LEADERSHIP AND POWER IN AN ETHNIC COMMUNITY. by GUSTAV TRYGG7ASGN B.A., University of B r i t i s h Columbia, 1964 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS In the Department of Anthropology and Sociology We aooept this thesis as conforming to the required stapda^d THE UNIVERSITY. OF BRITISH COLUMBIA Mayf I969 In p r e s e n t i n g t h i s t h e s i s i n p a r t i a l f u l f i l m e n t o f the r e q u i r e m e n t s f o r an advanced degree a t the U n i v e r s i t y o f B r i t i s h Columbia, I a g r e e t h a t the L i b r a r y s h a l l make i t f r e e l y a v a i l a b l e f o r r e f e r e n c e and Study. I f u r t h e r a g r e e t h a t p e r m i s s i o n f o r e x t e n s i v e c o p y i n g o f t h i s t h e s i s f o r s c h o l a r l y purposes may be g r a n t e d by the Head o f my Department or by h i s r e p r e s e n t a t i v e s . I t i s u n d e r s t o o d t h a t c o p y i n g o r p u b l i c a t i o n o f t h i s thes,is f o r f i n a n c i a l g a i n s h a l l not be a l l o w e d w i t h o u t my w r i t t e n p e r m i s s i o n . The U n i v e r s i t y o f B r i t i s n Columbia Vancouver 8, Canada Department - i -ABSTRACT One of the significant problems investigated by social scientists i n recent years i s the question of how power i s used i n the community. The presence of power has generally been taken for granted; with the main research and analytical effort being concentrated on identifying and explaining the actions of those members of the community, i.e., the leaders, who are thought to possess power. Their a b i l i t y to operate effectively within the community i s generally inter-preted as a reflection of their use of power, i.e., their a b i l i t y to impose their w i l l upon others, with or without having to overcome direct or indirect opposition i n the process of doing so. Such studies as have been carried out have usu-a l l y been conducted i n communities which are easily identified as communities, such as a city or a town. There are, however, other types of communities, one of which i s the ethnic community or sub-community. Ethnic communities, such as those generally found i n Canada, are a result of the desire of the members of specific ethnic groups to continue to share some or a l l of their a c t i v i t i e s with people of the same origin. In such communities the actions of the leaders may be based on several faotors, none of which i s comparable to the power which leaders i n other types of communities - 11 -may possess or are believed to possess. Extensive f i e l d work was conducted In the Icelandic ethnic community In the Greater Vancouver area, beginning i n the f a l l of 1965 and continuing for some three years* Data was gathered I n i t i a l l y through Interviews with the members of this community and subsequently by direct observation of and participation In the act i v i t i e s of this community and Its leaders. The analysis of the data obtained indicates that the leaders of such a sub-community do not and cannot r e l l e upon an a b i l i t y to Impose their w i l l upon others. Put i n other words* the leaders of such a sub-community lack power. Their a b i l i t y to operate effectively i s largely a result of the fact that their actions vis-a-vis the community are restricted to those which w i l l receive voluntary support from the members of the community. - I i i -TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I INTRODUCTION 1 II THE MIGRANTS 7 Introduction The Primary Migration The Secondary Migrations III THE CULTURAL DEFINITION OF THE ETHNIC COMMUNITY 2? General Comments The Ethnic Community as a Cultural Community The Icelandic Ethnic Community i n Vancouver The Members of the Community IV THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF THE COMMUNITY 59 Introduction The Community'8 Membership The Congregation and the Auxiliary The Icelandic Old Folks Home Society The Ladies Aid Solskin The Strondin Chapter Patterns of Participation V LEADERSHIP AND POWER IN THE ETHNIC COMMUNITY 1*7 Leaders and Officers Selected Profiles The Leaders and the Community Conclusions VI THE STUDY OF LEADERSHIP AND POWER 223 Introduction Research Methods The Concept of Power Power i n the Community BIBLIOGRAPHY - i v -LIST OP TABLES NUMBER PAGE I Icelandic Immigration to Canada, 1872-1902. 12 II Icelandic Immigration to Canada, 1906-1918. 13 I I I - l Icelandic Immigration to Canada; I9I9-I925. 16 III - 2 Icelandic Immigration to Canada, by ports of origin, I926-I945. 17 IV Icelandic Immigration to Canada, by ports of origin; 19*6-1965. 19 V Canadians of Icelandic origin; showing parti a l distribution by specific provinces; 1881-1961. 26 VI Certain Characteristics of the Icelandic Canadian Population; 1881-1961. 61 VII Generation-Origin Groupings of the Community's Members: 1963-1966. 63 VIII Generation-Origin Groupings of the Core Members: I 9 6 3 - I 9 6 6 . 6* IX Generation-Origin Groupings of the Congregation's Members: 1963-1966. 76 X Generation-Origin Groupings of Core Members; Withdrawals, and New Members: 1963-1966. 77 XI Generation-Origin Groupings of Auxiliary Members: 1962. 83 XII Generation-Origin Groupings of the Society's Members and L i f e Members: 1963. 97 XIII Generation-Origin Groupings of the Aid's Members: 1963-1966. 103 XIV Generation-Origin Groupings of the Associa-tion's Members: I 9 6 I - I 9 6 6 . 12* XV Generation-Origin Groupings of the Core Members; Withdrawals; and New Members: I963-I966. 127 XVI Generation-Origin Groupings of the O f f i c i a l and Participatory Members: I966-I967. I30 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The study of leaders and t h e i r power has att r a c t e d considerable attention among s o c i a l s c i e n t i s t s since the publication of Ployd Hunter's book, Community Power Structure (1953)« Those who have investigated t h i s p a r t i c u l a r phenomenon have tended to be divided i n t o two opposing schools of thought - schools divided both i n the manner i n which they approach t h i s phenomenon and i n the conclusions they reach about i t . The r e l a t i v e merits of these opposing views w i l l be examined i n d e t a i l i n a subsequent chapter. I t can be said; however; that these two schools appear to share a common feature which tends to weaken the v a l i d i t y or accuracy of the various interpretations which have been drawn from the studies i n question. Readings i n the a v a i l a b l e l i t e r a t u r e have l e f t the writer with the impression that those researchers who have investigated the phenomenon of leadership have a tendency to forget that the p o s i t i o n of a 'leader' can only have an operational existence i f there i s a c e r t a i n group of non-leaders or followers who are a v a i l a b l e to be l e d . There i s a tendency to give l i t t l e or no consideration to the p o s s i b i l i t y or the p r o b a b i l i t y that the manner i n which the group has become a group may determine the nature of leadership i n that group. The effect which the h i s t o r i c a l development and growth of the group has i n determining or l i m i t i n g the va r i e t y or types of leadership options has not been given i t s r i g h t f u l place i n analysis. As a r e s u l t many studies of leadership have an a i r of un-r e a l i t y f o r they seem to suggest that the leaders examined are i s o l a t e d from and quite independent of the people they are supposedly leading. I f the h i s t o r i c a l development of the group into a group has an effect on the type of leadership pattern evident i n that p a r t i c u l a r group, i t i s possible that the differences l n the conclusions reached i n other studies are due, not to errors i n research methods or to errors i n analysis-;' but to the fa c t that the communities studied d i f f e r so extensively i n t h e i r i n t e r n a l composition and development that the emergence of d i f f e r e n t types of leaders or leadership patterns was i n e v i t a b l e . I t i s safe to assume that there i s no law, whether made by nature; man or s o c i a l s c i e n t i s t s , which sti p u l a t e s that a l l communities must have the same kind of leaders or the same type of leader-ship pattern. Since d i f f e r e n t communities exist i t i s equally safe to assume that d i f f e r e n t kinds of leaders and d i f f e r e n t types of leadership patterns exist also; even within the same national society. - 3 -The t e s t i n g of such an hypothesis regarding the o r i g i n and the continued existence of a vari e t y of leadership patterns requires studies which consider a much greater quantity and va r i e t y of data covering much longer time periods than has been the case up to now. This study provides one such attempt to give a detailed, in-depth analysis of the development of a ce r t a i n community and the leadership pattern peculiar; but not unique; to i t . The community i n question i s an ethnic community, one of a number of such sub-communities found i n some s o c i e t i e s . The ethnic sub-community; as a type of community; comes into, being as a r e s u l t of the migration of people from one society into another. I t s development i s affected by a v a r i e t y of f a c t o r s ; such as the time of migration; rates of migration; characteristics, of the migrants; and so on. These and other factors influence the o r i g i n a l creation and subsequent development of the ethnic community. I t appears to be the ease that an ethnic community can only be a sub-community which exists within a lar g e r community - such as a c i t y - and of which i t i s an i n t e g r a l part. Because of t h i s s t r u c t u r a l l i m i t a t i o n the ethnic sub-community may not provide a useful test of any theories or hypotheses r e l a t i n g to the nature of leadership and - 4 -power d i s t r i b u t i o n patterns i n the lar g e r community. In the l a r g e r community the actions taken by a leader or leaders, however he or they may be i d e n t i f i e d ; can have a considerable effect on the l i v e s of the led, whether or not they are aware of the leader's existence and whether or not the l e d are aware of and agreeable to the actions taken. In the ethnic sub-community; and possibly l n other sub-communities, the actions of a leader can; generally speaking; only have an effect on the l e d i f there i s . a p r i o r and continuing commitment on t h e i r part to regard themselves as members of that p a r t i c u l a r sub-community. The 'members' of the lar g e r community," such as a c i t y ; are i n a sense captive members; f o r t h e i r mere presence i s the proof of t h e i r membership; whether or not that membership status i s ; d i r e c t l y or i n d i r e c t l y ^ a relevant c o n t r o l l i n g f a c t o r i n t h e i r l i v e s . But the sub-community; such as an ethnic community; lacks t h i s e s s e n t i a l l y t e r r i t o r i a l component and must, as a consequence, depend upon the personal commitment of i t s members on a continuing basis. This personal commitment i s b a s i c a l l y a voluntary action and as such i s e a s i l y influenced or changed by a number of factors which do not operated at le a s t not with the same e f f e c t ; i n the l a r g e r community. The voluntary nature of membership i n the sub-community i s c r u c i a l - 5 -f o r i t s main operational effect i s to place severe r e s t r i c t i o n s on the power of the sub-community's leaders. The exercise of t h e i r power can e a s i l y destroy the personal commitment of the members and once that commitment i s gone the sub-community ceases to e x i s t . This r e l a t i v e absence of power may reduce the value or usefulness of any analysis of leadership within such a community. This study w i l l attempt to give a de t a i l e d analysis of the h i s t o r i c a l development of a p a r t i c u l a r ethnic community, namely the Icelandic ethnic community which exists In the metropolitan area of the Lower Mainland of B r i t i s h Columbia, and the leadership patterns which appear within i t . In order to do so i t i s necessary to give some attention to the hi s t o r y of the primary migration of people from Iceland to Canada and to the secondary migrations which l e d some of these migrants, or t h e i r descendants, to the Lower Mainland. This w i l l , i n turn, provide the s t a r t i n g point f o r an analysis of the ethnic community which these people established; as well as an analysis of the factors which influenced the development of the leadership patterns which are evident i n I t . Gnce t h i s i s accomplished i t w i l l be possible to examine the existing l i t e r a t u r e , giving p a r t i c u l a r attention to the two main schools of thought; - 6 -to see i f t h i s study provides a new insight into the study of leadership as a general phenomenon. - 7 -CHAPTER II THE MIGRANTS Introduction The h i s t o r y of emigration from Iceland to Canada can be divided into three quite d i s t i n c t periods. The f i r s t period begins l n the early 1870*s and lasted u n t i l the end of the f i r s t World War. I t was during t h i s period that the bulk of a l l emigrants l e f t Iceland and the overwhelming majority chose Canada as t h e i r new homeland. The second period began at the end of the f i r s t World War and continued to the end of the second World War. During t h i s period the rate of emigration from Iceland dropped considerably and the United States replaced Canada as the f i r s t choice of the emigrants. The t h i r d and f i n a l period began at the conclusion of the second World War and continues to t h i s day. During t h i s period emigration from Iceland appears to have increased, at least temporarily, but the proportion of emigrants which came to Canada continued to decline. From being the f i r s t choice of emigrants during the f i r s t period Canada f e l l to t h i r d place during the t h i r d period, considerably behind the United States and Denmark and barely ahead of Sweden. The conditions which affe c t e d or created t h i s p a r t i c u l a r pattern of over-a l l emigration seem to have been d i f f e r e n t i n each of these periods. The effect of these varied conditions - 8 -i s evident both i n the t o t a l s i z e of the emigrating groups and i n the features which tend to characterize these groups as d i s t i n c t groups. The Primary Migration The Main Period: lo72 - 1918. The p r i n c i p a l and perhaps the only Important causal f a c t o r involved i n the pattern of emigration i n the f i r s t period was the extremely poor condition of the i s l a n d ^ economy, which could best be described as being not just stagnant but stagnating. In the three or four decades preceeding t h i s f i r s t period of emigration the population increased from *6,000 to 72,000 (Thorsteinsson, 1921, p. 13). But during t h i s period of rapid population increase the economy remained as i t had been f o r centuries - pr i m i t i v e i n technology and poor i n productivity (Bjomson, 1963). A g r i c u l t u r a l production i n p a r t i c u l a r was just s u f f i c i e n t to provide a subsistence l e v e l of existence and due to the pr i m i t i v e nature of the technology i n use production was espe c i a l l y s e n s i t i v e to adverse weather conditions, as f a r as crops were concerned, and to epidemic diseases, as f a r as li v e s t o c k was concerned. On a number of occasions during these years the p a r t i a l or complete destruction of food crops and liv e s t o c k due to these conditions brought the islanders to the brink of mass-starvation, - 9 -a f a t e prevented only by foreign charity (Gudmundsson, 1955, I956, passim; J . Helgason, 193?» p. 210). Although the Icelanders might have possessed the desire and the a b i l i t y to re-organize or modernize t h e i r economy they were prevented from doing so by the p o l i t i c a l status of t h e i r homeland. Por several centuries the i s l a n d had been an i n t e g r a l part of the Danish Kingdom and r e s p o n s i b i l i t y f o r i t s administra-t i o n l a y with o f f i c i a l s of the Danish government i n Copenhagen. Every decision, no matter how minor; had to be referr e d to them f o r action. An extreme example of the extent of t h e i r control i s the case of the leaking roof of the o f f i c i a l residence of the Bishop of Iceland, an incident which took plaoe during the 1830*3. Prom the time that the roof began to leak i t took two years f o r these o f f i c i a l s to authorize repairs (H.E. Johnson, 19*3). A comparable time lag was evident i n decisions of greater importance. The winds of change which swept through Europe during the l a s t century eventually gave r i s e to p o l i t i c a l a g i t a t i o n aimed at obtaining l o c a l autonomy l n p o l i t i c a l and economio matters i n Iceland. This campaign was i n i t i a t e d and maintained l a r g e l y by Icelanders residing i n Copenhagen. These individuals were instrumental i n obtaining a number of concessions i n the p o l i t i c a l sphere but these tended to be of such - 10 -a minor nature that l i t t l e change occurred in the island's basic position. Among their achievements were the restoration of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing, as a consultative assembly i n the 18*0*3; the extension of press freedom to Iceland in the 1850's and the promulgation of a constitution In 1874-. But the Danish government retained control over a l l f i s c a l and economic policies so that the effect of these concessions on conditions i n Iceland was slight. Control over these important policy areas was not turned over to the Icelanders u n t i l 188*, but by then i t was too late to halt the wave of emigration which erupted without warning i n the early 1870»s. Mention might be made, at this time, of two migrations which occurred before 1870. The f i r s t , i n the 1850's, Involved a number of Icelanders who had been converted to Mormonism by Icelandic students who, in turn, had been converted by missionaries in Copenhagen. These people appear to have been subjected to some persecution because of their religious beliefs (Gudmundsson, 1956, pp. 213, 215) and l e f t the country to settle in Spanish Forks, Utah (Thomas, 19*3). The second; in the 1860»s, involved a society which was established to promote mass-emigration to Brazil. Several hundred people joined the society and the Brazilian Imperial - 11 -Government apparently agreed to supply the prospective s e t t l e r s with transportation. The promised ships never a r r i v e d hut a few people made the journey on t h e i r own. The extreme distances involved and the transportation d i f f i c u l t i e s prevented any major move to B r a z i l and most of the o r i g i n a l s e t t l e r s eventually returned to Iceland or went to North America (W. Krlstjanson, 1950). •Eruption 1 i s perhaps the best one-word description of the wave of emigration which began i n the 1870*s, even though the beginning was modest: four s i n g l e men to the United States i n 18?0 (Walters; !953t P. *H) and one man to Canada i n 1872 (Lindal, 1953). But i n 1873 a group of I83 persons came to Canada, followed by a group of 375 i n I87*. Prom then on emigration increased by leaps and bounds, encouraged i n part by l e t t e r s which described the new land and l i f e i n glowing terms (Walters, 1953, p. 3*) and i n part by the determined e f f o r t s of some of the early emigrants who returned to Iceland as immigration agents f o r the Canadian government. The l a t t e r appear to have been driven by a desire to rescue t h e i r fellow countrymen "from the dark and desolate inhabiation (sic) and poverty s t r i c k e n communities o f . . . ( t h e i r ) poor and lonely native islands (Freeman, I892) - 12 -Data on the number of Icelandic emigrants to Canada have been gathered from a va r i e t y of secondary sources f o r the years 1872 to 1902, These figures are given i n Table I, below. TABLE I Icelandic Immigration to Canada; 1872-1902. 18?2 - 1 1887 - 2000 I873 - 183 1 8 8 8 -187* - 375 1893 - 5000 I876 - 1300 1900 - 1003 1878 - 200 1902 - 230 Souroes: Chrlstopherson, 1901; Gibbons, 1938; Gudmundsson, 1955; B.K. Kristjansson, I96I; L l n d a l , 1962. These sources indicate that the t o t a l number of Icelanders who migrated to Canada during t h i s period was Just over 10,000. This f i g u r e can be compared with that given i n another report which uses Icelandic census data to place the t o t a l number of emigrants from Iceland between 1870 and 1900 at 12,308 (A. Helgason, I965). Canadian government reports providing s t a t i s t i c a l information on immigration by Icelanders or those of Icelandic o r i g i n to Canada are r e a d i l y a v a i l a b l e beginning i n 1906. The relevant figures f o r the balance of t h i s f i r s t period are given i n Table I I . - 13 -TABLE II Icelandic Immigration to Canada^ 1906-1918. 1906 - 168 1912 - 205 1907 - *6 1913 - 23I 1908 - 97 191* - 292 1909 - 35 1915 - 1*5 1910 - 95 1916 - 15 1911 - 250 1917 - 9 1918 - 3 Sources: Canada Year Book. 1907 -1919. The t o t a l number of Icelandic immigrants i n the balance of t h i s period, according to these fig u r e s , i s 1 5 9 L These figures do not, however; indicate how many of these immigrants came d i r e c t l y from Iceland to Canada. Beginning around 1900 there was a considerable secondary migration of Icelandic s e t t l e r s from North Dakota to Saskatchewan and Alberta ( B.E. Kristjansson; I96I, I96*, passim; Walters^ I953t passim; Lindal,' I955t passim)• I t i s not possible to give exact figures on the s i z e of t h i s secondary migration but i t might be noted that a study of the American born i n Canada; based on Canadian census data; showed that i n 1921 there were 1008 residents i n the three p r a i r i e provinces who, though they were recorded as being of Icelandic ethnic o r i g i n , had been born i n the United States (Coats and Maclean, 19*3; P. H 2 , Table XLI). The emigrants of t h i s period seem to have been a cross-section of Icelandic society as i t - Ik -was at this time. A l l occupational groups - farmers and fishermen, ministers and businessmen; writers and journalists - appear to have been well represented; as were a l l age groups. Most of these emigrants l e f t Iceland with their families. Kristjansson (I96I) provides brief l i f e histories of numerous Icelandic-Canadians and Icelandic-Americans; including 110* immigrants. Of these immigrants 878; 79.5$i travelled i n nuclear family groups and an additional 89, 8.0$, in partial family groups. Only 137; 13.2$, were single persons, travelling alone or with some other group. The economic conditions which provided the major incentive to the emigrants began to change after 188* but several years passed before these changes had an effect on emigration, which continued at a very high rate during the 1880*s and 1890*s. A national bank was established in I885 and cash transactions began to replace the barter system which had existed for centuries (Thorstelnsson, 1921, p. 83). A beginning was made on the construction of a road network and of harbour f a c i l i t i e s (Malmstrom; 1958, p. 191)» The government began to allocate growing amounts of money for the improvement of agricultural techniques and productivity. Most of this money was channelled through agricultural co-operatives and priority was given to improving - 15 -livestock, fencing ranges, providing i r r i g a t i o n f a c i l i t i e s and the introduction of machinery. Between I876 and 1900 government expenditures f o r these purposes increased from 2*00 kronur per year to *2,000 kronur and by 1910 these expenditures amounted to over 228,000 kronur (Thorstelnsson, 1921, pp. 59 - 63).' At the same time steps were taken to re-organize and modernize the f i s h i n g industry. Pre-vio u s l y f i s h i n g had been a part-time occupation of some farmers; whose equipment consisted of open row boats and hand l i n e s . Some 3200 row boats and 38 decked vessels made up the f i s h i n g f l e e t i n 18?6. Excess f i s h production, which amounted to 5*00 tons i n that year; was the island's primary export commodity. During the 1880*s and 189©»s these row boats were replaced, more or les s gradually, by a f l e e t of decked s a i l i n g vessels; Their day was a short one. The f i r s t steam-powered vessel was acquired i n the 189©'s and the f i r s t trawler i n 190*. By 1922 the s a i l i n g ships had been l a r g e l y replaced by steam and motor-powered vessels. The development of centralized f i s h processing plants proceeded at the same time and these plants; and t h e i r a l l i e d service industries; were able to absorb both the workers displaced by the mechanization of the a g r i c u l t u r a l industry and the new workers - 16 -entering the labour force f o r the f i r s t time. As a r e s u l t of these and other changes i n the island's economy the economic pressures began to decline a f t e r the turn of the century and as these pressures declined the incentive f o r emigration declined as well. The Second Period: 1919 - 19*5. Emigration to Canada resumed a f t e r the end of the war but the numbers involved were quite small compared to the pre-war f i g u r e s . The a v a i l a b l e o f f i c i a l s t a t i s t i c s are reproduced i n Tables I I I - l and I I I - 2 , below. Two tables are used since the figures f o r 1926 and subsequent years indicate the ports of o r i g i n from which immigrants entered Canada. TABLE I I I - l Icelandic Immigration to Canada, 1 9 1 9 - 1 9 2 5 . 