| Title: | Charlie [?], Ontario to “Dear Jim” |
|---|---|
| ID | 615 |
| Collection | Irish Emigration Database |
| File | Charlie/20 |
| Year | 1937 |
| Sender | Charlie |
| Sender Gender | male |
| Sender Occupation | works for General Motors |
| Sender Religion | unknown |
| Origin | Windsor, Ontario, Canada |
| Destination | Co. Tyrone, N.Ireland |
| Recipient | Smyth, James A. |
| Recipient Gender | male |
| Relationship | friends |
| Source | Copyright Retained by Mr & Mrs J Smyth, Castledamph, Plumbridge, Co Tyrone, Castledamph@btinternet.com |
| Archive | Mr & Mrs J Smyth, Castledamph, Plumbridge |
| Doc. No. | 604091 |
| Date | 20/2/1937 |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | EMG Log |
| Log | unknown |
| Word Count | 3223 |
| Genre | |
| Note | |
| Transcript | [no envelope] [Page 1] 1280 Lincoln Rd Windsor Ont Feb. 20/37 Dear Jim: Well Jim I've owed you a letter for quite a while now and there is no excuse for it except carelessness; writing letters is something I put off until tomorrow. It hardly seems possible that it is a little over five months since we said good bye in Belfast but by the calendar it is although it seems but that many weeks to me. Tempus fugit. I enjoyed our visit to Belfast and am sorry we couldn't have seen more of Ireland together but that had to be postponed till another year. I couldn't afford to do all the things I wished to tours cost plenty of money and I wanted to see all I could of England and Scotland. I missed you in Dublin – there is lots of interest there but couldn't enjoy it so well alone. Crossed back to England from there instead of going on to Rosslaire [Rosslare?] as planned. Finance was the reason I wasn't very enthusiastic about touring much in Ireland. I thoroughly enjoyed myself while there and it was good to see you and Aunt Sara again also, all the rest. [Page 2] In fact of all the trip the part I enjoyed the most was my visit with you folks there. And the longer I stay here with all the strikes floods riots unemployment and general unrest the more I wish I was back sitting over there on your hill with you away from all this. Had I returned six weeks sooner than I did it would have been possible for me to go back this year but as it is there isn't much hope of that unless some unforeseen good fortune comes to me. Sometime I'd like to spend a whole summer in Ireland. Couldn't do it last summer of course because my friend and I had planned our trips together except for me to spend a week or ten days in Ireland while he went to Bristol. As you know it didn't work out that way. I stayed four weeks in Ireland and hated to leave then although it was on my mind all the time that it wasn't quite the right thing to do by my friend Bill. We had a grand trip through England Wales and Scotland (parts of them anyway) I was sorry we couldn't get to Ayr for the dog trials. Did you go over? Bill intended to stay in England but came back to Canada three weeks after I did. [Page 3] I hope you're well Jim, also all the rest of the folks over there. Haven't heard from Aunt Sara since I got back but had a letter from her just before leaving England in which she said she had been under the weather for a couple of weeks. Hope she has been well since that. She's a fine old girl - I like her a lot. I can never think of you and Aunt Sara as being anything but visitors over there like I was. Thats only natural I suppose since it was here I first knew you, and you also look at things a little differently than the other folks there (a whole lot in some cases) Anyone who has spent much time in America is never quite the same again. There is a whole lot to be said for both sides of the ocean. I've been sending you the papers the last few weeks (Saturday's). Hope you get them OK and find something of interest in them. Anyway there's more news in them than I can write. Right now things aren't so good over here We haven’t anything to crow about unless it would be trouble. Of course by over here I mean the States too. We in Canada and particularly in Windsor are affected [Page 4] by conditions there. No doubt you've heard about the flood they had down Ohio and Mississippi and the hundreds of millions of dollars worth of damage it caused and its not all finished yet. Their most serious trouble is with labour strikes in all parts of the country. For every one that's settled about two or three more break out. General Motors are the hardest hit now. They have settled the strike, temporarily at least in their automobile factories but other branches of their organization are still "sitting down" such as the Kelvinator in Detroit and the Guide lamp and Delco-[Remy?] in Anderson Ind.[Indiana?] And there are also other minor strikes throughout the country too numerous to mention. And there is trouble threatened in the steel industry and coal mines. That will come soon. Where your sympathy lies Jim I don’t know, but after working for eight years for General Motors, one of the largest organizations in the world, and having had first hand knowledge of the changes that have taken place in industry during that time, my sympathy is all with the men. It is unfortunate that such a relatively [Page 5] small percentage of the people understand the situation and the underlying causes of the trouble. Unless a person does understand it he should not judge and condemn without a fair trial a man who says, "this thing is wrong and I'm going to try and right it." Most people depend on newspaper editorials for their opinions on subjects they're not familiar with, or else just jump at conclusions, - in either case they may not get the true picture. They are almost certain to get the wrong impression of the situation that we have to-day. And it is most decidedly necessary that people should know the truth and be able to think straight. It is going to be even more necessary in the future than now because the trouble is only just getting nicely started. Of course if they could all see straight now there wouldn't be any trouble in the future – but they cant. I know there has been labour trouble before, but today we are faced with a situation or conditions that make the necessity of very revolutionary change greater that ever before. [Page 6] It would be a great thing if all newspaper editors and commentators were forced to work, in an automobile factory for instance, for one year. Or for that matter in a steel mill or any modern high speed production, high efficiency factory. They would be in such a much better position to give an intelligent unbiased opinion on the subject. Modern methods of production are marvels of efficiency. Modern genius has created wonderful machines to increase production and decrease manual labour. And that is one source of the trouble. Let me give you an example, - a true one. In a motor plant in this city in 1929 eighteen hundred men built 200 motors (automobile) a day. Right now in 1937 in the same factory five hundred men are producing 400 motors a day. And furthermore they're working for less money per hour than in 1929. And automobiles are very little different in price now than then. Today a man works almost to the limit of his capacity on whatever small operation of production he performs (probably just tightened a few bolts). And he keeps that up at extremely high speed day after day until it is a wonder he is not driven [Page 7] mad with the monotany [monotony?] of it and the knowledge that as soon as he begins to slow down out in [sic] street he goes and a younger man takes his place. And he does this for between six and nine months out of a year and the rest of the time he goes on relief (if he is married and has a family) or else he goes hungry - until such time as the company needs him again. I am not opposed to this modern method of mass production and the machinery that makes it possible. Its the abuse not the use of it that is one cause of the trouble. If we have been given a system whereby goods can be produced in sufficient quantities in a short time by labour saving devices, it should be used for the benefit of us all in giving us the leisure to enjoy the better things of life a little more fully. Instead of it working out that way though it has been used to make huge monetary profits for a very few. Man is the victim not the beneficiary of the system. A mans [man’s?] increase in wages has laged [lagged?] far far behind his increase in production. And I am taking into account the decrease in costs that the system makes possible. Don't get the idea Jim that I am any [Page 8] communist or bolshevik, because I'm not. I only know that unless some very radical changes are made we're in for a lot of trouble. I know that a great majority of factory workes [workers?] have been driven faster and faster during the past few years until they have reached the point where the worm turns. I know that for every increase in wages production is speeded up and hours of work cut down. I know that we have over ten million unemployed in the U. S. and the cost of living going higher and higher. I know that in Canada last November there were exactly 1100025 people receiving direct relief from the govt. [government?] (that includes farmers and families in drougth [drought?] areas of the west) And there are a good many more millions who are trying to figure out ways and means of keeping their heads above water. Well Jim I'm writing on and on here in a rather disjointed fashion and I'm afraid not a very lucid one. But six months of writing would not tell the whole story so I better not try to get it in this letter. I have not gone very thoroughly into the causes of the labour trouble - they're numerous - and I'm not going to offer any solution. I know that just increasing wages won't solve the problem and I'll give you one example of why. Last week [Page 9] the General Motors increased wages all over the U.S. and Canada five cents an hour and here in Windsor they've cut one hour a day off the time it takes those 500 men to build those 400 motors. One thing the Union is fighting for is that the men must have something to say about the speed of production. If they don't, as the above example shows, they have gained nothing. Don't be mistaken by what the papers say about a union comprising only a minority of the workers trying to dictate the majority. At least ninety percent of the men are in favour of an organization but because they're afraid of loosing [losing?] their jobs are not actively engaged in one. Most of them have homes and families and a job is a job even if you dont like it. I believe both Mr Lewis and Mr Martin the leaders of the strike in the U.S. are sincere and conscientious men. Both are former ministers who left the church to go into labour work because they decided they could do more for the people that way. As far as sit down strikes are concerned everybody will admit that it is legally wrong for a group of men to take posession [possession?] of somebody elses [else’s?] property but anybody who is familiar with what they are up against [Page 10] must admit that they are morally right. It is the one and only weapon with which they can win. And a very good weapon it is too providing it isn’t used to wreck industry completely. And that is where the danger lies. Whether it is used for good or evil depends upon who is swinging it. At the present time it is being used for good - all objections to the contrary. Well, enough of strikes and labour troubles, ultimate good will come of it but it will be much worse before it’s better. On top of all their other troubles in the States the dust storms are starting again in the south-west. In western Canada we expect this year to raise the bigest [biggest?] crop of grasshoppers we've ever had yet. If it isn't one thing its two or three more. It seems to be rather a gloomy picture I'm painting here Jim, and things are not any too good, but in spite of it all we go along enjoying ourselves as best we can and hoping for the best. We've had a very mild winter this year, only a few cold days and very little