Editorially speaking...
As mentioned in last week’s promo, this week’s post is a mixed bag of historical “nuggets in the news” drawn from my newspaper clippings file, and from comments, suggestions and queries from readers of the Chronicles.
It’s so easy to think of history as being, well, in the past and far removed from our present-day lives. But here we are, in effect replaying the great ‘Flu epidemic of 1919-20. So much for the distant past and far away!
And make no mistake: whatever criticisms can be made of federal and provincial governments’ response to Covid-19, theirs is a day and night improvement over their handling of the Great Depression of the ‘Dirty 30s’. Lost your job or your business? You’ve been able to apply for varying, sometimes, substantial, degrees of economic assistance.
Ninety years ago, you were on your own!
Ninety years ago, Canadian unemployment was at its all-time highest, an estimated 25 per cent (one in four) of those of employment age. You’ve read about and seen the photos and old newsreels of unemployed men riding the rails, of the Prairie farmers—entire families—driven from their homes by the combined punch of economic depression and dust storms with only a handful of possessions and the clothes on their backs.
The term “Bennett buggies” came from farmers who, unable to buy gas for their Model T’s, removed the engine and converted them to horse-drawn wagons.
Why Bennett buggies? R.B. Bennett, our privately wealthy prime minister and his Conservative government were ideologically opposed to “hand-outs.”
Couldn’t feed your family because you’d lost your job or your farm? Too bad, so sad! It was only the threat of a second world war that started the wheels of industry turning and sparked a slow economic recovery.
Compare that to Ottawa’s and the provinces’ attempts to shore up the economy, to keep people, if not employed, funded during the past year. All while fighting the worst pandemic in a century.
Historical knowledge can be a humbling experience if we pause to think. So many times we accept without question that the events of our own lifetimes—as momentous as many of them have been—are the biggest or greatest or worst of all time. Such is rarely the case; it’s just a matter of personal experience and perspective.
For example, I listened to a radio program playing the “greatest hits of all time”. Not one of the songs was more than 25 years old. In other words, this was the demographic of those who participated in the poll and the hits they remember from their own pasts.
That’s hardly a measure of ‘history’ in its true sense!
Talk to you again, next week. If you have any comments or suggestions please feel free to drop me a line. —TW
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