The Working Poor

In the 1950s and 1960s in Newfoundland, there was one problem that is still with us today. It is an old problem. Many people could not make a living from their work. In the fishery, in the woods, in fish plants, and in other kinds of labour, people found that their incomes dropped from month to month. The income was not large to start with. In months when income dropped, workers could not feed their families. But they could not get welfare, either. This was only for people with no jobs or income at all. People who had jobs but little pay often had to get what they needed "on credit." In this way, they stayed poor. They were always working to catch up.

Smallwood and his government found that the problems of people in Newfoundland were complex. The welfare system did not solve them. People had lived on too little for too long.

Some of the poorest working people were fishermen. Many things could keep them from making a decent living. The price of fish could go down without warning. Summer storms could wreck gear and damage boats. Sometimes, what seems like a small thing stood between success and failure.

In the letters people wrote to Smallwood, there are some from fishermen in Labrador in 1958. This was a bad fishing season in most places. Sudden storms tore up cod traps and salmon nets. The men who wrote the government said they had "small voyages." This meant that they caught very little fish.

Their main problem now, they said, was the price of twine. They said twine was selling for $1.45 a pound in Labrador. One fisherman said he needed 100 pounds of it. How could a fisherman come up with so much money? Why was the price of twine so high? Could the government do something about it?

It may seem that the price of twine was not the government's problem. But, in a way, it was. The fishermen had a bad season. They might need relief in the winter. If they could not fix their gear, they would be out of the fishery the next summer. Without twine, they might soon depend on government help.