Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T17:23:31.305Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Family allowances in Canada and Australia 1940–1945: A comparative critical case study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2009

Abstract

Whilst quantitive and ‘positivist’ modes of comparative social policy can reveal significant structural factors involved in the making of welfare states, they too often ignore the role of human agency, intention and political processes. A critical-historical comparative case study of the introduction of ‘child endowment’ and of ‘family allowances’ respectively in Australia (1941) and in Canada (1944) reminds us of the interplay between structural constraints and human agency in the history of welfare states. Detailed analysis suggests that institutionalised arrangements in Australia after 1905 to resolve capital-labour conflict via arbitral and wage fixation mechanisms put the question of the adequacy of wages in meeting family needs and with it proposals for child endowment onto the public agenda as early as 1920. In Canada the absence of such mechanisms, and alternative welfare arrangements to deal with family welfare, combined to keep such proposals off the public agenda. After 1939 the development of ‘war economies’ in Australia and Canada created common contradictions for governments, trying to maintain both industrial peace and anti-inflation policies, which the introduction of family allowances in both countries were attempts to resolve. Consideration is also given to a range of political problems and contexts in both countries which this particular policy measure attempted to deal with.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Advisory Committee on Reconstruction (1943), Report, 24 September 1943, Government Printer, Ottawa.Google Scholar
Albinski, H.S. (1973), Canadian and Australian Politics in Comparative Perspective. Oxford, New York.Google Scholar
Arndt, H.W. (1976). ‘R.I. Downing: Economist and Social Reformer’, The Economic Record, 52:3 (citing the evidence of H.G. Burton).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baker, J. (1979), ‘Social Conscience and Social Policy’, Journal of Social Policy, 8:2, 177206.Google Scholar
Beyrer, J.R. (1974), ‘Family Allowances in Australia’, in Roe, J. (ed.), Social Policy in Australia, Castell, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Bruce, S.M. (1927), in Report of the Proceedings of a Conference of State Ministers in Melbourne, 06 1927, (unpublished), Australian Archives, A461 Item 344/1/18.Google Scholar
Bryce, R.B. (1943), ‘Children's Allowances’, 28 09 1943, in Federal Archives, Finance Department, RG19, Bryce Papers. Vol. 3448.Google Scholar
Bryce, R.B. (1944), ‘Children's Allowances’, 10–11 01 1944, in Federal Archives, Finance Department. RG19. Vol. 304, File 101–53–114.Google Scholar
Butlin, S.J. (1955). War Economy 1939–1942, Australian War Memorial, Canberra.Google Scholar
Butlin, S.J. and Schedvin, C.B. (1979), War Economy, 1942–1945, Australian War Memorial, Canberra.Google Scholar
Canadian Congress of Labour (1943), Memorandum on Labour Relations and Wage-Conditions in Canada, CCL, Ottawa.Google Scholar
Carrier, J. and Kendall, I. (1973), ‘Social Policy and Social Change; Explanations of the Development of Social Policy’, Journal of Social Policy, 2:3, 209224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carrier, J. and Kendall, I. (1977), ‘The Development of Welfare States, the Production of Plausible Accounts’, Journal of Social Policy, 6:3, 271–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cass, B. (1982). ‘Wages, Women and Children’, in Henderson, R. (ed.), The Welfare Stakes, Institute of Applied Economic Research, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Cass, B. (1983), ‘Redistribution to Children and Mothers; a History of Child Endowment and Family Allowances’, in Cass, B. and Baldock, C. (eds.), Women, Social Welfare and the State, Allen and Unwin, Sydney.Google Scholar
