1.0Unbreakable: The Spirit of the Strikehttps://1919strike.lib.umanitoba.carich600338<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="b3QW3OViTd"><a href="https://1919strike.lib.umanitoba.ca/index.php/citizens-committee-of-one-thousand/">Citizens’ Committee of One Thousand</a></blockquote><iframe sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" src="https://1919strike.lib.umanitoba.ca/index.php/citizens-committee-of-one-thousand/embed/#?secret=b3QW3OViTd" width="600" height="338" title="“Citizens’ Committee of One Thousand” — Unbreakable: The Spirit of the Strike" data-secret="b3QW3OViTd" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" class="wp-embedded-content"></iframe><script type="text/javascript"> /*! This file is auto-generated */ !function(c,d){"use strict";var e=!1,o=!1;if(d.querySelector)if(c.addEventListener)e=!0;if(c.wp=c.wp||{},c.wp.receiveEmbedMessage);else if(c.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if(!t);else if(!(t.secret||t.message||t.value));else if(/[^a-zA-Z0-9]/.test(t.secret));else{for(var r,s,a,i=d.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),n=d.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),o=new RegExp("^https?:$","i"),l=0;l<n.length;l++)n[l].style.display="none";for(l=0;l<i.length;l++)if(r=i[l],e.source!==r.contentWindow);else{if(r.removeAttribute("style"),"height"===t.message){if(1e3<(s=parseInt(t.value,10)))s=1e3;else if(~~s<200)s=200;r.height=s}if("link"===t.message)if(s=d.createElement("a"),a=d.createElement("a"),s.href=r.getAttribute("src"),a.href=t.value,!o.test(a.protocol));else if(a.host===s.host)if(d.activeElement===r)c.top.location.href=t.value}}},e)c.addEventListener("message",c.wp.receiveEmbedMessage,!1),d.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded",t,!1),c.addEventListener("load",t,!1);function t(){if(o);else{o=!0;for(var e,t,r,s=-1!==navigator.appVersion.indexOf("MSIE 10"),a=!!navigator.userAgent.match(/Trident.*rv:11\./),i=d.querySelectorAll("iframe.wp-embedded-content"),n=0;n<i.length;n++){if(!(r=(t=i[n]).getAttribute("data-secret")))r=Math.random().toString(36).substr(2,10),t.src+="#?secret="+r,t.setAttribute("data-secret",r);if(s||a)(e=t.cloneNode(!0)).removeAttribute("security"),t.parentNode.replaceChild(e,t);t.contentWindow.postMessage({message:"ready",secret:r},"*")}}}}(window,document); </script> The Citizens’ Committee of One Thousand was a cabal of Winnipeg’s business and professional elite who opposed the General Strike and actively worked to break it. To accomplish this, the Citizens’ Committee used its resources, influence, and political savvy to ensure the authorities dealt with the strike in a way that benefited its members. The membership of the Citizens’ Committee was secret. Only a handful of members publicly identified themselves during the strike for the purpose of negotiations and communicating the Committee’s will. Even today, 100 years later, the number or extent of its membership is unknown. Only a few dozen members have been confirmed, all from its executive. Photographs of what is believed to be a banquet attended by members of the Citizens’ Committee of One Thousand following the strike. WCPI A1292-38698-99. UWA. The Citizens’ Committee of One Thousand was one of several organizations of business and professional elite that had begun to form in the early 20th century to counter labour unionism. One such organization, the Minneapolis-based Citizens’ Alliance, had the most direct influence on the Citizens’ Committee of One Thousand. The Citizens’ Alliance was formed by a conglomerate of business owners and those opposed to unionism in Minneapolis in 1903. They pooled their resources and used everything from litigation to spy-craft to suppress workers and unionism. Its policy when dealing with labour was to “cut off all negotiations and accept nothing but unconditional surrender” (Kramer and Mitchell 2010, 47). This fanaticism appealed to many of Winnipeg’s business elite and, in July 1917, the Winnipeg Builders’ Exchange invited the Citizens’ Alliance to the Royal Alexandra Hotel to discuss the creation of a Winnipeg chapter, which became official in September in a meeting at the home of future Citizens’ Committee of One Thousand member Ed Parnell.  