Cumberland BC: The Cumberlander Articles Section
Local · 5th October 2010
Editor, with permission.
JOSEPH NAYLOR
Born N- Wigen, Lancashire, England, 1872
Died ~ Cumberland, 5 October 1946
Joe Naylor first came to prominence in Cumberland during the Big Strike of 1912-14 as local president of the United Mine Workers of America A strong pacifist, he urged strikers to remain calm and non-violent; after he attempted to break up a 1913 riot he was arrested and jailed for rioting, though charges were later dropped. He was not permitted to return to his work as a coal digger in Number Four pit for many years after the strike because of a company blacklist.
Joe Naylor was Ginger Goodwin's closest friend. When Ginger fled beyond Comox Lake with other draft evaders in 1918, Joe organized Cumberland men end women to keep them supplied with food, clothing and information on the police posses. After a police bullet killed Ginger at Alone Mountain, Joe represented his friend's family at the coroner's Inquiry, and asked the only challenging questions about the shooting and the apparent police cover-up that followed. Within days Joe was arrested and jailed for aiding draft evaders. Charges were later dropped, but Joe was prevented from testifying at the manslaughter hearing of Special Constable Dan Campbell, who was soon released.
A few months later, Joe Naylor became a founding member and central committee member of the radical One Big Union, which was instrumental in Winnipeg's 1919 general strike. Federal and provincial governments attacked the OBU, and Joe was among its last active members. In the 1930's he remained a revolutionary socialist and under intense RCMP surveillance until his death.
"A rough diamond" was the B.C Federationist newspaper's description of Joe Naylor. He lived alone in his cabin at Comox Lake, fishing- usually with a fly, occasionally with bobber and worm - and hunting for his table. Cumberland residents still remember having stew for breakfast with Joe, listening to his music hall ditties and jokes, arguing about police, or rowing around the lake In Joe's big wooden rowboat.
When Joe was dying of cancer in Cumberland Hospital in 1946, his friends sat with him in shifts, keeping the tradional death watch. Joe had a special warmth for children, and many would remember his kindness all their lives. For nearly 50 years Cumberland valued Joe Naylor as a steadfast socialist, a good neighbor and a good friend.
Organizer - Western Federation or Miners, circa 1895-1910
Charter member and organizer - Soclalist Party of Canada, Cumberland local 70
President - United Mine Workers of America, Cumberland local 2299, 1911-1914
President - B.C. Federation of Labor, 1917-18
Founding member and central committee member - One Big Union, 1919
copyright Susan Mayse 1994
Editor's note: See also Roger Stonebank's article titled JOE NAYLOR, 1872-1946 here on The Cumberlander.
Born N- Wigen, Lancashire, England, 1872
Died ~ Cumberland, 5 October 1946
Joe Naylor first came to prominence in Cumberland during the Big Strike of 1912-14 as local president of the United Mine Workers of America A strong pacifist, he urged strikers to remain calm and non-violent; after he attempted to break up a 1913 riot he was arrested and jailed for rioting, though charges were later dropped. He was not permitted to return to his work as a coal digger in Number Four pit for many years after the strike because of a company blacklist.
Joe Naylor was Ginger Goodwin's closest friend. When Ginger fled beyond Comox Lake with other draft evaders in 1918, Joe organized Cumberland men end women to keep them supplied with food, clothing and information on the police posses. After a police bullet killed Ginger at Alone Mountain, Joe represented his friend's family at the coroner's Inquiry, and asked the only challenging questions about the shooting and the apparent police cover-up that followed. Within days Joe was arrested and jailed for aiding draft evaders. Charges were later dropped, but Joe was prevented from testifying at the manslaughter hearing of Special Constable Dan Campbell, who was soon released.
A few months later, Joe Naylor became a founding member and central committee member of the radical One Big Union, which was instrumental in Winnipeg's 1919 general strike. Federal and provincial governments attacked the OBU, and Joe was among its last active members. In the 1930's he remained a revolutionary socialist and under intense RCMP surveillance until his death.
