Plight of Youth in 1931
Tough times in Nova Scotia’s coal mines in the Great Depression were hard on everyone, but it had a major impact on the young men entering adulthood who saw no path forward for themselves.
An article in the Halifax Mail, called “Plight of Youth is Seen as Vital Factor,” was part of a series the newspaper published in 1931 about the state of the province’s coal mines at that time, when many mines were only operating part time and mining families were struggling to get by.
The reporter, not named in the article, wrote, “One of the saddest elements I see in connection with the conditions existing in the mining districts is the plight of the youth.”
The article said, “Many of the boys have to leave school at an early age. It costs money to buy clothes and schoolbooks and their parents cannot afford to keep them at school longer. Besides that, their destination is the coal-pit and much of the school curricula does not appeal to them. ‘What’s the good of this high school education to me when I’m going to work in the mines all my life?’ they say.”
“Scores of the boys leave school at fourteen,” said another person interviewed. “The mines don’t take them till they are eighteen and in the important years from fourteen to eighteen when a boy should be under discipline, learning habits of industry and having his energy directed in proper channels, he is on the streets. Everyone knows what that means in the life of a boy. There’s a demoralizing process going on now; it’s inevitable.”
One person interviewed for the article said, “There are thousands of boys between the ages of seventeen and twenty-one years in Cape Breton County, who never did a tap of work.” Another said, “The Company has not been able to take on any for three years.”
“I work in the mines, but I don’t earn enough to clothe myself,” said one young man. “I earn barely enough for my food. The married man with a family can get relief [government financial support] if he needs it, but there is no relief for us.”
“My son works two days a week, but it takes his every cent to clothe himself and then he don’t clothe himself sufficient,” said a father. “I got to feed him.” He said his son’s take home pay that week was just $5.00.
The father continued: “I have a boy of sixteen, but just can’t get work for him. They have to be eighteen years old to work in the pit, but they take them at sixteen ‘up above.’ This is the worst we’ve ever seen it in Cape Breton.”
“What we want is work, not charity,” said a 23-year-old. “I’ve been working in the mine for five years. I would have liked something ‘higher up.’ If I had the education, I’d be there. I’m a banksman – high sounding, but means only that I lower materials into the mine; hay for the horses, timber for the supports, and everything to do with construction work in the mine. We handle the stone which is taken out when they are tunneling. If it can’t be stored below, it is hoisted above; we also bring the men up and down.”
He continued: “From the bank to the bottom is seven hundred feet, although in the deeps you would go deeper than that for the mine slopes with the run of the seam of the coal. It is my duty also to ‘rap the engineer,’ give him his signal, I mean.”
The 23-year-old then explained how much he made and how much was taken for “off taxes” – various deductions for things like health care: “Out of my wages I pay $2.00 ‘off taxes,’ 40c for the doctor, 40c for the hospital, 30c for relief, and 50c for poll tax. For church, I pay as I go. My [pay] envelope this week was $4.80.”
“I have work of two shifts a week – when I get it,” said another young man. “I’m paid $3.60 for ‘coupling’ in the pit, coupling the tubs together that hold the coal. Off that I have deducted 40c for the doctor, thirty cents for relief, and thirty cents for the hospital. It leaves me $6.20 to live on – that is, if I get that much work. If I could only get work every day, I’d be fine.”
Another said, “I’m working two shifts a week and a scatterin’ three, but I don’t earn enough to live. The men around here are getting $4.00 and $5.00 a week. I’m a ‘coal bottomer.’ ‘Onsetter’ the Company calls me. We handle the coal empties and tallies. I’m on contract work. This week I got $5.46 from the $8.00 I earned. I had deducted ‘off taxes’ of $2.54.”
A mother with a large family told the reporter about the challenges of having a 15-year-old boy too young to work regularly: “We must have work for him. All he has ever had is one day’s relief work. He’s what you call a ‘water boy’ or ‘bucket boy.’ He carries water to the men who are working. The boss supplies the bucket and the mug and the boys get the water at the houses. They go around among the men saying, ‘Do you want a drink? Do you want a drink?’”
“He started at seven o’clock in the morning and carried buckets of water all day,” she said. “He got $2.80.”
Another mother of a large family said about her 14-year-old, “I would like him to keep up at school for a little bit, if we could manage it. Then the pit. That’s all there is for them.”
The reporter concluded: “The problems of these fine young people abounding in life, health and energy, calls for serious thought. In the words of one young man, ‘We want to get without grumbling a living honestly earned.’ Youth is the greatest investment for any country and yields the largest dividends. Lest this asset become a liability, we must all cooperate to give them a chance.”
Today, Nova Scotia’s mining and quarrying industry employs over 3000 Nova Scotians, mostly in rural areas, and it is the highest-paying resource industry in the province. Its average total compensation (wages and benefits) is $102,000 per year.
Child miners at the Dominion No. 4 (Caledonia) coal mine, Glace Bay, in 1895, before children were banned from the mines.
Men and boys at the Thorburn coal mine, Pictou County, in 1910, before children were banned from the mines.
