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by J. S. Woodsworth
But what does this unemployment mean in terms of human welfare? The district nurses tell a heart-rending story of under-nourished children, of unwelcome babies coming into homes in which there is no clothing in which to wrap them, of weary struggling mothers and discouraged or embittered fathers and of broken homes.
Is this Canada — the Canada of which we have been so proud? In the old world, poverty always had been and was taken almost as a matter of course, but in 'this land of opportunity' have we so soon come to this?
Of course we have had unemployment and bread lines before now. In 1913 in Vancouver the situation was even more acute, if less serious. Then came the war. Thousands of men enlisted at once in a spirit of enthusiasm, but thousands of others were compelled by economic pressure to enlist. Production was artificially stimulated. A good market, high prices, public and private 'graft' and unlimited credit brought a period of so-called 'prosperity'. But now the war is over. The bills are coming due. The old trouble is re-asserting itself with increased intensity.
What is the worker thinking about it? His thoughts are not the thoughts of the business man. He looks at things from an entirely different angle. In fact, he lives in a different world. There lies one of the most dangerous factors in the situation. The ordinary well-to-do citizen fails to recognize that, since the war, we are living in a new world of ideas. He, unfortunately, is still living in the past. While he may talk of re-construction, he thinks of this as construction on a larger scale along old lines. The worker dreams of a new heaven and a new earth.