Castles, F.G. (1985), The Working Class and Welfare, Allen and Unwin, London.Google Scholar
Clark, W.C. (1943). ‘W.C. Clark to W.A. Mackintosh. 9 12 1943’, in Federal Archives, Finance Department, RG19, Vol. 364. File 107–53–114.Google Scholar
Copland, D.B. (1940a). ‘Notes on Australian Economics and Politics, 23 12 1940’, in Australian Archives, CP6/2, Bundle 5, File 77.Google Scholar
Copland, D.B. (1940b). ‘Incidence of a Payroll Tax’, (ND, but 12 1940) in Australian Archives, CP 13/1, File 5847.Google Scholar
Craven, P. (1980), ‘An Impartial umpire’; Industrial Relations and the Canadian State, 1900–1911, University of Toronto, Toronto.Google Scholar
Department of Labour (1950), Annual Report on Wage Rates and Hours of Labour in Canada, Government Printer, Ottawa.Google Scholar
Dickey, B. (1980). No Charity There. A Short History of Social Welfare in Australia, Cassell, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Dominion Bureau of Statistics (1941), Family Income and Expenditure in Canada 1937–1938, Government Printer, Ottawa.Google Scholar
Donnison, D. (1979). ‘Social Policy since Titmuss’, Journal of Social Policy, 8:2, 145156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Downing, R.I. (1939), ‘The Fixation of Wages in Australia’, Unpublished Thesis, Cambridge University, Downing Papers, Melbourne University Archives.Google Scholar
Duncan, W.G.K. (ed.) (1933), National Economic Planning, Angus and Robertson, Sydney.Google Scholar
Duncan, W.K. (1960), The Charities of London, 1480–1660, London.Google Scholar
EAC (1939),‘Minutes of Meeting, 11 December 1939’, in Federal Archives, RG19, Vol. 4660, File 187 EAC 3. Part 2.Google Scholar
EAC (1941), Various correspondence including A.D.P. Heeney to W.C. Clark, 15 08 1941, in Federal Archives, RG19, Vol. 3976, E–3–0, Vol. 1.Google Scholar
EAC (1942), ‘Report of the Economic Advisory Committee on the Reconstruction Committee's Recommendations Regarding Ministerial Responsibility for Reconstruction Planning’, 30 11 1942, in Federal Archives, RG19, Vol. 4663, 187, EAC K6.Google Scholar
EAC (1943a), ‘Minutes of Meeting of EAC, 7 07 1943’, in Federal Archives Finance Department, RG19, Vol. 4660, File 3, Part 3.Google Scholar
EAC (1943b), ‘Minutes of Meeting of EAC, 17 09 1943, in Federal Archives Finance Department, RG19, Vol. 4660, File 3, Part 3.Google Scholar
F and E (1940), ‘Minutes of Meeting, 10–12 10 1940’, in CP 184/5.Google Scholar
Finkel, A. (1977), ‘Origins of the Welfare State in Canada’, in Panitch, L. (ed.). The Canadian State: Political Economy and Political Power, University of Toronto, Toronto.Google Scholar
Foenander, O.R. (1943), Wartime Labour Developments in Australia, Melbourne University, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Frankel, B. (1983), Beyond the State, Macmillan, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giblin, L.F. (1947), ‘Notes on F and E’, Australian Archives. CP 184/3, File 22.Google Scholar
Ginsburg, N. (1979), Class, Capital and Social Policy, Macmillan, London.Google Scholar
Goodman, B. (1963), Two Dependent Economies, F.W. Cheshire, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Gordon, D. (1943),‘Statement by Mr. D. Gordon to the National War Labour Board, 30 May 1943’, in Federal Archives, Finance Department, RG19, Vol. 4660, File 22.Google Scholar
Gough, I. (1979). The Political Economy of the Welfare State, Macmillan, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Granatstein, J.L. (1975), Canada's War; The Politics of the Mackenzie King Government, 1939–1945, Mclellan and Stewart, Toronto.Google Scholar
Granatstein, J.L. (1981), A Man of Influence. Norman A. Robertson and Canadian Statecraft, 1929–68, Mclellan and Stewart, Ottawa.Google Scholar
Granatstein, J.L. (1982), The Ottawa Men: The Civil Service Mandarins, 1935–1957, Oxford University, Toronto.Google Scholar
