"He built that shack because no one would rent him a house with all those children. He built it over here in Clarenceville 10 years ago and when they told him to pull it down because it was dangerous he moved to Noyan... That stove, he picked it up on the riverside or something. It was no good for someone else but he could make it go." This was Lawrence Taylor, brother-in-law to Mrs. Vosburg who perished in the flames at Noyan.
"That barn of a hut would not have been permitted here. Something drastic should be done." This is Mayor Chester Adams of Clarenceville.
"None of them had work. His last job was in the Fall. My sister (Mrs. Vosburg) had a hard life. And to end up burning like that." Mrs. C. Hislop, sister of the dead Mrs. Vosburg.
"He had no money, but he loved his family." Mr. Derick, owner of the general store in Noyan.
* * *
Abel Vosburg, a 63-year-old, unemployed laborer of Noyan, Quebec, lost his wife and 11 of 15 children in his burning home.
Noyan is 35 miles south of Montreal. It is a small village. On the night of Thursday, December 29, Abel Vosburg ran out of the burning home. Realizing his family was still within, he tried to return. The oil stove exploded, and all within perished in a flaming volcano.
Dead Mrs. Vosburg, 43; Doris, 19; Ray, 17; Richard, 15; Phyllis, 13; Catherine, 10; Audrey, 9; Beverley, 7; Robert, 4; Carolyn, 3; Leo, 1; Duane, 6 months.
These 12 people are victims of our financial system.
Yes, Mrs. Vosburg and her 11 children died because of the criminal financial system under which we live.
We make this accusation, coldy and in dead seriousness.
Here are the facts.
Abel Vosburg was unemployed. No one would rent him a house. So he built a ramshackle hut, 20 by 15 feet, 3 rooms for all those people. He managed to get hold of an old-second-stove when the cold spell began. The shanty, insulated only by cardboard and rags stuffed in the cracks, could not otherwise be kept warm enough to live in.
The entire structure with the old oil stove was a tinder box, a furnace, stoked and ready to flare. And when it did it provided one of the worst holocausts of the year in Canada.
Why did Abel Vosburg not have a decent house in which to live?
Why was Abel Vosburg unable to buy a stove that was safe?
Why was Abel Vosburg and his family condemned to live in this death trap?
Because there is such a scarcity of houses or building materials? Because stoves are practically impossible to get, so scarce are they?
Not at all. Read the advertisements. Merchants are fighting for the privilege to sell you the finest stoves built. You can have a house built at the snap of your fingers any size, any kind of materials. There is no lack of builders or material.
Why, then, did Abel Vosburg's wife and 11 children have to die?
Because, the financial system under which we live, and which is controled by those who control money and credit, say that Abel Vosburg (and everyone else) may not have money unless he is employed. Abel Vosberg was for long unemployed. So Abel Vosburg, without employment, was unable to have a decent a house. (though there are plenty available) and was unable to buy a good, safe stove (though there are plenty available).
How many other Vosburg families are there in Quebec, in New Brunswick, in Saskatchewan, all across Canada?
How many other families are there dwelling in these death traps, only waiting for time to bring the frightful holocaust?
How many other families will become the victims of this vicious system of finance which refuses them the right to share in the necessities of life food, clothing, shelter, security not because such things are scarce, but because they cannot be had unless one has a revenue tied to employment.
Had the members of the Vosburg family each been the recipient of a periodic dividend, there is no doubt that the father, unemployed though he may have been, would have been able to house his family properly and provide for keeping them comfortable in safety. They would not have died on Thursday, December 29.
How many families must die because of such living conditions so utterly and preposterously unnecessary in this rich and fruitful country of ours before the people arouse themselves and demand, effectively, the wiping out of this tyranny of finance, and its replacement by the democratic principles embodied in the philosophy of Social Credit?