She felt that the government did not have a fair idea of how people were living, or what was causing their problems. She said many people in her area were destitute. She blamed the merchants for some of this. She wrote of high prices, and prices that were very different from those in other places. She wanted the government to know that people could not get a fair return for their work.

Then if work is provided in the woods by one of the Merchants, it does not matter how many dollars a man has cleared, he cannot get a cent [in] cash.

She said that as long as people were paid in goods, and the merchants set the prices, people could not make a living. Mrs. Porter asked:

Cannot something be done to let the people have a chance to live? They are not lazy and are only too willing to come any distance for a day's work. How long can people live without payment? I had a woman walk nine miles, eighteen miles from her home here and back, to sell 2 dozen eggs to buy a pair of stockings the other day.

In the 1930s, people looked around them and saw many different things. Some saw abuse of the dole and laziness. Others saw hardship and injustice. And while citizens and government drew their own conclusions, some people fell through the cracks.

Tragedy and the Making of News

On May 14, 1935, the Daily Herald of London published an article about a very sad event that happened in Newfoundland. The story was titled "Newfoundland Victims Of Poverty, How Girl and Baby Died, Family's Ordeal in Hut." Written by "Our Special Correspondent," the story told of what happened to a family in Howley in 1935.

Further examples of the appalling conditions under which the unemployed are living in Newfoundland are still being revealed despite Government influence to hide the facts.

In many isolated settlements along Newfoundland's 6,000-mile coastline the physical stamina of the people is cracking.