Guest, D. (1980), The Emergence of Social Security in Canada, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.Google Scholar
Habermas, J. (1975), Legitimation Crisis, Beacon Press, Boston.Google Scholar
Hall, P. (1957), The Social Services of Modern England, Routledge and Kegan Paul. London.Google Scholar
Higgins, J. (1980), ‘Social Control Theories of Social Policy’, Journal of Social Policy, 9:1, 124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Higgins, J. (1981), States of Welfare, Basil Blackwell, Oxford.Google Scholar
Holt, H.E. (1941), ‘The Basic Wage and Child Endowment’, 17 01 1941, Australian Archives, Cabinet Agenda Item 534, in CRS A 2697 XM, Item 5.Google Scholar
Kemp, A.S. (1943), ‘The Case for Children's Allowances, 14 06 1943’, in Federal Archives, Finance Department, RG19, Vol. 304, File 101–53–114 (Vol. 1).Google Scholar
Kennedy, R. (ed.) (1983), Australian Welfare History: Critical Essays, Macmillan, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Kewley, T.H. (1973), Social Security in Australia, 1900–1972, Sydney University, Sydney.Google Scholar
Keynes, J.M. (1940), How to Pay for the War republished (1978) The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes, (Vol. xxii), Royal Economics Society and Macmillan, London.Google Scholar
King, W.L. Mackenzie (1918), Industry and Humanity, Thomas Allen, Toronto.Google Scholar
Kitchen, B. (1980), ‘Wartime Social Reform: The Introduction of Family Allowances’, Canadian Journal of Social Work Education, 7:1.Google Scholar
Labour Call (1941), Various articles and reports of THC resolutions in the Official Paper of the Victorian ALP, Labour Call.Google Scholar
Labour Department (1941), Labour Report, 1941, Government Printer, Ottawa.Google Scholar
League for Social Reconstruction (1935), Social Planning for Canada, University of Toronto, Toronto.Google Scholar
Lebel, Fr. Jean (1928), Family Allowances as a Means of Preventing Emigration: A Plea for the Family of the Worker, Sacre Coeur, Montreal.Google Scholar
McCarthy, P.G. (1976), ‘Justice Higgins and the Harvester Judgement’, in Roe, J. (ed.), Social Security in Australia 1901–1975, Cassell, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Macinnis, G. (1953), J.S. Woodsworth, a Man to Remember, University of Toronto, Toronto.Google Scholar
Mackenzie, Ian (1943), ‘Letter to W. Mackenzie King, 8 October 1943’, in Federal Archives, Manuscripts Division, King Papers, Primary Series, M926 J, Vol. 345.Google Scholar
McNaught, K. (1969), A Pelican History of Canada, Pelican, London.Google Scholar
McTague, C.P. (1943), Report of the National War Labour Board Arising out of its Public Enquiry into Labour Relations and Wage Conditions, together with S.C. Cohen, ‘Minority Report’ in Labour Gazette, 44:2.Google Scholar
Marsh, L.C. (1943), Report on Social Security for Canada, University of Toronto, Toronto.Google Scholar
Marshall, T.H. (1963), Sociology at the Crossroads, Macmillan, London.Google Scholar
Mendelsohn, R. (1979), The Condition of the People, Allen and Unwin, Sydney.Google Scholar
Minutes of Proceedings (1929), Select Standing Committee on Industrial and International Relations, Report, Proceedings and Evidence … Upon the Question of Granting Family Allowances …, Kings Printer, Ottawa.Google Scholar
Mishra, R. (1982), Society and Social Policy, Macmillan, London.Google Scholar
Mishra, R. (1984), The Crisis of the Welfare State, Wheatsheaf Books, Brighton.Google Scholar
National War Labour Board (1943), Proceedings, Official Report, 15 April 1943 to 17 June 1943, Government Printer, Ottawa.Google Scholar
O'Connor, J. (1975), The Fiscal Crisis of the State, St. James, New York.Google Scholar
Offe, C. (1984), Contradictions of the Welfare State, M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, Mass.Google Scholar