1919 - 12 1923 - 21 1920 - 11 192* - 2? 1921 - 50 1925 - * 9 1922 - 37 - 17 -TABLE I I I - 2 Icelandic Immigration to Canada; by ports of o r i g i n , 1926-19*5. Year USA* OPP** Year USA OPP 1926 22 53 1936 6 6 1927 22 30 1937 2 1 1928 18 28 1938 5 3 1929 23 2* 1939 8 1930 28 6 19*0 * -1931 17 25 19*1 * -1932 10 - 19*2 5 _ 1933 6 1 19*3 * 1 193** 10 - 19** * 1 1935 12 1 19*5 6 1 * Entering from United States ports. ** Entering from other foreign ports; Sources: Canada Year Book. I927 - 19*6. The improved economic conditions i n Iceland at the beginning of t h i s period removed the p r i n c i p a l incentive f o r emigration on the part of large groups. However; i t i s l i k e l y that the economic or occupational situations faced by p a r t i c u l a r families or individuals often l e d to a decision to emigrate. During the l a t t e r portion of t h i s period, on the other hand, economic conditions were so poor that even those who wanted to emigrate could not do so and a f t e r the war began there were further obstacles to emigration. During t h i s period there appears to have been a s i g n i f i c a n t increase i n the proportion of single males and single females among the emigrants. In t h i s connection i t might be noted that Canadian immigration reports f o r the years I926 to 1931 show - 18 -that just over 20% of a l l immigrants from Iceland i n these years were females classed as domestic servants. The T h i r d Period; 19*6 -Emigration from Iceland a f t e r the second World War was influenced by cer t a i n factors which had not been present previously. One of these was the effe c t or the r e s u l t of the stationing of foreign troops i n Iceland during the war and t h e i r return a f t e r the beginning of the Korean War. Hany of these s o l d i e r s married Icelandic women and took them; and t h e i r Iceland-born children; abroad a f t e r t h e i r tours of service were f i n i s h e d . Between 1953 and i 9 6 0 over k0% of a l l emigrants were the Icelandic wives and Iceland-born children of such foreigners, most of whom were American s o l d i e r s (Utflutningur. 1962) During these years ( 1 9 5 3 - i 9 6 0 ) over 50% of a l l Icelandic emigrants went to the United States while only 9% went to Canada. And many of the l a t t e r subsequently went to the United States. The a v a i l a b l e figures of immigration by Icelanders into Canada during t h i s period are given i n Table IV. - 19 -TABLE IV Icelandic Immigration to Canada; by ports of origin, 1 9 * 6 - 1 9 6 5 . Year USA* OPP** Year USA OFP 19*6 12 3 1956 «. *1 19*7 7 1* 1957 5 56 19*8 * 8 1958 9 * 3 19*9 7 3 1959 7 23 1950 * 13 i 9 6 0 2 12 1951 5 18 1961 2 5 1952 10 35 1962 3 1 1953 2 52 1963 6 12 195* 11 39 196* 1 16 1955 6 19 1965 6 3 * Entering from United States Ports. ** Entering from other foreign ports. Sources: Canada Year Book. 19*7 - I 9 6 6 . There are certain characteristics of the emigrants, or rather the immigrants, of this period which are worth mentioning. In many eases these individuals were not strangers to international migrations and many were; by birth or naturalization, citizens of countries other than Iceland. Of the f i f t y immigrants of Icelandic ethnic origin in 195* only 32 were Icelandic citizens and the others were British, Danish, German and American citizens. Twenty five of these immigrants came from Iceland and the others came from Australia; Denmark; Norway;" Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. In 1 9 5 6 , although thirty eight of the fourty one immigrants were Icelandic citizens only twenty two of them came to Canada from Iceland. The others came from Denmark; - 20 -Finland, Norway and the United Kingdom, While many immigrants of Icelandic ethnic origin came to Canada from countries other than Iceland there were many immigrants of non-Icelandic origins who came from Iceland. Between 195* and 1956 there were twenty five immigrants from Iceland of non-Icelandic origins. These included individuals of British, Swedish, Norwegian, Lithuanian, Irishf German; Maltese and Swiss origins. It might be noted i n this connection that between I96I and 1967 only two immigrants from Iceland came to Vancouver. Both of these immigrants were Moroccans who had spent several years in Iceland before coming to Canada. And both, incidentally; speak Icelandic with a fluency which embarrasses many members of the local Icelandic community. Many of the families which emigrated from Iceland to Canada after the war did not plan to stay in Canada permanently or changed their views after arriving. In I96I, for example; there were sixteen families of post-war immigrants i n Vancouver but by I967 only four of these were s t i l l in the city or i t s suburbs. Two had moved to other parts of the province; fiv e had returned to Iceland and five had gone to the United States. It might be noted that for many of these - 21 -f a m i l i e s the decision to leave Ieeland was prompted by business and/or other d i f f i c u l t i e s faced by the head of the family. Several l e f t bankrupt businesses and heavy debts behind them and i n one case and possibly l n more cases the family head seems to have attrac t e d the attention of the Icelandic p o l i c e ; perhaps with j u s t i f i c a t i o n . In view of the f a c t that many of these individuals had f a i l e d to adjust them-selves to l i f e i n Iceland; whatever the reason f o r that f a i l u r e , i t i s not surprising to note that many of them f a i l e d to adjust themselves to l i f e i n Canada. Many of those who went into business found out that business firms operate quite d i f f e r e n t l y i n Canada; so much so that several of these persons went bankrupt once again and; more often than not; escaped t h e i r debts by returning to Iceland. Actions such as these tended to offend the older immigrant and older native born groups i n the community f o r such actions detracted from the 'good reputation' which they had b u i l t up f o r themselves and t h e i r fellow Icelandic-Canadians. These groups were understandably cool towards a l l new immigrants u n t i l the l a t t e r proved that they too were 'good* Icelandlc-Canadians. - 22 -The Secondary Migrations. The f i r s t settlement established by the Icelanders In Canada came Into being l a r g e l y by accident. In 1873 a group of I83 persons l e f t Iceland with the intention of s e t t l i n g i n Wisconsin. Por some reason the group went by ship from England to Quebec C i t y ; instead of to New York; and began an overland train-journey to the United States; While s t i l l i n Canada; however ir the group was v i s i t e d by an Immigration agent who talked most of the s e t t l e r s into staying i n Canada. This group s e t t l e d near Rousseau; Ontario. In the following year a la r g e r group which was on i t s way to Nova Scotia was s i m i l a r i l y diverted to Kinmont, Ontario (W. Kristjanson, 19*3)• Both settlements were short-l i v e d f o r the promised work on railway construction di d not materialize and the land the s e t t l e r s received was either useless or of a type with which they were not f a m i l i a r . In 187* two groups from these s e t t l e -ments; one with about 125 persons and the other with about *o; moved to Nova Scotia were they s e t t l e d as o r i g i n a l l y planned. Neither of these groups; one of which s e t t l e d near Halifax and the other near Lockeport; was able to e s t a b l i s h i t s e l f s uccessfully and by 1882 both had disbanded, with most of the s e t t l e r s going to Manitoba and North Dakota (Cronmiller; - 23 -1961f P. 23I). Those of the o r i g i n a l s e t t l e r s who d i d not go to Nova Scotia moved to Winnipeg i n 1875• A party of some 250 persons reached the c i t y that f a l l and was greeted by a large crowd which came to see what the •Eskimoes* looked l i k e (Walters, 1953V P. 5 3 ) . About half of t h i s group remained i n Winnipeg and the rest moved north of the ex i s t i n g p r o v i n c i a l boundary to an area on the south-west shore of Lake Winnipeg, where the Dominion government had created an exclusive reserve f o r them (Laxdal, 1 9 6 1 ) . Here they established the settlement of New Iceland (Somervillef 19*5)» a settlement which i s generally^ and probably erroneously; regarded as the *mother settlement 1 of a l l Icelandic settlements i n North America. In addition to giving the s e t t l e r s exclusive rights to the land i n the reserve the Dominion government provided them with a loan of $ 8 0 , 0 0 0 , which was to be used to buy equipment and seed. This loan was never repaid. The 1mother settlement 1 turned out to be not so motherly." Two years a f t e r the Icelanders a r r i v e d New Iceland was h i t by a combination of epidemics, floods, droughts and food shortages -events which were i n part caused by the s e t t l e r 1 s i n a b i l i t y to use the land given him properly and - 2k -p r o f i t a b l y (Vanderhill; 1963),Many of the s e t t l e r s moved to other locations and founded other communities. New s e t t l e r s came to New Iceland; either to s e t t l e permanently or temporarily, but t h e i r numbers were never great enough to use a l l the land which had been a l l o c a t e d f o r them. New Iceland served, to a certain extent, as a centre to which many new immigrants came before they decided where to go. However, by f a r the majority of the new immigrants stopped i n Winnipeg and, i f they moved, moved d i r e c t l y to the desired l o c a t i o n . Numerous small communities were established by the Icelandic immigrants at S e l k i r k ; Vogar; Brown; Argyle, etc., (Jonasson, 1901). By the mld-1880*s small groups had reached the then North-West T e r r i t o r i e s , where they s e t t l e d i n the Churchbridge-Tantallon and the Q u i l l Lakes areas. A few years l a t e r the f i r s t s e t t l e r s were establishing them-selves i n what was to become the province of Alberta. Here the M a r k e r v i l l e - I n n i s f a l l area near Red Deer became the major Icelandic settlement. The f i r s t Icelandic immigrants to s e t t l e i n B r i t i s h Columbia d i d so i n 1887; near V i c t o r i a . By the early 1890*s there were a number of fam i l i e s i n V i c t o r i a but beginning i n 189* many of these moved to the new Icelandic settlement on Point Roberts i n Washington state. Other Immigrants reached the - 25 -Okanagan In the early 1890*st the Princeton area i n the l a t e 1890*s and the Crescent Beach region shortly a f t e r the turn of the century. Two unsuccessful attempts were made to es t a b l i s h i s o l a t e d Icelandic communities i n the province. The f i r s t was established i n I9I3 on Smith Island, i n the estuary of the Skeena River, and the second was begun about 1915 on Hunter Island i n the FitzHugh Sound area. The Hunter Island community broke up during the 1920*s and the Smith Island community broke up i n the 1 9 * 0 *s. The p r i n c i p a l centre f o r Icelandic s e t t l e -ment i n the province was the metropolitan area of Vancouver. The f i r s t immigrant a r r i v e d during the 1 8 9 0*3.and by the turn of the century there were possibly 100 Icelanders residing i n the c i t y . The l a t e r movement of Icelandic immigrants and t h e i r descendants to the c i t y was a gradual migration involving i n d i v i d u a l s and families who pa r t i c i p a t e d i n the general movement of people to the province a f t e r the turn of the century. Although there was a tendency f o r the immigrants as a whole to s e t t l e i n i t i a l l y i n Manitoba i t was only a short time before they and t h e i r descendants began to spread further west and a f t e r the turn of the century there was a further movement to the eastern provinces. Some in d i c a t i o n of the - 26 -present d i s t r i b u t i o n of Canadians of Icelandic ethnic o r i g i n i s given i n Table V*, below. P a r t i c u l a r attention should be paid to the figures f o r B r i t i s h Columbia; as these give a f a i r l y rough i n d i c a t i o n of the growth of the Icelandic ethnic group i n the metropolitan area. TABLE V Canadians of Icelandic o r i g i n ; showing p a r t i a l d i s t r i b u t i o n by s p e c i f i c provinces; 1881-1961. Year Canada Man. B.C. Gnt. Other Prov. 1881 1,003?- 773 -o 57 173 1901 6 .057T - 177 1911 7 , 109 5 . 1 3 5 2*7 1*5 1 .582 1921 1 5 , 8 7 6 1 1 , 0 * 3 57 3 1 37 * , 1 2 3 1931 1 9 , 3 8 2 1 3 , * 5 0 858 326 * , 7 * 7 19*1 2 1 , 0 5 0 1 3 , 9 5 * 1 ,*78 817 *,801 1951 23 ,623c, 1 3 . 6 * 9 3 .557 1 .371 5 . 0 * 6 . 1961 3 0 , 6 2 3 ^ 1*,5*7 5 , 1 3 6 2 , 3 1 3 8 , 6 2 7 3 Sources: Canada Year Book, various years. Notes: li These figures cover only those born i n Iceland (see table VI), 2 . This f i g u r e i s f o r 1902. B.C. Bureau of P r o v i n c i a l Information, Population of B r i t i s h Columbia According to E l e c t o r a l D i s t r i c t s . 1902. Victoria-; B.C. King»s P r i n t e r , 1902. 3 . I t has been pointed out by Ruth ( I 9 6 5 ) that the f i g u r e f o r the t o t a l number of Icelandic Canadians i s not correct. The error was due to enumerators i n Quebec marking Icelandic when they should have marked I r i s h ; the French versions of these two names being almost the same. The figures f o r the t o t a l number and the number i n the other provinces should be reduced by about 2 , * 0 0 to correct f o r t h i s . - 27 -CHAPTER I I I THE CULTURAL DEFINITION OP THE ETHNIC COMMUNITY General Comments Studies of community leadership and/or power d i s t r i b u t i o n patterns do not usually attempt to give or to develop a s p e c i f i c d e f i n i t i o n f o r the term community. Such a d e f i n i t i o n i s not usually needed, however, since these studies have generally dealt with e n t i t i e s which are e a s i l y i d e n t i f i e d as being communities; such as a r u r a l area, a town or a c i t y . Such an approach gives a p r a c t i c a l d e f i n i t i o n of a community as being an entity which has d e f i n i t e and known t e r r i t o r i a l boundaries. Given such a d e f i n i t i o n ; the iden t i f 1 c a t i o n of the community's members i s a r e l a t i v e l y simple task f o r obviously the members are those persons who l i v e within the prescribed t e r r i t o r i a l boundaries. But since any community w i l l ; from time to timef play hostess to non-residents i t may be desirable to di s t i n g u i s h between the r e s i d e n t i a l members who a c t u a l l y l i v e i n the community and the v i s i t i n g members who may be present from time to time on a regular or i r r e g u l a r basis. Obviously! these two groups of members w i l l have d i f f e r e n t i n t e r e s t s and w i l l accordingly play quite d i f f e r e n t roles i n the operation of the t e r r i t o r i a l community. - 28 -The ethnic communities which are found from time to time i n urban centers i n North America are not, generally speaking, based upon the i d e n t i f i c a t i o n of a s p e c i f i c t e r r i t o r y as being the l o c a t i o n of t h e i r community. There are undoubtedly some exceptions to t h i s general rule, and one thinks i n p a r t i c u l a r of some Negro sub-communities and the i s o l a t e d communities established by some small r e l i g i o u s sects, but usually the ethnic community dees not occupy a s p e c i f i c t e r r i t o r y and only such a s p e c i f i c t e r r i t o r y . The absence of t h i s t e r r i t o r i a l element makes i t d i f f i c u l t to i d e n t i f y the members of the ethnic community, without whom, of course; there would be no community. I t Is necessary to develop n o n - t e r r i t o r i a l c r i t e r i a which can be used to esta b l i s h the population boundaries of such a sub-community. An easy way out of t h i s dilemma Is to f a l l back on population s t a t i s t i c s which c l a s s i f y people i n terms of ethnic, r e l i g i o u s or r a c i a l a f f i l i a t i o n s . Each of these character-i s t i c s r e f e r s to d i f f e r e n t q u a l i t a t i v e standards (Ryder; 1955) out despite these differences they are frequently lumped together without explanation. Canadian immigration s t a t i s t i c s generally c l a s s i f y immigrants i n terms of 'ethnic o r i g i n 1 (such as - 29 -Belgian, French or I t a l i a n ) but some are i d e n t i f i e d i n terms of ' r e l i g i o n 1 (Jewish) and others i n terms of race (Negro, North American Indian). Population s t a t i s t i c s are usually reproduced i n much the same manner. The i d e n t i f i c a t i o n of the ethnic community's members would be a simple task i f such s t a t i s t i c s could be used f o r such a purpose. And i t i s easy to point to writers who have used these s t a t i s t i c s i n such a manner. This approach i s p a r t i c u l a r i l y used by Canadian writers who accept the idea of the • c u l t u r a l mosaic' as a v a l i d concept. According to t h i s idea Canadian culture consists of the separate and d i s t i n c t cultures of a l l resident ethnic groups; each of which i s contributing i t s share to the new Canadian culture. Such a view i s expressed i n and supported by the writings of ethnic historians (Lindal, 1 9 5 5 ; 1967; Ramsay; 1 9 5 8 ) , other observers of the ethnic scene or the ' c u l t u r a l mosaic' (Gibbons, 1 9 3 8 ; Patterson, 1 9 5 5 ) t government publications (Some Notes on the Canadian Family Tree. i 9 6 0 ) and i n studies whose approaches are or seem to be more s c i e n t i f i c (Lawless, 1959; Walhouse, 1961 ; Vallee, et a l . , 1 9 6 * ) . But such an approach to t h i s problem of i d e n t i f y i n g the members of the ethnic community i s not - 30 -p a r t i e u l a r i l y useful. Playing with the idea of the 'c u l t u r a l mosaic' i s probably good f o r morale, e s p e c i a l l y i f one wishes to use i t to cast d i r e c t or Indirect scorn upon the 'melting pot' which a l l e g e d l y operates south of the border. I t takes more than words, however, to give r e a l i t y to the concept of the ' c u l t u r a l mosaic! A community i s an organized en t i t y and as such represents a method whereby certain common inter e s t s can be achieved. In the larger community, such as a c i t y , those common interests need not be generally understood or accepted i n order to be i n operation. In a c i t y ; f o r example, i t i s i n the common in t e r e s t that law and order be maintained, and t h i s can be done even though the members are not generally aware of and i n agreement with the methods being used to achieve t h i s objective. The sub-community i s s l m i l a r i l y an entity organized l n order to r e a l i z e c e r t a i n interests which are common to some i n d i v i d u a l members of the larger community. Such p a r t i c u l a r i n t e r e s t s are i n addition to or take the place of some of the interests of the large r community. But because the sub-community's int e r e s t s are the s p e c i a l interests of the few, then the p r i o r and continuing actual recognition and acceptance of those int e r e s t s i s a necessary pre-- 31 -condition f o r the emergence of the sub-community. The ethnic community i s a sub-community which i s organized i n order to achieve cer t a i n in t e r e s t s or objectives. Those interests may involve a desire; on the part of some or a l l members of a group which can be i d e n t i f i e d as being ethnic group X, to preserve a l l or some part of t h e i r • c u l t u r a l 1 heritage. S p e c i f i c a l l y , these X*s may wish to preserve a r e l i g i o n , a language, eating habits or l i f e ceremonies which are associated with the society from which they or t h e i r ancestors came. Or there may be a desire to provide some mutual support to i n d i v i d u a l X*s on a group basis;* with such support taking the form of insurance and/or welfare schemes; sueh as those associated with the Sons of Norway organizations. Or there may be an attempt to give the X»s, as a group, p o l i t i c a l power i n the larger community;" as was the case with some of the early organizational e f f o r t s associated with Ukranian s e t t l e r s i n Canada (Kaye, 1957). But whatever the s p e c i f i c nature of the interests involved, the p r i o r and continuing recognition; acceptance and support of those in t e r e s t s i s a necessary pre-condition f o r the emergence and continued existence of the ethnic sub-community. The member of the ethnic community; i n - 32 -order to q u a l i f y f o r membership, must give continuing proof of h i s acceptance of and support f o r the community's s p e c i a l i n t e r e s t s by a c t u a l l y p a r t i c i -pating, to a greater or l e s s e r degree, i n the a c t i v i t i e s which represent the attainment or the maintenance of those i n t e r e s t s . The organized; on-going and; i n a sense, goal-oriented nature of these a c t i v i t e s requires that they be managed by or through the medium of organizations which are designed to serve general or p a r t i c u l a r i n t e r e s t s . The required kind of p a r t i c i p a t i o n , therefore, i s some degree of involvement i n one or more of the organizations whose c o l l e c t i v e membership establishes the population boundaries of the ethnic sub-community. Given such an approach the i d e n t i f i c a t i o n of the ethnic community's members becomes a r e l a t i v e l y simple operation, involving the i d e n t i f i c a t i o n of the members of these ethnic organizations or associations. The Ethnic Community as a C u l t u r a l Community. I t seems reasonable to say that the phrase 'the ethnic community' Implies the existence of a d i s t i n c t c u l t u r a l group whose members, i n t h e i r habits and l i f e customs, share c u l t u r a l and/or s o c i a l features or standards which are q u a l i t a t i v e l y - 33 -d i f f e r e n t from those evident i n the host community. Such a b e l i e f , as was noted e a r l i e r , i s i m p l i c i t , both ov e r t l y and covertly, i n the writings of many observers, such as the studies by Walhouse ( I 9 6 I ) , an examination of the contributions of ethnic groups to the c u l t u r a l geography of Vancouver, and Lawless ( 1 9 5 9 ) ; an analysis of the attitudes of the leaders of ethnic groups to the process of c u l t u r a l a s s i m i l a t i o n a f f e c t i n g t h e i r peoples. I t i s apparent that the i n i t i a l e s t a b l i s h -ment of ethnic associations, such as those established i n the community examined i n t h i s study, was motivated by a desire to perpetuate c u l t u r a l and s o c i a l standards which were not those of the dominant or host group. The Icelanders; e s p e c i a l l y the early immigrants or some of them; believe and believed themselves to be an ext r a o r d i n a r i l y l i t e r a t e people -and they honoured t h i s b e l i e f by establishing l i t e r a r y s o c i e t i e s such as Ingolfur i n Vancouver. The p r i n c i p a l objective of such groups was the establishment of l i b r a r i e s of Icelandic books to be used by t h e i r members. An extension of t h i s p a r t i c u l a r b e l i e f was the establishment of Icelandic language publications which s p e c i a l i z e d i n the presentation of scholarly appraisals of Icelandic h i s t o r y and l i t e r a t u r e . The simultaneous - 3 * -development of numerous; and usually short-lived, Icelandic-language newspapers was a further r e s u l t of t h i s b e l i e f , though not necessarily only t h i s b e l i e f . The Icelanders also believed themselves to be a very r e l i g i o u s people - and so they established congregations i n which the Icelandic version of the Lutheran f a i t h could be propagated. Such organized a c t i v i t i e s permitted the continued display and use of such other c u l t u r a l Items as Icelandic food and the Icelandic language. But even i n t h i s period of i n i t i a l a c t i v i t y there were at l e a s t two conditions which made the ultimate f a i l u r e of these e f f o r t s to preserve and perpetuate t h e i r culture i n e v i t a b l e and unavoidable. In the f i r s t place, these a c t i v i t i e s never attracted the support of a majority of the early immigrants and t h e i r f i r s t native-born descendants. I t appears that the perpetuation of these c u l t u r a l differences, within the framework of the ethnic community, was not an important element i n the l i v e s of most of the early immigrants and t h e i r descendants. I t i s possible that the b i t t e r factionalism which marked the early attempts by the immigrants to est a b l i s h v i a b l e communities antagonized many po t e n t i a l members to the point weee they refused - 35 -to have anything to do with these attempts. The bitterness of those disputes i s i l l u s t r a t e d by the following quotation from a l e t t e r written; i n English; by an Icelander i n Winnipeg; i n 1 8 9 2 ; to a f r i e n d who was working as an immigration agent In Iceland. "Here i n Winnipeg? things are run-ning much the same as usual. The two opposing elements i n our Icelandic society, are s t i l l at each others throat; and w i l l be; so long as the malignant s p i r i t ; at the head of our opponents1; continues to be the guiding s t a r of that organization. We are...at a considerable better advantage now than we used to be, f o r the simple reason; that some of those who have hitherto managed to parade the country i n t h e i r sheep clothing; have at l a s t been unmasked. Even 0 has been keeping h i s s o i l e d l i p s much clo s e r together of l a t e than he used to do. "Every dog has h i s day* and I am i n c l i n e d to think; that he has had h i s . There i s great j o l l i f i c a t i o n here among our f r i e n d s ; over the recovery of Mr B y which seems now to be almost certain." He appeared i n our Church...and made a very touching speech;^ His reappearance on the scene seems to have c a r r i e d con-sternation into the hearts of the enemies of our church; "Logberg" (one of the Icelandic-language newspapers) i s getting along f a i r l y w e ll I think; i t manages to make both ends meet, and that i s a l l . 