London Evening Advertiser
- Discipline Trainmen For Crash
- MAN SMOTHERED IN GODERICH MILL
- HEALTH, INDUSTRY TO GUIDE, HE SAYS; BUT MIND IS OPEN
The London Evening Advertiser of 13 October 1926 followed up on the fatal Canadian Pacific freight wreck near Kent Bridge on 18 September. It reported that the company's investigation was still unfinished, that dispatcher Duncan McIntyre and passenger-train engineer George R. Blanchard were still off duty, and that the telegraph operators at Chatham and Bothwell who had handled the train orders were at their posts. A special dispatch from Goderich described how mill worker George Randall suffocated in a bran bin at the Western Canada Flour Mills, with the inquest adjourned to 18 October. A Canadian Press report quoted Robert Forke, the new minister of immigration and colonization, telling a Manitoba Liberal banquet that he wanted immigrants who were healthy and willing to work, wherever they came from. Forke also urged large landholders to treat settlers fairly, because there was no longer any free land near the railways.
This edition covers three articles from the 13 October 1926 page. Headlines that cross tile edges were cut off, including the main banner, the Forke deck and a story about hostility toward Chinese residents. The parts that could not be seen were not reconstructed. Some lower-right text is damaged and the outer columns are truncated. All three excerpts break off mid-sentence, and the Forke report also begins mid-word. The available sources do not show how the CPR investigation ended or whether McIntyre and Blanchard were reinstated. They do not describe safety conditions or regulation in Ontario flour mills, and they do not cover western calls to restrict 'Latin' immigrants. The commentary therefore leaves these questions open.
Translation
Discipline Trainmen For Crash
[?] concerning the fatal freight wreck which occurred near Kent Bridge on the C.P.R. at 6:45 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 18, it is understood that the investigation by the company has not yet been completed. In the meantime suspension of two employees who were on duty during the night before the accident is still in force. When the investigation was being carried out in the offices of F. M. Rutter, divisional superintendent, it was announced that no official statement would be forthcoming until all the evidence taken from the railroadmen had been thoroughly sifted. Despatcher Duncan McIntyre, who was on duty the night of the accident, was temporarily suspended pending the investigation and has not been taken back on the staff since. George R. Blanchard, engineer of the passenger train which carried orders to the ill-fated eastbound freight, has not been returned to duty.
Operators at Posts.
Both George McKay, night operator at Chatham, and Albert Durham, telegraph operator at Bothwell, who handled train orders in respect to the movement of the trains, were evidently found entirely blameless, for they are at their respective posts. Chester "Chum" Routledge, fireman for Blanchard, is understood to have
MAN SMOTHERED IN GODERICH MILL
Went to Goderich From Merlin, Ont., Three Years Ago.
Special to The Advertiser.
Goderich, Oct. 13.—George Randall, of Newgate street, Goderich, was killed this morning at 7:15 at the Western Canada Flour Mills, meeting death by suffocation in a bran bin in the mill. Randall was working alone at the time of the accident, no one seeing the actual cause of his fall. Dr. Martin was called to render medical aid as soon as the accident was discovered, but the injured man was beyond aid. Coroner Dr. A. C. Hunter was also called and later performed a post mortem. A jury held a preliminary sitting and adjourned till Monday, Oct. 18.
George Randall had lived in Goderich about three years. He was a prominent member of the Orange Order and associated with Victoria Lodge, Goderich. He was a former resident of Merlin,
HEALTH, INDUSTRY TO GUIDE, HE SAYS; BUT MIND IS OPEN
ister of immigration and colonization in the Liberal Government, declared that he wanted immigrants and did not care where they came from if they were sound of body and mind and were willing to work, when speaking at a banquet here last night. The banquet was held under the auspices of the Manitoba Liberal Association.
The situation in the West was very different from what it was in the time when there were free blocks of land to offer to settlers, said Mr. Forke. That condition did not exist today, and there was no free land to offer immigrants, at least within reasonable distance from railways. One of the problems that had to be dealt with, consequently, was how to make immigration attractive under the new conditions.
Urges Fair Prices.
"There is one message that I have to express tonight," said Mr. Forke, "and I want to say to those who hold large quantities of land, that I hope they will deal as reasonably as possible with the immigrants who come in the matter of
Context
How train orders linked the dispatcher, the operators and the trains
The people named in the Kent Bridge story make sense once you know how trains were run at the time. North American railways with a single main track and passing sidings widely used a system of timetables and train orders. Trains followed the timetable unless the dispatcher overrode it with train orders, which were passed to the trains through local intermediaries. Operators who received an order copied it onto multiple-copy forms and repeated it back to the dispatcher so that its accuracy could be checked. The Advertiser names someone at nearly every step of this chain: dispatcher Duncan McIntyre, who was on duty that night; the operators at Chatham and Bothwell, who handled the orders; and engineer George R. Blanchard, whose passenger train carried orders to the eastbound freight. Because responsibility was split among several people, the company had to sift the testimony of each one before deciding who was at fault. On 13 October the paper could report only that the two operators were at their posts and that McIntyre and Blanchard had not been reinstated. It did not yet report what the investigation had found.
