Background
He was born near Toronto, Ontario, Canada on July 29, 1874. The oldest of six children. As a boy moved to Manitoba, where his father was for many years superintendent of Methodist missions for the North West Territory.
(Excerpt from War: Clippings From a War-Time Scrap-Book B...)
Excerpt from War: Clippings From a War-Time Scrap-Book Before the war broke out, H. N. Brailsford wrote a book The War of Steel and Gold. He drew aside the cur tain and showed us the great forces which are ever at work and which inevitably lead to war. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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(Excerpt from The First Story of the Labor Church and Some...)
Excerpt from The First Story of the Labor Church and Some Things for Which It Stands: An Address in the Strand Theatre, Winnipeg, April 5th, 1920 We confess that we have not yet learned to live to gether in love and unity. We have thought too much of our own interests and too little of the common welfare. We have enjoyed and even sought special privileges. Our own gain has often involved another's loss. We are heartily sorry for these, our misdoings; the memory of them is grievous unto us. We acknowledge that we are still divided into alien groups separated from one another by barriers of language. Race and nationality; by barriers of class and creed and custom. May we overcome prejudice. May we seek to find common ground. May we recognize the beauty in other types than our own. As we claim that our own convictions should be respected, so may we respect the convictions of others. May we grow in moral stature till we can join hands over the separating walls. May we enter into the joy of a common fellowship. We have learned how imperfect is our knowledge; how narrow our vision. May we be willing to welcome truth from whatever source it comes. May we endeavor to follow the truth at whatever cost. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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humanitarian politician statesman
He was born near Toronto, Ontario, Canada on July 29, 1874. The oldest of six children. As a boy moved to Manitoba, where his father was for many years superintendent of Methodist missions for the North West Territory.
He was educated at Wesley College, Winnipeg, and subsequently studied theology at Victoria University, Toronto. He spent a year in England, attending lectures at Oxford and observing social work in the slums of London.
On returning to Canada he was ordained to the Methodist ministry in 1900 and served a brief time in rural pastorates until his appointment as assistant pastor of the prosperous downtown Grace Methodist Church in Winnipeg. As the center of the great wheat boom, Winnipeg was the gateway to the west for thousands of British and European immigrants. A growing interest in the "Social Gospel" fed Woodsworth's feeling that his current work in the church was socially irrelevant, and in 1907 he accepted appointment as superintendent of All Peoples' Mission in the north end of Winnipeg.
His observations on the problems of immigrants there became the subject of two books, Strangers within Our Gates (1908) and My Neighbour (1910). Woodsworth's increasing involvement in secular approaches to social reforms and the confirmation of his pacifist views during World War I deepened his longstanding doubts about the doctrines of Methodism, and he resigned from the ministry in 1918.
After a brief period as a longshoreman in British Columbia, he became involved, while on a visit, in the Winnipeg general strike of 1919 and was arrested for sedition, although the charge was not pressed. In 1921 he was elected to Parliament on a Labour ticket in Winnipeg North Centre, a seat he held continuously until his death.
The CCF won seven seats in the federal election of 1935 and eight in 1940. Woodsworth ceased to lead his party when his pacifist convictions made him the sole opponent in Parliament of Canadian participation in World War II, but he remained in the House of Commons until his death in Vancouver on March 21, 1942.
Woodsworth contributed significant observations on the life of immigrants to Canada and fought vigorously for social reforms in Parliament. He was the key figure in securing the cooperation of urban and agrarian reformers. More radical than many of the farmers but less so than many labor leaders, he represented moderation in the advance toward a democratic socialist society.
Woodsworth College of the University of Toronto, and J. S. Woodsworth Secondary School in Ottawa, Ontario (closed in 2005) are named after him. There is also a J. S. Woodsworth Senior Public School in Scarborough, Toronto.
(Excerpt from The First Story of the Labor Church and Some...)
(Excerpt from War: Clippings From a War-Time Scrap-Book B...)
As a pacifist, he was morally opposed to the Church being used as a vehicle of recruitment. Woodsworth resigned from the Church in 1918 because of its support of the war. "I thought that as a Christian minister, I was a messenger of the Prince of Peace", he is quoted as saying.
In Parliament, Woodsworth initially cooperated with the agrarian Progressive party, and in that party's decline after 1924 he became the leader of the "Ginger group, " composed of members speaking for labor and the more radical agrarian interests. He fought vigorously for various social reforms, and in 1926, when Mackenzie King's minority government was in a precarious position, Woodsworth pushed through a measure establishing old-age pensions. In 1932, when the impact of the Depression brought together representatives of labor, farm, socialist, and intellectual groups across the country to form a broad Socialist party, the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), Woodsworth automatically became its leader.
Woodsworth was neither a great orator nor an outstanding party politician, but his integrity and passionate sincerity made him a powerful figure, and even his opponents sometimes paid him tribute as "a saint in politics. "
In 1904 he married a college classmate from Ontario, Lucy Staples.
