Dole Inspectors and Telling Tales on the Neighbours

One way to get people off the dole was to give them something else to do. Another way was to prove they didn't need it. Today, there are still people living who tell about hiding potatoes in trunks, and sending children off to hide food in the meadow—the dole inspector was coming. Such stories sound wild until you read the records. Some relief inspectors would leave no stone unturned.

One such inspector was R.J. Quinlan. In 1935, Quinlan went to the Ferryland area to see if people were on the dole who should not be getting it. He sent a detailed report to the government.¹⁴ Quinlan had harsh words for the local Constable and Magistrate. He said they could not have been doing their jobs. Checking out one family that had been reported as starving, he wrote:

...if these officers had to go down into Ryan's cellar before they O.K.'d his statutory declaration¹⁵ they would find about forty barrels of potatoes and a good stock of vegetables. They would also find six barrels of fish or more including two barrels of capelin and a stock of groceries and provisions. I am informed about $100.00 worth...

Quinlan found out that the family had killed a cow and sold the meat. Going on to other houses, he wrote of those who lived with parents who had pensions, how much land people had, and how many barrels of potatoes they'd dug in the fall. He wrote of those who "had not got one stick of wood to their door" and who "sleep all day and visit by night." He recorded the names of people whose families had money in the past, and of those who could not need help because they'd built new porches.

Proudly, he claimed:

I am also informed by several applicants that I am the first man that took any statements from them and searched their houses.

Mr. Quinlan said he got some of his information about people from their neighbours.