Oxnam, D.W. (1978), ‘The Incidence of Strikes’, in Isaacs, J. E. and Ford, W., (eds.), Australian Industrial Relations, Sun Books, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Palmer, M.E. (1976), ‘The Origins and Implementation of Family Allowances in Canada’, unpublished M.A. Thesis, Queens University, Kingston.Google Scholar
Parkinson, J.F. (ed.) (1941), Canadian War Time Economics, Maclellan and Stewart, Toronto.Google Scholar
Pickersgill, J.W. (1960), The Mackenzie King Record, 1939–1944, Vol. 1, University of Toronto, Toronto.Google Scholar
Piddington, A.B. (1920), Report of the Royal Commission on the Basic Wage Majority Report, Government Printer, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Plumptre, A.W. (1941), Mobilising Canada's Resources for War, University of Toronto, Toronto.Google Scholar
Prest, W. (1983), Private communication to Author.Google Scholar
Rickard, J. (1984), Rebel Hudge: H.B. Higgins. Allen and Unwin, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Robertson, N. (1943), ‘Memorandum for the Prime Minister, 8 June 1943,’ in Federal Archives, Manuscripts, King Papers, M9 26, J4, Vol. 273, F. 2753.Google Scholar
Roe, J. (ed.) (1978), Social Policy in Australia: Some Perspectives 1901–1975, Macmillan, Sydney.Google Scholar
Rowse, T. (1978), Australian Liberals and National Character, Kibble, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Royal Commission (1949), Report of Royal Commission on Prices (Vol. 2), Government Printer, Ottawa.Google Scholar
Royal Commission on Child Endowment or Family Allowances (1929), Reports, Government Printer, Canberra.Google Scholar
Scullin, J.H. (1941), in Sydney Morning Herald, 8 02 1941.Google Scholar
Stangroom, E. (1944), ‘Note for W.C. Clark from E. Stangroom, June 1944’, in Federal Archives, Finance Department, RG19, Vol. 304, File 101–53–114 (Vol. 1).Google Scholar
Strong-Boag, V. (1979), ‘Wages for Housework: Mothers' Allowances and the Beginnings of Social Security in Canada’, Journal of Canadian Studies, 17:4.Google Scholar
Struthers, J. (1981), ‘A Profession in Crisis: Charlotte Whitton and Canadian Social Work in the 1930s,’ in Canadian Historical Review, 62:2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thame, C. (1975), ‘Health and the State’, unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, Australian National University, Canberra.Google Scholar
Towers, G. (1943), ‘G. Towers to W.C. Clark, 13 June 1943’, in Federal Archives, Finance Department, RG19, Vol. 304, File 101–53–114 (Vol. 1).Google Scholar
Ungerson, C. (ed.) (1985) Women and Social Policy, Macmillan, London.Google Scholar
Walker, E.R. (1939), Wartime Economics, Melbourne University, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Cabinet, War (1943), ‘Minutes of Meeting of War Cabinet, 23 June 1943’, in Federal Archives, Manuscript Division, Mackenzie King Papers, MG26, J4, Vol. 425.Google Scholar
Whittaker, R. (19781979), ‘Political Thought and Action in Mackenzie King’, Journal of Canadian Studies, 13:4.Google Scholar
Whittingham, F. (1970), Minimum Wages in Ontario, Queens university, Kingston.Google Scholar
Whitton, C. (1944a), ‘Family Allowances Controversy in Canada’, Social Security Bulletin, 18:4.Google Scholar
Whitton, C. (1944b), ‘We're Calling the Baby Einstein’, et seq. in Ottawa Evening Citizen, 3 07 1944.Google Scholar
Wildavsky, A. and Carboch, D. (1958), Studies in Australian Politics, Melbourne University, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Wilensky, H. and Lebeaux, C. (1965), Industrial Society and Social Welfare, Free Press, New York.Google Scholar
Wilson, R. (1940), ‘Notes on the Case for an Increase in the Basic Wage: A Commentary on the Paper of J.D. Sutcliffe’, in Downing Papers, Group 6/1/2, Melbourne University Archives.Google Scholar
Wilson, R. (1941), ‘Report on Confidential Memorandum by Chief Judge Beeby’ 13 01 1941, in Australian Archives Cabinet Secretariat 1, Menzies and Fadden Ministries, Minutes and Submissions, CRS, A2679, XM, Item 5.Google Scholar