The following year, City employees led a strike that very nearly became a general strike. To stop it, Winnipeg business owners and professionals met at the Royal Alexandra once again. This time, however, they formed the Citizens’ Committee of One Hundred, which unlike the Citizens’ Alliance, took a more conciliatory approach towards the striking civic employees. Its membership was more diverse, including women and those outside the business elite, all of whom added up to exactly 100. Nonetheless, many of its members would also serve on the Committee of One Thousand the following year, including A.L. Crossin, who chaired both. The Committee of One Hundred staffed vacant City positions, but also helped broach a settlement between the City and its employers. Citizens’ Committee of One Thousand volunteers, including University of Manitoba students. WCPI A0018-538, UWA. It is unknown exactly when the Citizens’ Committee of One Thousand formed, but it was well established at least two days before the General Strike began. It consisted of an executive, chaired by A.K. Godfrey, and a General Committee, chaired by A.L. Crossin, the extent of which is unknown. It also had various sub-committees that carried on day-to-day operations, such as the sub-committee responsible for the volunteer fire department. Organizing volunteers to replace striking workers was one of the Citizen’s chief activities, as was helping to continue City services that the strike had cut off. Its members were genuinely afraid that the strike represented the start of a Bolshevik uprising and did everything in their power to break it. The Committee ran an anonymous newspaper, the Winnipeg Citizen, which proliferated propaganda to discredit the strike and its leaders. The Citizens’ were particularly fond of fanning anti-immigrant sentiments and appealing to British nationalism, a tactic which appealed to many, including many returned soldiers. Throughout the strike, the Citizens attended meetings meant to settle the strike, but they adopted the Citizens’ Alliance method of accepting no compromise and did all they could to sabotage the negotiations. As Winnipeg’s elite, the Citizens wielded significant influence over local and Federal authorities, which they used to their advantage. This was particularly true of A.J. Andrews, who became an ally of Acting Federal Minister of Justice Arthur Meighen, an alliance which Andrews and the Citizens used to amend Federal immigration legislation, orchestrate the arrests of several strike leaders on June 17, and shut down the Western Labor News a few days later. A.J. Andrews and several other lawyers among the Citizens’ ranks prosecuted the arrested strike leaders, despite the obvious conflict of interest. For their work, the lawyers received approximately $227,000 between them (Kramer and Mitchell 2010, 291). By comparison, the Prime Minister made $15,000 in 1920. The Federal Government had difficulty finding money to cover the costs, but eventually decided to use funds that were supposed to have been earmarked to help demobilize soldiers returning from the First World War. The Citizens’ Committee disbanded after the strike ended – at least in appearance. Many of its members reorganized into two organizations: the Citizens’ League and the Employers’ Association. The former was formed in August 1920 in order to carry on the work the Committee of One Thousand attributed to itself: upholding British law and constitutional order against threats such as Bolshevism. While it had a slightly more diverse membership, former Committee of One Thousand members occupied many of its executive positions. The other organization created, the Employers’ Association, was, as the name suggests, meant to look out for the interests of employers and business. It was founded in January 1920 and at least eight former Citizens sat on its board of directors, as did several of the Citizens’ allies during the strike (Kramer and Mitchell 2010, 319). Prominent Members of the Citizens’ Committee of One Thousand Alfred Joseph Andrews (1865-1950) Alfred Joseph Andrews was born in 1865 in Franklin, Quebec. His father was a Methodist Minister who struggled to support his family, but instilled in Andrews a penchant for rhetoric, offering up a cent anytime Andrews or one of his five siblings caught their father in a mispronunciation (Kramer and Mitchell 2010, 40). In 1880, Andrews left his home for Winnipeg, where he began to study law at his older brother’s firm – that of Manitoba attorney General D.M. Walker – but left briefly to fight against Louis Riel in the 1885 Northwest Rebellion. Andrews was 21 years old when he was called to the Manitoba Bar. In addition to practicing law, Andrews dabbled in land speculation and entered civic politics in 1893 as a City Alderman for Ward 2. In 1898, the 32 year-old Andrews became Winnipeg’s 19th mayor. Due to his age and youthful appearance, Andrews earned the nickname “the boy mayor”. Having conquered City Hall, Andrews set his sights on the Manitoba Legislature, running unsuccessfully as a Conservative candidate in 1899, 1910, and 1914 (the latter was lost to Fred Dixon). He was a member of several elite Winnipeg social clubs, including the Manitoba Club and the St. Charles Country Club. During the the strike, Andrews was the most influential member of the Citizens’ Committee of One Thousand and its de facto leader. Though he had no official state authority and was not in any leadership position, he was, as described by William R. Plewman, who reported on the strike for the Toronto Star “the principal human factor in opposing the strike movement…He was here, there and