People often say that hard times bring out the best in people. But hard times can also bring out the worst in people. When times are hard, people may look around at their neighbours and their communities. Some people might think that other people have it too easy, or that they are getting things they do not deserve. Perhaps this is one reason why people during the Depression were sometimes willing to report on their neighbours.

In some cases, people wanted to do even more. For example, in April, 1936, a Mr. Coffin of Joe Batts Arm wrote to W. R. Howley. Mr. Howley was the Commissioner of Justice in Newfoundland. Mr. Coffin wanted to be a relief officer. Mr. Coffin had asked for this job before, but he didn't get it. Now he was upset. He thought that there were too many people getting relief, and he thought they had it too good. Mr. Coffin said that if he were the relief officer, he could save the government a lot of money. He wrote about what he saw as two kinds of people. Here is a part of his letter:

The people that are suffering most to-day are those that have never received dole but have made their own living by hard toil and honest dealings. This class of people now are reduced to the lowest standard of living and are absolutely in need of the very necessities of life and are suffering for want of clothing, boots, shoes, and rubbers etc. and are not by any means living as well as these people on the dole, and as a consequence of this state of affairs these people will very soon cry for vengeance.

On the other hand those who have been receiving the dole for the past number of years are well fed and clothed as they spend their earnings for the best kind of clothing, boots, shoes, rubbers etc., and live in luxuries, and have always got the money to go and buy just what article they may need. It must certainly be borne in mind that not all the people on the dole are guilty of spending their earnings in this kind of a manner.

The writer possesses some very valuable information and will be glad to impart it to you or to any member of the Govt.—providing that you or they will guarantee to keep my name strictly confidential.¹⁶

We learn in other parts of the letter that this man's business was not doing well. He described himself as a "lame man." He may have had other reasons for writing what he did.

Of course, not everyone felt this way. Another letter to the government, written a year later, tells a different story. A Mrs. Porter wrote from Bear Cove.¹⁷