1 I am a f r a i d that Hkr. (Heimskringla - the opposing news-paper) i s nearly i n the soup by t h i s time; and I do r e a l l y believe; that by the time you reach Winnipeg again; you may have the chance of placing a wreath on her grave. In P o l i t i c s things are very quiet. • .3 (Freeman; 1 892 ) - 36 -Such factionalism was not a permanent condition hut one which occurred from time to time, usually as a re s u l t of disputes among the leaders. The his t o r y of the l o c a l Icelandic community was marked "by at le a s t three periods of major i n t e r n a l c o n f l i c t , the f i r s t of which occurred i n the 1 9 2 0 's. One of the important Issues of that time was the question of whether or not an Icelandic community h a l l should be b u i l t i n Vancouver. The leading supporters of that project were the then President and Secretary of the Ladies A i d Solskin, while the major opponent was the Aid's treasurer, Mrs R. A f t e r a long and b i t t e r struggle Mrs R prevailed, and her opponents withdrew from any further p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n the community's a c t i v i t i e s . The early 1 9 * 0 's also witnessed major disputes, many of which revolved around the esta b l i s h -ment of the church congregation and i n which Mr E played a p a r t i c u l a r i l y prominent part. In view of the changes which took place i n the community's as s o c i a t i o n a l structure at t h i s time i t i s not sur p r i s i n g that these disputes were both numerous and b i t t e r . Nor i s i t surprising to note that many ac t i v e members withdrew i n the course of these disputes and because of these disputes and t h e i r outcome, some f o r a l l time and others f o r shorter - 37 -periods. Some of the l a t t e r were l a t e r to return and play a prominent part i n the disputes which raged almost continuously throughout the decade of the I960 ,s. This most recent era of controversy began with an i n t e r n a l struggle f o r control of the Home Society and may yet end i n the same way. As was the case with the e a r l i e r episodes these disputes were p a r t l y responsible f o r the loss of some members, p a r t i c u -l a r l y from the church congregation and from Strondin, though i n both cases the losses have been p a r t l y re-couped i n recent years. This era was, however, marked by a very s i g n i f i c a n t development - the decline of the community's unity. In each of the e a r l i e r periods of stress there was a loss of members but associated with t h i s there appears to have been a consolidation of the remaining members, i n the sense that more of the surviving members held multiple memberships and as a re s u l t the community was integrated to a greater degree. But the disputes of the 1960's divided the community into three d i s t i n c t groupings - the church congregation, Strondin ( l a t e r the Icelandic Canadian Club) and the Home Society - Solskin group. These had di f f e r e n t e f f e c t i v e memberships and d i f f e r e n t o f f i c e r s , and the more recent developments i n the recruitment of new members and o f f i c e r s have tended - 38 -to Intensify and exaggerate t h i s d i v i s i o n to the point were a restoration of e f f e c t i v e community -i n the sense of members with e f f e c t i v e multiple memberships - seems u n l i k e l y . This membership problem i s related to the other condition a f f e c t i n g the s u r v i v a l of the ethnic community as a c u l t u r a l community. The founders and charter members of the Icelandic associations established l o c a l l y acted on the basis of t h e i r acceptance of the r e a l i t y of t h e i r c u l t u r a l d i s t i n c t n e s s . However, these individuals learned, sooner or l a t e r , that they were not only a minority within a minority but that they were also a dying breed. While i t may have been possible f o r them to maintain d i f f e r e n t c u l t u r a l features i n t h e i r own l i v e s , they were not able, d i r e c t l y or i n d i r e c t l y , to arrange f o r the perpetuation of those differences i n the community. The Icelandio immigrants and t h e i r descendants were quite early scattered among peoples of other o r i g i n s , i n p a r t i c u l a r people of English . o r i g i n , both i n Manitoba and elsewhere. They l i v e d i n an environment which was English i n language and customs, which they had to adopt to a growing degree In order to l i v e . Obviously, the adjustments which were necessary were made at the - 39 -expense of t h e i r o r i g i n a l c u l t u r a l habits. The long-term r e s u l t of such a process Is, inevi t a b l y , complete c u l t u r a l a s s i m i l a t i o n . Apparently the only way i n which assim i l a t i o n could be avoided i s f o r the immigrant group to i s o l a t e i t s e l f p h y s i c a l l y and as completely as possible. This the Icelandic immigrants did not do, and as a res u l t the eventual disappearance of t h e i r distinctness i n c u l t u r a l terms i s only a question of time and death. I t i s possibly to t h e i r credit that the early participants i n these Icelandic ethnic associations both recognized and accepted t h e i r f a t e ; a l b e i t r e l u c t a n t l y . Furthermore, because of the intimate connection which they had created between t h e i r c u l t u r a l distinctness at the personal l e v e l and t h e i r ethnic associations and communities, they assumed that the l a t t e r would disappear with the former. Mindful of the heroism of t h e i r Viking ancestors they s t o i c a l l y accepted the burden of carrying t h e i r culture and t h e i r communities to t h e i r graves. Perhaps because i t was such an i n t e g r a l part of t h e i r own l i v e s they mis-understood or d i d not see the po t e n t i a l importance of t h e i r shared ethnic o r i g i n . That i s to say, they were not Icelanders just because they r e f l e c t e d the culture - *0 -and society of Iceland, or thought they did, but also because they were of Icelandic o r i g i n ; by v i r t u e of the f a c t that they or t h e i r parents had been bom i n that country. The f a c t of that o r i g i n could not be a f f e c t e d by the process of c u l t u r a l a s s i m i l a t i o n . As the c u l t u r a l distinctness which marked the members of the Icelandic ethnic group or the Icelandic ethnic communities began to decline, as i t had to, the importance of that element of shared o r i g i n became greater and greater u n t i l i t became the essence of the differences between them and a l l other Canadians. They might share everything with t h e i r fellow Canadians - language, r e l i g i o u s habits, food tastes, reading habits; etc. - but only they were of Icelandic o r i g i n . This element or idea of shared o r i g i n or ancestry i s the p r i n c i p a l building block of the ethnic community of the future. That community may involve r e l i g i o u s , s o c i a l and charitable a c t i v i t i e s organized and shared i n a format which i s indistinguishable from that evident i n any community i n the country. But the members sharing those a c t i v i t i e s are generally of Icelandic o r i g i n and they base t h e i r p a r t i c i p a t i o n upon a desire to share cer t a i n a c t i v i t i e s with other individuals of that o r i g i n . - kl -At the time that t h i s study began the Icelandic ethnic community i n Vancouver had already reached t h i s stage, even though the members were not r e a l l y aware of i t . The associations which operate within i t a l l use English - the church congregation and the Home Society since they were established? the Ladies A i d Solskin since 1958 and Strondin since 1963» The l i b r a r y which had been such an important element i n the l i f e of the community f o r so many years was gathering dust i n the Home. The Icelandic version of the Lutheran f a i t h , upheld u n t i l the merger of 19&3V had been replaced by a new version; but no one had taken any p a r t i c u l a r notice of that event. The information obtained from the interviews conducted d i d not suggest that the members of the associations could be described as being members of a d i s t i n c t c u l t u r a l group. However, i t was obvious that these people were proud of t h e i r origin, 5 an o r i g i n they shared with other •good* Icelanders. The 'good* Icelander was one who participated, to a greater or le s s e r degree, i n one or more of the associations, while those individuals of Icelandic o r i g i n who did not p a r t i c i p a t e i n such a manner were not •good1 Icelanders, regardless of how much they might revere the fac t of t h e i r o r i g i n . - kz -The a c t i v i t i e s which these 'good* Icelanders shared were not a c t i v i t i e s which were or are unique to them; hut these are a c t i v i t i e s which they share as •good1 Icelanders. This i s why the membership issue i n the church could become such an important issue, once i t was suggested that the rights of *good* Icelanders to p a r t i c i p a t e i n the a c t i v i t i e s of an Icelandic organization were being questioned. The doors had to be kept open to a l l of them at a l l times. S i m i l a r i l y i the d e t a i l s of how Strondin was to be re-organized i n I967 could not, i n themselves, become an issue because the r i g h t s of the good Icelanders to p a r t i c i p a t e were not being questioned by the proposed changes. The Icelandic Ethnic Community i n Vancouver. Ear l y Developments; 1908 - 1917. The h i s t o r i c a l development of the Icelandic ethnic community i n Vancouver has been re-constructed from the accounts of informants and from documents i n t h e i r possession and i n the possession of the a c t i v e associations. This community traces i t s beginnings to the establishment of the L i t e r a r y Society Ingolfur i n 1908. The i n i t i a l and basic reason f o r the establishment of t h i s association was the desire of some Individuals to e s t a b l i s h a central l i b r a r y of Icelandic books - 4 3 -which the members of the Society could use, i n exchange f o r an annual membership fee of $1.00. In l a t e r years the Society began to host s o c i a l functions such as dances and card p a r t i e s . The Ladies A i d Solskin frequently co-operated i n these s o c i a l gatherings a f t e r i t was established i n I9I7. The A i d was set up by several women who used to meet as a sewing c i r c l e to make small items of clothing f o r Icelanders serving i n the Canadian Forces over-seas. A f t e r the war the A i d changed i t s a c t i v i t i e s to meet the demands f o r increased s o c i a l a c t i v i t y i n the community. One project which i t s members worked on f o r several years was the establishment of an Icelandic community h a l l i n Vancouver. This project f a i l e d to materialize, due i n part to the lack of Interest among the community's male members and i n part to the stubborn opposition of the Aid's treasurer, Mrs R. The second decade of the century also saw the establishment of an Icelandic Lutheran congregation; which was served by the pastors of the Icelandic Lutheran church i n Blaine; Washington. A fourth group organized at t h i s time was a small, and s h o r t - l i v e d , club which sponsored picni c s and climbing expeditions to the North Shore during the summer months. - 4 4 -It i s d i f f i c u l t to Judge how many of the Icelandic residents of the city of that time were active ln these associations. Some of the *old timers* r e c a l l that there were only 70 to 80 people involved around 1 9 2 0 , at which time census figures suggest that there were between 400 and 500 residents of Icelandic origin. The charter membership of Solskln was about 30 and by 1923 the total membership had increased to 41, although seven of these members lived i n other provinces or in the United States. A l i s t , compiled from the cit y directory, containing the names of twenty nine Icelanders l i v i n g i n the city i n 1909 was once shown to several women who have lived l n the ci t y and been active i n the Icelandic community since 1 9 0 4 - 1 9 0 6 . Only four of these names were recognized by them, although several others were added at their suggestion. It appears, therefore, that even at this early stage the ethnic community represented the interests of only a minority of those of Icelandic origin. F i r s t Period of Re-organlzatlon; 1935 - 1946. The over-all assoclational structure established between 1908 - 1917 remained unchanged un t i l the mid-1930*s. Then there came a decade of re-appraisal and re-organization, during which a - * 5 -number of changes took place In the associations which made up the community and i n the a c t i v i t i e s which these associations c a r r i e d out. The Lutheran congregation which was e s t a b l i s h -ed i n 191? was disbanded i n the early 1930* s a * i d several years passed before any e f f o r t s were made to revive i t . In 19*1 the Icelandic Evangelical Lutheran Synod i n North America, i n co-operation with the Board of American Missions of the United Lutheran Church, sent a missionary pastor to Vancouver to see i f a new Icelandic Lutheran Congregation could be organized. This task took several years and the congregation was not formally established u n t i l March; 1 9 * * . I t appears, however, that a heavy p r i c e was paid f o r the completion of t h i s project. Three new associations were established i n 1937 and 1 9 3 8 , each of which had between 30 and 50 members. These were, respectively, a mixed choir, a s o c i a l club f o r young Lutheran women named Ljomalind and a s o c i a l club f o r young people named Is a f o l d . When the congregation was established the d i r e c t o r of the choir, who was also the f i r s t president of the congregation, l e d most of the choir's members into the church. In addition, the congregation established a Women*s A u x i l i a r y which took a heavy t o l l of the membership of Ljomalind. - 46 -As a r e s u l t the choir disappeared as an independent association and Ljomalind, a f t e r struggling f o r a few years, ceased to operate, though i t was never formally disbanded. In both cases there were a number of i n d i v i d u a l members who were not interested i n joining the church or any other association and they withdrew from the community. The s o c i a l club I s a f o l d also had a short l i f e . Many of i t s members l e f t the c i t y during the war years while serving with the armed forces and those who remained behind were unable to continue i t s a c t i v i t i e s . Negotiations were entered into with the members of the L i t e r a r y Society Ljomalind and i n 19*6 these two associations were merged under the name Strondln. The new association became a f f i l i a t e d with the Icelandic National League, which was, and s t i l l i s , centered i n Winnipeg, Manitoba. Within a few years the new association f e l l under the wing of the church congregation, sharing the same members and l a t e r the same f a c i l i t i e s . A fourth new association established i n the 1930*8 was the Icelandic Badminton Club. Like i t s predecessor, the hiking club; i t was shor t - l i v e d . The f i n a l act In t h i s period of r e -organization was the establishment of the Icelandic Old Polks Home Society, i n January, 1 9 * 6 . The members - 47 -of the Ladles A i d Solskln appear to have played an Important; i f not the dominant; r o l e i n the negotia-tions which brought t h i s new association Into being. The primary objective of the new society was the establishment of a home where the older members of the community could spend t h e i r l a s t days." I t Is again d i f f i c u l t to determine the population of the re-organized community;" but i t does not appear to have been very large. The charter membership of the church; which absorbed most of the members of the choir and Ljomalind; was about 120. The charter membership of Strondin was well under 100 and the membership of Solskln was lower at t h i s time than i t had been i n 1923. The i n i t i a l member-ship of the Home Society appears to have been around 130. Such evidence as i s a v a i l a b l e suggests that there was a considerable over-lapping l n the memberships of these associations so that the t o t a l population of the community was not much over 200. The number of residents of Icelandic o r i g i n appears to have been around 1000 and growing r a p i d l y ; so that once again i t i s safe to assume that the i n t e r e s t s of the ethnic community were the interests of only a minority of a l l p o t e n t i a l members. The a c t i v i t i e s of the community underwent some change during t h i s period but the changes - 48 appear to have been mainly changes of degree rather than changes i n kind. The new congregation had a la r g e r membership than the f i r s t congregation but i t s a c t i v i t i e s ; with the exception of the choir and possibly the Women's A u x i l i a r y , were not new. The merger between Ingolfur and I s a f o l d led; eventually; to a reduction i n the new association's a c t i v i t i e s since the l a r g e l y s o c i a l a c t i v i t i e s associated with the younger members of the l a t t e r were not maintained f o r long by the older members of Ingolfur. The Home Society presented new problems i n fund r a i s i n g and management but these were from the beginning the primary concern of the few persons who were o f f i o e r s of the Society. There was one new element which had a long-term e f f e c t on the community. The community had been and s t i l l was an ethnic community and i t s a c t i v i t i e s were concerned; at lea s t i n theory; with preserving a ce r t a i n c u l t u r a l i d e n t i t y . However; these years saw the f i r s t s i g n i f i c a n t i n c l u s i o n of non-Icelanders i n the community, p a r t i c u l a r l y i n the membership of the church and to a l e s s e r extent i n the membership of the Home Society. Both of these associations used English as t h e i r operating language, p a r t l y because of the presence of these 'foreigners' and p a r t l y because of the need to meet - 4 9 -oertain conditions associated with the incorporation of both groups under the province's Societies* Act. The growing presence of the non-Icelanders and the spread of English as the community*s f i r s t language had the long-term e f f e c t of r e f i n i n g and reducing i the purely o u l t u r a l Implications of the community. The decline of the purely c u l t u r a l implications of the community was furthered by the f a c t that ,the Icelandic members were,0 to a growing extent; bom i n Canada and unable; therefore; to maintain the . d i s t i n c t l y Icelandic c u l t u r a l features of the community simply because they had not acquired them to the same extent as the o r i g i n a l immigrants. Second Period of He-organization: the 1960*s. The 1 9 6 0 *3 , the period which i s of p a r t i c -u l a r i n t e r e s t to t h i s study, was another period of re-appraisalf of both associations and purposes. There were a few changes i n the community's as s o c i a t l o n a l structure; though some of these changes were changes l n name only; For one thing; the Icelandic Lutheran Synod gave up the struggle to maintain i t s independence and opted, with some reluctance, f o r f u l l membership i n the newly formed Lutheran Church i n America. Technically; therefore; the congregation ceased to be an Icelandic - 50 -. •• i -,.. • • association (the name of the congregation was changed from the Icelandic Lutheran Church to the Lutheran Church of Christ) but l t and i t s members; a f t e r a period of uncertainty; continued to act within the community. The Home Society successfully completed a major expansion Involving the construction of a new home with room f o r s i x t y residents. I t was, however; faced with a problem i n the f a c t that an Increasing proportion of Its residents were, of non-Icelandic o r i g i n s . The Ladies A i d Solskln continued to work c l o s e l y with the Home Society and had i n f a c t become i t s u n o f f i c i a l a u x i l i a r y . The A i d adopted English as i t s operational language In 1958; In an e f f o r t to a t t r a c t new members." One new association was established i n i960 but was active f o r only a few years. This was the Icelandic Male Choir;" which r e l i e d heavily.upon new immigrants f o r members; when most of them moved away the group was unable to continue. For the s o c i a l - c u l t u r a l society; Strondln; the early years of the 19.60* s were years of turmoil as opposing factions fought f o r control.' This matter was not s e t t l e d u n t i l I965 and was followed by a period; 1 which l a s t e d two or three years 1; when d r a s t i c changes were formally introduced; both, i n i t s structure and i t s a c t i v i t i e s . The name was - 51 -changed to the Icelandic Canadian Club of B r i t i s h Columbia, and the club's r e l a t i o n s with the Icelandic National League l n Winnipeg were severed i n a manner which l e f t considerable i l l - f e e l i n g on both sides. I t was noted elsewhere that the period of re-organization which began i n the mid-1930*s and ended i n the mid-19*0's l e f t the community r e l a t i v e l y well-integrated at the membership l e v e l . There was a large body of members who par t i c i p a t e d i n the a c t i v i t i e s of a l l the three major associations (the church; Strondin