"A rough diamond" was the B.C Federationist newspaper's description of Joe Naylor. He lived alone in his cabin at Comox Lake, fishing- usually with a fly, occasionally with bobber and worm - and hunting for his table. Cumberland residents still remember having stew for breakfast with Joe, listening to his music hall ditties and jokes, arguing about police, or rowing around the lake In Joe's big wooden rowboat.
When Joe was dying of cancer in Cumberland Hospital in 1946, his friends sat with him in shifts, keeping the tradional death watch. Joe had a special warmth for children, and many would remember his kindness all their lives. For nearly 50 years Cumberland valued Joe Naylor as a steadfast socialist, a good neighbor and a good friend.
Organizer - Western Federation or Miners, circa 1895-1910
Charter member and organizer - Soclalist Party of Canada, Cumberland local 70
President - United Mine Workers of America, Cumberland local 2299, 1911-1914
President - B.C. Federation of Labor, 1917-18
Founding member and central committee member - One Big Union, 1919
copyright Susan Mayse 1994
Editor's note: See also Roger Stonebank's article titled JOE NAYLOR, 1872-1946 here on The Cumberlander.
# 4 Mine
One Big Union pamphlet 1919
Winnipeg's 1919 general strike
"Ginger & Joe" by Teresa Wild
Joe Nayler
Comment by Edith Frith on 19th October 2010
Just a word to give thanks for Joe to be thought of as well as my Great Uncle Ginger Goodwin From all of us in South Yorkshire Edith
Just a word to give thanks for Joe to be thought of as well as my Great Uncle Ginger Goodwin From all of us in South Yorkshire Edith
OBU: Correction
Comment by Roger Stonebanks on 27th October 2007
To set the record straight, it is not correct that the One Big Union was instrumental in Winnipeg's 1919 general strike. The strike was led by the Winnipeg Trades and Labour Council after a favourable vote by affiliated unions in support of the Building Trades Council and the Metal Trades Council in disputes with their employers. Norman Penner, who edited and introduced "Winnipeg 1919: The strikers' own history of the Winnipeg General Strike", (Toronto: James Lewis and Samuel, 1973) said plans to launch the One Big Union movement had to be suspended until after the strike.
He wrote "There is no doubt that the mood of the Winnipeg and Western labour movement, as portrayed in the first pages of the strikers' history, had a great deal to do with the militant and radical character of the general strike. But the strike itself was a trade-union struggle for very specific economic demands which are detailed in this book. It was led by people representing all political tendencies in the Winnipeg Trades and Labour Council, from Liberals and Conservatives to single taxers, to radical and revolutionary socialists. Only one of the fifteen-member Central Strike Committee, R.B. Russell, was an official of the incipient OBU."
Roger Stonebanks
Victoria, BC
To set the record straight, it is not correct that the One Big Union was instrumental in Winnipeg's 1919 general strike. The strike was led by the Winnipeg Trades and Labour Council after a favourable vote by affiliated unions in support of the Building Trades Council and the Metal Trades Council in disputes with their employers. Norman Penner, who edited and introduced "Winnipeg 1919: The strikers' own history of the Winnipeg General Strike", (Toronto: James Lewis and Samuel, 1973) said plans to launch the One Big Union movement had to be suspended until after the strike.
He wrote "There is no doubt that the mood of the Winnipeg and Western labour movement, as portrayed in the first pages of the strikers' history, had a great deal to do with the militant and radical character of the general strike. But the strike itself was a trade-union struggle for very specific economic demands which are detailed in this book. It was led by people representing all political tendencies in the Winnipeg Trades and Labour Council, from Liberals and Conservatives to single taxers, to radical and revolutionary socialists. Only one of the fifteen-member Central Strike Committee, R.B. Russell, was an official of the incipient OBU."
Roger Stonebanks
Victoria, BC