ARLY STRUGGLE RECALLED —

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The da

By WILLIAM TURNER
Fifty-one years ago the
terrible slaughter of World War I
_ Was drawing to a close. The fall _
of the year 1918 would see an end
‘Tto the bloody carnage and
destruction of what some
claimed to be ‘‘the war to end all
wars’’. The peoples of the world
from Europe to America, war-
Weary and exhausted, were
demanding peace. The hopes and
kspirations of mankind had been
fortified as they gazed beyond
the wasteland of war and death
towards the young Socialist
republic of Russia.

For the first time in world
history the vision of a better
world for humanity had become
a reality. The fourth year of the
war found the Canadian
government of Prime Minister
Borden exerting all pressures
towards fulfilling its manpower
commitments for the armies of
the Commonwealth. It was

- inducting into the army under
the War Measures Act the last
remaining reserves of its young
people. The government was
beset by the rumblings of
discontent as the mounting
casualty lists filled the press,
war profiteering verged towards
a national scandal and labor
unrest was mounting daily.

The setting provided by - this
background of 1918 was to stir
into action social and political
movements that were the
harbinger of sharpened. class
conflict between the forces of

_Capital and labor. One such
episode of this struggle will be
long-remembered in the annals
of Canadian labor. . . ;

No other single incident in the

history of British Columbia has _

so stirred the labor movement
than the swift passage of events '
arising from the fatal shooting of
Arthur ‘‘Ginger’’ Goodwin by a
policeman in July 1918. Over
fifty years have gone by since
that eventful summer yet the
memories of the events that
followed Goodwin’s death are-
remembered in the _ labor
struggles of today and wherever
workers honor and pay homagei_
to their martyrs on Labor Day.

_ The death of Ginger Goodwin, '
an outstanding trade-unionist,
was the fuse that served to ignite
the explosive events long
smouldering during the summer
months of 1918. On August 2 it
burst forth into the first general _
Strike in B.C.’s history. ;

Ginger Goodwin in his position
as secretary of the Trail local of
the miners union, had incurred
the wrath of Cominco and the
mining interests because of his
staunch leadership and mili-

_tancy. A former vice-president _

of the B.C. Federation of Labor _
he was widely known and

respected by thousands of
workers throughout the
province. The establishment

moved quickly to remove him.
Goodwin was called up under the
Military Service Act but was
rejected for military duty and
classed as category ‘‘D’’.
Strangely enough, a few weeks
later he was re-classified as’
category ‘‘A”’ and declared to be
fit for military service. Reject-
ing this decision on the part of
the authorities as an attempt to
remove him from the scene,
Goodwin decided upon the

"PACIFIC TRIBUNE — AUGUST 29, 1969 — PAGE 12

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HISTORIC DAY FOR B.C. LABOR. On August 2, 1918 tens of thousands of B.C. workers lay down their tools to
strike in protest against the shooting of Albert ‘“Ginger’’ Goodwin. On that same day 2,000 people took part
in Goodwin's funeral procession in Cumberland, shown in historic photo above. ~— -

course of action he must take, he
became a draft-evader. In doing
this he was not alone. The
Federal government claimed
there were 25,000 evading the
draft in the province during the
summer of 1918.

So it was that Ginger Goodwin
shouldering a sack of provisions
and carrying a rifle for game left
his miner friends in Cumberland
and headed out to hide in the
bush-lands at the far western end
of Comox Lake. Then began one
of the most extensive manunts
by the police ever undertaken in
B.C., no greater mobilization of
police forces could have been
deployed to apprehend and
capture Goodwin than if he had
been a common murderer.

It was a hot sultry day in late
July that Police In spector W.J.
Devitt led two of his men, Lance-
Corporal Rowe and Constable
Campbell, through the bush
bordering Comox Lake in search
for Goodwin. Devitt knew that
his quarry had been seen in the
vicinity, although the area was
considered to be with its rough
terrain and heavy undergrowth
almost inaccessible. He decided
ito break up his men. Dispatching
each alone in a_ different
direction they agreed to meet
later at an arranged rendezvous.