and the Home Society) and smaller groups were s e l e c t i v e i n t h e i r p a r t i c i p a t i o n . There was, i n addition; a considerable degree of unity i n the community's leadership corps; with a number,of ind i v i d u a l s holding o f f i c e s l n more than one association at the same time. This unity of member-ship and purpose l a s t e d u n t i l the l a t e 1950's, when two factors combined to break that unity and almost wrecked the community. One of these factors was the p a r t i c i p a t i o n of the new post-war immigrants i n the community; p a r t i c u l a r i l y i n Strondin. The other f a c t o r was a b i t t e r dispute between two opposing factions; one centered i n the church and the other i n the Home Society. The or i g i n s of t h i s dispute can be traoed to an event which occurred i n the' management of the - 52 -Home In 1 9 5 1 - 5 2 , and possibly even further way; In time;' than that event. The oombined effect of these two factors; over a period of years; s p l i t the community into three different and relatively distinct groups which had l i t t l e to do with each other and whose leaders were often not on speaking terms.' The effect of these and other events w i l l be examined more f u l l y i n subsequent chapters dealing with the members of the community, Its leaders and the issues which faced them; The Members of the Community General Comment It was previously suggested that the population of the ethnic community consisted only of those people who take an active part In the activ i t i e s of the community; as these acti v i t i e s occur i n or involve one or more of the community*s associations. Continuing from this statement i t i s possible to distinguish three types, or levels, of participation. The f i r s t level i s that of leadership and includes only those individuals who occupy recognized o f f i c i a l positions i n one or more of the existing associations. The second level i s the level of o f f i c i a l membership, which covers those individuals who maintain an o f f i c i a l membership i n one or more associations, whether or not this type of membership leads them to take an active part i n the act i v i t i e s Involved. The third level - 53 -i s the l e v e l of p a r t i c i p a t o r y membership and includes those indiv i d u a l s who; though they take an active part i n what i s going on; do not; f o r one reason or another; maintain an o f f i c i a l membership i n any association. The Leaders The s i z e of the leadership corps i n the Icelandic community i s l a r g e l y determined by the number of executive positions a v a i l a b l e i n the active associations. During the period under study these t o t a l l e d 41 (42 a f t e r I967) and were d i s t r i b u t e d as follows: a ten-member Board of Directors f o r the Home Society; a six-member Executive Committee f o r the Ladles A i d Solskln; a twelve-member Board of Trustees f o r the church congregation; a six-member Executive Committee i n the church's Women's A u x i l i a r y and a seven-member Executive Committee f o r Strondin ( l a t e r an eight-member Board of Directors f o r the Icelandic Canadian Club)• The actual number of indi v i d u a l s Involved i s not as high i n any one year as the number of positions since a few persons s t i l l hold o f f i c e s l n more than one association. The O f f i c i a l Members The status of o f f i c i a l membership i s obtained - 5* -only by those indiv i d u a l s who meet certa i n s p e c i f i e d conditions f o r membership i n one or more of these associations*' The most important of these conditions, and usually the only onef i s the payment of member-ship dues on an annual basis. The Ladies A i d So l s k i n f the church 1a Women*s A u x i l i a r y and Strondin charged annual dues of 50^ or $1.00 a person. The constitu-t i o n of the church set out the q u a l i f i c a t i o n s f o r membership and these included both r e l i g i o u s and f i n a n c i a l c r i t e r i a . Members had to accept c e r t a i n r e l i g i o u s doctrines and had to make * contributions of record* towards the congregation's expenses. O f f i c i a l membership l i s t s generally contain only the names of those who pay the required dues. The only association whieh created a problem i n t h i s regard was the Home Society. The Home Society*s c o n s t i t u t i o n set the cost of an annual membership at #2.00 and that of a l i f e membership at $25.00. I t further directed that a membership l i s t was to be maintained. These regula-tions r e l a t i n g to membership were never acted upon; and the o f f i c e r s of the Home Society took the view that a l l Icelandic Canadians were members of the Home Society and e n t i t l e d to p a r t i c i p a t e i n a l l discussions and decisions. The only public meetings t h i s association holds are the annual general meetings; - 55 -and these set records f o r b r e v i t y and s i l e n t p a r t i c i -pation on the part of the attending members. I t i s possible; however, to use the Home Society's f i n a n c i a l records to i d e n t i f y those persons who should be regarded as I t s members because t h e i r donations to the Home Society meet the f i n a n c i a l c r i t e r i a f o r membership. The examination of those records produced a l i s t containing the names of I63 persons who q u a l i f i e d f o r membership l n I963i with a somewhat smaller number q u a l i f y i n g i n 196*. The required information f o r l a t e r years was not a v a i l -able. The 161 persons who were members i n 1963 included 127 l i f e members - individuals who had made a donation i n excess of $25*00 on one occasion - and an a d d i t i o n a l t h i r t y persons who made donations during the year which exceeded $2.00 but which were under $25.00. The other four members were directors who; although they d i d not q u a l i f y f o r membership according to these f i n a n c i a l c r i t e r i a ; obviously have to be included. The proportion of l i f e members; 79$ i n 1963; increased s l i g h t l y i n the following year; to 83$; due to a drop i n the number of persons making annual donations. I t should be noted that the o f f i c e r s of these associations have not; generally speaking; placed a very strong emphasis upon the need f o r people - 56 -to maintain an o f f i c i a l membership i n any association. These o f f i c e r s share a rather general view which states that i t i s not possible to force people to pay annual dues and that those who are Interested must be allowed to p a r t i c i p a t e f u l l y i n the a c t i v i t i e s of the associations, whatever the status of t h e i r membership. I t i s evident, however; that most members; and es p e c i a l l y most p o t e n t i a l o f f i c i a l members; do not share t h i s view. The members generally f e e l that they must pay t h e i r dues before they can p a r t i c i p a t e to any extent i n the management of these associations; yet few attempts are made to get them to pay such dues and when they make the f i r s t move they often meet with l i t t l e encouragement• The P a r t i c i p a t i n g Members The extent of the p a r t i c i p a t i n g membership i s not known, f o r rather obvious reasons; but the meager evidence a v a i l a b l e suggests that i t may be as large as the o f f i c i a l membership. The o f f i c e r s of these associations generally claim a muhh larger membership than i s indicated by the o f f i c i a l l i s t s . O f f i c e r s of the congregation, interviewed i n 1965; were generally unanimous In claiming a membership of around 370, even though the o f f i c i a l l i s t f o r that year contains only 2*7 names. S i m i l a r i l y , some of the - 57 -o f f i c e r s of Strondin interviewed at t h i s time claimed a membership of around 300, even though the o f f i c i a l l i s t f o r 1965 contains only 108 names. Some useful data was gathered on t h i s point during I966-I967, a f t e r the writer was elected, by acclamation, to the post of Secretary on Strondin's Executive Committee, At his suggestion a guest book was obtained and put into use at the public meetings held by Strondin between A p r i l , 1966, and A p r i l , 1967. During the time i n I966 that the book was In use l t was signed by some 3*0 persons; of whom 265 l i v e d i n the metropolitan area. About 18$ of these persons were o f f i c i a l members of Strondin that year and about *2$ were o f f i c i a l members of other associations i n the community. But around *0$ of the participants were not, and generally had never been, o f f i c i a l members of any Icelandic ethnic association In Vancouver or elsewhere. These p a r t i c i p a t i n g members are an important element f o r two d i s t i n c t reasons. F i r s t ; these i n d i v i d u a l s are a l l p o t e n t i a l o f f i c i a l members and should a membership drive be i n i t i a t e d they would be the f i r s t persons to be picked up. Some of these people do become o f f i c i a l members i n one or another association but they do so on an intermitent basis since they are given l i t t l e encouragement to develope - 58 -a stable membership history. The second and more important reason i s the fact that the participating membership i s the primary source for new officers. Vacancies which occur in the community*s office structure are generally f i l l e d by the recruitment of new officers from the participating membership rather than from the o f f i c i a l membership. The Non-Icelanders. It was noted previously that the f i r s t non-Icelanders entered the community during the I9*0»s. Few to begin with the non-Icelandic members accounted for Just under one-fifth of the o f f i c i a l members during I963 - 1966 and their numbers grew i n later years. These individuals were usually married to Icelanders who were members of the community. Their presence contributed to the reduction of the Importance attached to retaining the community as a cultural community. But their presence and the extent of their contributions to the community are generally not f u l l y recognized by the Icelandic members, who tend to assume; at least publicly, that a l l good things come only from *good* Icelanders. -.. 59 -CHAPTER IV THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF THE COMMUNITY Introduction During t h i s study interviews were conducted with more than hal f of a l l the o f f i c i a l members* These interviews produced a large quantity of data regarding c e r t a i n c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of the community's population which could be treated i n a s t a t i s t i c a l manner* This included Information on the generational l e v e l and o r i g i n s ; i n terms of b i r t h p l a c e ; of a large number of o f f i c i a l and, as i t turned out, p a r t i c i p a t i n g members* This data has been analyzed; from both the viewpoint of the community as a whole and f o r each of the a c t i v e associations, and the re s u l t s of t h i s analysis w i l l be presented l n subsequent sections* Four d i f f e r e n t groupings; based on generation and o r i g i n , were i d e n t i f i e d . The f i r s t consists of the older immigrants (OIM) who came to Canada during the f i r s t period of immigration. The second consists of the newer immigrants (NIM) who came during the t h i r d period of immigration. Two Immigrants who a r r i v e d i n Canada i n 1920 were assigned to the older immigrant group. I t was also decided that those members of the older immigrant group who were f i v e years o l d or under at the time of t h e i r a r r i v a l l n Canada would be assigned to the older native-born - 60 -group. This decision was cased on the fact that these children were brought up i n communities which were not specifically Icelandic communities; an experience which would tend to eliminate the cultural differences, i f any, between them and the f i r s t Canada-born children of earlier immigrants. The third group; the older native-born (ONB) group; includes those individuals who, i n their respective families, were the f i r s t Canada-bom generation. The fourth group; the younger native-bom (YNB), includes those Individuals who are i n the second (third, etc.) native-born generation i n their respective families. Besides these four groups of Icelandic ethnics there i s a f i f t h group composed of those individuals of non-Icelandic (NI) origins who,; for one reason or another; are o f f i c i a l or participatory members of the community. Before proceeding to an analysis of the community's population i n these terms i t Is useful to reproduce and review certain facts about the Icelandic Canadian population i n general. Table VI; below, provides the figures available on the growth of this population"; how many of them were bom in Iceland and the number who claim Icelandic as their «mother* tongue. - 61 -TABLE VI Certain Characteristics of the Icelandic Canadian Population, 1881 - 1961. Year Number Born i n Iceland Icelandic Mother Tongue 1881 1901 1911 1921 1931 19*1 1951 1961 1,003 6,057 7,109 15,876 19,382 21;050 23.623 3©;623* 6;057 15,510 11,207 8;-993 Source: Canada Census; I96I. * See Table V, note 3. These figures indicate that the Icelandic Canadian population i s basically a Canadian-born population - i n I96I the proportion born l n Iceland was only about ?%• These immigrants; in turn; are mainly those who came to Canada during the f i r s t period of immigration. About three quarters of a l l the immigrants i n the local community*s o f f i c i a l membership came to Canada before 1920. The proportional distribution of this total population between the four generation-origin groupings may be of the following order: OIM - 5.5#; NIM - 1.5#; ONB - 30# and YNB - 6 ^ . This possible distribution may also be valid for the local Icelandic Canadian population. The decline; between 19*1 and I96I, i n the - 62 -proportion who claim Icelandic as t h e i r 'mother' tongue should also he noted. The 'mother' tongue i s the language which i s learned f i r s t and i s not necessarily the language which i s spoken at the time that the Census was taken. The Icelandic Canadian population i s b a s i o a l l y an English speaking population and the proportion who can speak Icelandic c o r r e c t l y i s small. I t might he noted i n t h i s connection that the Ladies A i d Solskin recorded the minutes of i t s business meetings i n Icelandic from 1917 u n t i l 1958. But from the very f i r s t page the q u a l i t y of the language i s very poor and the change to English was long over-due. The Community's Membership The r e s u l t s of the analysis of the o f f i c i a l membership of the community i s given In Table VII, -following, f o r the years i n I963 and 1966, , 63 -TABLE VII Generation-Origin Groupings of the Community's Members: 1963-66. 1963 1966 Combined L i s t e d Memberships 6*0 *69 Actual Number of Members *59 368 Analysis based on data f o r 63.8# 71.5# Older Immigrants 21;~l£ 18.2^ Newer Immigrants 7.8 8.7 Older Native Bom 33.1 3I.9 lounger Native Bom 20;* 22.8 Not Icelandic 17.6 18.2 Changes i n the proportional d i s t r i b u t i o n of the community's members during t h i s period were r e l a t i v e l y s l i g h t , despite a 19$ decline i n the t o t a l membership, from *59 to 368; and despite the f a c t that just over *<# of the o f f i c i a l members i n I963 were not o f f i c i a l members merely three years l a t e r . Most of the members - 71.9$ i n I963 and 78.5$ i n I966 - maintained an o f f i c i a l membership i n only one association. The other members; who held an average of 2.* membership i n I963 and an average of 2.3 memberships i n 1966; can be regarded as the community's core members, by v i r t u e of those multiple memberships. That does not mean, however; that these members were avtive participants i n more than one association. The generation-origin groupings of these core members are quite d i f f e r e n t from those of the o v e r - a l l memos er ship, as i s shown i n Table VIII, following. - 64 -TABLE VIII Generation-Origin Groupings of the Core Members: 1963-06. 1963 1966 Number of Core Members Analysis based on data f o r Older Immigrants Newer Immigrants Older Native Born 31. ¥ 9.5 40 .0 2 8 . 8 $ 13.0 7.2 Younger Native Born Not Icelandic 9.5 9.5 The p o s i t i o n of the older immigrant and older native-born groups becomes clearer when the obvious differences i n the d i s t r i b u t i o n of the four generation-origin groupings, i n the community as a whole and the core membership i n p a r t i c u l a r ; are examined. These two groups, which account f o r just over half of the t o t a l o f f i c i a l membership (54.2$ and 50«1$» r e s p e c t i v e l y ) ; account f o r some three quarters of the core members (7L*$ and 75.1$; r e s p e c t i v e l y ) . To put these figures i n the proper perspective i t i s necessary to examine the member-ship h i s t o r i e s of the ind i v i d u a l s i n question. To a large extent these members f i r s t Joined the community i n the 19*0*s and the early 1950's. And at that time these two groups accounted f o r the overwhelming majority of a l l the members and these members tended to p a r t i c i p a t e i n a l l the major associations within the community. Furthermore, - 65 -the older immigrant and older native-born members have continued to p a r t i c i p a t e l n these various associations; at l e a s t to the extent of maintaining o f f i c i a l memberships i n a l l of them. The cohesion of the community at the membership l e v e l began to decline i n the l a t e 1950*s, due to the increased p a r t i c i p a t i o n of the new immigrants and the younger native-born groups. These in d i v i d u a l s tended to be rather p a r t i c u l a r i n t h e i r i n t e r e s t s and tended to j o i n and support only one association. The new Immigrants were i n i t i a l l y involved i n both the church and Strondin but i n the 1960*3 they began to concentrate t h e i r p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n the l a t t e r association. Different groups of the younger native-born began to p a r t i c i p a t e i n the a c t i v i t i e s of the church, the Ladies A i d Solskln and Strondin. These members were generally oriented towards p a r t i c u l a r associations and not towards the community as a whole. The decline l n the community's cohesion was furthered by the f r a c t u r i n g of the community*s leadership corps into three r e l a t i v e l y exclusive and more or l e s s mutually h o s t i l e groupings. The Congregation and the A u x i l i a r y I t was noted previously that the f i r s t Icelandic Lutheran church was established i n 191? and - 66 -that i t was disbanded i n the early 1930*8, due to "the departure from the Community of some of i t s leaders" (Felstedf 1956) In 19*1.? the Icelandic Lutheran Synod, i n cooperation with the Board of American Missions of the United Lutheran Church;-sent a pastor to Vancouver to determine whether a new congregation could be established among those of the residents of Icelandic o r i g i n who s t i l l adhered to the Lutheran f a i t h . His f i r s t report on his work painted a rather gloomy picture. He noted, among other things; that a major e f f o r t to organize a Christmas service f o r children;' i n cooperation with "one of the neutral organizations among the Icelanders i n Vancouver? was a f a i l u r e because "not a single o h i l d came? He estimated that there were possibly 700 people of Icelandic o r i g i n i n the c i t y , of whom 100 were interested and about 200 others were l i k e l y prospects. But he also noted that M a very large number of our people have never come near our services, (they) stay away r e l i g i o u s l y deliberately? Despite his misgivings the pastor; a s s i s t e d by a few laymen; persevered and i n March; 19**; the Icelandic Evangelical Lutheran Church of Vancouver was formally established; with a charter membership of about 120. Services f o r the new congregation were held In - 67 -a Danish Lutheran Chureh u n t i l 1956. The regular services were always i n English with s p e c i a l Icelandic services conducted once or twice a month. During these early years the attendance figures were r e l a t i v e l y stable? the English services being attended by an average of about 70 persons and the Icelandic services by about half t h i s number. The congregation's membership grew rather slowly; reaching 1*0 In early 1950* Many of the new members tended to be newly re c r u i t e d o f f i c e r s and members of t h e i r f a m i l i e s . A building programme was i n i t i a t e d i n the l a t t e r half of 1955 and completed i n the summer of 1956. In the spring of that year a membership drive was i n i t i a t e d and by the end of 1956 the members of record numbered 262. This sharp increase i n the t o t a l membership d i d not produce a s i g n i f i c a n t increase i n the average attendance f i g u r e s . Attend-ance at the English language services grew slowly to an average of about 90 i n the early 1960's but during the same time the Icelandic language services were gradually phased out. The number of members attending these Icelandic services declined s t e a d i l y during these years and a f t e r the expulsion of the l a s t Icelandic pastor; i n 1963; they were no longer presented on a regular basis. I t was noted above that the Board of - 68 -American Missions had p a r t i c i p a t e d i n the establishment of the congregation* The Board's I n i t i a l share i n these a c t i v i t i e s was mainly r e s t r i c t e d to giving f i n a n c i a l a i d to cover the pastor's expenses* This a i d was intended to be on a short-term basis u n t i l the congregation was large enough to support i t s e l f . But the congregation f a i l e d to grow; either i n s i z e or wealthy and the Board was obliged to not only maintain but to increase the f i n a n c i a l a i d i t was providing. The gave considerable moral and f i n a n c i a l support to the b u i l d i n g programme, and to the membership drive, i n the expectation that these e f f o r t s would eventually make the congregation s e l f - s u f f i c i e n t . These expectations were not f u l f i l l e d * The Increase i n the o f f i c i a l membership f a i l e d to produce a s i g n i f i c a n t increase i n actual attendance and although donations increased these f a i l e d to keep pace with the increasing costs of operation. Instead of being able to reduce and to eventually withdraw i t s f i n a n c i a l support the Board of American Missions found i t s e l f obliged to give endless amounts to keep the congregation i n operation. The o r i g i n a l cost of the church;- depending on which report i s accepted; was to be between $30;000 and |50,000* The actual cost was just under $80;000, of which half was to be met by donations and f r e e labour pledged by the members. The balance was provided by - 69 -f i v e mortgages, one (for i8;Q00) held by the Hoyal Trust Company and the other four by the Board of Missions. The mortgages provided by the Board had to be Increased in 1957 since a quarter of the pledges made by the members were not paid. In an attempt to correct this situation the officers of the Board of Missions l i t e r a l l y forced the officers of the congregation to i n i t i a t e a series of special fund drives to raise more money. These efforts were only part i a l l y successful. The congregation was never able to raise enough money in any one year to cover i t s expenses for that year and the Board of Missions was obliged to provide financial aid on a permanent basis. The year I963 saw a major merger involving several Lutheran churches which joined together to form the Lutheran Church in America; One of the major parties to this merger was the United Lutheran Church, which acted on i t s own behalf and on behalf of several smaller a f f i l i a t e s . One of these a f f i l i a t e s was the Icelandic Lutheran Synod. The Icelandic Synod had been a f f i l i a t e d to the United Lutheran Church since 19*0 and was not in a position to object to a f u l l merger. The Synod's position was spelled out l n a let t e r written by i t s president to the Vancouver congregation; shortly before the merger was completed. - 70 -"As t o t h e proposed merger, t h e r e Is not much a l t e r n a t i v e and t h e r e s u l t s of t h e s e n e g o t i a t i o n s a r e f a i r l y c e r t a i n ; namely t h a t we w i l l a l l go Into t h i s t h i n g t o g e t h e r . • . I f we d e c i d e not t o merge; we w i l l "be a b l e t o c o n t i n u e f o r a w h i l e , o r u n t i l t h e r e a r e v a c a n c i e s i n our p a s t o r a l o f f i c e s . I n such a cases; our churches would not be a b l e t o get a minister,- no one would l o o k our way...V F o r t h e I c e l a n d i c Synod; and i t s members, i t was a "matter o f C h r i s t i a n duty and p r a c t i c a l n e c e s s i t y t o J o i n t h i s merger? ( E y l a n d s ; 1962) The l o c a l c o n g r e g a t i o n had been kept informed of t h e s e n e g o t i a t i o n s but i t took some time b e f o r e t h e merger had a s i g n i f i c a n t e f f e c t . The r e v i s e d appraoch t o t h e o l o g y was adopted without q u e s t i o n , even though t h i s meant th e abandonment of t h e f e a t u r e s p e c u l i a r t o t h e I c e l a n d i c v e r s i o n o f t h e Luthesan f a i t h . A new c o n s t i t u t i o n was a l s o accepted; under whioh th e congregation's o f f i c e s t r u c t u r e was r e - o r g a n i z e d . The Board of Deacons was e l i m i n a t e d ; t h e Board of T r u s t e e s I n c r e a s e d l n s i z e and a l i m i t p l a c e d on the number of c o n s e c u t i v e terms (two) any one t r u s t e e c o u l d serve. The c o n g r e g a t i o n was a l s o g i v e n a new name - the L u t h e r a n Church o f C h r i s t . These changes were made without major d i f f i c u l t i e s ; ' p a r t l y because they were expected and had been a c c e p t e d as necessary. But t h e members; e s p e c i a l l y t h o se who h e l d o f f i c e s i n the - 71 -congregation, were not prepared f o r , nor w i l l i n g to accept; the next major post-merger event - a determined e f f o r t by the new Synodical authorities to break the ethnic i n t e g r i t y of the congregation. The Lutheran Church i n America i s the product of a long series of mergers between the Synods established by various groups of Immigrants but i t does not look with facour upon congregations which use a language other than English i n t h e i r services or which draw t h e i r members l a r g e l y or mainly from one ethnic group. The l o c a l Icelandic congregation used English i n i t s services and i n Its business a f f a i r s but most of the members were of Icelandic o r i g i n and those who were not tended to be married to persons of that o r i g i n . These members were scattered a l l over the Lower Mainland, from Squamish to Langley, and t h i s was contrary to the Lutheran Church's preference f o r congregations whose members entered such congregations because they l i v e d i n Its neigh-bourhood. In addition, the Lutheran Church was much s t r i c t e r than the o f f i c e r s of the Icelandic congregation i n the implementation of the regulations concerning membership. The l a s t Icelandic pastor to serve the congregation was appointed to his post i n early 1962. He was provided by the United Lutheran Church and - 72 -arrived with specific instructions to change these conditions. His attempts to do so miscarried badly and lead him into a bitter dispute with the trustees, the members of the congregation and even the members of the other associations ln the community. The trustees took the lead ln c r i t i c i z i n g him; f i r s t in private and then ln public, and in the end he was simply ostracized. The pastor suffered the anger of the community for a l i t t l e while but late in 1963 he accepted his defeat and l e f t his post. The d i f f i c u l t i e s created by this dispute had a severe effect on the congregation. There was a sharp decline l n the extent to which i t s members participated in both religious and soolal a c t i v i t i e s . This decline in support was particuaarily evident ln the congregation's worsening financial situation and the annual deficits grew sharply. And, understandably; the treatment given the pastor did not Improve the already poor relations between the congregation and the headquarters of the Western Canada Synod of the Lutheran Church; to which the congregation adhered following the merger of 1963. A new pastor was appointed by the Synodical office i n Edmonton in the f a l l of 196*. Hey l i k e his predecessor; was instructed to do something to reduce the importance of the congregation's ethnic - 73 -i d e n t i t y . He, however; was i n i t i a l l y more cautious than his predecessor and survived f o r a longer time His f i r s t task was to attempt to correct the congregation's s t e a d i l y worsening f i n a n c i a l condition. The budget prepared f o r his f i r s t f u l l year (1965) projected expenditures of about $14 , 0 0 0 , with the expected d e f i c i t being about $ 2 , 0 0 0 . But a mid-year review indicated that the d e f i c i t would be at l e a s t $4;000 and could go much higher. In an e f f o r t to reverse t h i s trend the pastor i n i t i a t e d a sp e c i a l fund drive i n the f a l l of I965 through which the actual d e f i c i t was reduced to just over $ 1 5 0 0 , In addition to discussing the church's f i n a n c i a l d i f f i c u l t i e s with the members he discussed t h e i r own p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n the congregation's a c t i v i t i e s . These meetings with the members convinced him that a t h i r d of more of the l i s t e d members were not interested i n the church and, furthermore; they d i d not r e a l l y care whether or not t h e i r names appeared on the membership r o l l . Many, i f not most, of these members di d not meet the f i n a n c i a l c r i t e r i o n f o r membership and few intended to change t h i s . The pastor decided that he could begin to carry out the instructions given him by the Synod by having these individuals removed from the membership r o l l . This he was eventually able to do but his success marked his own - 7* -defeat. Thereafter he was unable to influence the course of future events or to save himself from the fa t e which b e f e l l his predecessor. The writer attended a meeting of the Board of Trustees held early In I966 at which t h i s member-ship Issue was discussed. I t was i n many ways a very curious meeting. Following the opening prayer the pastor read a "sad and shameful t a l e " dealing with the fa t e of Lutheran churches established i n Burma by immigrants from India. These Immigrants refused to abandon t h e i r native languages and customs and refused to admit Burmese c i t i z e n s to membership l n t h e i r congregations. As a r e s u l t these Immigrants were eventually expelled from Burma and t h i s was followed by the expropriation of t h e i r possessions. The scene of the story then s h i f t e d to North America and the many ethnic congregations which acted i n the same manner as these Indian congregations. Such actions were described as being contrary to Ch r i s t i a n ideals and a l l the congregations concerned were urged to open t h e i r doors and t h e i r arms to Lutherans of other o r i g i n s . The pastor's request f o r comments on t h i s t a l e was at f i r s t met by a strained silence;' which was f i n a l l y broken by Mr U, who remarked: ."Yes; i t i s very true? But that remark; which was not addressed - 75 -to any specific item in that tale; was the only verbal reaction from the trustees. The pastor then tabled a l i s t containing the names of twenty six members and requested that they be removed from the membership l i s t on the grounds that they did not only not qualify farr membership but that they did not want to be members. Several of the trustees, including U, came out with remarks which generally supported both the pastor's reasoning and his request. However, before a formal vote was taken one of the trustees, Mr I, began to c r i t i c i z e this action. Noting that most of the members named were of Icelandic origin, he pointed out that the church was an Icelandic church which must always keep i t s doors open to people of Icelandic origin 1? whether or not they paid their dues. "It i s their church and they must fe e l free to come to l t whenever they need to or want to'.' Mr l ' s Intervention silenced a l l the other trustees, who sat and listened while he and the pastor debated the issue for nearly half an hour. In the face of l ' s determined opposition and i n the absence of any support from the other trustees the pastor retreated and suggested that a decision on this matter be deferred to the next meeting. Although his plans were blocked at this - 76 -time the pastor was eventually successful i n having the names of these and other individuals removed from the membership r o l l . This i s shown by the figures reproduced in Table IX; belowf which provides an analysis of the congregation's membership; in terms of generation-origin groupings, for the years 1963 - 1966. TABLE IX Generation-Origin Groupings of the Congregation's Members: I963-I966. 1963 1965 1966 Number of Members 2*2 2*7 171 Analysis based on data for 66.1$ 61.5$ 73.1$ Older Immigrants 15.6$ 1*.5$ 16.0$ Newer Immigrants 8.1 10.5 2.* Older Native Born 30.0 25.6 30.* Younger Native Born 26.2 23.O 25.6 Not Icelandic 20.0 26.3 2*.8 The total o f f i c i a l membership of the congregation declined by just over 30$ In a single year. This decline was due largely to the pastor's efforts to eliminate the non-participants and the low-participants from the o f f i c i a l membership. These efforts, i n turn; were a part of a long-term project to eliminate the ethnic element in the congregation's composition and image. But the success of this f i r s t step made the latter and more important objective v i r t u a l l y unattainable. Table X; below, provides an analysis, i n terms of generation-origin groupings; of three types of members: those who remained members - 77 -throughout this period (core members); those who withdrew during this period (withdrawals) and those who joined during this period (new members). TABLE X Generation rOrigin Groupings of Core Members, Withdrawals;; and New Members, I963-I966; Core With- New Members drawals Members Number of Members 124 129 *7 Analysis based on data for 69.2# 52.7% 57*2$ Older Immigrants 22.0$ 4.4$ Newer Immigrants 2.3 20.6 Older Native Born 40.6 16.1 11.1 Younger Native Bom 17.4 33.8 40.7 Not Icelandic 17.4 25.0 48.1 The members who were most anxious to preserve and protect the congregation's ethnic identity tended to be concentrated among the older immigrant and older-native bom individuals; while the members who took a more moderate stand on this issue; or who considered i t to be a very minor matter, tended to be concen-trated i n the younger native-bora and non-Icelandic groups. The f i r s t two groups accounted for over 60% of the core members while the last two accounted for about 60% of the members who withdrew from the congregation. The pastor's successful campaign to reduce the size of the congregation, as the f i r s t step ln a campaign to reduce the importance of the congregation's ethnic identity; turned out to be a - 78 -pyrrhic victory. The membership was effectively reduced to a hard core of members who rejected his long-term goal while the groups whose support he needed, and could expect to have, were subjected to a virtual purge. The new members; l t Is true, were drawn almost entirely from these two groups (the younger native-born and the non-Icelandic) but; partly because they were new members, they could not be expected to take an important part In the congregation's affairs right away. In addition; most of these new members were recruited by the older members, whose ethnic patriotism was being aroused by what they saw as an attempt to destroy the congregation's image. To defeat that attempt they sought new members; using slogans which appealed to the ethnic patriotism of the non-members. "This church i s the Icelandic church and i t i s going to stay that wayl We must be proud of our Icelandic heritage and must do everything to protect i t ! Such was the motto coined by Miss M; a lady who moved from the obscurity of ordinary membership to the position of a leader during, and as a result of; this struggle over the congregation's image. The success of this campaign to reduce the membership to an effective and participating member-ship marked a turning point i n the pastor's career. - 79 -In the f i r s t two years of his stewardship he had moved cautiously to build a personal following i n the congregation and had made attempts to groom some new officers to replace the trustees he had, in a sense, inherited with the Job. He appeared to be succeeding in both tasks, but the supporters he had gained abandoned him largely because of his refusal to budge on the membership issue. When he was interviewed, the pastor indicated that he had prepared himself for his task by reading a l l the available accounts dealing with the Icelanders in Canada, particularily those accounts dealing with their church organizations. As a result of these readings he expected to find that the members of the congregation were members of a distinct cultural group, whose language, customs, etc., were different from those of English Canadians. But he found a congregation whose members preferred to use English instead of Icelandic and who shared, or appeared to share, the customs, attitudes, etc., of English Canadians. He noted that no one had objected when the Icelandic version of the Lutheran f a i t h had been replaced by the version adopted by the founding convention of the Lutheran Church in America. He noted that the Icelandic language services had always been poorly attended - 80 -and that no one appeared to regret their passing. What he saw and heard convinced him that he had been wrong i n expecting to find a group whose culture was i n some way different from his. He became convinced that the ethnic congregation and i t s image was a phantom which would disappear when exposed. He further concluded that a move such as the one he was planning on the membership question would arouse no opposition. Unfortunately, his analysis was based on the wrong premise and his failure to understand that i n i t i a l error lead him to mis-interpret what he saw and heard. He erred when he assumed that the congregation's ethnic image would be based on real cultural differences, such as those of language, customs, attitudes, etc. He expected, in effect, to hear the members justify their ethnic image on the basis of vis i b l e or audible cultural c r i t e r i a . He gave no consideration to the possibility that they would base their perception of their ethnic image or identity on non-visible or inaudible c r i t e r i a . He f a i l e d to understand that their feelings of ethnic identity were not derived from the fact that they spoke Icelandic - which relatively few did -but from the fact that they were of Icelandic origin, by virtue of the further fact that one or more of - 81 -their ancestors had been born in Iceland. This very important factor was one which the pastor could neither see nofc hear and as a result his misinterpre-tation of the situation was almost inevitable. The pastor's success was based on the technicality that the individuals whose names he wanted removed from the membership l i s t did not meet the financial requirements for membership and could be removed automatically, with or without the approval of the trustees. Although many of the trustees had indicated, both in private and in public, that they did not, at least, oppose his actions they began to change their minds when Mr I made his opposition known. Other members of the congregation; including Miss M, began to take notice of what was going on, and their general reaction took the form of a membership drive aimed at former members, as well as potential new members, who would be inclined to support a defense of the congregation's ethnic image. Mr E ; long regarded as the congregation's most influential lay member, abandoned the pastor, whom he had been supporting in a somewhat nominal fashion, once he saw what the members were doing and took command of their efforts. The change in the pastor's position was - 82 -r e l a t i v e l y sudden* As l a t e as the summer of I966 he believed that he was on good terms with the members and the trustees except f o r Mr I, whose opposition he tended to dismiss as unimportant* Then, v i r t u a l l y overnight; conditions changed.' On returning from a short vacation he found the trustees, under E's leadership;' united against him and doing everything they could to undermine his actions. The general membership; which had been at l e a s t well-disposed towards him, was i n a h o s t i l e mood. The members; p a r t i c u l a r i l y the leaders, were 'out f o r blood' and waiting f o r an excuse or an opportunity f o r a showdown. The f i r s t major clash under these changed conditions took place at the congregation's annual meeting i n January, 1967; i n connection with,an attempt i n i t i a t e d by the pastor to have the Women's A u x i l i a r y disbanded. The A u x i l i a r y was established i n 19*14; with a charter membership of 23. From the beginning i t s members concentrated on fund-raising a c t i v i t i e s ; such as bazaars, teas, food-sales; etc. The success of these gatherings was i n part due to extensive p a r t i c i p a t i o n by persons who were not o f f i o i a l members of the congregation but who gave i t l i m i t e d support by attending such functions. Within a few - 8 3 -years the A u x i l i a r y ' s earnings, from these and other e s s e n t i a l l y s o c i a l a c t i v i t i e s , were between $2,500 and $3;000 a year. Direct cash donations to the congregation often accounted f o r between 10% and 15% of i t s budget. In addition, the A u x i l i a r y spent large sums on furnishings and f i x t u r e s f o r the church, which was completed l n 1956. The membership of the A u x i l i a r y grew from 23 i n 19*4 to a high of 46 i n 1953. Thereafter It declined to 23 by 1962. An analysis of that membership; l n terms of generation-origin groupings, i s presented i n Table XI; below; f o r that year. TABLE XI Generation-Origin Groupings of A u x i l i a r y Members; 1962. 1962 Number of Members 23 Analysis based on data f o r 74.0$ Older Immigrants 23.5$ Newer Immigrants Older Native-Born 52.9 Younger Natlve-Born Non-Icelandic 23.5 The founding fathers of the Lutheran Church i n America apparently d i d not approve of sub-congre-gational organizations which devoted themselves to r a i s i n g money. Such organizations were supposed to concentrate on spreading a knowledge of the Lutheran f a i t h amongst t h e i r members. This was p a r t i c u l a r l y needed a f t e r the merger i n I963, when a new version of * 84 -the f a i t h was adopted. The last Icelandic pastor tried to have the Auxiliary's social and fund-raising act i v i t i e s terminated or at least reduced, but he was unsuccessful. His successor was ablet1 however, to have those ac t i v i t i e s reduced to providing the refreshments for the occasional congregational meeting. His success was in part due to the fact that the trustees; especially E, were afraid that they had gone to far in treating his predecessor as they did and, fearing reprisals from the Synod, looked the other way. The Auxiliary's members were of two minds about this development. Some of the younger members supported this change because they f e l t that they had done more than their share of the work in the past. But the older members were not in favour of this change; though they did not make an issue of their opposition. To a certain extent their lives had revolved around the work they had been doing in and for the Auxiliary and they were disturbed and unhappy over their sudden state of unemployment or under-employment. The reduction in i t s activities eventually had an effect on the membership; which declined slowly as the members who eeased to participate were not replaced. In mid-1966 the pastor suggested that - 85 -the Auxiliary should be disbanded because of i t s declining membership; His proposal incurred l i t t l e overt opposition to begin with; i n part because Mrs Ly the Auxiliary's president; agreed with his reasoning and his decision. It was at this point that Miss M noticed that something was amiss with that part of her world which embraced the Icelandic Lutheran Church. She had been a member for many years but, l i k e most of her fellows, did not really pay much attention to the congregation and i t s a c t i v i t i e s . It was theref and had always been there; to be used by her and other 'good* Icelanders when the need or the urge to do so was present. Now; however; things seemed to be changing, and the grapevine was f u l l of gossip and rumours. •Good' Icelanders were being driven away from 'their' church; they were being refused the use of the church and i t s services. The Auxiliary was to be disbanded, i t s members and their good works forgotten. Clearly; the character of their church was under attack and i t had to be defended. Miss M; among others, responded to the challenge;1 The motion to disband the Auxiliary was presented to the annual meeting and supported by the pastor and Mrs L. Miss M delivered an angry rebuttal; denouncing this attempt to destroy an -86 -Icelandic organization. She promised to organize a drive for members to restore i t s strength and ac t i v i t i e s . The members of the congregation, their ethnic patriotism aroused, easily defeated the motion; delivering a public rebuke to the pastor. In the following month the storm broke. In the space of three weeks the pastor gave the church's top leaders; E and I; cause to feel personally insulted by incidents which involved their sons and then outraged the membership by refusing to permit the funeral services for a participating member to be held i n the church. The sons of the two leaders were at that time members of the church's choir. The f i r s t incident involved l ' s son, who was to sing a solo during a church service. He asked the pastor for permission to stand beside the organ during his performance. The pastor refused to permit this and I Jr. then not only refused to sing but with-drew from the choir and the congregation. A week later E's son did give a solo performance but the pastor f a i l e d to thank him. E j r . then withdrew as well. The fathers of both chose to feel offended by the pastor's actions but before they could protest the third incident occurred. An Icelandic woman, who was a member of - 8? -the Unitarian ohurch, died, after expressing a desire to he buried from the Icelandic ohurch. During her lifetime she had occasionally attended services in that church and had often supported the act i v i t i e s of the Auxiliary. Accordingly,* she was regarded as a member of the Icelandic church and entitled to i t s services when she wanted them. The pastor refused to grant her wish on the grounds that she was not only not an o f f i c i a l member of the church but a Unitarian instead of a Lutheran. Although his objection oarried the day i t f a i l e d to prevent a very angry reaction from the members, A number of them made a point of informing a l l the other 'good* Icelanders, both Inside and outside the congregation," of the shocking treatment given to one of their fellow Icelanders, On the Sunday following her funeral; 1 from a local funeral parlour; a special meeting of the Board of Trustees was held; at which E delivered a sharp lecture to the pastor, citing many instances of his unacceptable actions and warning him that he had better mend his ways or suffer the consequences. The Board further decided, at a regular meeting held a few days later; that the restrictions placed on the Auxiliary were no longer i n force and that the ladles could resume their traditional a c t i v i t i e s whenever they wanted to do - 88 -so. The membership drive launched by Miss M did not attract many new members; other than herself and some members of the T family. However; a l l the old members came back ready and willing to resume their activities.' Thfcs they did with a vengeance; once the Board of Trustees gave their approval. Several teas, food-sales; etc., were planned and held; beginning i n March; 19671' and the Auxiliary soon regained i t s former position and popularity. The pastor was badly shaken by the continuing decline i n his fortunes. It became obvious to him that he had not understood