The English-Canadian labour press and the Great War

Porter, Vincent Rendell (1981) The English-Canadian labour press and the Great War. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

The Great War of 1914-18 not only caused unsurpassed death and destruction, but also provoked considerable social change. The English-Canadian labour press commented widely and vigorously on both the causes of the conflict and its effects. -- The research for this thesis involved a thorough examination of six important Canadian labour papers for the period 1914-1919. These were the Canadian Labor Leader, the Voice, the Labor News, the Western Clarion, Industrial Banner and the BC Federationist. Some smaller, and less significant papers such as the Brandon Confederate, were also briefly perused. -- As the War wore on, the papers developed an intense conviction that great social change was in the offing, and that it would bring the workingman greater freedom and significant economic gains. The thesis suggests that when the immediate post-War era offered only high prices and equally high unemployment rates, the labour press, and the people for whom it spoke, felt betrayed and angry. It was this sense of betrayal that contributed significantly to the industrial unrest of 1919.

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