snow - but plenty of rain no doubt its something like the weather you had over there. When I was in England they were predicting the coldest winter for over 300 [Page 11] years. I wonder if they got it. I suppose everything will be humming over there for some time to come due to the program of re-armament. I rather agree with some man speaking over the radio last night who said it was the biggest step toward peace that had been taken for a good many years. However he also agreed that it was going to be pretty tough on British tax-payers. I said further back in the letter that the biggest problem the US is facing is with labour but there is another that is probably more important and that is the President’s plan to re-organize the supreme court. You have perhaps read something about it. There is no doubt in the world that he wishes to pass legislation that will be for the benefit of the people. and he doesn’t want it declared unconstitutional by the supreme court, which in reality it is, as was done a year or so ago. He is usurping rights which were guaranteed to the individual states at the time of union, by the constitution. What he should have done at the election last fall was to have the people vote on an amendment to the constitution and I believe it would have carried because a big majority of the people were behind him. 12 Probably he didn’t know there were so many They have not voted on the measure yet but if it passes and he packs the supreme court with men he knows will not over-rule him he has set a precedent that can be followed by any president after him and they might as well throw their constitution away – it wont mean a thing. And as far as that is concerned I think it would be a good thing if they did get rid of it. It certainly isn’t adequate for the needs of to-day. The British system of not having any is a much better one. The general feeling of those not opposing the bill is that the end justifies the means. A great many of those opposing it are very much in favour of the legislation but don’t like the idea of packing a jury. Just what will happen nobody knows. Anyway the States seem to be beset by trouble from almost every angle. The strikes are spreading too. It just came over the radio that there are fourteen “sit-down” or “walk out” strikes in progress in Detroit They are also having trouble at the Gen Motors plant over here at Oshawa over the speed-up in production following the raise in wages [Page 13] In the paper this morning there was reported an interview with Henry Ford in which he said that international financers [financiers?] were behind all these strikes for the purpose of gaining complete control of industry in America. To which I can only say that the men who have controlled American industry have brought the trouble on themselves – it is their child and instead of trying to crush it or disclaim it they would be better to get aquainted [acquainted?] with it and take care of it so that men and women workers would have no reason for being influenced by outside forces. They have many just causes for complaint. Well Jim I guess I’d better get busy and finish this letter. Everyone is well here. I see the most of them fairly often. Have been own at Leamington several times to see Aunt Annie and Belle and at Kingsville to see Anna and Harold. Howard and Lillian, Glenn Alberta and Douglas of course are here in the city so I see them quite often. Howard is president of the British\Israel branch here and gives a very fine lecture on some angle of it each week. It means a lot of study and work for him. Lillian was not well for quite a while but {Page 14] seems much improved now. Anna was troubled with sciatica in her hip but she is also much better now. There have been two deaths in the family since I came back. Ralph Bennett died just before Christmas of pneumonia, leaving a wife and three small children. Cousin Ida Collins had a stroke and died a week ago. Perhaps you remember her – she was an Anglican deaconess who taught among the Indians in Northern Canada for many years she used to come to our place once in a while Last night’s paper reported the death of two men you know too. Senator Jas. [James?] Hocken, that rip-snorting Orangeman from Toronto, and Byron Lane of the Leamington Post and News. I have not seen Dad since stopping there a day or so on my way through from Montreal but had a letter from him a couple of weeks ago saying they were OK Haven’t heard anything of Mary lately but I hope that no news is good news. They were over New Year’s [sic] and were fine then. Windsor is gong along about as usual in a rather bankrupt state. Col Wigle as you no doubt read was elected mayor this year by a small majority. I doubt very much [Page 15 whether he will do anything very good or very bad. He at least will [sic] a very good toast master at banquets. All the houses in the city have been re-numbered This one has been changed from 330 to 1280. Several streets are to be re-named to do away with duplication. Walkerville reminds me of a man in jail saying “you can’t do this to me”. They’ve ceased to exist but still squawk loud and long – mostly for the scalp of Dave Croll. The Liberals are looking for some safe place to run Mr Croll in the next election. I’m afraid he would loose his deposit here. However he seems to be doing well for himself in Toronto. Mitch Hepburn is having to take rest cures in Arizona and the West Indies and other places quite frequently. Since Manitoba and Saskatchewan have gone bankrupt and are receiving federal aid Mackenzie King is appointing a committee to investigate the whole financial situation of the country. Must close now Jim. Give my best regards to Tom and his wife Liza, Lillian, John and the twins. I have always been very grateful to you all for your kindness to me lat summer while over there but I’ve been long time writing to say so. Say hello to Aunt Sara and Archie Bob for me and try and find time to write me a letter Sincerely Charlie Transcribed by Greg Floyd Word count: 3223 |