everywhere, directing the operations of the Citizens’ Committee of One Thousand…no one person had more to do with these various moves than had Mr. Andrews” and decisions were only made “after Andrews had voiced his approval” (Dupuis 2014, 125). He accomplished this largely through his ability to manipulate the state and those who were in positions of authority. This was particularly true of Acting Federal Minister of Justice Arthur Meighen, whom Andrews wielded consider influence over. On May 21 1919, Andrews and a small delegation of the Citizens arrived in Fort William (now Thunder Bay) to intercept Meighen and Minister of Labor Gideon Robertson, who were on their way from Ottawa to Winnipeg to assess the strike situation. Andrews was able to convince Meighen of his take on the situation and Meighen, in turn, appointed Andrews as a representative of the Justice Department in Winnipeg, an ambiguous title that Andrews interpreted broadly (Kramer and Mitchell 2010, 100-101). The two continued to correspond throughout the strike, with Andrews feeding Meighen his take on how it was unfolding and what had to be done to stop it. Andrews’ influence over Meighen was such that he was able to legislate through him. Andrews convinced Meighen to amend the Immigration Act to allow for the deportation of any non-Canadian citizen who engaged in sedition. When Meighen’s first amendment wasn’t satisfactory to Andrews because it didn’t allow for the deportation British immigrants, Andrews convinced him to amend it again. The second amendment took only one hour to pass through Parliament. He did the same at the municipal level, bringing motions before City Council through an Alderman he held sway over, such as J.K. Sparling. The lack of clarity in Andrews’ position allowed him to slightly alter the scope of his powers depending on who he was dealing with. This ambiguity allowed him to orchestrate the arrests of several strike leaders on June 17 and shut down the Western Labour News not long after. Prior to the June 17 arrests, Andrews and others of the Citizens met with Provincial prosecutors, Minister Robertson, and others to determine which of the strike leaders would be arrested. Furthermore, he used his influence and tactical acumen to determine almost every aspect of the subsequent trials. He chose which of the arrested would be tried under the new Immigration Act and which would be tried under the Criminal Code; he had a hand in the selection of the judges and officials overseeing the trials; he hired a private detective agency to thoroughly investigate every possible juror to stack the jury in favour of the prosecution; and he prosecuted the accused himself. Andrews’ arguments in court frequently spoke to ideals of morality, love of one’s country, veterans’ sacrifices, religion, and British pride. His closing address to the jury for R.B. Russell’s trial clocked in at nearly 6 hours. His legal services were paid for by the Federal Government, out of funds that were intended to be used to help returning veterans adjust to civilian life. In total, for his work orchestrating the arrests of the strike leaders and their prosecution, Andrews was paid over $47,000. This was over three times what the Prime Minister made in 1920 (Kramer and Mitchell 2010, 291). After the strike, Andrews was the President of the Law Society of Manitoba from 1922-1925 and received accolades and awards for his successful career. His firm was inherited by Aikens, MacAuley, and Thorvaldson LLP. He died on January 31, 1950 and was buried in St. John’s Cathedral Cemetery. Image Source: COWA. Photograph Collection (P1 File 42). James Bowes Coyne (1878-1965) James Bowes Coyne was born on August 24, 1878 in St. Thomas, Ontario. He went to Upper Canada College and the University of Toronto, and studied law at Osgoode Hall. He was called to the Ontario Bar in 1904 and was called to the Manitoba Bar the following year when he moved to Winnipeg and became a partner at the Winnipeg firm Aikins, Robson, Fullerton, and Coyne (by 1919, the firm’s name was “Coyne, McVicar, and Martin”). In Winnipeg, Coyne – or “Bogus”, as he we nicknamed – had a successful law career: he was made King’s Counsel in 1916 and, that same year, became a Bencher for the Law Society of Manitoba (a position he held until 1925). Coyne was also a member of Winnipeg social elite – he was a member of both the Carleton Club and the Manitoba Club. Politically, Coyne was a Liberal. During the civic employees strike of 1918, Coyne was a member of the Citizens’ Committee of One Hundred and was part of the ad-hoc committee that drafted its inaugural resolutions. Though the Citizens’ Committee of One Hundred took a relatively conciliatory stance towards organized labour, Coyne himself was far less conciliatory when the Winnipeg Policemen’s Union joined the...http://1919strike.lib.umanitoba.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/uw_wcpi_38698_a1292-500x330.jpg