UNEMPLOYMENT IN CANADA.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17105, 29 March 1921, Page 7

UNEMPLOYMENT IN CANADA.

DISTEESSING CONDITIONS. (ntOM OTTR OWN CORM!SrONBSNT.) VANCOUVER, February 20. Distressing conditions exist in many of the Canaflian cities and towns, but every effort lias been made by the Federal and Provincial Governments to cope with dispensing funds for relief of destitute families. In tftio Province of Ontario, where two million Canadians are domiciled, and where many of the Dominion's leading manufactures we produced, unemployment has wrougnt terrible hardship. In this connexion, a heartrending statement of thb condition in industrial Brockville has been received in Ottawa in a letter from the president of the Brook'ville branch of the Great War Veterans' Association, to Air C. G. MacNeil, Dominion secretary. The statement describes conditions which compare with Armenia, Ukraine, "and other war-wept countries, children garbed in blankets and wearing bags about {heir leg? and feet; women forced to dress in remnants of tlseir husbands' clothes in order tokeep warm, in the Eastern frigid winter, ana men begging, with tears in their eyes, for food for themselves and families. ... In some Canadian crties, notably Montreal, crazed workless have been driven to desperation through inability to secure employment, and have invaded shops and restaurants to obtain iood for themselves and their families. Some of the idle have gone- so far as to demand the right to operate tlho closed factories themselves, and many liave urged Government ownership of these sources of wealth.- • One of the most distressing cases of Canadian unemployment was that which occurred in New York recently. It seems that just as Magistrate Georgo W. Simpson, in Vha New York night; Court, was about to impose sentence on Daniel P. Sullivan, 40 years old, homeless and overcoatless, arraigned on a charge of soliciting alms, Sullivan, who is six feet tall and frail, asked, in a whisper, if he might say a few words. His request was granted, and he went up to the Judge and whispered: "I havo never begged or been arrested before. I begged for a few cents so I could have a bite to eat and a place to sleep before going over toStaten Island in the morning. I lhad been promised a job there."

"What's the matter with your voice?" the. Magistrate asked him. Sullivan hesitated a minute, and then whispered on: "I was in tho Canadian Army in the war and was gassed and wounded. I was treated in several hospitals in Canada but never got any better. I came to New York looking for work, but in my condition nobody would employ me. 'I (have starved many times, because I would not beg. This job was tho last chance, and 1 wanted to be in shape for it." At the end of his recital. Sullivan broke down and sobbed. The Magistrate suspended sentence, end as tho prisoner was leaving tho dock the' Magistrate handed some tills ■to a Court official, asking him to take tihe money to the gallant Canadian soldier. Sullivan broke down again when tho money was offered to him, tut refused to accept it, and he also declined offers of help from several persons in tho courtroom.

He was finally persuaded to take the Magistrate's donation "as a loan." While similar cases as <his are being chronicled, fregucntly processions of unemployed are parading iho streets of many Canadian cities, '.<ind are trying vainly to persuade employers to reopen their factories or milk to provide work for tho starving. Some* of tho workless are more fortunately situated, for they are drawing from the'ir banking accounts, which they amassed when "times were good." With the fall in prices of some of the staple commodities there is a brighter future, 0.3 living ■is cheapening fractionally, and as th« spring is approaching some of the idle industries are expected to reeommenre operations, and the average Canadian wage-earner will be able to breatho moro freely than at the. crux of the readjustment period. Competent judges of tho situation believe that Canadian industries are fundamentally sound, and that the Canadian market will be one of tho first to receiver from the temporary depression.