the reality of the congregation's ethnic image; as i t was viewed by the members; and that he had over-estimated the amount of support he had within the congregation. He had also badly under-estimated the extent of l ' s Influence over the other trustees and the members of the congregation. His opposition silenced those of the trustees who were beginning to support the pastor and turned what could have been a minor administrative decision into an issue with an immense emotional value to the members. Once they were aroused the congregation's other top leader, E; switched sides and; assuming command; brought the fight to a successful f i n i s h . - 89 -The pastor; of course; remembered what had happened to his predecessor after he had run afoul of the congregation's leaders. Not wishing to suffer the same fate he, without the knowledge of those individuals, sought and found a new position and then tendered his resignation, effective In August, 1967. He was eventually replaced, i n March; 1968; by a pastor discovered by E. The new pastor, an immigrant from Germany; could be expected to avoid any further attempts to crack the congregation's ethnic integrity;- not only because he was an immigrant but also because the Synodlcal authorities, having f a i l e d i n two separate attempts to do that, threw i n the towel. The congregation's leaders were quite pleased with their success in this dispute. The fight to preserve the congregation's ethnic image convinced them, and many others; that the congregation was the only 'real' Icelandic association i n Vancouver. Twice i n four years i t s identity had been challenged and twice i t had been successfully defended. The fact that throughout this period the congregation's financial problems continued unabated was an incidental matter which would be corrected l n time; as i t was.' In August, 1968;" the Synod suggested that - 90 -the congregation might solve i t s financial problems by agreeing to share the church and i t s f a c i l i t i e s with another congregation; such as the local German-speaking congregation which was about to lose i t s church to a re-development project. E initiated the necessary negotiations with the officers of that congregation; and by March; 19^9; he had reached an agreement with them; under which the two congregations would share the available f a c i l i t i e s ; the services of the pastor and some of the costs Involved i n operating a church. The Icelandic Old Folks Home Society During the 19*0's a number of Icelandic communities i n Canada and the United States established homes were the members of the older generation could spend their last years. Such homes were built i n Mountain; North Dakota; Blaine, Washington and in Vancouver. The i n i t i a t i v e for the local home came to a large extent from the members of the Ladles Aid Solskin. These women and other members of the local community worked to develope wide-spread interest in and support for such a project. These efforts culminated in the establishment of the Icelandic Old Folks Home Society i n January, 19*6. - 91 -Two years passed before the Society was able to purchase and renovate a house in the Shaughnessy area of Vancouver; at a cost of some $30 "i 000. Just over one-third of the cost was covered by a grant from the provincial government; about $8;000 was collected l n donations from the Society*s supporting members and the balance was l n the form of a $10,000, interest free loan from the Icelandic Evangelical Lutheran Synod. The Synod, which,owned a similar home i n Gimli, Manitoba, at f i r s t insisted that the local home should be owned by the local congregation. The leaders of the Society refused to accept this condition^ as they wanted the home to be at least formally independent of the congregation. The pastor and the president of the congregation, who was also the president of the Home Society; attended the Synod*s annual convention i n the spring of 19*8 and requested, successfully; that the loan be granted without any conditions. The home; which opened in October; 19*8;' had accomodations for twenty residents and was f u l l y occupied within a very short time. Consideration was given, as early as 19*91 to building a new home but the suggestion was shelved'; due; in part; to the high cost involved; u n t i l the late 1950*s. Then the suggestion to build a new home was revived, the main - 92 -proponent being the Society's vice-president, Mr D. His motives for reviving this project at this time were mixed, to say the least. On the one hand, there was a demand for space which could not be met in the existing home. But on the other hand, the promotion of this project at this time (1957 - 58) gave D an opportunity to avenge himself against E, the leader of the congregation. D believed, possibly with reason, that he had been misused and abused by E in the years following the financial scandal which hit the Home Society in 1952. The promotion of this project at this time would undermine the efforts being made by E and the other officers of the church to raise enough money from the community to meet their financial obligations to the Board of American Missions. A bitter struggle for control of the Home Society ensued, and lasted for the next three years. When this dispute began, i n 1957; the 'church contingent* held seven of the ten seats on the Home Society*s Board of Directors, while D*s faction consisted only of himself and two other directors. D made a bid for the presidency In 1958 but was decisively beaten by the incumbent 'church* candidate*: though he himself retained his own seat on the Board. He continued to press the attack - 93 -within the Board and at the same time built a large personal following In the rapidly growing new immigrant group in Strondin. This group carried D's faction to a complete victory, though he himself did not ascend to the presidency. The f i n a l clash i n this dispute took place at the Home Society's annual meeting i n January, i960. D was nominated for the presidency but declined and threw his support behind another director, Mr P, who defeated the church candidate; SE. SE was at that 1 time the vice-president and top leader of Strondin.\ A year later D repaid his debt to the new immigrants by helping them organize a coup which ousted SE and a l l of his supporters from the offices they held in Strondin. Once the question of who was to control the Home Society was settled, the construction of the new home moved rapidly ahead. The sod-turning ceremony was held i n I96I, during the v i s i t of the President of Iceland to Vancouver. Actual construc-tion began in the following year and the home was ready for occupancy i n the spring of I963. T n e new home, built on a lot acquired from the city, could accomodate sixty residents and provided limited quarters for the staff. The cost was just - 9* -over $200,000. The provincial government provided a grant of about $80*000, a mortgage of $50,000 was arranged and the balance came equally from donations and the sale of the old home. It was noted elsewhere that the i n i t i a l membership of the Home Society appears to have been around 130. These persons were members largely by virtue of the donations which they had made to the Society and for most of them the act of donating was the total extent of their participation in i t s a f f a i r s . The ordinary members were given no opportunity to take a more active part ln imple-menting the decision to establish such a home, and that decision was in any case made prior to the formal establishment of the Home Society. Only two public meetings are normally held in any year, the annual general meeting ln January and the home's annual birthday party i n October. The f i r s t of these meetings i s a business meeting and i t has rarely attracted a large audience. Por example, the annual meeting held i n January. 195*. was attended by only eighteen persons, ten of whom were directors of the Home Society. The birthday parties have usually attracted a greater number but these gatherings were social gatherings only. This situation changed temporarily in the - 95 -late In the 1950's as a result of the struggle for control of the Home Sooiety. The vice-president made his bid for control using the rapidly growing new Immigrant group in Strondin, Few of these people qualified for membership in the Home Society i n accordance with i t s own regulations concerning that status. However,' since the Home Society was established the officers have taken the position jbhat anyone who attended the annual meetings was a member and therefore entitled to vote on a l l and any issues brought before those meetings. The new immigrant group simply out-numbered and out-voted the 'church contingent' and i t s supporters at the annual meetings in 1959 and I960.' While the number of people participating at this time increased; their participation was both restricted and short-lived. Once the 'church contingent* had been voted out there was nothing for them to do, unless they ished to stick around to give formal approval to the decisions being made by the new leadership regarding the construc-tion of the new home. Few were interested i n sueh limited participation and attendance at the Society's public meetings, especially the annual general meetings, declined. In recent years these meetings have attracted an average of about *0 - 9 6 -persons; most of whom are the directors of the Home Society or officers of Solskln, their spouses and a few close friends. It i s possible, of course; that the non-office holding members of the Home Society could have taken a more aetive part in i t s affairs, particularily as these were directly concerned with the home's residents. Such a development was precluded by the role assumed by the Ladies Aid Solskln. From the beginning the Aid assumed the position and some of the duties of an auxiliary to the Society, but re-tained i t s own distinct identity. The members of Solskln organized such acti v i t i e s as were organized for the benefit of the residents." But since Solskln continued to organize act i v i t i e s for i t s own members and supporters the programme developed for the residents was very restricted in scope; consisting of small monthly birthday parties; held during the winter months, and an annual Christmas party. The members of the Home Society and the members of the other associations were not encouraged to provide any further services or activities for the residents of the home; The residents have," i n fact, become the forgotten people; who are expected to show proper gratitude for their beds and their seats i n the dining room. - 97 -The Society's constitution states that individuals can become members by paying annual dues of |2,00 or by purchasing a l i f e membership for |25.00. The Home Society's financial records were examined i n order to determine the identity of the persons who met either of these conditions by donating an equal amount to the Society* This group of members was expanded by the addition of these directors who did not meet the financial c r i t e r i a for membership. In this manner i t was determined that the members numbered 161 ln I963 and 157 i n 196*.! Table XII; below, shows the generation-origin groupings of these members and, separately, of the l i f e members for 1963. TABLE XII Generation-Origin Groupings of the Society's Members and Li f e Members; 1963. A l l L i f e M emb er s M emb er s Number of Members 161 126 Analysis based on data for 71.6% 72.2% Older Immigrants 25.8% 2$;2% Newer Immigrants 3.5 Older Native-Born *7i5 53.8 Younger Native-Born 8.5 7.7 Non-Icelandic 14.7 13.1 The Home Society's membership; defined in the manner described above; was a relatively stable group.' L i f e members accounted for 78$ of a l l members in I963 and this proportion grew slightly, to 83$; - 98 -In 196* as a result of a decline in the number of annual members. Just over half (5©»9$) of a l l the members i n 1963 i)0^- membership records (or records of donations) extending to 1950 or earlier ST while just 11$ had f i r s t joined (or donated) in i960 . or later. The changes which took place in this over-all membership i n later years were largely a result of changes i n the composition of the Board of Directors. It should be noted that the members are drawn largely from the older immigrant and older native-born groups." The distribution of these members^ i n terms of generation-origin groupings; i s quite similar to the distribution of the core members of the church, although only 23$ of the Home Society's members were also members of the church. The younger native-born members account for a rather small proportion of the tota l membership but they hold a growing number of directorships. D was the only director from this group in i960 but by 1968 six of the ten seats were held by younger native-born members. The new immigrants, their role i n the dispute of the late 1950's to the contrary, have never taken an active interest In the Home Society. Very few have become members by virtue of their donations - 99 -and only one of their number has ever held a seat on the Board of Directors. The Ladles Aid Solskln During the f i r s t twenty five years of i t s existence the Aid settled into a fixed routine of ac t i v i t i e s , which centered on monthly card parties and an annual bazaar and food sale. The net revenues from these acti v i t i e s were used to provide group outings for the members and to provide a limited amount of assistance to needy members of the Aid and; to a much lesser extent; to needy members of the other associations; In the early 19*0*s some of the members began to talk about a new project - the construction or acquisition of a home for the benefit of the older members of the community, including themselves. As time passed the Aid became deeply involved i n the discussions underway i n the community and, to encourage others to think of this project i n favourable terms, the officers of the Aid promised to donate fi;000 to a building fund; i f and when such a fund were established. When the Icelandic Old Folks Home Society was f i n a l l y established i n January, 19*6; two of Solskln*s officers were among the f i r s t seven elected and appointed directors of the Home Society and i t s f i r s t president was the - 100 -husband of the then president of Solskln, Mrs K. The Aid f u l f i l l e d Its promise and then proceeded to allocate most of the net earnings from Its a c t i v i t i e s to the same cause* It became closely identified with the Home Society and when the f i r s t home was opened the Aid moved i n along with the residents* The home's meeting room, such as i t was, was taken over for i t s ac t i v i t i e s , which were increasingly being conducted for the long-term benefit of the Home Society* The Aid's donations to the Home Society, over the next twenty years, amounted to some $15,000* In addition, the Aid furnished the quarters which i t had appropriated in the old home and later repeated this action in the new home. The auditorium of the new home i s generally regarded as being as much the Aid's property as i t i s the property of the Home Society, and any other group which wishes to use i t must have their permission, as well as the permission of the Board of the Home Society. The Aid was a well-established and relatively successful association at the time that the Home Society was organized. Most of i t s members had been active participants for a number of years and i t had developed a regular schedule of acti v i t i e s which received considerable support from i t s own - 101 -members and other individuals within the community. When the Aid moved into the home i t did not abandon either these ac t i v i t i e s or those supporters but began to use them for the ultimate material benefit of the Home Society. The Aid also assumed respon-s i b i l i t y for organizing such activities as were organized for the direct benefit of the home's residents. But because their schedule was already a demanding one they could not provide more than a very restricted programme for the residents. The position and the roles assumed by the Aid's members in the operations of the home and the Home Society prevented the general membership of the latter from taking a more active part l n those operations. It was noted previously that the Aid grew out of an informal sewing c i r c l e organized by a few women during the f i r s t World War. These women were friends before they formed the sewing c i r c l e and once they had decided to continue their activities l n a more formal manner they recruited other members from among their non-member friends. A group of some 25 to 30 women formed the core membership and most of them were present when the Aid celebrated i t s fourtfeeth anniversary in 19*7. Perhaps a dozen of these original members were also present when the Aid celebrated i t s f i f t i e t h anniversary - 102 -ten years later. The fourtieth anniversary marked the end of an era for the Aid and Its members. Most of the members had grown old with the Aid and i t was becoming quite d i f f i c u l t for them to do a l l the work they had assumed. Accordingly; they decided to re-cruit a new generation of members who could maintain the schedule of act i v i t i e s which had been developed In an earlier time. And, in order to accomodate these expected members, they changed the language of operations from Icelandic to English. I n i t i a l l y the recruitment of new members was restricted to the daughters of the original members and, somewhat later i n time, to the wives of the younger directors of the Home Society. These new members; in turn; began to recruit some of their friends during the 1960's. At that time some of the daughters of the non-Icelandic residents of the home began to take an interest i n the Aid and were admitted to member-ship i n i t . The following table; Table XIII, provides an analysis of the Aid's membership during the years 1963-1966, In terms of generation-origin groupings. - 103 -TABLE XIII Generation-Origin Groupings of the Aid's Members: I963-I966. 1963 1964 1965 Number of Members *7 57 58 Analysis based on 77.1# data for 72.$ Older Immigrants 41.1# 39.0^ 36.3^ Newer Immigrants 2.9 2.4 2.2 Older Native-Born 29.5 29.2 25.0 Younger Native-Born 20.5 21.9 22.7 Non-Icelandi c 5.9 7.3 13.6 1966 57 75.¥ 37.2$ 2.4 23.4 23.:4 13.6 As was the case with the associations examined previously, the bulk of the members are drawn from the older immigrant and older native-born groups. But many of these members do not take an active part i n the Aid's af f a i r s , simply because they are not physically able to do so. The younger native-born and non-Icelandic members have taken over most of the work and now occupy a l l of the offices as well. But their entrance into the Aid has not resulted i n the introduction of any new policies, nor i s i t l i k e l y to do so. The new immigrants have taken virtually no part l n the operations of the Aid, largely because few of them formed friendships with the existing members. No major or unexpected changes took place in the Aid's membership in the years after I 9 6 6 . A few members continued to be recruited, mainly from the younger native-born group. Among them were several members of the T and H families, most of whom were - 10* -recruited to f i l l vacant offices on the Aid's Executive Committee. The Strondin Chapter of the Icelandic National League. (The Icelandic Canadian Club of B r i t i s h Columbia) The establishment of the social-cultural association; Strondin; In 19*6 was the result of negotiations between the officers of the llteray society; Ingolfur, and the social club, Isafold. The then president of Ingolfur played a key role in these negotiations. He, as well as others, apparently believed that these two groups could operate more effectively together than either of them could alone. In addition, he wanted to establish a group in the city which would be large enough and active enough to take an important part in the activities of the Icelandic National League; which had i t s headquarters in Winnipeg. Although the new association was estab-lished i t f a i l e d to l i v e up to his expectations in i t s loeal a c t i v i t i e s and; although i t became an a f f i l i a t e d chapter of the League; i t did not take an active part in the operations of the League. The new group*s failure to l i v e up to those expectations was due largely to the fact that the two parent groups had l i t t l e in common with each other and were not able to either merge their different interests - 105 -or to develop a new programme of activities which could overcome those differences. The members of Ingolfur were generally drawn from the older immigrant and older native-born groups and their main interests were cultural ones, such as the continued use of the language and the library. The members of Isafold were drawn largely from the younger native-born group and they had established Isafold as a social club. During the war years many of Isafold*s members were absent from the city and few of them resumed their memberships after they returned. As a result the members of Isafold who i entered the new association were a distinct minor-i t y and their interests were not the interests of the majority. An uneasy peace prevailed for a few years but i t was, inevitably, broken. The original executive committee of Strondin was divided,- more or less equally, between the last officers of the two parent groups. But these two groups of officers did not and could not reach a permanent agreement on what activities should be organized for the members. The impasse which resulted was f i n a l l y broken when the former officers and members of Ingolfur closed their ranks and removed the former Isafold officers from their positions in Strondin, at the annual meeting held in January, 19*9« - 106 -Among the officers removed at this meeting were D, then the treasurer, and C; then the president. The new officers were, without exception, members of the congregation and several of them were then, or would soon become, officers of the congregation, i Under the direction of the new leadership Strondin quickly reverted back to the kinds of act i v i t i e s associated with Ingolfur. Icelandic was the only language used ln Its operations and the library once again became the center of attention -i t s preservation, expansion and use was the primary objective of the association. Public gatherings, which were held two or three times a year, usually featured lectures on the history and literature of Iceland and the history of the Icelandic Canadians, with the frequent addition of poetry readings and films. Such acti v i t i e s offered l i t t l e inducement to the members of the younger native-born group, even i f they could understand the language being used. In fact, such acti v i t i e s appealed to only a small proportion of the available older immigrants and older native-born individuals. During the 1950*s Strondin became Intimately associated with the church congregation. Most of the members were also members of the congregation; as were a l l of the officers. Several of the officers - 107 -were also members of the Board of Trustees or the Board of Deacons and the pastor who served the con-gregation during the 1950*s was an officer of Strondin for a period of six years. The association was; not unexpectedly, generally believed to be a group operated for the further benefit of the members of the congregation. This state of affairs began to change in the late 1950's as a result of the participation of the new immigrants. The number of new immigrants in Vancouver grew very rapidly, partlcularily after 1957 # and they tended to concentrate their participation in the community in this one association. However, they did not find the existing programme of activities very appealing; partly because they did not think that these ac t i v i t i e s reflected the society which they had l e f t so recently. In any case, they proved to be more interested in purely social a c t i v i t i e s , such as dances, but they were not able to convince the existing membership that such activities were either desirable or practicable. These two groups were not able to resolve their differences and possibly did not make a determined effort to do so. Events which occurred elsewhere i n the community made a negotiated settlement of this problem unnecessary; at least for the new immigrants. - 108 -It was noted earlier that the