SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Strathcona neighbourhood : the First United Church PERIOD COVERED: 1919-[no date] RECORDED: [location unknown], 1978-06-20 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Jean McDuff landed in Vancouver 07-Jul-1919 from Scotland to join husband; stayed with Mrs. West; attended Mothers Meeting at Turner Institute; quilting there. Attended Fircom, First United Community House, at Georgia and Campbell; Miss Goddard taught gym classes there; deaconesses lived in White Shield social club there. First United Church: making stews for breadline from donated food. Roy Stobie (student minister) helped Rev. Roddan take food down to mud flats where men lived in cardboard shacks. She saw unemployed men marching on Woodward's and invading Hudson's Bay. Post Office occupation. Men invaded church while she was at camp. Roddan had invited Mayor McGeer to speak; McGeer had read riot act, so the men came in to protest. City Hall welfare handouts. More on HBC demonstrations. Men coming off trains came up to First United for stew. They fed perhaps 1,000 men a day. Mr. Redburn initiated Saturday Night Fellowship meetings; fed 200 men a night. Fellowship meetings started in late 1930s, still carried on. Early ministers at First United (post 1919): Craig, Roberts, McIntyre, Dr. Telford. Roddan came from Port Arthur because he'd heard of First United's welfare work. Family man, 7 children. Stayed for 20 years. Jolly personality. More on Roddan and Stobie carrying stew to the flats. Roddan made men write home to mothers. Present ministers' work. Church camp. TRACK 2: More on church camp: her cabin, using pump, improvements at camp, building Jubilee Hall, boat story. Life at camp, geography there. Describes buildings at Hastings and Gore in the 1920s. New church building erected 1936. Rev. Roddan's preaching style. Cooking at church and camp. Hobo jungle on flats again; another one under Georgia Viaduct. Georgia Street streetcar. Union Street became Adanac Street. Story of being looked for in Chinatown. Quilting women. Ladies' Aid: she vice-president, Mrs. Hunter president -- two big Scots women. (End of interview)

CALL NUMBER: T3998:0001 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Robert Steve Brodie RECORDED: Victoria (B.C.), 1982-11-05 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Robert "Steve" Brodie comments on protest marches during the Depression, including the Vancouver Post Office sit-down. 500 single unemployed travelled to Victoria on June 19, 1938. Recruiting extra Provincial Police to handle protest. Possibilities of action by single unemployed in Victoria at time of the Vancouver Post Office eviction. Reasons for Vancouver Post Office eviction of June 19, 1938. Communist Party of Canada and Post Office sitdowners. Relationship of Brodie to Communist Party. Infiltration of single unemployed by RCMP. Brodie's view of the law and the sitdowners. Brodie and Col. Hill, Sunday morning June 19, 1938. Single unemployed travelling to Victoria via Nanaimo. Victoria soup kitchen and abandoned hotels. Possible attempt to occupy Empress Hotel. Single unemployed move to Beacon Hill Park, then back to hotels. Philosophy of opposing bureaucracy. Thoughts on poverty. "Robin Hoodism" and the Communist Party. Anti-war feelings of the 1930s and the Bolshevik Revolution. "Class" in Canada. TRACK 2: Sitdowners after moving back to hotels. Colin Cameron's part in the settlement. Firefighting by the single unemployed. Christmas money earned by firefighting. Sabotage on the fireline. Attorney General Wismer's reaction. Newspaper views of the incident. Hutchinson and the Regina Riot (Detective Miller's death). Saskatoon Riot and Inspector Sampson. Civil service towns and single unemployed. Women's emergency committee. Dr. Mitchell and his wife. Business community appeals to Ottawa for works program. Doctors admit fake birth (death) certificates. Bridge River incident and birth fatality. Warden Owen of Oakalla jail. Police Chief Anderson of Kamloops and sick man.

CALL NUMBER: T3998:0002 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Robert Steve Brodie RECORDED: Victoria (B.C.), 1982-11-05 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Steve Brodie discusses the Vancouver law court procedure and the unemployed. Victoria police and the unemployed. Vancouver police expert in Communism. Vancouver lawyer, Adam Smith-Johnson. Trial of men after the Post Office eviction. Provincial rights of travelling unemployed. Scam on railway tickets. Agreement for single unemployed not to return to B.C. for a year. Smith Johnson again. Comments on: Rev. Bob Matheson, Rev. Clem Davis, Rev. Andy Roddan, and Harold Winch and the Art Gallery eviction. Brodie's theory of the cure for unemployment. Brodie and Bishop Sexton. Dean Whitlow preaching against the unemployed. Radio on the prairie -- church services. TRACK 2: Radio church services. Church aid and attitude to the unemployed. Archbishop Duke (R.C.). Comments by Duke, Roddan, and McIntyre and the reaction of the unemployed. Brodie's orange sweater. Single unemployed women. Block committees. Stealing milk for the baby. Evictions and block committee help. Story of Scottish lady's eviction and result. Single unemployed women. Failure to organise single unemployed women. Accusations of boy and girl found in a boxcar. Frozen transients in boxcar. Brodie's theories of economics and unemployment. Administration of Royal Twenty Cent-ers.