#road workers

The inmate’s letter reveals that prisoners saw themselves as deserving of fair labor conditions and advocated for their rights. By writing a letter to a member of the Baltimore Federation of Labor, the prison inmate aligned himself and his fellow prisoners, both men and women, with labor organizations outside the prison. In the early twentieth century, prison reformers often lauded outdoor road construction as a healthful substitute for employment in indoor prison workshops. Members of the Maryland State Roads Commission and local government officials arranged several road construction contracts. However, as this example shows, prisoners found ways of challenging their labor conditions and aligning themselves with free workers. In addition, this incident reveals how members of the Baltimore Federation of Labor chose to advocate in behalf of the prisoners by sending a letter to the Attorney General questioning labor conditions. In this case, working men and women, whether convict or free, saw themselves as allied in the same cause against labor exploitation.

This and other related experiences reveal the importance of examining labor reform within the larger debate regarding working conditions in the Maryland state prison system between the years of 1912 and 1922.

Doukhobor Conscientious Objectors at Alternative Service Camp, Montreal Lake, Saskatchewan 1941. Most came from Blaine Lake, Saskatchewan, or the Doukhobor communities around it. They were sent to work starting in June 1941, as Doukhobors were conscientious objectors and refused to serve in the Canadian military, as they had refused decades ago to serve in the Czar’s army.. Dozens of other young Doukhobor men were imprisoned for their refusal to join the army or do alternative service, or fled to other parts of Canada. The Alternative Service workers built between June and October 1941 forty miles of Highway No. 2 (still in use) connecting La Ronge with points south, through land that was mostly First Nations.

Mostly from the private collection of Peter A. Kouznitsoff, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Doukhobor Heritage.

1) A meeting of camp representatives. Alec Morosoff - blonde, standing; Peter Popoff - sitting far right on bunk; John J. Bondoreff - sitting at table wearing vest; others unidentified. From the private collection of Mike S. Nadane, Kamsack, Saskatchewan.

2) Cutting Cordwood for the Cook Tent - Alternative Service Camp, Montreal Lake, SK, 1941. From the private collection of Mike S. Nadane, Kamsack, Saskatchewan.

3) Life in the Camp: A group of Doukhobors posing for a photo at the alternate service work camp, Montreal Lake, SK, 1941. 

4) Life in the Camp: A group of Doukhobor elders from Blaine Lake, SK visit the workers at the Montreal Lake alternate service work camp, 1941.

5) Road Construction Work: Heavy equipment parked along the grade as it is built up during road construction. Alternate service road construction project, Montreal Lake, SK, 1941.

6) Road Construction Work: A dragline prepares the road bed and ditches along the alternate service road construction project at Montreal Lake, SK, 1941.

7) Moving the Camp: The work camp was built to be portable so that it could follow the course of the road construction. All the tents were built on wooden skids. Here, a tent in the distance is being skidded down the roadway to the next location. Three such moves are known to have occurred during the Montreal Lake alternate service road construction project, 1941.

8) Road Construction Work: Peter A. Kouznitsoff (left) poses with several Doukhobor heavy equipment operators during road construction work. Montreal Lake alternate service work camp, 1941.

9) Road Construction Work: Peter A. Kouznitsoff (left) poses with another Doukhobor worker atop a road grader.

Camps for Trans-Canada highway workers, all of whom were unemployed men on relief in Ontario forced to build roads for their meagre welfare. All from the Toronto Star, issues of September 26, September 12 and October 2, 1931. 

Notably these photos have all been produced from negatives that were painted or retouched for publication.  

Toronto Public Library, Toronto Star Photograph Archive.

1) One of the box-like buildings of frame and tarpaper. A canvas top or tent will be placed over this to complete it. TSPA_0018484F.

2) Trans-Canada highway camps to house workers on the North Bay-Pembroke section of the Ontario route are nearing completion. TSPA_0018482F

3)  Forerunners of Highway camps; This board-walled tent camp is typical of those which probably will be built along the northern Ontario route of the trans-Canada highway to house the workers erecting buildings of a more substantial type for the road-workers. TSPA_0018481F.