The Vancouver Voyager is BAAACK!!!

Hello everyone. The Vancouver Voyager has returned! When I left off back in February, I was telling you about the period of time between World War I and World War II - the 1920s. I had just finished relating facts about newspapers. Today, I am going to look at some of the people responsible for our civic leadership.

From 1918 to 1921, Vancouver's mayor was a railroad and real estate promoter and speculator, R.H. "Harry" Gale. Harry was fast talking, colourful and popular but he wasn't capable of dealing with the problems during this transitional period after the war.

Gale was replaced in for 1922 and 1923 by Charles E. Tisdall. Tisdall improved the efficiency of the office and maintained a sound, conservative financial position. 

The next mayor, W.R. Owen had an uneventful term in 1924.

That brings us to Louis D. Taylor. Taylor was a dominating figure in local politics, serving as mayor from 1925 to 1935.  L.D. was fortunate because when he took over, a great boom that was to last until the end of 1929 was in full swing and many of the financial problems his predecessors faced had solved themselves. The city was in need of this perennial optimist though.

Taylor had been mayor when the city was booming in 1909 and 1910 then again in 1915. He began his civic career as a licence commissioner in 1902 though was voted out of office in 1903. He was never an alderman - tried but wasn't elected. He had run unsuccessfully for mayor five times in addition to the three times he won. (That's persistence!)

Organized labour liked Taylor. His policies were liberal and progressive and he favoured organized labour.

Louis D. Taylor was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He came to Vancouver in 1894 and, at the end of 1924, he was 67 years old. He was a pleasant, gentle man who preferred to gain through negotiation instead of open conflict. However, he had a vast knowledge of the city and its people and there were many sources of "pressure" available to him that he didn't hesitate to use to get his way.

This earned him a reputation for deep and sometimes unscrupulous intrigue that sometimes worked to his disadvantage when his enemies charged him with dishonesty. But when he was in his final, poverty stricken, years, his foes - even the most determined ones - acquitted him of profiting personally from his eleven years as chief magistrate of the city.

Taylor was connected with the pioneer Vancouver, back before he even got here. His second wife was Mrs. Alice Berry, the widow of pioneer teamster and a hero of the Great Fire, Harry Berry. Alice was also the daughter of Jonathan Miller, an early pioneer.

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

Wednesday, I will tell you about a few of the legends surrounding our colourful mayor, L. D. Taylor. Until then, I hope you find the beauty around you.

Loss of Influence

The Vancouver of the 1920's was building row after row of small, undistinguished houses through the areas of Fairview, Kitsilano, the East End and South Vancouver. These houses were constructed on 33-foot and 50-foot lots.

This Vancouver was overflowing into North Vancouver and West Vancouver. Every morning and evening,  people crowded the ferries and gasoline rail-cars that ran toward Howe Sound on a detached fragment of the PGE Railway. The latter service was augmented by the West Vancouver ferries, which ran from the dock at the foot of Columbia Street out through the Narrows to Ambleside, Hollyburn, and Dundarave.

This was the Vancouver of labouring men, artisans, clerks and small business owners. Many were newcomers from Eastern Canada and the British Isles. They radically changed the character of the city as it grew.

The attitude of Vancouverites, pre-war, was one of reckless daring. But these newcomers changed that since they were more sober and cautious. Politically, these newcomers were opposed to the factious "plunderbund" which had dominated provincial politics, a Liberalism, which contained the seeds of a welfare-state philosophy; economically they resented and fought the concentration of power in the hands of the few.

The early 1920's contained a cynical licentiousness in Canada and the United States. The battle lines were soon drawn and often the main issues were overshadowed by a moralistic fervour.  Racism, speculation and moralist views came bursting forth in 1924 with the death of Janet Smith. I wrote about this in 2013, and here are the links if you want to learn more. Death of a Nanny and Justice Denied?

This was a murder case - or was it? - and the social and political repercussions were profound. The prestige of the police and the legal authorities in Vancouver were never great but this case lessened it even more! The influence of the "old families" in politics was reduced to the point where they were no longer able to openly tell people who to vote for.

That was a good thing because then mayors like W.H. Malkin and Gerry McGeer were elected on their own merits, not because of whom they knew. The city's politics became divided into east and west. Those candidates who were radical carried the polls east of Ontario and Carrall Streets while the more conservative officer seekers succeeded only in they carried the large majorities in the western division.

Finally, the "high society", which had developed in the pre-war and post-war booms lost the respect of the community and fell an easy victim to the economic turmoil of the 1930's. They never again achieved their former brilliant extravagance.

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

Fantastic Prosperity and Destitution

Man and two bear cubs, Kitsilano, 1911.

Buffalo in Stanley Park, 1939

A Monday in Vancouver, 1940

Traffic at Robson and Hornby 1907

The girls had their skirts shortened, stockings rolled down and the long tresses were cut short. The boys grew sideburns, wore turtle-neck sweaters and pants 22 inches around the cuffs. Returning veterans of a five-year war were now adults and going back to school. People danced the Charleston, drank bathtub gin and read The Sheik.

The citizens of Vancouver subscribed $15 million to the final Victory Loan, ready to "bring the boys home" and some wondered where the world was headed. The world had finished World War I, the war to end all wars and it was now a time of healing. Of change and progress and celebration. It was the start of a spectacular decade - the 1920's in Vancouver.

Second Beach, 1940

Kits Beach, 1946

Harry Houdini hanging upside down from the Vancouver Sun building, 1923

Kits Beach 1920

The soldiers came home. There was a plan by the government to settle the men on farms but the returning heroes had another plans. They were exposed to places like Paris and the farm life wasn't what they wanted. Many settled in Vancouver, which created other problems.

Vancouver didn't get a lot of help from senior governments and were suddenly dealing with an influx of people. In 1920, there were almost 10,000 people without jobs - 3500 more in the Chinese community. The unemployed held mass meetings, retail stores reported a "buying strike" and married civic employees were getting two days' work a week. This was the "starvation amid plenty" that U.S. President Roosevelt dramatized in the 1930's.

Life got a bit better by the winter of 1925. 1800 men were on relief, receiving 25 cents a day for meals and the same for a bed. 

Logging English Bay in 1890.

Autumn in Stanley Park in the 1890's

Waiting for a streetcar in Mount Pleasant, 1908.

Three room stump house where Queen Elizabeth Park is today. 1910

There was also prosperity. Vancouver shared in the Wall Street frenzy and fortunes were made on the stock market. The province's basic industries - mining, fishing, lumbering - were all bringing in large amounts of money and Vancouver shared in the wealth. Politicians worked with large financial interests to create wealth and almost everyone got some of it. Even if the wealth was unequally and sometimes illegitimately shared.

Some of this prosperity came from rum-running to the States via Ensenada, Mexico. Business and crime were allied in those cases and some Vancouverites gained their wealth by cooperating with smugglers.

This illogical discrepancy between the fantastic prosperity and the never-quite-overcome destitution kept gnawing at the city's subconscious. I think it still does today.

In 1890, this man is leaning on a tree in Stanley Park. The cedar tree has a 50 foot circumference. 

Vancouver from the air, 1932

Foggy morning on Granville Street, 1908.

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

The old pictures are from my mother's friend, Wes. Thank you.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill