranted act whenever it was done.

It may be said that these men are led by agitators. I have not been, and other hon. members have not been,, at the coast in recent weeks. I cannot speak as to the particular men who are heading them, but I would say this, that if there had been no leaders I could well wish that there had been, and I give all honour to the men among them who took positions of leadership in an extremely difficult situation of that kind. I suppose we sha'.! have the old bogey raised that these men were communists or something of that kind. This situation has nothing to do with communism. It is the result of unemployment. And if there is nobody else to take the lead I hope that men will be raised up who will do so.

The irony of the whole situation is that the Prime Minister (Mr. Mackenzie King) himself was away over the week-end celebrating his grandfather's revolution. My grandfather was on the other side in that revolt, but I do not hold it against William Lyon Mackenzie that he agitated against the intolerable conditions which, as I think we all now believe, existed at that time. But I ask the right hon. the Prime Minister whether he thinks his grandfather was justified in resorting to arms.

Mr. LAPOINTE (Quebec East):

He did not sit in a post office.

Mr. WOODSWORTH:

No; sitting in a post office is a peaceable thing, and William Lyon Mackenzie resorted to arms. His grandson the Prime Minister spends the week-end in lauding the action which his grandfather took, and yet his government here is using violence against men who themselves have used no violence and are simply protesting against intolerable conditions. I could not but think that this very well illustrates the aptness of those words of James Russell Lowell in The Present Crisis:

'Tis as easy to be heroes as to sit the idle slaves

Of a legendary virtue carved upon our fathers' graves,

Worshippers of light ancestral make the present light a crime;-

The trouble is:

We see dimly in the present what is small and what is great,

Slow of faith, how weak an arm may turn the iron helm of fate.

I will not read all the poem, but I would

commend to every hon. member, if he does not know them, these verses, which are great in sentiment, whether or not they are regarded as the greatest among poems:

They have rights who dare maintain them;

we are traitors to our sires,

Smothering in their holy ashes freedom's new-lit altar-fires;

Shall vie make their creed our jailor? Shall we, in our haste to slay,

From the tombs of the old prophets steal the funeral lamps away To light up the martyr-fagots round the prophets of to-day?

New occasions teach new duties: time makes ancient good uncouth;

They must upward still, and onward, who would keep abreast of truth;

Lo, before us gleam her camp-fires! we ourselves must pilgrims be,

Launch our Mayflower, and steer boldly through the desperate winter sea.

Nor attempt the future's portal with the past's blood-rusted key.

If there was anything in the career of William Lyon Mackenzie which deserves commendation to-day, much greater is the commendation which we should give to these unemployed men who have the courage to stand out and let the public know the plight of themselves and their fellows.

Somebody behind me suggested that this police action was taken on Sunday. I am afraid I am not a Sabbatarian. I do not care much whether it was done on Sunday or another day, but I am concerned in the question whether it is all in keeping with the real spirit of Christianity. I have been quoting Lowell. I could not but think of yet another of his poems, called A Parable, the words of which were instilled into me in my childhood:

Said Christ our Lord, "I will go and see How the men, my brethren, believe in me," He passed not again through the gate of birth,

But made himself known to the children of earth.

He wandered about and everywhere:

With carpets of gold the ground they spread Wherever the Son of Man should tread,

And in palace-chambers lofty and rare They lodged him, and served him with kingly fare.

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Unemployment-Vancouver Situation

And so on, and so on.

But still, wherever his steps they led,

The Lord in sorrow bent down his head,

And from under the heavy foundation-stones, The son of Mary heard bitter groans.

And in church, and palace, and judgment-hall,

He marked great fissures that rent the wall, And opened wider and yet more wide As the living foundation heaved and sighed.

I pass over the next stanzas:

Then Christ sought out an artisan,

A low-browed, stunted, haggard man,

And a motherless girl, whose fingers thin Pushed from her faintly want and sin.

These set he in the midst of them,

And as they drew back their garment-hem, For fear of defilement, "Lo, here," said he, "The images ye have made of me!"

We have had these thousands of poor unemployed men, not merely in Vancouver, but in eveiy one of our great industrial centres, and the policy of this government, acquiesced in by its supporters, is degrading them. Then when in desperation they take some overt action, in the name of justice we rise and say that some repressive measure must be taken.

The Prime Minister has the audacity to say that the government "has shown patience and forbearance." Patience and forbearance! The only patience and forbearance they have shown is to do the natural and easy thing- that is, to do nothing. What about the patience and forbearance of these men who for the last month have been lying on newspapers in a public building, sending out some of their number to beg as did the old time friars, from door to door. Begging for charity- do you think these men like to live on charity? Not a bit of it. They want work and wages, but under present conditions they cannot have work and wages.

The fact I wish to emphasize is that notwithstanding the action of yesterday the problem remains still the same. It is true that the men are out of the art gallery and the post office, but the problem remains still the same. I suppose the Prime Minister or the Minister of Justice will tell us how bad these men are and offer some excuse for government policy. I remember very well a few years ago when the then Minister of Justice got up and told me that the penitentiaries were fine; he read reports from his officials that stated there was nothing much wrong. He made out a lot of our charges to be very foolish. And that was not very long ago. I do not refer to the present Minister of Justice but his predecessor. And now there comes a report which fully substantiates the serious reports of the prisoners and others whom we had quoted. I suppose that now,

after these months and years have gone by, something will be done; but why should not something have been done then? Why should we be tied by a bureaucratic practice that tends always to give official reports priority over anything else?

The fact is that the present dominion government recognized responsibility towards the men, because some months ago they provided work projects that gave the men a few months' work. Then when spring came the men were turned off. I admit that under normal conditions it is probable that the men could have found work in the spring, because normally work opens in the spring. But notwithstanding the speech of the Minister of Finance (Mr. Dunning), I submit that for the great majority of the workers in the country times are anything but prosperous, and though there may have been more work than a year ago there are still large numbers without work; and for those without work the situation is as serious as it ever was. It may be that the curve is rising and more profits are being made. On the other hand, for these unemployed men the position is stationary; they cannot sink much lower than they are to-day.

The government, I assert, recognized its responsibility and provided work for them and then suddenly turned them off, washed their hands of the responsibility and left the problem to be dealt with by the city of Vancouver. I suggest very seriously to the government that even at this stage the least they can do for these men is to provide them with shelter and food until such time as work can be found for them. That is the least that can be done for the men. A number of them found shelter in a public building and a number received food through the generosity of the citizens of Vancouver. Let me repeat that the least that this government can do is to provide for these men shelter and food until such time as work can be given them. Unless the government does that, I would feel like warning the government that we have not yet seen the most serious troubles that may occur on the west coast. I suppose the Minister of Justice, who is muttering something to himself, will presently get up and accuse me of inciting to trouble.

Mr. LAPOINTE (Quebec East):

Yes; it

is an invitation to trouble.

Mr. WOODSWORTH:

All right; let the

minister talk. If that is the best reply he can give, he is free to make it. But let me point out that again and again, we in this corner have urged the government to take

Unemploymen t-Vancouver Situation

action, warning them, not threatening them, that the situation was such that unless they took action something of this kind was inevitable. They refused to do anything and I suppose that with one hundred of a majority they can continue to refuse to do anything. But I want to warn them again that the problem is precisely the same as it was yesterday morning; in fact it is worse, because the men are beginning to realize that the government cares precious little about them- which is the most serious thing that can take place.

Talk about developing anarchy! It is not a group of agitators that are bringing us to anarchy; it is the action, or rather the inaction of the government in not providing for the real needs of the people. I suppose the government can congratulate itself, in that high and lofty manner, upon the fact that the majesty of the law has been vindicated. Yes; let them have whatever consolation they can get out of that. Great is the law! But I submit, Mr. Speaker, that we are beginning to understand in this country more and more that there is one law for the rich and another law for the poor; or, if you like to put it another way, that justice shows one face towards the rich and another face towards the poor.

It happened that over this week-end, in preparation for the budget debate, I was reading the evidence given before the royal commission on the textile industry. I want to say now, in all seriousness, that that discloses a shameful, sickening story of heartless exploitation, of wholesale robbery by men prominent in the public life of Canada. Inordinate greed, bare-faced lying, and criminal fraud characterize the careers of this gang of high-class crooks. I say that seriously. And yet this gang of high-class crooks shelter within the structure of our tariff arrangements.

Mr. SPEAKER:

Order.

Mr. WOODSWORTH:

We were told by

the Minister of Finance in his speech on Thursday that he does not propose to do anything about this situation this year, that tariff changes are to be put off. I suggest to you, Mr. Speaker, that until there is penitentiary punishment for some of the men who. according to the evidence, have been defrauding the government-

Mr. SPEAKER:

Order.

Mr. WOODSWORTH:

-there is not much use-

Mr. SPEAKER:

Order. The hon. member is getting away from the subject of the motion before the house, which has to do with the situation in Vancouver.

Mr. WOODSWORTH:

Yes, Mr. Speaker,

I will conclude in a moment or so. I say that the action of the government with regard to this textile business has been very dilatory. This matter has been going on for years. The actual reports have been in the possession of the government for one year and no action has been taken.

Mr. DUNNING:

That is entirely wrong.