young native-born leader, D, had organized the new immigrants into a bloc, which was then used to overthrow the church contingent on the Board of Directors of the Home Society, The high point of this particular dispute took place at the Home Society's annual meeting in January, i960, at which P was elected president. His opponent, SE, was a former trustee of the church and, more importantly, the most Influential leader of Strondin, He had led the group which had taken command of the association in 19*9 and since then his leadership had not been challenged. But a year after he was defeated in his bid for the presidency of the Home Soolety he was defeated, along with a l l of his colleagues, when he presented himself for re-election as the president of Strondin. D and his new immigrant a l l i e s simply stacked the annual meeting and voted in an entirely new slate of officers, which included D and F, the up-and-coming new immigrant leader. A mini-election, made necessary by the resignations of two other new immigrants elected without their prior knowledge and consent, later added C and another new Immigrant, J. SE took his defeat rather badly and refused to surrender the association's records and the library and legal proceedings had to be instituted before these were f i n a l l y turned over to the new leaders. - 109 -The newly elected officers took office under the slogan "new men with new ideas? They were not, however, required to substantiate their claims right away since events elsewhere took command of the situation. The President of Iceland made a State V i s i t to Canada and his itinerary included v i s i t s to his main Icelandic Canadian constituences in the country, one of which was in Vancouver. Strondin was designated as his host during his stay in the city. The banquet arranged i n i t s name and in his honour was the largest public gathering ever held in the community, with 350 persons i n attendance. The association basked in the glory and the publicity which i t received for i t s part in this a f f a i r . But behind the glow of public success, in the private world of the leaders; the reputations of influential leaders had been damaged by actions which they had performed or with which they were associated. Other equally influential leaders f e l t insulted as a result of those same actions and began to plot revenge. Strong alliances began to crumble and new ones were being formed. A dispute between the leaders was beginning and, in time, that dispute would rock the association and the community to i t s very foundations. External events and their effect continued to influence and shape the course of events i n the - 110 -years after the President's v i s i t . In I962 the Icelandic Embassy in Washington arranged a concert tour for an Icelandic pianist, which included a performance in Vancouver under the auspices of the association. Also in that year an o f f i c i a l of one of the major Canadian airlines suggested that the association should sponsor a charter f l i g h t to Iceland. The officers accepted this suggestion and also accepted the offer of a local travel agency to handle the bulk of the work involved in such a project. The fl i g h t was successful; due largely to the participation of recent Icelandic Immigrants to the United States. One hundred and ten persons, two thirds of them American residents, joined for the t r i p to Iceland in the summer of 1963. Another f l i g h t , involving about 70 persons, was arranged for the following year. These flights were the f i r s t charter flights to Iceland and added considerably to the association's prestige but they did not have a substantial effect on i t s local activities as few of the travellers were or became active participants in Its on-going programme. During 1964 the association also played host to the Icelandic Ambassador to the Canada and to the Icelandic Prime Minister. But again these events began outside of the community and the - I l l -association was only reacting to external stimuli. Once again, as had happened on earlier occasions, the success of the public gatherings held in honour of these visitors did not reveal the growing dispute between the leaders. And within the association i t s e l f a palace revolution was brewing. The numerous successful events of the past four years had built F*s reputation to the point were he eclipsed every other officer of the association and was the equal; in reputation, of any other leader in the community. But his public reputation bore l i t t l e relation to his reputation among some of his fellow officers, in particular J and H. Each of these events had been, i n their opinion, marred by errors of omission and comission for which P was held responsible. They further believed, or chose to believe, that P was only interested in building his personal power and influence. They were further convinced, or chose to be convinced, that P would not pay any attention to the growing number of signs - such as declining o f f i c i a l membership and actual attendance figures - which indicated a declining interest in the association and which threatened i t s long-term survival. And; in their opinion, P was not producing enough new ideas and was unwilling to l i s t e n to those suggested by others, including, of course, those suggested by - 112 -J and H. They decided that F must he removed, for the good of the association. And having decided they acted. The key to their success lay in their control of the nominating committee, of which J was the chair-man, and i n their a b i l i t y to stack the annual meeting in January, I965. Five officers, including F and D, were denied re-election. Since they were not informed that they would not be nominated for re-election u n t i l a few days before the meeting, and since J warned them that the bloc he had organized was big enough to out-vote any other bloc which could be organized in such a short time, they did not even try to contest the election. But because the manoeuvres which preceded the meeting were not publicly known their failure to resist gave the event the appearance of an orderly transfer of positions and authority. This appearance of an orderly transfer was furthered by the fact that F was elected to represent the association of the annual convention of the Icelandic National League; whieh was to be held in Winnipeg ln February; 19&5* Up to this time this position had been largely an honourary one, given as a reward for services rendered. The delegate was sent at the association's expense, to join i n the convention f e s t i v i t i e s . On his (or her) return he would give a report on his t r i p - 113 -and on the League1 s a c t i v i t i e s . This report rarely-attracted much attention since the officers of the association were not very interested in the League, nor had the League been very interested in Strondin u n t i l quite recently. As Strondin gained in prestige in the years after I96I the League began to request, and later to demand, that the association l i v e up to an earlier agreement to become a f u l l chapter. This status would require a payment to the League, from the chapter, of a membership fee of $1.00 for each of Its members. The officers of the association had been increasing the membership payments they were making to the League, from $7.00 in I96I to $40.00 in 1964, but they were in no hurry to meet the League*s demands, though they planned to offer a compromise solution at a later date. Such an offer was to be made in the course of a gradual re-organization of the association. Once again events which occurred outside of the local community took command of the association's destiny. P went to Winnipeg; but on his return he reported that he had been elected a member-at-large of the League's Executive Committee and had also been made the League's Special Plenipotentiary, with f u l l responsibility for and control over a l l of the League's activities in Vancouver and, at a later time, - 114 -i n Seattle. The association's officers had not had time to digest this announcement before he made another; more startling statement. He informed them that he had been appointed to serve as the Icelandic member of the Ethnic Organizations Sub-Committee of the Provincial Centennial Commission. As such he was under instructions to organize a committee which would work with him to ensure that the Icelandic community would participate in the coming centennial celebrations. Having gone to some lengths to remove P from the scene the leaders of Strondin were, to put i t mildly, a l i t t l e disturbed at this turn of events. Their response was slow in coming; for they were at the same time trying to respond to an even bigger blow than P's reappearance on the scene. Although they faulted P for the mistakes he made or was supposed to have made during his tenure as president they did appreciate and value the immense prestige which had accrued to the association ln those years. In their eyes i t was the largest and most active Icelandic association in North America. They expected that i t s great prestige would survive, and help i t survive, u n t i l the association could be reorganized i n a way which would put substance behind - 115 -i t s reputation. Accordingly, they were not prepared for the sudden and unexpected emergence of a new Icelandic association in Seattle, which almost over-night proved i t s e l f to be even bigger and more active than the Vancouver association. Icelandic ethnie organizational activity in Seattle dated back to the year 1900, when the literary society Vestri was founded. Its acti v i t i e s ; over the years, were similar to those of Ingolfur and of Strondin before I96I . Sinee these activities only appealed to a few i t was never a very large group, as far as membership was concerned, and i t began to decline after the second World War, It f a i l e d to attract the members of the younger native-born group for the existing members refused to change the nature of the society's a c t i v i t i e s . It also f a i l e d to attract any of the post-war immigrants,, who f a i l e d to see a connection between the society they had just l e f t and the activities supported by Vestri. Although the younger native-born Icelandic residents of Seattle were not interested in the cultural activities provided by Vestri they were interested in maintaining social relationships with each other. Unable to change Vestri they organized their own club, the Icelandic Club of Greater Seattle. After careful planning by a group of very able charter - 116 -officers, the Club was launched In a blaze of publloity i n the f a l l of 1964. The effort expended was well rewarded for by mid-1965 the Club had over 300 o f f i c i a l members (at a time when the Vancouver association had only about 100). and an extensive and well-supported programme of a c t i v i t i e s . Far from being the masters of their own fate, the new leaders of Strondin f e l t themselves to be under attack from both within and without their community. As the year advanced, the pressures from both sides grew. F began to issue orders to them; both in his capacity as the League*s representative and as the Icelandic member of the Ethnic Organizations Sub-Committee. And the Seattle Club continued to grow bigger and became even more active u n t i l , or so i t was thought, i t s growing prestige completely eclipsed that of the Vancouver association. The leaders of Strondin reached a temporary accomodation with P. The instructions he was issuing in connection with the v i s i t of an Icelandic actor; to be held under the auspices of the League in the spring of 1966, were accepted. His suggestion for the establishment of a centennial committee composed of representatives of the various Icelandic associa-tions was also accepted but the slate of members he proposed was rejected. Instead H selected the members of the committee and staggered the representation so - 117 -that the association had a majority of the members. H also selected the committee*s chairman, giving the position to a new officer, V. But at the same time as they reached this accomodation with F the leaders of Strondin, H and J, decided that he would have to be taught a lesson for continuing to interfere in the association's a f f a i r s . Furthermore, they decided that the League would have to be equally punished for i t s attempts to interfere i n those same affairs through him. Having reached a temporary accord with F the leaders of Strondin, H and J; accompanied by TI and V; journeyed to Seattle for a meeting with the officers of the Icelandic Club. Their mission was to learn the secrets that had propelled that club t& i t s great and growing success. Those secrets, as explained by their hosts, were simple. An Icelandic association which wanted to attract members from the younger native-born group had to be an English-speaking association with an English name. It must provide an extended programme of social a c t i v i t i e s , particularily dances; and operate a number of limited interest programmes for small groups within i t s membership. As many members as possible must be deeply involved in operating the the association and this goal could be achieved, as - 118 -they had achieved i t , by d i v i d i n g the work as much as possible and assigning each separate task to a di f f e r e n t member or sub-committee. P u b l i c i t y was very Important and was best achieved by the i n t r o -duction of a monthly newsletter, which would be d i s t r i b u t e d to members and non-members a l i k e . Every a c t i v i t y must be evaluated and those which f a i l e d to contribute to the furthering of the club's i n t e r e s t s must be eliminated. An example of such an unpro-ductive a c t i v i t y was the maintenance or acceptance of an a f f i l i a t i o n with the Icelandic National League, were the costs involved f a r exceeded the benefits received. The leaders of Strondin were already aware of some of these lessons and had decided to accept any and a l l advice given them by the o f f i c e r s of the Seattle association. But, i n t h e i r turn, they suggested that because these two groups were organized l a r g e l y f o r the benefit of people of Icelandic o r i g i n i t would be necessary to r e t a i n some c u l t u r a l a c t i v i t i e s or to develop a new p o l i c y on that ques-t i o n . They suggested that these two associations should adopt a j o i n t p o l i c y of i n v i t i n g Icelandic entertainers to v i s i t t h e i r respective c i t i e s and to entertain t h e i r members. The very successful tour recently completed by an Icelandic actor;- under the - 119 -auspices of the LeagueJr Indicated that such an activity would be well supported. But the tours to be arranged under this new policy would specifically exclude Winnipeg from the itinerary in favour of the c i t i e s on the Pacific Coast. This suggestion was met with enthusiasm and adopted without much discussion. Three months later a second Joint meeting of the officers of these associations was held in Vancouver, at which the question of relations with the League was f u l l y discussed. The League's representative", F; was present and requested that both associations immediately accept f u l l membership in the League. The officers of both associations rejected this request as too costly i n view of the low return expected. The president of the Icelandic Club of Greater Seattle pointed out that such a step would cost his group about $400 in membership fees, plus the costs of sending a delegate to the annual convention. Strondin, in turn, would have to pay about $150 i n membership fees, plus the costs of the delegate. Both clubs agreed on a compromise solution; under which they would accept a f f i l i a t e status and would pay up to $ 5 0 . 0 0 per year in dues. At their suggestion; P agreed to inform the League's officers - 120 -of this offer, with copies of his letter to them being sent to both associations. He also promised to inform both associations of the League's reaction as soon as possible. But, as events turned out, F did not inform the officers of the League of this compromise offer. The leaders of Strondin, H and J, did not enter the discussions with open minds. They had already decided to end the association's a f f i l i a t i o n with the League. They were convinced that F had guaranteed that both associations would accept f u l l membership i n the League and were certain that he would not inform the League's officers of any compromise offer, for fear of compromising his own reputation with those individuals. It was; there-fore, important for their plans to extract a promise from him to inform the League of the compromise offer; which they had no intention of accepting; and equally important for those plans that he would not f u l f i l l that promise. During the summer of I966 a committee, composed of H, J and V, drew up a detailed plan for the re-organizatlon of the association. Under this plan the name was to be changed from Strondin to the Icelandic Club of Brit i s h Columbia. The a f f i l -iation with the League was to be ended, i n an indirect - 121 -manner by prohibiting any financial ties with any other organization. The membership dues were to be increased, the o f f i c i a l year changed from a calendar ©ne to a f i s c a l one, ending on August 31st . , and the time of the annual meeting was changed from January to September. The monthly meetings of the Board of Directors were to be open to the members and their participation in decision-making was to be encouraged. Several other changes were included in the new constitution presented to the members attending the annual meeting in January, 1967. and approved by them, on a secret ballot, by a vote of 32 to 6. The association's new name was subsequently changed to the Icelandic Canadian Club of Br i t i s h Columbia. The formal reorganization of the associa-tion was followed by a period of increased activity. The open business meetings were often well attended. The number of social gatherings was increased, as was the variety of such meetings. Dances were held for the general membership and limited interest programmes, such as card parties and film shows, were held for smaller groups within that membership. The newsletter, which had been introduced on a regular basis i n 1966, became more elaborate and was distributed to an ever-growing number of addresses. But this period of increased activity - 122 -was relatively short-lived for the officers soon found out that i t took far more of their time and energy than they were able or willing to give to i t . Eventually they began to reduce this over-all programme to more manageable proportions. The open business meetings were eliminated, as were most of the limited interest a c t i v i t i e s . The circulation of the newsletter was eventually restricted to the o f f i c i a l members only. Even the number of dances held during the year was reduced somewhat. But the reduction of the club*s programme did not have an effect on the membership, which grew year by year, reaching the 300 mark in early 1969. One innovation which the officers did not want to borrow from the Seattle Club was the very elaborate office structure set up by i t s founders. The club had a Board of Trustees, a Board of Directors and some twenty sub-committees. After a lengthy discussion of this matter the leaders of the Vancouver association decided to adopt a compromise solution. The office struoture of the reorganized club included a Board of Directors and six standing committees. But having made a decision on this matter they were unable to implement i t . They convinced themselves that they would not be able to find enough - 123 -able and willing workers to f i l l a l l the positions which had been created. Accordingly, they made no effort to activate the standing committees. Only one of these standing committees ever became active; and then only because i t had been set up before the association was reorganized. The failure to act more decisively on this matter was later hailed as foresight. In I968 the Seattle Club collapsed with as much speed as i t had originally appeared. The immediate cause of that collapse was a dispute over policy among the officers which effectively paralyzed i t s operations. The officers of the local association were of the opinion that the very elaborate office structure had f a c i l i t a t e d the emergence of several opposing factions whose differences were not reconcilable. During these years the composition of the o f f i c i a l membership, viewed in terms of generation-origin groupings^ changed to a greater degree than in any other association; Originally drawn almost entirely from the older immigrant and older native-bom groups; the character of the o f f i c i a l member-ship began to change i n the late 1950's; due i n i t i a l l y to the large-scale participation of the new immigrants. The new Immigrants; by and large,' tended to concentrate i n this association; with only token and generally - 124 -short-lived participation i n the other associations. Those members of the new immigrant group who rose to positions of leadership and Influence within the community tended to do so only through their p a r t i c i -pation i n this association," particularlly after the coup of I 9 6 I . Table XIV; below, provides an analysis of the changes which occurred i n the composition of the o f f i c i a l membership between I 9 6 I and I 9 6 6 . TABLE XIV Generation-Origin Groupings of the Association*s Members, I963 - I 9 6 6 . 1961 1963 1965 1966 Total Members 83 278 108 159 Local Members 83 159 98 109 Analysis based on 78.6% 85.0% data for 63.8$ 72.$ Older Immigrants 30.9$ 25.7* 18.7% Newer Immigrants 22.2 I3.6 11.4 23.0 Older Native-Born 27.7 31.2 30.0 29.6 Younger Native-Born 7.* 12.0 22.8 24.1 Non-Icelandi0 1.8 8.8 10.0 4.4 The size of the o f f i c i a l membership grew steadily i n the following years (I967. 