Chapter 4 History

Question 1

1. The Stock Market Crash

Answer 1

• Stock market crashed Oct. 29 1929, causing recession before decade-long depression.
• During 1920’s industry expanded from consumption w/ credit (getting before paying) in Canada.
• As economy slowed down, overproduction ensued, causing manufactures to stockpile & lower prices before producing fewer goods, causing layoffs → people couldn’t pay bills/buy goods, slowing down economy even more.

Question 2

2. Canada’s Reliance on Exports and Wheat

Answer 2

• Canadian economy relied on exports, particularly wheat from Praires and newsprint from BC, ON, QU, making Canadian economy vulnerable to world market changes. 80% farm, mine + forest production exported.
• 1920’s → wheat farmers in CA + US produced record crops and sold for record prices, yet as more countries produced wheat, competition ensued, causing wheat overproduction and prices to fall, decreasing income of farmers, causing inability to pay mortgages/loans.

Question 3

3. The Great Depression Globally

Answer 3

• Canadian economy hit from US being largest investor + trading partner. US imposed high tariffs, causing countries to employ protectionism in response, leading to slowdown in world trade, causing Canadian exports to decrease substantially.
• US lent money during + after WW1, yet protectionism declined international trade, affecting countries’ ability to pay loans.
• Germany couldn’t pay reparations which Britain and France relied on. Newf. and Lab. struggled from war debt and from lack of veteran/general employment.

Question 4

4. Investors in the early 1920’s

Answer 4

• Business boomed in early 20’s, so companies raised money by issuing shares (stocks) that investors brought, hoping values of shares would rise → Canadian companies issued $700M in stock between 1922 - 1926.
• Many investors bought “on margin” (aka. buying shares w/ 10% down payment, assuming value of shares would be increased to make profit, known as “speculation”).

Question 5

5. Investments before the Great Depression

Answer 5

• High demand had driven price of stocks beyond real value and loans for stocks were easy to obtain. Some investors sold stocks, leading many others to do same, so stock prices fell, leading people to sell even further.
• “Black Tuesday” → Oct. 29, 1929, NY Stock Exchange collapsed followed by TO. and MO. stock exchanges.
• Investors who borrowed to buy shares bankrupted in one day, and crash affected millions of Canadians despite few investing in stock.

Question 6

6. Prarie Farmers and Natural Factors

Answer 6

• In 1920’s, Prairie farmers planted wheat for global demand and rising prices, but one-crop farming took toll on soil. Farmers replaced native grasses w/ wheat, using up soil nutrients.
• Just after economic crash, Prairies were hit by disastrous 8 year drought, causing inability to grow crops.

Question 7

7. Natural Factors II

Answer 7

• Millions of hectares of topsoil blew away, leading to constant dust storms by mid-spring of 1931, hitting semi-arid area in southern Alberta and Saskatchewan “Palliser’s Triangle” especially hard.
• Plague of grasshoppers descended, wiping out remaining crops farmers could’ve grown, forcing families to abandon their land.

Question 8

8. Economic Difficulties

Answer 8

• Only 300,000 Canadians earned enough income to pay income tax in 1939 in pop. of 11 million, where married people earning +$2,000 and singles earning +$1,000 paid tax.
• Evictions ensued from depression. Thousands relied on “pogey” (government relief payments given to those not having alternative source of income), but was low ($60 in Calg. and $19 in Hali. for family of 5) to encourage search for work.

Question 9

9. Conditions for Receiving Aid

Answer 9

• People waited for hours and publicly declare financial failure, and swore they didn’t own anything of value and prove eviction from home, before receiving vouchers for food/essentials.
• Charity provided used clothing + meals, and soup kitchens helped hungry. Suicides occured from hardship.

Question 10

10. Male Unemployment

Answer 10

• Winter of 1933, +¼ quarter of Canadian workforce unemployed, filled w/ young, jobless men (transients) looking for work by “hopping” freight trains.
• After “riding the rails”, they’d stay at shantytowns “jungles” springing in/around cities.

