George Allison, Montreal businessman who benefitted from the Montreal Water and Power Sale in 1927. He was the brother of Hudson Allison who went down with the Titanic, with wife and daughter.
September 30, 1930. (Front Page Headline)
Civic Heads Out
Mayor Invoking Old Water Deal
People condemned Crepeau and Terreault he insists
Hot Council Session
Opposition charges Kaiserism, autocracy, petty politics
Downfall of Houde Administration Predicted
Schubert demands expulsion of His Worship for Bad Manners
Galleries Applaud Anti Houde Attacks
Threat to clear Chamber by Pro-Mayor
By large majorities the City Council yesterday afternoon accepted the resignations of the Jules Crepeau, Director of municipal services and H.A. Terrault, director of public works, naming as their successors Honore Parent, KC, for eight years expropriation specialist in the city law department and J.E. Blanchard, for years superintendent of the roads department.
In a two hour debate, bristling with attack and counter-attack, the Houde-Bray administration and and DeRoches-Gabias-Trepanier opposition rocked in violent combat.
Mr. Crepeau’s forty-two years of service at city hall ended by a vote of 21-8 ; while Mr. Terrault disappeared from the city’s service by a vote of 22 to 7.
Both successors were named unanimously.
Mr. Crepeau laid down as conditions of his leave of absence, six month’s leave of absence and a pension which will be set at 7,500 for life.
Mr. Parent takes up his work, retaining without renumeration his title of city attorney and commencing at the 10.000 salary which Mr. Crepeau enjoyed in his last year of office.
Reasons for the resignations, or ‘dismissals’ as the opposition branded them with the allegation that they had been forced, furnished the fighting ground.
“There is no explanation, “ said Ald. J. Allan Bray, chairman of the Executive Committee, when the Crepeau question rose.
That led Alderman Trepanier to denounce the ‘silent and almost mysterious’ majority of aldermen controlled by the Mayor,which ruled through “free lunch” caucuses at the Place Viger Hotel “ and had brought “autocracy and “Kaiserism” to the city hall.
He and others condemned introducing the ‘spoils system’ into the city service, but predicted that the people would rise and protest by turning out such an administration and ‘reinstating one free of petty politics’ and motivated by care for the best interests of the city as a whole.
No explanation was forthcoming until Mayor Camillien Houde took a hand. The Part played by both Mr. Crepeau and Mr. Terreault in the purchase of the Montreal Water and Power Company, he invoked as a reason for the development.
“We had both Mr. Crepeau and Mr. Terreault condemned by the people of Montreal” His Worship held, stating that he and his adherents had condemned the deal, and getting rid of those responsible for the deal through was merely being rationale and consequent.”
Mr. Terreault was accused in positive manner of having aided in the passing of the deal, while Mr. Crepeau was found guilty in negative manner of having allowed the transaction to go through.
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Hmm. The article gives a blow by blow account of the debate, which got dirty and where Mayor Houde spat out his dentures, deftly catching them in his left hand, during a speech. If my play Milk and Water is half as funny as this debate, I’ll be sitting pretty. (I will transcribe it for the next post…My aunt kept all the Jules Crepeau newsclippings in a scrapbook which I still have, miraculously enough.)
The Purchase of Montreal Water and Power by the Municipal Government in 1927 was a very good thing and it started making money for the city immediately.
Montreal Water and Power was a private company that provided water for the ‘suburbs’. Every time the city absorbed one suburb or another, it had to work with this company. Some parts of Montreal were getting water cheaper than others. So best to buy it, and legislation had been passed back in 1914 to pave the way. But it took years, and then, just as the deal was going to go through, the company was sold to a Trust. The price of the company rose for 10,000,000 to 14,000,000. Someone made 4,000,000 on ‘insider trading’ in a few months. Everyone knew who owned the Trust: Lorne Webster, Honorable J.L Parent, Mr. Allison. Mayor Mederic Martin’s Administration was accused of taking bribes or something.
The Montreal Star’s Lord Althostan (Hugh Graham) led the charge against the Martin Administration, leading to its defeat in the 1928 elections. My grandfather would have had this on his mind in late August, the time of my play, because Althostan had already launched his attacks.
Good Grief. La Plus Ca Change. This all sounds soooo familiar. Doesn't it?
Anyway, Allison was a Westmount man who had a wife from the American South. Hmm. So was T.G. Wells, of my story, Milk and Water. His wife was from the south too. It’s all very complicated, ‘this water business.’ A scholar suggests that the idea of providing water to homes was indicative of a paradigm shift in thinking in the evolution of cities and of mankind itself. Gee.
And I have to know it well, because Jules Crepeau and Thomas Wells knew it well, but they came at it from different angles.
