Three-and-a-half years after the founding of the United Nations in San Francisco, the nations of the world met in General Assembly in Paris to lay a foundation stone, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). It is “the international Magna Carta of all mankind,” in the words of U.S. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. “One of […]
“Gentlemen prefer bonds,” said Andrew Mellon (1855-1937), wealthy American financier, banker, and U.S. Treasury Secretary. Commons shares, or stock, were considered too speculative for gentlemen; best left to disreputable speculators. Had more investors heeded Mellon’s advice, the horrendous stock market crash of October 1929, which ushered in the Great Depression of the 1930s, would likely have […]
“A proposal for a return to titles for Canadians seemed to have been laughed to a permanent death” during two days of heated debate in the House of Commons, according to the Toronto Globe, February 15, 1929. Yet former Prime Minister R.B. Bennett would late defy the law to become a Lord, while publisher Conrad […]
“Los Angeles gasped at the costumes worn” by Ontario-born Pentecostal evangelist, radio preacher and faith healer Aimee Semple McPherson when she testified before a committee of the California legislature during impeachment hearings of state Supreme Court Judge Carlos Hardy, the Vancouver Sun reported, February 5, 1929. McPherson had given Hardy a $2,500 cheque, an alleged […]
Emily Murphy, magistrate, writer, and social, political and legal reformer, pens a tirade against a gusher of filthy, literary trash imported from the United States. A self-taught legal expert, Murphy was appointed an Edmonton magistrate in 1916, the first women magistrate in the British Empire.rash On her first day on the bench, a lawyer challenged […]
“Ask for Flour Sack to Use for Clothing For Farmer’s Family,” said the headline in the Regina Leader Post, January 5, 1925, in an appeal to help a distressed Saskatchewan farm family. “Three successive crops dried up, hailed out and burned by fire—children take turns to wear one set of clothes.” Sack clothing was popular […]
The 1920s were the Roaring Twenties, the decade of flappers, the Charleston, and bootleg booze, when women joined men in smoking in public and daring fashions revealed bare-naked knees. Older women were shocked. Some Alberta farm women wanted a law limiting the exposures of fashion. The Regina Leader comments in this editorial, January […]
Cold and dampness must be excluded so far as possible from the place in which one stores his car during the winter months. They will do great harm to the paint and to the mechanical features of the vehicle when it is left to their mercy for a long period. Therefore, it would be a […]
In 1920, Montreal postal workers were on the job all night on Christmas eve, so that carriers could deliver the last of the Christmas mail on Christmas morning, as reported in the following item from the Montreal Star, December 23, 1920. The real Christmas mail arrived from the Old Country this morning, when the Empress […]
The weekly food bill for Canadian families averaged $16.48 in July 1920, Canadian Press reported, October 1, 1920. Food costs had more than doubled from $7.75 per week in December 1913, thanks to rapid inflation induced by the First World War. The average family budget in July totalled $40.76 per week, according to data from […]