The
mayor, controllers and others who had business in the Board of Control room
this morning had to make their way through a motley crew of about 150 men to
get to the door of the board room.”
Hamilton Times. April 14, 1914.
It was a surprise delegation that
filled a corridor of Hamilton’s City Hall, virtually blocking access to the
room where a meeting of Hamilton’s Board of Control was scheduled.
A Times reporter who was there for the
meeting itself noted that visitors to City Hall were not hard to identify:
“These men were mostly foreigners, and
there was considerable speculation as to the reason for their presence, though
it was naturally conjectured that the problem of the unemployed was once again
to be brought out.”1
1 “Unemployed
Make Descent on City Hall : Need of Work Greater Than Ever”
Hamilton Times. April 14, 1914.
After some heated negotiation, a small
deputation of the men gathered was allowed into the Board of Control room and
address the politicians :
“They complained that city work had
not yet been commenced and that they did not know where to go in order to get
work, because they couldn’t find the head foreman at the city hall nor at the
city yard.”1
In
response, Mayor Allan indicated that some city work had been scheduled to begin
that day and it was expected that as many as 200 men would be hired. The mayor
urged the men to exercise a little patience.
The spokesman for the delegation
remarked that conditions in Hamilton were even worse than three months ago, and
that he estimated that there were at least 2,000 men in Hamilton who did not
have jobs.
Mayor Allan agreed, but stated
emphatically that the city could not employ all those who were in need of work.
The spokesman also criticized the
employment choices made by the city foreman. Single men who were living with
parents who did have employment had been hired, while men with no income at all
had wives and children to support. These same single men had been employed temporarily
during the winter for snow clearing operation.
One member of the Hamilton Board of
Control stated that he spoke to a city foreman at a road scraping project, and
asked why he had hired single men when so many married men were out of work.
The only reply was that the foreman knew the men and had seen them work well in
the past.
After some discussion, the controllers
decided that hiring practices should be conducted in a much better way. The
City Engineer was directed to have bulletins put in the city yard as to where
work was being carried on in the city and where those interested in work could
make applications.
The discussion on the unemployment
question was ended at this point, but it was obvious that the men who had
gathered were not satisfied.
The next day, upon arrival at the City
Hall, Mayor Allan told reporters that a large group of about 200 unemployed men
had gathered around his residence at an early hour and had “serenaded” him. The
men then followed the mayor from his home to the City Hall.
“I believe the population of Hamilton
will go below the hundred thousand mark this year,” the mayor was quoted as
saying. “If families continue to move away as they have been doing, because of
failure on the part of the men of families to secure work, the population figures
of Hamilton will certainly go down. True, they are coming in fast, too, but
that won’t continue if lots of work does not exist.”2
2 “Workless
Men Besieged Mayor : Bombarded His House This Morning Early”
Hamilton Times. April 15, 1914.
The mayor claimed that he had heard of
many of “old country immigrants” who had
sold their furniture to send their families back home, and that the men who
remained only wanted work so that they could save enough money to join them.
“One man came to me and told me that
he had a wife and four children in Milton,” the mayor continued. “He had just
arrived in Hamilton, and believed he should have some extra consideration
because of being a stranger. He evidently considered that all hospitality
should be extended to newcomers.”2
There was
a belief, generally speaking, that city work should go to residents of
Hamilton, and the mayor certainly shared that feeling :
“His Worship does not believe that
sixty per cent of the ‘Cigarette Brigade’ are bona-fide Hamiltonians. By their
dress and manner it would seem that they had been in the Ambitious City but a
short while. The chief characteristic of them all is that they smoke cigarettes
inveterately, and despite the fact that they plead poverty and no work, they
seem able to procure a supply of ‘coffin nails.’ People who watched the army at
the City Hall yesterday dubbed them the rather unflattering characterization, ‘The
Cigarette Brigade.’ ”2
Mayor
Allan and the newspaper reporters later found out why the mayor’s home had been
the target of a demonstration earlier in the day.
A large number of the men, who had
been told that bulletins denoted what work was available and how to make
applications would be posted, went to the John Street City yard to find that no
bulletins had been prepared:
“This wounded their feelings and it
was to lodge their complaint with his Worship that they journeyed to his house
and had him out of bed before breakfast.”2
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