The Crowsnest Pass During the Depression: A Socioeconomic History of Southeastern British Columbia, 1918 - 1939.

The decade of the "thirties" had profound effects on the economic and social structure of Canada. Considerable research has exposed the trauma of the vast majority, but historians have tended to apply the general trends affecting the larger political or geographical areas to particular locales or economic units. The Crowsnest Pass area of Southeastern British Columbia has been treated in such a manner. The three-year slump in trade postdating the First World War was ended in most of Canada with a return to relative prosperity by 1923. But in many areas of the much-heralded prosperity was superficial at best. Throughout the decade, coal and steam as sources of energy were gradually replaced by oil and other easily transported fuels. The railways which had played an integral role in pre-war prosperity were in constant difficulty after the war. A number of costly strikes waged by the United Mine Workers of America in face of wage cuts and periodic "lay-offs" further reduced coal orders. The entrance of a superior Alberta domestic coal into the market curtailed an outlet formerly filled by British Columbia steam coal. Demands of the Nova Scotia miners for a subsidy that would allow competition with Pennsylvania coal for central Canadian markets brought a retaliatory tariff by the United States government on Crowsnest Pass coal supplying the American mid-west markets. The combined result of the aforementioned factors prostrated the only major industry of the Crowsnest Pass throughout the two decades prior to the Second World War. Economic stagnation of the regional led to widespread unemployment. Instruments for relief of the unemployed had not been created in the decade before 1929. Charity was largely in the hands of benevolent societies who were often limited by a lack of resources. By the time the more intense effects of worldwide depression afflicted the area, residents were hardened to declining economic conditions. Social trauma which accompanied the disastrous economic recession, in wreaking severe hardships on the indigent, caused major adjustments in their thinking. Repercussions were felt in almost every aspect of human relationships and endeavor, as the churches, schools, clubs, political parties, hospitals and fraternal societies were forced to undergo changes. The attitudes of parents and families underwent major adjustments as the ability to properly clothe, feed and educate their children was endangered. Many who had been accustomed to the security of regular incomes and savings for retirement were forced to live on a mere subsistence with no hope for the future. Pressure of public opinion on the government brought action only to satisfy minimum political expedients. Because the entire region was economically stagnant the dole would not suffice. Only a long-range retraining program could have eased the situation. As the standard of living generally rose in Canada during the last half of the decade the state of residents in the Crowsnest Pass correspondingly worsened. Dissent was promulgated through radical unions, unemployed associations and local political parties. The demands of residents were not treated seriously by 1936 because of the relative prosperity of the rest of Canada. The lack of response to the plight of the coal mining region and the accompanying stigma that enveloped the indigents' parasitic condition quelled all their initiative. It was not until the large-scale armament build-up in 1939 and the resulting increased coal orders for the Crowsnest mines that a premium was placed on mine labour and the relief roles were reduced.