Who Robert Forke was and why he was speaking for the Liberals
Robert Forke had been a farmer before he went into politics. He came to Manitoba in 1882 and farmed near Pipestone. When Thomas Crerar retired in 1922, Forke became leader of the Progressive Party. In the 1926 election the Manitoba Progressives formed an alliance with the Liberals and elected seven members on a Liberal-Progressive ticket. That alliance was sealed on 25 September 1926, when Forke was appointed Minister of Immigration and Colonization with the consent of the Liberal-Progressive caucus. The banquet reported here therefore took place less than three weeks after his appointment. This explains why a former Progressive leader was speaking under the auspices of the Manitoba Liberal Association, and why the report calls him a minister in the Liberal government. The headline's two themes, health and industry as tests for immigrants and an open mind about where they came from, set out the position of a minister from a farming background at the start of his term.
The 1925 Railway Agreement behind Forke's open door
Forke's statement that he did not care where immigrants came from fitted a policy his government had already adopted. In September 1925 the Mackenzie King government formalized an agreement with the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Canadian National Railway. Under it, the railways could recruit agricultural settlers from countries that Canada had previously classed as non-preferred. Between 1925 and 1929 more than 185,000 Central Europeans arrived under the agreement. The policy was controversial. Opponents feared that the larger flow from Central Europe would drive down wages and dilute the country's British character. Forke's speech also points to the practical problem of settling these newcomers. According to the paper, there was no longer any free homestead land within reasonable distance of the railways. Settlers therefore had to buy land, and the price of that land would decide whether they could make a start. This is why Forke appealed to large landholders to deal reasonably with immigrants.
Why a 'Western Canada' mill stood in Goderich, Ontario
Western Canada Flour Mills, where George Randall died, was a large milling company with interests in both Ontario and the Prairies. It was formed on 1 May 1905, when a Brandon-based milling business merged with the Lake Huron & Manitoba Milling Company, and it took the name Western Canada Flour Company. The company's grain-processing plant at Goderich, on Lake Huron, could produce 2,000 barrels of flour a day. The company also ran a mill at Brandon, Manitoba, and owned country grain elevators across the Prairies; when it sold them in 1940, it still had 41 in Manitoba, 20 in Saskatchewan and 15 in Alberta. This connection explains why a firm with a western name operated a large mill in an Ontario lake port. The Advertiser's report gives only the immediate facts: Randall was working alone, nobody saw him fall into the bran bin, and the coroner's jury adjourned until 18 October.
Original
Discipline Trainmen For Crash
[?] concerning the fatal freight wreck which occurred near Kent Bridge on the C. P. R. at 6: 45 a. m. Saturday, Sept. 18, it is understood that the investigation by the company has not yet been completed. In the meantime suspension of two employees who were on duty during the night before the accident is still in force. When the investigation was being carried out in the offices of F. M. Rutter, divisional superintendent, it was announced that no official statement would be forthcoming until all the evidence taken from the railroadmen had been thoroughly sifted. Despatcher Duncan McIntyre, who was on duty the night of the accident, was temporarily suspended pending the investigation and has not been taken back on the staff since. George R. Blanchard, engineer of the passenger train which carried orders to the ill-fated eastbound freight, has not been returned to duty. Operators at Posts. Both George McKay, night operator at Chatham, and Albert Durham, telegraph operator at Bothwell, who handled train orders in respect to the movement of the trains, were evidently found entirely blameless, for they are at their respective posts. Chester " Chum " Routledge, fireman for Blanchard, is understood to have
MAN SMOTHERED IN GODERICH MILL
Went to Goderich From Merlin, Ont., Three Years Ago. Special to The Advertiser. Goderich, Oct. 13. - George Randall, of Newgate street, Goderich, was killed this morning at 7: 15 at the Western Canada Flour Mills, meeting death by suffocation in a bran bin in the mill. Randall was working alone at the time of the accident, no one seeing the actual cause of his fall. Dr. Martin was called to render medical aid as soon as the accident was discovered, but the injured man was beyond aid. Coroner Dr. A. C. Hunter was also called and later performed a post mortem. A jury held a preliminary sitting and adjourned till Monday, Oct. 18. George Randall had lived in Goderich about three years. He was a prominent member of the Orange Order and associated with Victoria Lodge, Goderich. He was a former resident of Merlin,
HEALTH, INDUSTRY TO GUIDE, HE SAYS; BUT MIND IS OPEN
ister of immigration and colonization in the Liberal Government, declared that he wanted immigrants and did not care where they came from if they were sound of body and mind and were willing to work, when speaking at a banquet here last night. The banquet was held under the auspices of the Manitoba Liberal Association. The situation in the West was very different from what it was in the time when there were free blocks of land to offer to settlers, said Mr. Forke. That condition did not exist today, and there was no free land to offer immigrants, at least within reasonable distance from railways. One of the problems that had to be dealt with, consequently, was how to make immigration attractive under the new conditions. Urges Fair Prices. " There is one message that I have to express tonight, " said Mr. Forke, " and I want to say to those who hold large quantities of land, that I hope they will deal as reasonably as possible with the immigrants who come in the matter of
Source: Holding institution