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The Meanings of the Janet Smith Bill

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The Meanings of the Janet Smith Bill Re/Producing a "White British Columbia": The Meanings of the Janet Smith Bill by Michael Scott Kerwin B.A. (Hons.), The University of British Columbia, 1994 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Department of History) We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA August 1996 © Michael Scott Kerwin, 1996 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of The University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada Date DE-6 (2/88) Abstract During the fall of 1924, the British Columbia Legislature debated a bill that proposed banning the employment of white women and Asian men as servants in the same household. Although this piece of legislation (publicly known as the "Janet Smith Bill") never passed into law, itf offers great insight into the racial and nationalist ideas that were dominant in 1920's British Columbia. Drawing on postmodern theories of 'discourse' and 'knowledge,' I have located the Janet Smith Bill within larger intellectual and political structures to understand what the bill's goal of "protecting white women" means. My thesis identifies two primary meanings of this bill. First, the Janet Smith Bill is meant to prevent the production of Eurasian children in British Columbia by keeping Asian men and young white women physically apart. Scientific "knowledge" dictated that such offspring would only produce social chaos in the country. The second primary meaning of the bill is based on the nationalist drive to keep British Columbia "white" by increasing the white birthrate. Moral reformers and politicians feared that young white women would become drug addicts through close association with 'Orientals,' consequently forsaking their duty as "mothers of the race." Protecting white women, according to this discourse, meant protecting their ability and opportunity to produce healthy white babies. The Janet Smith Bill, therefore, was meant to produce and reproduce a "white British Columbia." ii Table of Contents Abstract Table of Contents List of Figures Acknowledgement Re/Producing a "White British Columbia" Bibliography iii List of Figures Figure 1: The Legislative Assembly of British Columbia (c. 1921) 1 Figure 2: Janet Kennedy Smith (1902-1924) 14 Figure 3: Wong Foon Sing (1899?-?) 16 Figure 4: The 'City Scots' at Janet Smith's Grave 18 Figure 5: Victor W. Odium (1880-1971) 20 Figure 6: Mary Ellen Smith (1862-1933) 25 Figure 7: "The Lonely White" 32 Figure 8: A Chinese 'Houseboy' 41 Figure 9: Alexander Malcolm Manson (1883-1964) 45 iv Acknowledgement By attempting to complete the Master's program in 12 months, I have relied on the help of friends and colleagues to keep me focused. My ability to produce this thesis in the manner that I did would not have been possible without my experience in the History Honours program at UBC. I am still benefiting from the insightful discussions at school with Paige, Emmett, Kristen, Brad, Kris and Trevor that spilled over to coffee shops or kitchen tables. My special thanks goes to Paige for reading two messy drafts of this thesis and for recommending that I read Ann Laura Stoler's book way back in October. During the past year, David Breen's graduate seminar on Canadian history gave me a deeper appreciation of historical methods, particularly the use of photographs. I am also very much indebted to Joanne Poon for translating passages of Dahan gongbao for me. My studies at both the University of Calgary and UBC were made easier by the constant support of my Mom & Dad. Their unwavering assistance has always proved to be a boon for my various pursuits at both the undergraduate and graduate level. My researching and writing of this paper has, above all, relied upon the patience and knowledge of my advisor Bob McDonald. His enthusiasm for my project and insightful questions about my methodology (theory! Foucault!!) always kept me on my toes. With his guidance, I hopefully have challenged the familiar "narrative" of British Columbia's history. v Figure 1 The Legislative Assembly of British Columbia (c.1921): The official portrait of John Oliver's Liberal government (left) taken shortly after their re-election in 1921. Oliver (first row, third from right, with beard) appointed Mary Ellen Smith (back row) to the Cabinet but disappointed women's groups by giving her the title Minister Without Portfolio. The Speaker of the House, Alexander Manson, became the Attorney-General and Minister of Labour in January 1922. (Source: British Columbia Archives