Question 11

11. Immigrant Conditions

Answer 11

• Immigrants viewed w/ hostility in Canada by competing for jobs. Immigrants lost jobs, leading 28,000 of them to be deported by 1935.
• In Vancouver, Chinese didn’t qualify for relief. Jews faced antisemitism by being banned from professions/jobs, and clubs/organizations banned jews.

Question 12

12. Aboriginal Conditions

Answer 12

• Aboriginals only received $5 a month compared to $19-$60 by non-Aboriginals, as they were expected to live off land despite poor state of it. Govt took reserve land, further squandering resources.
• In one case, the government took land from Squamish Capilano Indian Reserve to build Lions Gate Bridge, on which King George VI and Queen Elizabeth rode in 1939, despite request by Squamish to stop.

Question 13

13. Women

Answer 13

• Few jobs for women other than domestic work paying few dollars per week, some believing working women contributed to Depression. Unemployed single women didn’t qualify for relief and needed charity.
• In Vancouver, women’s groups campaigned for more support, leading city to provide milk for babies, clothing allowances, and medical care for pregnant women.

Question 14

14. Conditions for the Wealthy

Answer 14

Wealthy individuals noticed little changes in lifestyle. As deflation occurred, conditions for those w/ jobs improved.

Question 15

15. PM Mackenzie King’s Actions

Answer 15

• PM Mackenzie King unprepared for Depression, believing it was temporary and told Canadians financial aid was responsibility of municipal and provincial govts, despite bankruptcies of several municipalities.
• King said he wouldn’t give “a five-cent piece” to a Conservative provincial govt. This led King to lose to PM Richard Bedford Bennett and Conservative majority govt.

Question 16

16. Bennett’s Attitudes

Answer 16

Bennett’s govt was no more in favour of govt intervention than King, once telling group of students “one of the greatest assets a man can have on entering life’s struggle is poverty”, but still introduced measures to aid Canadians.

Question 17

17. Bennett’s Actions

Answer 17

• Unemployment Relief Act gave provinces $20 million for work-creation, but didn’t improve economy.
• Bennett raised tariffs by average of +50% to protect Canadian industries to “use tariffs to blast a way”. This did more harm in long-term, as other nations set trade barriers against Canada.
• Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Act introduced in 1935 to help farmers build irrigation and reservoirs, but drought and poverty forced people to move at time it was passed.

Question 18

18. Red Scare

Answer 18

• Growing no. of homeless men drifting across country frightened middle-class. “Red Scare” still held Canada and PM Bennett feared men would be influenced by Communist Party.
• 1931 - Bennett outlaws communist agitation. Tim Buck violated law and sentenced to two years in prison.

Question 19

20. On-to-Ottawa Trek

Answer 19

• In 1935, +1000 men left camps in BC to protest conditions and pay, gathering in Vancouver to hold rallies and collect money for food.
• Under leadership of Relief Camp Workers’ Union, men took complaints to PM in “On-to-Ottawa Trek”, crowding into and on top of freight trains.
• Supporters donated food + supplies and/or joining trek. +2000 trekkers joined protest by time they reached Regina, Saskatchewan.

Question 20

21. Regina Riot

Answer 20

• Bennett called in RCMP to stop trekkers in Regina, to which protesters were confined in local stadium.
• Union leaders who were allowed to meet Bennett were attacked as communists and troublemakers.
• RCMP ordered to clear trekkers, to which they battled RCMP and local police in “Regina Riot”, in which 130 men arrested, 1 officer killed and many injured.

Question 21

22. Protests

Answer 21

• When federal govt closed relief camps in 1936 and provincial govt reduced relief, many men conducted “sit-ins” at buildings until govt responded to complaints.
• In April 1936, 1,600 protestors occupied Vancouver Art Gallery, main post office and Georgia Hotel. Most protesters left, but at post office, men refused to leave, eventually evicted with tear gas.

Question 22

23. Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal

Answer 22

• Franklin Roosevelt introduced New Deal that created public work programs when he became US president in 1933.
• He also introduced Social Security Act that provided old age pensions, unemployment insurance and financial assistance for mothers and children.
• US federal govt spent billions of dollars to improve living conditions. Economy didn’t improve but helped millions survive.

