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History
of Immigration Continued
Population
figures show significant rural depopulation in Cape Breton between
1891-1901, as many people were drawn to the coal mines or to
the steel plants at Sydney and Sydney Mines.
By the late 1890s and early 1900s, Canada's Minister of Interior,
Sir Clifford Sifton, had implemented a vigorous campaign to
attract immigrants to meet the country's employment needs. Many
were attracted by a recruitment campaign in foreign nations
initiated by the Dominion Coal Company and the Dominion Iron
and Steel Company. Company agents were often at the landing
points for the Dominion Coal Company and the ad that likely
was seen in many foreign countries read like this:
The Dominion Coal Company of Sidney [sic] Canada North America
undertakes to furnish employment which will pay you $2.00 to
$5.00 per day. Emigrants would have to go via Thieste (Austria)
and there sign contracts concerning their future employment
and wages. The steamship fare is $50.00 paid in advance.
Construction workers were brought from Pittsburgh, as were Italian
contract labourers from Boston, to build the new steel plant
at Sydney. However, the nature of underground work made it necessary
for a worker to know even rudimentary English for safety's sake.
This and the fact that the Dominion Coal Company started operations
seven years prior to Dominion Iron and Steel Company, helps
to explain the lower proportion of non-Anglo-Saxons within the
mining populations.
The company also brought in extra labour during times of strike.
They would use immigrants to cross picket lines to maintain
mining operations. In 1909-1910, the Dominion Coal Company would
not recognize the U.M.W. and workers were imported from rural
Cape Breton, the British Isles and Eastern Europe to bolster
P.W.A. supporters and operations.
It was quite apparent that the new unskilled arrivals were attracted
to employment prospects in industry, since many settled in "company"
towns. However, in September 1904, the Labour Gazette reported
that many miners who emigrated to Cape Breton were disappointed
and moved home or westward.
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