and Records Service [BCARS1, G-06230) 3#idway through the afternoon session of the British Columbia legislature on 24 November 1924, the Liberal member for Vancouver South stood up to address the House. Mary Ellen Smith, the sole female MLA, announced that she was formally introducing Bill 24, entitled "An Act to amend the 'Women's and Girls Protection Act,'" and prepared to read the text. Before she could begin, a deafening roar of applause broke out in the Speaker's Gallery overlooking the 1 Assembly [Figure 1], interrupting the "lady Member." Crammed into the two rows of chairs above the House were more than forty women from the Scottish Societies of Vancouver and Victoria. These same women had earlier in the month decorated every Member's desk with sprigs of heather and a petition supporting the forthcoming bill. The Speaker of the House, John Buckham, quickly silenced the Scottish ladies and instructed the popular Vancouver MLA to continue.1 In her spellbinding voice, which a doting admirer later remembered as having the ability to "terrify all males and all but the fiercest of females," 61-year old Mary Ellen Smith then read the text of Bill 24. In the interests of protecting morals, she proposed prohibiting employers from hiring "Orientals" alongside "white women" and "white girls" as domestic servants in the same household. It was to "broaden out the measure of last year," which had attempted to bar the employment of "white" and "Indian" women in "Oriental" businesses, by protecting the large number of 'white' girls who worked as maids and nannies in the province.2 Mary Ellen (as she was known to the British Columbian public) earlier told reporters that she knew the names of twenty-eight servant girls who had recently quit their homes in the Victoria area out of fear of their "Oriental" co-workers. She was further disturbed by reports that their employers would prefer to dismiss the white girls in favour of retaining an Oriental servant. "I do not know whether it is a panic among them or not," Mary Ellen stated in her characteristic 'motherly' way, "[but] if such discrimination were pushed to extremes it would be serious for our own white women indeed."3 1 Journals of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of British Columbia from 3rd November to 19th December, Both Days Inclusive [JLAPBC] (Victoria: C. F. Banfield, 1924), p. 61; "Women and Girl Protection Act Well Supported," Vancouver Star, 25 November 1924, p. 2; "Oriental Servant Bill is Prepared," Vancouver Star, 14 November 1924, p. 1. 2 J. K. Nesbitt, "'Brave' Women Follow Ellen's Path," Vancouver News-Herald, 15 June 1949, p. 2; Edward Starkins, Who Killed Janet Smith?: The 1924 Vancouver Killing That Remains Canada's Most Intriguing Unsolved Murder (Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, 1984), pp. 122-23. 3 "Servant Girls Quit Homes, Refusing to Work With Chinese," Victoria Daily Times, 24 November 1924, p. 1. 2 Among the press and public, Bill 24 quickly became known as the "Janet Smith Bill." Its arrival in the legislature in November 1924 was the result of over three months of lobbying by newspaper editors, clergymen and the United Council of Scottish Societies of Vancouver. Their actions grew from the notorious murder case of the summer involving the suspected sex slaying of a 22-year old nanny named Janet Smith by her co-worker Wong Foon Sing. Social and intellectual forces that transcended the specifics of the Janet Smith case also worked to produce this piece of legislation. In the words of one of the most vigorous supporters of Bill 24, Brigadier-General Victor W. Odium, the bill is really the culminating point of a feeling which has been growing in the province for a long time and which has only been brought to a head by this tragic happening ... It is not morally in the eternal fitness of things that a white girl or woman should be placed in a position where she is constantly coming into daily personal touch with a Chinaman under the same roof. Such a measure as that proposed would render this impossible.4 Interpreting the Janet Smith Bill requires both a reconstruction of the political happenings that brought it to Victoria as well as an understanding of the larger intellectual forces that produced the bill and established its meanings. * The complex layers of meaning encoded in the Janet Smith Bill provide insight into the dominant racial and nationalist ideas in 1920's British Columbia. This piece of legislation was primarily designed to prevent the production of Eurasian children in British Columbia by keeping 'white' women and Asian men apart.
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