8 August 1932
See Rusty McCarthy perform Martyrs of Progress
It was inspiring, grand, impressive !
An event for the great to behold,
When thousands on thousands witnessed
The leviathan entrance unfold !
Long ere the approach of the hour,
From areas distant and near,
Came eager, expectant people,
To gaze from the bank, tier on tier.
The foremost voice of our country,[1]
Through receptive air channels [radio] hurled,
Cried forth the great shipway’s importance
To an audience girdling the world.
About what were some of us thinking―
We who stood on the grassy banks―
As scintillant invocations
Inspired the close-serried ranks ?
We were loved ones, friends and companions
Of men crashed, or hurled, to their doom,
By the sudden snap of a tackle . . .
Collapse of a defective boom—
We stood on the sward and remembered . . .
Yes, we heard suave sentences flow.
But we knew—despite the orations—
To whom highest tribute should go.
There were those of the people present . . .
Remembering . . . stifled a sob
For the hundred and more of workers
Who went to their death “on the job.”
[1] “The foremost voice” was the Earl of Bessborough, Vere Brabazon Ponsonby, 9th Earl of Bessborough (1880-1956), Governor General of Canada between 1931 and 1935. He officially opened the Welland Ship Canal on 6 August 1932.
Published in Spirit of the Big Ditch: The Story of the Welland Canals in Pictures, Poems and Songs. Compiled, edited and annotated by Robert Ratcliffe Taylor. St. Catharines: The Historical Society of St. Catharines, 2024
The Historical Society of St. Catharines 