A short while later a shot was
heard coming from the direction
taken by Constable Campbell.
Rushing to the scene of the

_ Shooting, Devitt the first to

arrive found Campbell standing
with his fired rifle in his hands.
Before him the prostrate body of
Ginger Goodwin lay outstretched
on the ground fatally wounded:
Campbell’s story according to
Devitt was that he had shot

_ Goodwin in self-defence. There .

were no witnesses to the
shooting. While Campbell and
Devitt were examining the dead
man on the ground the other
policeman Rowe joined them.
The date was July 27, 1918.

e
A dozen men acting in relays
sweated and strained as they
journeyed for four days through
the dense undergrowth to
Cumberland with the body of
Ginger Goodwin. There an
autopsy would be held and a

preliminary investigation
‘charging Constable Dan
Campbell with manslaughter

were to rock labor circles -

throughout the province.
Immediately news of the
shooting spread like wildfire and
as the initial shock of its impact
stirred trade-unionists, the
labor movement moved into

y B.C. labor went

action. The Vancouver Trades

and Labor Council issued a call

for a 24 hour general strike as a

mark of protest by its affiliates.
On August 2, the same day that
2,000 people attended Ginger
Goodwin’s funeral in.Cumber-
land, thousands of workers on
the lower mainland joined
forces in sympathy and stayed
off their jobs. ee

The strike spread rapidly as
3,000 shipyard workers in the
Coughlan yards on False Creek
and the Wallace yards in North
Vancouver, walked off the job.
They were followed by the street
railwaymen, longshoremen, gas
workers, metal and _ building
trades, service workers. It was a
powerful demonstration of labor
solidarity that was to strike fear
in the ranks of the establish-
ment.

Since the beginning of the war
the cost of living had soared to
phenomenal heights. While
wages lagged profits had soared.
A government body, the Cana-
dian Railway Board, in a study
of prices reported, ‘‘Boots and
shoes since the start of the war
have risen 100 percent, beef 35
percent, clothing 50 percent,
flour 90 percent, pork 75 percent,
sugar 80 percent’. (Victoria
Times, Aug. 2, 1918).

One newspaper deplored the
fact that Canada was now
“passing through a wave of
strikes that have no parallel in

her history,”’ it went on to appeal

PICKET

Cont'd from pg. 1

The murder victim, James
Gordon Harvey, aged 43 was an
employee of Shell Oil for over 16
years, which now robs him of his
life, and leaves a widow and
eight children without husband,
father and breadwinner. The
driver of the death truck, David

' Slobodian of Saskatoon, clearly

establishes the réal
‘‘supervisory personnel”’
character of Shell’s imported
‘scab-herding, and the menace
such scabbery confronts B.C.
labor and the people with.

A statement this week by B.C.
Federation of Labor secretary
Ray Haynes says, “ ... the
employer must bear the major
responsibility for this terrible

and disturbing event :
condemning the despicable
practice of -employers

encouraging and hiring strike-
breakers’’. Haynes however
made no comment on what the
BCFL plans to do about it if
anything. Jing

\

to the Federal Minister of Labor
“to put himself on record in the
matter of the control of food
prices’’ and went on to make the
point that the Minister should
“use every effort to remove the
one outstanding cause (high
prices) which has led to so great
industrial unrest’’. (Victoria
Colonist, Aug. 6, 1918).

The employers reaction to the
general strike was conducted in
an atmosphere of desperate
appeals to loyalty and
patriotism. The strikers were
accused of being traitors,
“stabbing the soldiers in the
back’, ‘‘slackers’’, ‘‘aliens’’,
“subversive elements’, they
pulled no stops. The daily press
questioned Goodwin’s patriotism
as a draft evader, playing up the
known fact that he was a
Socialist and claiming that after
his death a copy of an I.W.W.
publication had been found
amongst his personal effects.