Question 23

24. Bennett’s New Deal

Answer 23

• Bennett surprised radio listeners before 1935 election introducing own version of New Deal
• Included progressive taxation, workers’ insurance, regulated work hours, minimum wages, regulated working conditions, revised pensions, agricultural support and creation of Canadian Wheat Board for wheat prices.

Question 24

25. Reaction to the New Deal

Answer 24

• Voters saw Bennett’s policy as attempt to win votes and questioned value of workers’ insurance programs for unemployment.
• For most it was too little too late.

Question 25

19. Work Camps

Answer 25

• Bennett created work camps for single men for relief from Depression, for work on roads, clearing land and digging drainage ditches for $0.20 a day with room and board.
• Work was often deep in woods, isolating the men. Food and bunks were terrible, yet +170,000 men worked.

Question 26

26. Co-operative Commonwealth Federation

Answer 26

• Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) founded in 1932 in prairie provinces, was Canada’s first socialist party that preceded NDP, believing capitalism breeds inequality and greed caused Depression.
• CCF supported command economy in which all Canadians equally benefitted. CCF appealed to variety of voters dissatisfied with govt response to depression.

Question 27

27. CCF’s Leader and the Regina Manifesto

Answer 27

• At CCF convention in Regina in 1933, J.S. Woodsworth elected party leader. Party platform “Regina Manifesto” supported public ownership of key industries.
• It advocated social programs to help elderly, unemployed, homeless and sick, as well as money on employment creation.
• CCF formed opposition in Saskatchewan and BC by 1939.

Question 28

28. Social Credit Party

Answer 28

• Social Credit Party from Western Canada led by charismatic William “Bible Bill” Aberhart. Social credit believed that in capitalism, banks hoarded money, preventing customers from buying goods.
• Aberhart believed govt should release money into economy that people could spend. Idea appealed to Albertans as Depression devastated economy and they resented banks in Central Canada.

Question 29

29. Union Nationale

Answer 29

• Maurice Duplessis joined forces with some Liberals to form Union nationale for Quebec nationalism, relying on Roman Catholic Church and rural voters.
• Duplessis blamed Quebec’s problems on English Minority in Quebec that controlled province’s economy.

Question 30

30. Union Nationale’s Platform

Answer 30

• Political platform based on working conditions, social insurance, publicly owned power companies and farm credits.
• Duplessis did little improvement of economic and social conditions in Quebec during his first term, but remained premier until 1959 except from 1939 to 1944.

Question 31

31. New Governments

Answer 31

• As newer parties gained power in Western Canada and Quebec, voters in other provinces also elected new governments.
• In Ontario, provincial Liberals came in 1934 for first time in 29 years, whose leader, Mitchell Hepburn, was a populist farmer who railed against big business.
• Hepburn tried to improve Ontario’s economy but did little to help unemployed and was against unionization.

Question 32

32. Germany

Answer 32

• Germany grew increasingly angry with Treaty of Versailles and “war guilt” clause that required $32 billion in reparations, which strained German economy ruined by war.
• Govt printed money in 1920’s, which lowered value of German currency. Britain, France and US agreed to give better terms for Germany’s reparation payments.
• Germany made modest recovery, but great depression then weakened German economy more than others.

Question 33

33. Japan

Answer 33

• Empire of Japan (only independent Asian nation w/ colonial empire) held strong manufacturing industry after WW1, so tariffs and international trade decline during Depression affected Japan’s economy that relied on raw materials from other countries.
• Japan adopted Keynesian economics and increased govt spending to stimulate economy, and placed aggressive plans to expand territory by invading Manchuria, China’s northern province, in 1931.

Question 34

34. Russia

Answer 34

• After Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, Russia experienced upheavals that led to civil war. In 1922, Russia joined communist countries to form Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).
• USSR’s command economy insulated economic slowdown, appearing to many as though communism worked while capitalism failed, increasing people’s interest in communism.
• Joseph Stalin’s dictatorship robbed the Soviet people’s political and social freedom, and economic and agricultural policies led to deaths of millions.