Chapter V: Isle of Iron, Men of Steel  (continued)

The advent of submarine mining soon enabled annual Bell Island ore shipments to surpass one million tons: an impressive figure that obscured the ore's high cost in human life and limb. All too often dynamite failed to detonate at night and exploded instead next morning in the faces of hapless shovellers or drillers. Ore cars sometimes became detached on their way to the surface and rolled backwards into unwary workers. The Wabana mines consistently had the highest accident rate of all Newfoundland mines. Residents, too, ran risk of injuries, as the tramway crossing the island was unfenced and without devices to warn of oncoming cars.

The Dominion company became sufficiently alarmed by the situation to publish a pamphlet in 1908 entitled "Special Rules for the Conduct and Guidance of the Persons.... Employed in or about the Mines". The government expressed its concern in 1906 by passing the Mines (Regulations) Act, which required that a proper investigation be held into every mining accident. The act was more demonstrative than practical, for it barely improved safety conditions; as well, it completely neglected the issue of workmen's compensation.

By 1908 the Dominion and Scotia companies could have afforded a generous workmen's compensation fund. The Dominion company had a captive market in the Dominion steel plant in Sydney, and the Scotia had its own steel plant in North Sydney as well as steady purchasers in Holland, Britain, Germany and the United States. Estimated land and submarine ore reserves approached 3.5 billion tons, and the companies' annual profits from the Bell Island mines alone exceeded $1 million.

With the onset of World War everything changed. The Scotia company, which relied heavily on European markets, had to suspend all mining. The Dominion kept one mine open, but laid off 1500 men, some of whom went straight from the mine tunnels to the muddy trenches of France. After the war came the recession. The iron market collapsed, more jobs disappeared and the future loomed ominously.

At this vulnerable moment in the mines' history, they became involved in a complex plot that resulted in their falling under the direction of one ill-conceived and unscrupulous company.⁽¹⁷⁾ The plot began when British industrialists seeking a means of regenerating Britain's economy hit upon the plan of amalgamating Canadian coal and iron companies into a British-owned steel corporation. At first the scheme met with little support from the Canadian business community. However, one man-Roy Wolvin, president of Halifax Shipyards Limited-envisioned the amalgamation as a route to power and consented to help the Britons achieve their ends.

Wolvin began his strategy in 1919 by purchasing Dominion Steel Corporation shares⁽¹⁸⁾ and manoeuvering his way into the corporation's presidential chair. He then accumulated Scotia company shares so quietly that Scotia directors knew nothing of his activity until he presented them with the fait accomplis, namely, a proposal to merge the Scotia with the Dominion and Halifax shipping companies. Most of the Scotia management opposed the proposal; all, that is, except its president, Dan McDougall. McDougall and Wolvin between them used British financial backing to remove every personal and monetary obstacle to the merger and in 1921 incorporated the British Empire Steel Corporation (BESCO). Wolvin became its president, McDougall its vice-president and the Wabana mining operation its unwilling scapegoat.