Years of Blood

World War I had ended and Vancouver rejoiced. 100,000 people resided in the town at that time and the only ones not watching the parade on November 11, 1918, were either marching in it or the motormen and conductors on the street cars. Which, by the way, were stalled for three hours.

A prominent, notoriously tight fisted, financier stood on the curb in a fur-collared overcoat, watching the parade pass. One hand waved his bowler hat while the other held a cheap tin horn, which he was blowing vigorously as he danced  a jig.

"Where'd you get the horn?" someone asked.

"Last one in town," the financier answered. "Had to pay a feller a dollar and a half for it." His face took on a puzzled expression. "... an' you know, it ain't worth two bits." On the street, drums pounded and trumpets blared as another band went by. The tycoon yelled and tooted on his horn before saying to his friend "...but what's a dollar on a day like this?"

As the parade went by and the crowd began to move on, the financier wiped the moisture off the mouthpiece, carefully put the horn in an inside pocket and put the bowler in place on his head, giving it a firm tap on the crown. He solemnly looked at his acquaintance and said,

"You know, George, it's the first time in my life I've ever said anything like that."

The celebration went on for hours but by the evening, it had spent itself. 

On the waterfront, every flag was at half-mast as the Princess Alice glided slowly into her berth at the CPR's Pier D.

At 7 a.m., November 12, her ghastly cargo was unloaded. 157 roughly shrouded bodies that were laid in long rows on trestles in the gloomy, cavernous wharf-shed. At 9 a.m., small groups of men and women filed through the improvised morgue to identify the bodies. 

These were not soldiers killed in war but victims from the wreck of the Princess Sophia in Lynn Canal, the worst marine disaster in the history of the Pacific Coast.  Many of these victims are buried in Mountainview cemetery and I wrote about this disaster in 2011 if you want to check it out.

World War I was over and "at the going down of the sun, and in the morning," the city honoured its dead.

Thanks to the book Vancouver, from Milltown to Metropolis by Alan Morley for the above information. I think I cried through most of this entry from being overjoyed imagining the excitement on November 11 with everyone partying then the heavy hearts the next day as the real world intruded with the delivery of those 157 corpses.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill

The Pause

 

In 1913, Vancouver had over 49 miles of paved streets and 153 miles of sewers. The majority of that was served with domestic gas from 50 miles of mains. We had 16 main-office banks, 47 branch offices.

H.H. "Harry" Stevens, a former alderman, was a member of Parliament. For the port, Stevens secured its first grain elevator, Dominion No. 1, with a 1.3 million bushels capacity. Construction on this $1,750,000 structure began in 1914. For years, it was known as "Stevens' Folly" but history proved him right.

There were 337 teachers in the Vancouver School district teaching over 12,000 students.

The real action in those years was at the port. Its activities were immense. The CPR replaced three of the old Empress liners in 1913 with two largest liners the Pacific had ever seen - Empresses of Asia and Russia. The Canadian-Australasian Line was running a monthly passenger liner service and semi monthly cargo service to Honolulu and the Antipodes.

14 ships were on the CP coastal runs, besides the numerous tugs and barges. The Grand Trunk Pacific had five vessels in coastal service; Ocean Steamship Co., Mutual Steam Navigation Co. and Harrison Direct Line had 20 deep-sea vessels running to the U.K. and Continent via the Orient and Suez on a regular schedule. The Royal Mail Steam Packet had seven vessels; East Asiatic Line, six on a bimonthly service via Cape Horn; Pacific Coast Steamship Co. had coastal liners departing every five days for San Francisco and southern ports; Union Steamship Co., had 10 passenger vessels in the coast service; five deep-sea vessels serviced the halibut fleets and Vancouver was an important halibut-landing port. Grain exports - sacked - were 1,250,000 bushels in 1913. By the way, the port was experimenting in opening the grain trade.

It looked like Vancouver was going to survive the 1913 depression unscathed and the port was doing great business, which helped. Then war broke out in 1914 and the Admiralty took over the Canadian Pacific liners. The year, for the first time in the history of the city, port business declined.

Customs receipts were down from $8.2 million to $5.2 million. Building permits went from $10.4 to $4.4 million; bank clearings from $605 to $420 million. Fortunately, the city had reserves of strength it had lacked in 1893 and could call on them for backup.

Business leaders claimed the banks "had put the brakes on" in order to keep the boom from running out of control and that this was just a "pause" in prosperity. However, a year later, Jonathon Rogers, President of the Vancouver Board of Trade, changed the tune. With the failure of the Dominion Trust, a major financial panic was created. This was a depression, not a slight pause.

Thanks to the book, Vancouver, From Milltown to Metropolis by Alan Morley for the above information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill

1913 Depression

During the 1900's, the city of Vancouver grew and so did the militia. In 1909, Company 18 of the Army Medical Corps was embodied; in 1910 the 72nd Regiment, Seaforth Highlanders; in 1912, the 6th Field Company, Canadian Engineers, and Company 19, Canadian Army Service Corps; in 1913, the 11th Irish Fusiliers.

A new drill hall was built on Beatty Street (here are some photos of the drill hall in 2010); in 1904 Rifleman S. J. Perry won the King's Prize at Bisley and in 1913, Major W. Hart-McHarg of the Rifles won the title of World's Champion Marksmen at a meet in the United States. Ironically, he came home with Kaiser Wilhelm's Palma Gold Trophy.

When the boom peaked in Vancouver in 1912, the total authorized strength of the Vancouver militia units was 1182. Their actual strength was two-thirds that.

In the last days of 1912, the world entered into an economic depression and the Vancouver boom came to a standstill.  Although the president of the Board of Trade called it 'a pause', it was a dead halt. The 'depression' lasted through 1913 and 1914. Internationally, this was a worse economic depression than the one in 1907 but Vancouver was in a better shape to handle it.

The city had "meat on its bones". Yes, there was hunger, deprivation and suffering and no welfare of unemployment relief like there is today but a far larger proportion of the people were self-sustaining and the city felt an obligation to help.

The fact that more people were able to get over the bad times was due mainly to the fact that Vancouver had become too large to shut down. The same applied to major industries; they could not shut down without collapsing altogether, and now they had the resources to enable them to keep alive.

A new CPR - Canadian Pacific Railway -station - still in use - was being built; the CNR - Canadian National Railway - had $10 million to spend on terminal facilities and most was spent in Vancouver; the PGE - Pacific Great Eastern Railway - and Kettle Valley Railways were being built with Vancouver as their major supply depot. The population of the city, not counting Point Grey and South Vancouver, was growing rapidly. 134,000.

Vancouver had between 300 and 400 industrial plants. The B.C. Electric was delivering 76,125 horsepower from its Buntzen No.1 and No.2 Plants on Indian Arm at 20,000 volts, drawing stored water from Coquitlam Lake; with substations in the West End and on Earls Road. The company's new headquarters and interurban depot was being constructed at Carrall and Hastings Streets.

The B.C. Electric had nearly 2560 miles of street-car lines operating in the city and its suburbs. A dispute with Point Grey Municipal Council led to the shutting down of services on the Sasamat line and on the Shaughnessy line south of 16th Avenue. Consumption of electricity in 1913 was over 213 million kilowatt hours.

Thanks to the book Vancouver, From Milltown to Metropolis by Alan Morley for the above information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill