Goodwill, The Amity Group

Founding and The Great Depression

Amity chose to make its first appearance in the fourth and worst year of the Great Depression, 1933. Despite the regular official pronouncements of recovery being imminent, there were no signs of improvement or even encouragement. The estimated number of unemployed people in Canada was 25%. In the Greater Hamilton area, 24,000 people were on relief within a population of 144,921.

The outward economic hardship of the time is somewhat easier to imagine than the accompanying, unseen hardship on the human spirit. For men who had supported themselves and their families through the prosperous 1920s without once having to consider a possible interruption of work and pay-pack, accepting Public Relief only certified their failure as providers. A whole family could feel the stigma. Children who wore clothing supplied by the Public Welfare Commission were sometimes taunted at school about the “Kappele boots”, named after the welfare commissioner at the time.

The stratin on local families soon became obvious to a local organization called the Family Welfare Bureau. Established in 1923, its original purpose has been to deal with the problem of broken homes resulting from the aftermath of the First World War. The clientele included families of husbands who never returned from the war, or who returned handicapped, or who were simply unable to find a job and the wives’ having to find work had created tensions. While the Bureau had provided assistance to 349 such families in its first year, by 1933 its focus had widened to assist all local families with whatever difficulties the may have had.

The most frequent problems heard by Jean McTaggart, the Bureau’s executive director, came from the wives upset about the effect unemployment and inactivity was having on their husbands. She recalled the typical report of “…worries, unemployed husbands under their feet, and the sight of arguing, fist-waving men on the street corners…”. The bureau, which tried to encourage self-help as an important part of its counselling, had already established knitting and sewing clubs for women. Following the rough outlines of a men’s social club established in Winnipeg, the Bureau began a service club.

The project of forming the men’s club was undertaken by T.H.L. “Shiner” Gallagher, President of the Family Welfare Bureau, and G. “Vert” Rayner, a businessman in the construction industry. With additional input from the Unemployment Recreation Committee, the Amity Men’s social clubs were formed in early 1933. Vert Rayner supplied the name ‘Amity’, meaning friendship and goodwill.

The clubs were to be non-denominational and non-partisan, with the charter specifying that “controversial subjects are to be barred from discussion”. The only common denominator these men required was that they were unemployed. Meetings and programs would be conducted by members themselves, with one member from the Family Welfare Bureau present to offer any assistance that was needed.

The first meeting took place on Monday, February 11, 1933. Seventy-five men attended St. James church hall that night and six other clubs would begin that week at St. Thomas’, St. John the Evangelist, Holy Trinity, All Saints Church, St. Luke’s and St. Paul’s Presbyterian.

The following week meetings at St. James’ Hall found more than 300 people in attendance, as the men had been invited to bring their wives along. The Hamilton Spectator reported that night’s activities: “Following the usual ten minutes of community singing, there was a special program, including selections by a 12-piece orchestra, composed of club members. A special feature was the square-dancing for which old-time music was ‘fiddled’ by Capt. Galloway … Mr. Pretzel donated three miniature aeroplanes, which he made and were drawn for. A most generous supply of ice cream was voluntarily donated by W. Growcock, local manager of William Neilson, Ltd.” The clubs, the Spectator concluded, “will undoubtedly appeal to the unemployed married men of the city and judging from the increased membership at each respective centre … the future will prove successful in providing amusement and entertainment to many who would otherwise be deprived of this type of wholesome recreation.” Altogether 12 clubs were formed that year.

By that time, the clubs had grown to an average strength of 300 men at each branch. Local businessmen provided material assistance in whatever ways possible to help guarantee Amity’s continuing. 1000 Boy Scouts took to the street for an apple day to raise funds for the clubs. Support also came from private subscribers, proceeds from a variety show at Wentworth Technical Institute and lottery drawings which the chief of police declared fine after investigating to calm suspicions they were actually a “housie-housie” game.

Gardens and toys

In their monthly meetings, the Amity committee (now comprising 18 local businessmen) discussed what else the clubs could do to help themselves. The original threat unemployment posed to the substance of club-members' families, as well as the damage done to the men's self-respect, was still there. The board's answer was the garden plot scheme.

Development of local lots for housing had ground to a halt by the early 1930s, especially on Hamilton Mountain. Amity's plan was simple. After arranging temporary access to the lots—that would have been otherwise idle for the year—an initial outlay of $8,000 purchased seeds and supplies for gardening. Each lot was then assigned to one of the clubs, who in turn sectioned it off into individual gardent plots for each member and his family to cultivate with the seeds and tools provided to them.

Shiner Gallagher thinks of the community gardens as Amity's finest effort of the depression. The estimated number of families taking part grew from an original 6,000 to 8,000. The average harvest from a plot was estimated to be worth $25 of fresh vegetables. Eventually, the size of the project made it practical for the Chamber of Commerce to assume responsibility for its operations, with a number of Amity board members remaining on the advisory group.

The complete success of the community garden project encouraged the board and club members to consider other schemes that would help the unemployed to help themselves and not merely serve as a stop-gap relief.

In the winter of 1934, an occupational therapist at the Sanatorium contacted Jean McTaggart to enquire about the possibility of men making toys to donate for Christmas. The response was very positive. A garage was converted into a workshop with a couple of lathes as the most elaborate equipment; the Public Welfare Department supplied fuel for a Quebec heater. Other workshops were assembled in a summer kitchen and the basement of a store. Just before Christmas, some of the best pieces were displayed at a science room at McMaster University. For the men, it was an excellent opportunity to demonstrate that they still had useful skills and could produce something of value if given the opportunity.

The first workshop and store

The board felt that the un-used talent displayed by the club members suggested the next possible route Amity should pursue. Jean McTaggart said the feeling was "the stage had been reached where some definite constructive project should be undertaken". In a meeting with representatives from the Family Service Bureau and the Public Welfare Dept., it was decided to try and create "practical employment on a non-profit basis..."

The form this took was a workshop at 7 Mary Street in Hamilton, directly across from the Century Theatre. The concept of the service-exchange was this; good furniture and other household articles in need of repair would be donated locally (the first Sunday, an appeal for donations was read by the minister of every church). If a club-member was interested in a sofa that would cost him the equivalent of 20-hours of work, that was how much labour he could put in at the workshop repairing any article. When the 20-hours was completed, the sofa was his to take home. For some, it was the first chance to provide material goods for themselves and their family, through their own labour in five years. Skills were also honed or developed as they worked under a qualified instructor.

Donations from the public exceeded all expectations, also creating a pleasant difficulty. There was only so much room to accommodate the workshop and the unfinished donated pieces' a surplus of finished pieces that had yet to be exchanged for hours worked was causing a definite space problem. Shiner Gallagher remembers walking in the doors and "you'd see the place packed, beautiful oak chairs hanging from rafters ..."

Larger quarters were needed. That September saw the social clubs disbanded and re-formed into one association, under an official charter. It had been decided that the surplus of finished goods would be sold and that Amity would expand to a new location at 18 Mary Street into a workshop and a storefront. There were open for business. When Amity moved into the second place on Mary Street, they found they needed a truck. Mr. C.S. Wilcox, President of Stelco met with Shiner and Shiner told him they were looking for a truck and that he would like to have him back a credit note for the purchase while we raised the money. Wilcox said, "most certainly". He was very surprised when the note was paid-off and offered more money when they need it to ask.

The final records for 1935 show that through the service exchange, over 500 families received approximately 1100 pieces of furniture.

Shiner Gallagher felt that the opening of the store was Amity's overall major achievement. "The benefits were two-fold -- club members were given work which let them provide something for their family. As well, the public was given a supply of good, inexpensive merchandise". There would be some controversy arising as to the propriety of a non-profit group offering more than competitive prices, but as Vert Rayner repeatedly pointed out, "the majority of the people using the store are people of limited means; but even if this were not so, anyone thrifty enough to purchase goods second-hand should be encouraged. As to competition with other stores, if anybody is able to save money by patronizing our store, other stores will reap the benefit of the saving."