travelling scholarship, which he uses to go to Britain, France, Switzerland, Germany, and Italy; he receives a telegram in Rome from Mulock offering him the editorship of the new government Labor Gazette.
1900
1900
ing becomes deputy minister of labour, the youngest in the history of Canada; he brings his expertise to the country-wide unstable labour situation; his friend and roommate, Henry Albert “Bert” Harper, is assistant deputy minister of labour; they have an active social life but also read aloud to each other from the works of Matthew Arnold, William Morris, and Alfred Tennyson.
William Mulock becomes Canada’s first minister of labour.
A head tax on Chinese workers entering Canada is raised from $50 (1885) to $100 because of white workers’ fears in B.C.; Canada asks Japan to restrict the number of its immigrants.
1901
1901
King begins to travel the country serving on Royal Commissions on Industrial Disputes; returning from British Columbia (B.C.) he gets off the train in Toronto to read in the newspaper that Bert Harper has drowned while trying to rescue a skater on the Ottawa River; King is devastated and is unable to write in his diary for three weeks.
Theodore Roosevelt becomes the twenty-sixth president of the U.S. when he succeeds William McKinley, who has been assassinated.
1902
The largest boatload of immigrants Canada has ever seen arrives Halifax; most of the immigrants are Jewish.
1903
William Mulock is instrumental in connecting Canada and the United Kingdom through the radio.
The Chinese head tax rises to $500 in Canada
1904
In Canada, J. S. Woodsworth (future politician) moves to Winnipeg, Manitoba, and begins his work at the All-People’s Mission with immigrant slum dwellers.
Earl Grey becomes Canada’s Governor General.
1905
1905
A statue of Galahad is erected on Wellington Street in Ottawa as a monument to Bert Harper; the inscription, chosen by King, is from Tennyson’s Idylls of the King: “Galahad… cried, ‘If I lose myself, I save myself’”
The organized North-West Territories in the Canadian west are divided into the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan.
King meets Violet Markham, a wealthy British woman with a social conscience.
1906
The Secret of Heroism, King’s book about his friend Bert Harper, is published.
1907
1907
King drafts the Industrial Disputes Investigation Act, which is designed to solve disputes between management and labour before strikes occur.
American president Theodore Roosevelt bars Japanese from immigrating to the U.S.
After riots in Vancouver’s Japanese quarter, Laurier sends King to B.C. to enquire into Japanese losses and into the larger issue of Asian immigration; Japan agrees to limit emigration; American president Theodore Roosevelt invites King to hear his country’s concerns; King goes to Britain to meet with officials in the India and colonial offices; he pleases Laurier when he points out that the Indian Emigration Act forbids Indians to emigrate under contract to work in Canada.
King becomes a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George.
1908
King wins the House of Commons seat for the riding of North Waterloo in Ontario.
1909
1909
Harvard University grants King a PhD.
J.S. Woodsworth publishes Strangers Within Our Gates, which says that non-English-speaking immigrants are undesirable.
King becomes the minister of labour in Laurier’s cabinet.
1910
King and his family vacation at Kingsmere.
1911
1911
The Liberals’ loss of the general election means that King’s efforts to prevent the incidence of phosphorous necrosis and his bill to prohibit the manufacture, importation, and sale of matches made with white phosphorous is not passed.
In the Canadian federal election Robert Borden’s Conservatives defeat Laurier’s Liberals.
Violet Markham offers to provide King with a yearly income.
The Duke of Connaught becomes Canada’s Governor General.
1913
More than 400,000 immigrants – the largest number in one year – arrive in Canada.
American millionaire John D. Rockefeller, Sr. endows the Rockefeller Foundation, a philanthropic organization that focuses on public health and medical education at first and later supports the sciences, agriculture, and the humanities. His son, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., is elected president of the Foundation.
Coal miners employed by the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, a Rockefeller interest in Ludlow, Colorado, strike for union recognition.
1914
1914
Unemployed after his electoral defeat and too old to join the army, King seeks work in the U.S.; he becomes director of industrial investigation for the Rockefeller Foundation.
Britain declares war on Germany and Austria-Hungary; as a part of the British Empire, Canada is automatically at war.
King’s hometown of Berlin changes its name to Kitchener.
The ship Komogata Maru, bringing 350 East Indians to work in B.C., is not allowed to land at Vancouver; after two months in the harbour, Canadian warships escort the ship and its passengers out of the harbour.
In Ludlow, Colorado, open warfare ensues between the striking miners and the militia; and the militia; fourteen people are killed in the “Ludlow Massacre”; federal troops arrive.
1915
King vists his brother, Max, who is in Colorado being treated for tubeculosis (TB), and receives the news that his sister, Bella, has died.
King uses his knowledge of labour relations to find a solution to the Ludlow, Colorado strike; he persuades the company and the miners to compromise and accept company unions.
1916
1916
In August, King’s father dies
The Duke of Devonshire becomes Canada’s Governor General.
1917
1917
King takes his invalid mother to Kingsmere he works on a book about labour relations; in December she dies in his Ottawa apartment while he is out of town electioneering.
In France, Canadian soldiers, fighting as a unit for the first time, suffer heavy losses but capture Vimy Ridge.
In the “conscription” election, King does not win his seat.
In Canada, Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden prepares a conscription bill, a measure particularly unpopular in Quebec; in August the Military Service Act brings in conscription; Borden becomes leader of the Union government, which is a coalition with Liberals opposed to Laurier’s anti-conscription platform; the Wartime Elections Act gives the vote to female relatives of soldiers.
In Russia, the Bolshevik Party seizes power in the October Revolution.
1918
1918
King’s book Industry and Humanity is published.
In Quebec City, soldiers kill four protesters during anti-conscription riots; the Canada Elections Act gives the vote to all women in federal elections.
The First World War ends on November 11; 60,000 have died and many more are permanently injured.
1919
1919
At the Liberal Party leadership convention in August, King offers to heal the divisions caused by the conscription crisis and to find new solutions to the problems of tariffs, freight rates, labour and the concerns of the newly developing Left; he wins the leadership.
In February, Sir Wilfrid Laurier dies in Ottawa.
King is elected to represent the riding of Prince in Prince Edward Island.
The Winnipeg General Strike, which begins on May 15, climaxes on “Bloody Saturday” on June 21.
The first radio broadcasting licence in Canada is issued to
XWA, an experimental station in Montreal
1920
Canada is a founding member of the League of Nations; farmers from Ontario and the Prairies unite with dissident Liberals to form the Progressive Party; Borden retires and Arthur Meighen becomes prime minister and leader of the Conservative Party.
Unemployment insurance is introduced in Great Britain and Austria.
1921
1921
King runs in his grandfather’s old riding of North York in the general election in December and his Liberals win a majority of the seats; he becomes the tenth prime minister of Canada and chooses to serve as minister of external affairs too.
Representing the Independent Labour Party, J.S. Woodsworth is elected to the House of Commons where he becomes the “conscience of Canada”; Agnes Macphail is the first woman elected to the Canadian Parliament.
Lord Byng becomes Canada’s Governor General.
1922
In March, King’s brother Max, who is afflicted with muscular dystrophy and TB, dies.
