MP-0000.25.602 | Coal mine, Glace Bay, NS, about 1930
Coal mine, Glace Bay, NS, about 1930
Anonyme - Anonymous
About 1930, 20th century
Silver salts and transparent ink on glass - Gelatin dry plate process
8 x 10 cm
Gift of Mr. Stanley G. Triggs
MP-0000.25.602
© McCord Museum
Description
Keywords: Industry (942) , Photograph (77678)
Keys to History
Coal mining in Nova Scotia was already a depressed industry in the 1920s. The Depression made a bad situation worse. Unemployment grew rapidly in the industry after 1929.
In Sydney Mines, an August 1931 report stated that only one in 20 miners was working full-time. The situation in Dominion, Glace Bay, Louisbourg, New Waterford and North Sydney was little better. "In the town of Sydney and the mining towns referred to ... there are approximately 1,500 young men, between the ages of 18 and 23, who ... never as yet have had work" the report said, warning that they constituted a threat to public order.
Unemployment and underemployment had dire effects on these communities. Local businesses and tradesmen suffered from a decline in business. Municipal governments, burdened with relief costs while property taxes fell in arrears, found it very hard to make ends meet.
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What
Coal mines in Cape Breton were in financial trouble when the end of the 1914 -18 war led to a worldwide oversupply of coal. They had not fully recovered when the Depression began.
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Where
Glace Bay is on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean, near the northeastern tip of Cape Breton Island.
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When
In 1928, Rev. Moses Michael Coady (1882-1959), of Nova Scotia's St. Francis Xavier University's Department of Extension, founded the Antigonish Movement, aimed at fostering co-operatives.
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Who
Not just miners, but also farmers, fishers and steelworkers in Nova Scotia suffered from low prices and unemployment during the 1920s and 1930s.
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