One editorial comment
castigates labor leaders who
“attempt to call out labor
because one of their number lost
his life while evading his duty
and the law, they misrepresent
the spirit of organized labor’.

(Vancouver World, Aug. 2,
1918).
Spurred into a course of

lawless action roaming groups of
returned veterans led by army
officers took matters into their
own hands. They raided union
halls smashing windows and

furniture and dumping the -

contents into the street. The
Labor Temple was a special
target of a vengeful’ mob who
manhanled the women
employees, tossed furniture and
records into the street and made
a shambles of the property.
Bands of veterans egged on by
officers stopped people on the
street and forced them to their
knees to pay homage to the
Union Jack. Z

A group of eight called The
Soldiers Committee with Mayor
Gale of Vancouver demanded
the removal from office and
exile from the province of seven
of the labor leaders. They named
these are J. Kavanaugh, G.
Thomas, J. Cottrell, J. Naylor,
V. Midgeley, W. Pritchard and
E. Winch. The Soldiers Com-
mittee went further and
demanded the unions vote on two
questions: Do they approve of
the 24 hour holidays? And would

they remove from office and
‘advocate the removal from the

province of the seven men on the
soldiers blacklist? ‘

on strike

_ of Friday and Saturday (Aug: ©

~ ‘movement of British Columb!

Members of the committee
after ransacking the umlon ~
quarters of the longshoreme! —
compelled those who welé
present to listen under threat of
injury to what they had to Say:
Veteran Sergeant Clarke said:
“If you are not behind this move
to tie up industry on behalf of @
slacker, it is your duty 40
repudiate those leaders wh?
started this trouble and sele¢
someone else. I can tell yo
plainly that that type E
scoundrel is going to be run ou
of the country, and you'll have to
get behind this move and back UP —
the citizens. If not, you'll g0 the
same way as the othe —
scoundrels’, he declared. “AT
you going to get behind us ale
put in men who will govern YU |
according to your own wish, %
remain satisfied with men Wi
run you to suit themselves?’

Another veteran, Private |
Devereaux, had this to Sav |
‘Now let me serve you oe
ultimatum. We have decide?
that Kavanaugh (long
shoremen’s union leader) a
hand in his resignation and 4°
get thrown out of the countiy
and if he does not, the returne”
men will take the matter in the
hands and see that he does ee

or fight — that is ote
ultimatum!”’ (Victoria Colomlsh
Aug..4, 1918),

Threats of prosecution wey
made by W.T. Crothers, Feder@
Minister of Labor against the
unions involved in the strike. 4
stated this would be enforce
under the Industrial Dispute —
Act. J.H. McVety execull””
member of the Vancouvé
Trades and Labor Cou
answering this threat stated: ie
is regretable however that :
statement of the Ministt j
contains no promise that te
‘who aided and abetted the 1?

3) are to be prosecuted, or that
any action is to be taken agai
commissioned — officers ve
were present when a
disturbances took place, and W!

failed litary

to exercise mill
discipline on the uniformed me?
a course which would have s2¥

the situation’’. ‘

The Victoria Colonist printed
the text of a telegram that ! oe
been received by the Soldiet
Committee from a Lieutena =
Dagger of the Canadian militaty
mission in San Francisc®;
read: “Loyal Americans
view with feelings of dise
actions of labor Bolsev!®"
Action taken by Great
veterans endorsed here’. .

In the face of all thes
‘attempts to intimidate ec
divide its ranks labor remaimy
solidly united in the face of ie q
provocation and attack. ae
trade unions rallying ara
their leaders rejected the
ultimatums and threats of
soldiers committee.

3 f
The subsequent trial *
Campbell .on a_ charge aE

manslaughter in the death
Ginger Goodwin, 4!
acquittal as being an act
defence, was never :
accepted by labor. The Goodwi?
General Strike, as it bere
known, marking that even
date of August 2. 1918 will long —
remembered by _ the ‘

pis