1967-68, 1968-69)» reaching the 3Q0 mark in the last year indicated. The propor-tion of these o f f i c i a l members drawn from the younger native-born and non-Icelandic groups increased from 28.5$ in 1966 to 51.6$ i n early 1968-69. After 1961 there was a gradual shift in the nature of the acti v i t i e s supported by the association. - 125 -Readings i n p o e t r y were phased out i n fav o u r of a g r e a t e r number of dances, two of which were h e l d i n commemoration of important I c e l a n d i c h o l i d a y s . The f i r s t , i n February; commemorates t h e T h o r r a b l o t , a major f e s t i v e day, and the seond, i n June; commem-o r a t e s I c e l a n d ' s Independence Day. The l i b r a r y , which had been t h e ce n t e r of a t t e n t i o n f o r so many years, was g i v e n t o the home, a t D's su g g e s t i o n . I n 19&3 t h e E x e c u t i v e Committee changed t h e language being used from I c e l a n d i c t o E n g l i s h , mainly t o accomodate H, who t h r e a t e n e d t o r e s i g n i f the committee continued t o use a language he c o u l d not use. He was supported by J , who maintained t h a t t h i s change would have t o be made t o accomodate f u t u r e o f f i c e r s who c o u l d not use the I c e l a n d i c language. But t h e changes which were made d u r i n g t h i s p e r i o d were made l a r g e l y i n response to p r e s s u r e s e x e r t e d by v a r i o u s groups and i n d i v i d u a l s . No attempt was made t o produce and implement a c o - o r d i n a t e d programme of new i d e a s . The blame f o r t h i s f a i l u r e was p l a c e d on F by H and J and became another reason j u s t i f y i n g h i s removal from o f f i c e . But H and J , i n t u r n , were not a b l e t o produce t h e i r own programme i n t h e i r own time s i n c e they were f o r c e d t o a c t quickly*, both to counter F's co n t i n u e d attempts t o ma i n t a i n h i s i n f l u e n c e and t o meet the t h r e a t , t o the - 126 -a s s o c i a t i o n ' s p r e s t i g e , posed by t h e S e a t t l e Club's emergence. They f e l t o b l i g e d t o a c t t o end F's c a r e e r and to adopt a programme s i m i l a r t o the one which had been so s u c c e s s f u l i n S e a t t l e . The new programme, f o r m a l l y adopted i n January, 1967* was designed t o appeal t o t h e younger n a t i v e - b o r n group and t h e i r n o n - I c e l a n d i c spouses and f r i e n d s . I n a d d i t i o n , a number of l i m i t e d i n t e r e s t a c t i v i t i e s were i n t r o d u c e d . E v e n t u a l l y , however, the f a i l u r e of the l e a d e r s t o r e c r u i t enough o f f i c e r s t o a c t i v a t e t h e sub-committee s t r u c t u r e f o r c e d them t o e l i m i n a t e t h e l i m i t e d i n t e r e s t a c t i v i t i e s and to co n c e n t r a t e a& the s o c i a l a c t i v i t i e s planned f o r t h e younger n a t i v e - b o r n group. But, w i t h t h e e x c e p t i o n of the new c u l t u r a l p o l i c y , which had i t s f i r s t t e s t i n 1967» t h e c o n s t i t u e n t elements of t h i s programme had been i n t r o d u c e d i n a piece-meal f a s h i o n between I96I and 1965. As a r e s u l t the r e o r g a n i z a t i o n c a r r i e d out i n I967 d i d not I n v o l v e th e i n t r o d u c t i o n of new p o l i c i e s as much as i t was an e f f e c t i v e c o n s o l i d a t i o n and r a t i o n a l i z a t i o n o f the changes made i n e a r l i e r y e ars. N e v e r t h e l e s s , t h e o f f i c e r s g e n e r a l l y b e l i e v e d t h a t the changes evident a f t e r I967 i n the composition of both the o f f i c i a l and p a r t i c i p a t o r y membership were a d i r e c t r e s u l t of the r e o r g a n i z a t i o n - 127 -of that year. But Table XIV shows that the member-ship was already beginning to change before 19&7 and i t i s l i k e l y that the trends evident would have continued, regardless of the actions taken or not taken i n connection with the name, the a f f i l i a t i o n with the League and so on. Some support f o r t h i s i n t e r p r e t a t i o n i s given i n Table XV, below; which provides an analysis of three types of members: those who remained members during the years I963-I966 (core members); those who withdrew during these years (withdrawals) and those who joined f o r the f i r s t time l n the same period (new members). TABLE XV Generation-Origin Groupings of the Core Members; Withdrawals, and New Members, I 9 6 3 - I 9 6 6 . Core With- New Members drawals Members Local Members *5 151 64 Analysis based on 56.3$ 84.3$ data f o r 93.3$ Older Immigrants 33.3$ 28.2$ 9.2$ Newer Immigrants 21.4$ 10.5$ 20.3$ Older Native-Born 26.1 3^.1 22.2 Younger Native-Born 16.6 U.7 35.1 Non-Icelandic 2.3 15.3 9.2 The older immigrant and older native-born groups provided about 60$ of the core members but less than a t h i r d of the new members. The younger native-born and non-Icelandic groups! which accounted - 128 -f o r l e s s than a f i f t h of t h e core members, p r o v i d e d j u s t under h a l f of t h e new members. A t the same time over 60% of those who d i s c o n t i n u e d t h e i r member-s h i p s were from the o l d e r immigrant and o l d e r n a t i v e -born groups. I t i s d i f f i c u l t t o say; however, what p r o p o r t i o n of the s e members withdrew because they were unhappy w i t h t h e changes underway i n the a s s o c i -a t i o n ' s a c t i v i t i e s . Many of these members Joined i n I963 and I96* i n o r d e r t o q u a l i f y f o r p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n t he c h a r t e r f l i g h t s of those y e a r s . Most of them had not been members b e f o r e these f l i g h t s and v e r y few m a i n t a i n e d t h e i r membership s t a t u s a f t e r the f l i g h t s were over. Some of thes e people, when i n t e r -viewed, s t a t e d , q u i t e b l u n t l y , t h a t they had no i n t e r e s t i n the a s s o c i a t i o n , f o r t h a t matter they c o u l d not see why anyone would have an i n t e r e s t i n i t f and they themselves had j o i n e d o n l y because the IATA r e g u l a t i o n s governing c h a r t e r f l i g h t s s t i p u l a t e t h a t o n l y members of a spo n s o r i n g group c o u l d J o i n a c h a r t e r f l i g h t . F u r t h e r evidence t h a t t h e membership began t o change d r a s t i c a l l y b e f o r e 1967 i s p r o v i d e d by a comparison o f t h e o f f i c i a l and the p a r t i c i p a t o r y memberships. During 1966 and the e a r l y p a r t o f 1967 an e f f o r t was made t o r e c o r d the names of a l l those a t t e n d i n g t h e p u b l i c g a t h e r i n g s h e l d by t h e a s s o c i a t i o n . - 129 -The f i r s t public gathering attended by the writer, a f t e r he had been elected to the association*s Executive Committee i n February; 1966; was a dinner-dance held the following month. This dance was attended by some 160 persons. During conversations with the association*s other o f f i c e r s , on the night i n question and on subsequent occasions, i t became evident that the o f f i c e r s were f a m i l i a r or acquainted with only a minority of those who had attended. This; i t should be noted; d i d not cause them any worry. But the writer suggested that i t might prove useful to know who was a c t u a l l y attending the association's public gatherings - such participants might be interested i n becoming o f f i c i a l members; i f they were not o f f i c i a l members already. At his suggestion a guest book was obtained and used at most of the public gatherings, other than business meetings, held between A p r i l , 1966, and A p r i l , I967. An analysis of the data obtained l n t h i s manner i s presented i n Table XVI, following, which provides a comparison of the o f f i c i a l and p a r t i c i -pating memberships. The l a t t e r , of course; includes some of the o f f i c i a l members. - 130 -TABLE XVI The Generation-Origin Groupings of the O f f i c i a l and Participating Members, 1966-67. 1966 1967 Off. Part. Off. Part. Number of Members 159 3*0 13* 165 Local Members 109 265 125 165 Analysis based on 87.5$ data for. 85.$ 79.0$ 88.6$ Older Immigrants 18.7$ 12.8$ 22.9$ 10.2$ Newer Immigrants 23.0 1*.7 11.9 9.3 Older Native-Bom 29.6 25.1 19.3 2*. 8 Younger Native-Born 24.1 25.6 28.* 28.2 Non-Icelandic 4.1 21.8 16.9 27.3 A more detailed analysis of this data provided some interesting findings. The o f f i c i a l members of the association accounted for only 18$ of the participants during 1966 and a slightly higher portion in the early part of 1967. Furthermore, less than half (about *0$) of the o f f i c i a l members ever attended any gathering hosted by the association during the period covered by the data. In both years they appear to rank a poor third behind individuals who belonged to other associations in the community and other individuals who belonged to none. In later years, as conditions became more stable, more of the o f f i c i a l members began to participate in such activities and by I969 they were beginning to provide a majority of a l l participants at some public gatherings. But at the same time there was a steady increase in the number of non-Icelandic participants, many of whom were o f f i c i a l - 131 -members, and there were gatherings in I968 and later were the non-Icelanders accounted for 40$ or more of a l l participants. In general the analysis of the participating membership indicates that the shift in the group characteristics of the association^ effective supporters was already well established before the reorganization of 196?. The leaders publicly justified this re-organization on the grounds that i t was necessary in order to attract the younger native-born individuals. But their motives were not quite as simple, or as pure, as those public statements indicated. The desire to ohange the name was largely a reaction to the fact that the officers of the Icelandic Club of Greater Seattle gave much of the credit for their success to that English name. A number of other changes, such as the increase i n the membership dues, the change in the time of the annual meeting, the reorganization of the office structure and the Introduction of the principle of limited tenure for the directors, were a l l borrowed from that Club, simply because they were thought to be, and were stated to be, among the other elements which contributed to that success. Similarily, the decision to sever the ties with the Icelandic National League was largely a by-product of - 132 -the continuing dispute between P and the association's leaders. H and J. Before I965 these two men had not been too interested i n the League or in the ties between the association and the League. But they were willing to dlseuss the question of future re-lations up to the moment that P was made a director of the League and given control over i t s activities on the coast. H and J were incensed at what they re-garded as an unwarrented attempt by the League to interfere in their affairs through P. Both had to be and were, punished. The proponents of these changes did not think i t necessary to consult with the members, whether o f f i c i a l or participatory. Their decisions were largely a response to pressures which they alone f e l t and the opinions of the members were of l i t t l e interest to them. Nevertheless, they did go through the motions of consulting the members by calling a special general meeting, which was held in November, I 9 6 6 . Ostensibly the meeting was called to give the members an opportunity to examine and discuss certain tentative proposals being considered by the officers i n connection with a revision of the present constitution. But in fact there was nothing tentative about any of these proposals, which were contained in a completely new constitution. The decisions - 133 -involved had been made months earlier and none of them were considered negotiable. The real purpose of the meeting was to give the leaders a public forum in which they could humiliate and discredit F to the point were both his reputation and his w i l l to lead were destroyed. Careful planning for that objective paid hansome dividends, and after this meeting F was rarely seen at any public meeting held by or under the auspices of any of the associations in the community. Patterns of Participation The names of the ordinary members interviewed i n the i n i t i a l stages of this study (I965-66) were drawn from the membership l i s t s which had been obtained up to that time. The interviews which were conducted had two main objectives. F i r s t , they were designed to provide personal data which could be treated in a s t a t i s t i c a l manner. This included information on such points as birthplace and birthdate, occupation, marital status (and spouse's ethnic origin, i f non-Icelandic) , migration history, record of participa-i n Icelandic and non-Icelandic associations, and so on. Second, these interviews were designed to provide information on the extent to which these individuals identified themselves or could be identified as being - 1 3 4 -members of the ethnic community* This was to be accomplished indirectly by determining the extent of their knowledge of three points: the history of the community and/or the associations, the identity of the community^ leaders and their awareness of the important issues, i f any. It was thought that the more knowledgeable the members were on a l l or any of these points the greater their sense of belonging to a community would be. It did not take very many interviews to establish the fact that the ordinary members of the community generally had l i t t l e detailed knowledge of either the history of the community or the history of the associations within i t . Some simply knew nothing, while others had vague, and usually erroneous, opinions. No specific statement could be accepted unless verified by numerous witnesses and, i f possible, by documentary sources. Most of the members did not know when a given association had been established, why i t was established or who had established i t . Few had any but the vaguest notions as to what had happened prior to the time they had f i r s t joined, assuming, of course, that they were able to remember when they had f i r s t become members. Nor were they much better informed about the events which had occurred after they had - 135 -j o i n e d . . They were aware of some of the h i g h l i g h t s of re c e n t years, such as t h e c o n s t r u c t i o n of the church, th e v i s i t of the P r e s i d e n t and the c o n s t r u c t i o n of th e o l d f o l k s home, but they l a c k e d any d e t a i l e d knowledge about th e s e and o t h e r events. The o r d i n a r y member's l a c k of h i s t o r i c a l knowledge i s not n e c e s s a r i l y an unexpected f i n d i n g . There i s , a f t e r a l l , no reason why sueh an i n d i v i d u a l s h o u l d have o r needs t o have such knowledge, p a r t i c u -l a r l y when l i t t l e o r n o t h i n g i s done t o g i v e him an o p p o r t u n i t y t o a c q u i r e such knowledge. The l a c k of such knowledge does not bar him from p a r t i c i p a t i n g q u i t e e x t e n s i v e l y i n t h e a f f a i r s of these a s s o c i a t i o n s and t h i s community. A f t e r a l l , i t takes no knowledge and l i t t l e i n i t i a t i v e on t h e member's p a r t t o g i v e mumbled consent o r t o r a i s e h i s hand, al o n g w i t h t h i r t y o t h e r people, t o approve a d e c i s i o n which has not been f u l l y e x p l a i n e d and which i s b a r e l y understandable. The o f f i c e r s o f the a s s o c i a t i o n s were g e n e r a l l y more aware of t h e h i s t o r y of t h e community and t h e a s s o c i a t i o n s than t h e o r d i n a r y members. There were; however, t h r e e d i s t i n c t groupings among th e s e o f f i c e r s , i n s o f a r as t h e depth of t h e i r knowl-edge was concerned. The group which possessed t h e g r e a t e s t q u a n t i t y of knowledge c o n s i s t e d of i n d i v i d u a l s -136 -who had been officers for twenty years or longer. Their detailed knowledge of the past was, in part, a by-produce of their intimate personal connection with those events. The passage of years, not un-expectedly, tended to result in versions which were biased in one way or another. Another group con-sisted of those individuals who had just recently : been elected to their positions. These new o f f i -cers, who were often new members as well, were fre-quently so busy performing their duties that they had no time, and often l i t t l e desire, to learn about past events. They tended to r e l i e on the often biased versions of their seniors, who were i n some cases the victorious survivors of epic but unpublicized disputes. But although such new o f f i -cers were not always obtaining a very accurate pic-ture of the past they were usually learning modern history by participating in i t s creation. The officers of Strondin were particularily prominent in this group. Two separate purges of the association's officer corps, one in I96I and the other in 1965* had brought into office individuals who had only recently become members of the associ-ation. Their knowledge of the association's past history was very meager and consisted largely of a rather one-sided view of the most recent events, - 137 -coloured In a way which discre d i t e d P and hi s actions. There was a t h i r d , rather small, group of indi v i d u a l s , some of whom were then i n o f f i c i a l positions and some of whom had recently vacated such positions, usually a f t e r serving only f o r a year or two. These indivi d u a l s were no better informed then the ordinary members. Their tenure, past and pres-ent, i n t h e i r o f f i c i a l positions had not given them any r e a l knowledge of what was going on. The interviews indicated that although the ordinary members were not well informed as f a r as the community's history was concerned they d i d know, or f e l t they knew, who the leaders were. But the number of ind i v i d u a l s they i d e n t i f i e d as leaders was small, r a r e l y more than two or three and quite often only one. These nominations were usually i n the form of very d e f i n i t e statements, such as WD runs the home? MMrs H runs Solskln? or W E Is the church? On the basis of these nominations i t appeared that the top leadership of the community consisted of E, I, P, D and Mrs R. I t appeared that E, on the basis of the number of nominations he received, was the community's singl e most i n f l u e n t i a l or power-f u l leader. In addition, a number of other persons -J, H, 0, C, Mrs K, B, Mrs D, Mrs F, U and P - seemed - 138 -t o form a second echelon on the b a s i s of t h e nomi-n a t i o n s they r e c e i v e d . But subsequent a n a l y s i s i n d i c a t e d t h a t t h e r e p u t a t i o n s of the s e l e a d e r s were not always r e l a t e d t o the r e a l i t y of t h e i r r e s p e c t i v e s i t u a t i o n s . I t was noted e a r l i e r t h a t most of the members of t h e community were members of o n l y one a s s o c i a t i o n and t h a t t h e i r e f f e c t i v e o r a c t u a l p a r t i c -i p a t i o n was r e s t r i c t e d t o one a s s o c i a t i o n . Even those i n d i v i d u a l s who had o f f i c i a l memberships i n two o r more a s s o c i a t i o n s tended to r e s t r i c t t h e i r a c t u a l p a r t i c i p a t i o n t o o n l y one of these, w h i l e t h e i r o f f i c i a l memberships i n the o t h e r a s s o c i a t i o n s was merely a token of support. Because of t h e i r tend-ency t o r e s t r i c t t h e i r e f f e c t i v e p a r t i c i p a t i o n t h e members, by and l a r g e , were i g n o r a n t of t h e r e a l i t i e s o f t h e community and they tended t o nominate t h e l e a d e r s of t h e i r a s s o c i a t i o n as the l e a d e r s of the community. When the nominations made were compared w i t h t h e a s s o c i a t i o n a l a f f i l i a t i o n s of the nominators the s i n g l e group of top l e a d e r s was broken Into s e v e r a l s e p a r a t e groupings. The l e a d e r s a s s o c i a t e d w i t h the church were E and I ; those a s s o c i a t e d w i t h S t r o n d i n were P and D; those a s s o c i a t e d w i t h t h e Home S o c i e t y were D and Mrs R, and the S o l s k i n l e a d e r s were Mrs R and Mrs K. A - 139 -similar regrouping of the second rank of leaders was also in order. The appearance of a hierarchical, single grouping of the leaders was a direct result of the bias Introduced by the differences in the sizes of the memberships of these associations. The church had the largest effective membership and as a result E and I received by far the highest number of nominations. On the other hand, the effective memberships of the Home Society and Solskln were rather small and D and Mrs E received far fewer votes than either of the church leaders, their relative ranking in the over-all leadership group being boosted by the nominations they received from members of other associations. The members interviewed tended to regard P and D as the top leaders of Strondin. These Inter-views were conducted as much as a year after these two men were removed from their offices but the fact of their removal had not yet been f u l l y comprehended by the membership. This was partly due to the fact that H and J had f a i l e d to publicize the fact that they were now in command and the members were generally under the impression that P was s t i l l the president and that D was s t i l l in office. In fact, several years passed before l t was generally real-ized that there had been a change of command In this - 140 -a s s o c i a t i o n . But by the time t h a t t h e mass of the membership had l e a r n e d t h a t F had been succeeded by H. the l a t t e r had, i n t u r n ; r e t i r e d and been suc-ceeded by J . And by the time t h a t the members had l e a r n e d t h a t change J had a l s o r e t i r e d and been succeeded by S. The r a t e of t u r n o v e r i n the l e a d e r -s h i p of S t r o n d i n ( l a t e r t h e I c e l a n d i c Canadian Club of B r i t i s h Columbia) was so high, p a r t i o u l a r i l y at a time when the l e a d e r s h i p of the o t h e r a s s o c i a t i o n s remained b a s i c a l l y the same, t h a t the members were u s u a l l y o u t - o f - t o u c h w i t h r e a l i t y , as f a r as r e a l i t y concerned th e i d e n t i t y of t h e a s s o c i a t i o n ^ top l e a d e r s . The I n d i v i d u a l s nominated by the members were u s u a l l y a b l e t o p r o v i d e a more d e t a i l e d d e s c r i p -t i o n of the o f f i c e s t r u c t u r e s of t h e i r a s s o c i a t i o n s and p r o v i d e d a more complete l i s t i n g of the i n d i v i d -u a l s who, by v i r t u e of t h e i r o f f i c i a l p o s i t i o n s , were i n a p o s i t i o n t o i n f l u e n c e the course of events. But even th e l e a d e r s tended t o t h i n k p r i m a r i l y i n terms of t h e p a r t i c u l a r a s s o c i a t i o n they were a f f i l i a t e d w i t h and, as a r e s u l t , they were no b e t t e r informed than the o r d i n a r y members as t o the extent and the composition of the l e a d e r s h i p o r o f f i c e r corps of the o t h e r a s s o c i a t i o n s . They knew the top l e a d e r s of those a s s o c i a t i o n s , o r a t l e a s t they knew who they - 141 -were, but they d i d not know t h e i d e n t i t i e s of t h e o t h e r l e s s prominent o f f i c e r s of those same a s s o c i -a t i o n s . S i n c e the l a t e 1 9 5 0 *s the l e a d e r s of t h e community had been engaged i n a continuous s t r u g g l e f o r c o n t r o l over t h e p o l i c i e s and the f u t u r e s of the a s s o c i a t i o n s . During t h i s s t r u g g l e c o n t r o l over each of the major a s s o c i a t i o n s - the church, S t r o n d i n and t h e Home S o c i e t y - had been d i v i d e d between d i f f e r e n t groups of l e a d e r s and each such group had i t s own i d e a s and o p i n i o n s as t o what the f u t u r e of t h e i r a s s o c i a t i o n should be. There was no l o n g e r any e f f e c t i v e communication between th e a s s o c i a t i o n s ; o r t h e l e a d e r s , and each was going i n i t s own d i r e c t i o n . The l e a d e r s continued t o p r a i s e community co-opera-t i o n i n p u b l i c but the p o l i c i e s they implemented i n p r i v a t e were implemented i n t h e e x p e c t a t i o n of g a i n s f o r t h e i r a s s o c i a t i o n and i t was of no i n t e r e s t to them i f those p o l i c i e s tended t o damage o r weaken t h e a b i l i t y of the o t h e r a s s o c i a t i o n s to implement t h e i r p o l i c i e s . The l e a d e r ( o r l e a d e r s ) of one a s s o c i a t i o n c o u l d not express too g r e a t an i n t e r e s t i n t h e a c t i v i t i e s of t h e o t h e r a s s o c i a t i o n s because such an e x p r e s s i o n was bound t o be i n t e r p r e t e d - o f t e n d e l i b e r a t e l y so - as an unwarrented and u n j u s t i f i e d - 142 -attempt t o i n t e r f e r e i n matters which d i d not concern him ( o r them). Few l e a d e r s were w i l l i n g , any l o n g e r , t o r i s k the e r u p t i o n which would r e s u l t and most, by a mutual i f unspoken agreement, l e f t h i s c o l l e a g u e s a l o n e and c o n c e n t r a t e d on h i s own a f f a i r s and the a f f a i r s of the a s s o c i a t i o n he l e d . And because the l e a d e r s a v o i d e d not o n l y c o n f r o n t a t i o n s but c o n t a c t s as w e l l they were not i n a p o s i t i o n t o l e a r n too much about the l e a d e r s of the o t h e r a s s o c i a t i o n s - nor were they r e a l l y i n t e r e s t e d i n such i n f o r m a t i o n any l o n g e r . The i n f o r m a t i o n produced i n the i n t e r v i e w s conducted a t t h i s time (I965-66) g e n e r a l l y gave the i m p r e s s i o n t h a t t h i s was a p e a c e f u l l i t t l e community. Such a p i c t u r e was p a i n t e d by the o r d i n a r y members and by the o f f i c e r s . Many of the l a t t e r went to g r e a t l e n g t h s t o d e s c r i b e how w e l l they got along w i t h each o t h e r , how e a s i l y they a l l agreed on a common course of a c t i o n , and how they a l l worked, each to the b e s t of h i s a b i l i t y , t o m a i n t a i n t h e s p i r i t and the p r i n c i p l e of community c o - o p e r a t i o n . But cracks appeared i n t h i s p e a c e f u l scene q u i t e e a r l y and they widened c o n s i d e r a b l y a f t e r the w r i t e r became an a c t i v e p a r t i c i p a n t i n the a c t i v i t i e s of t h e s e l e a d e r s . Only then d i d the extent of the - 1*3 -d i s p u t e s between t h e l e a d e r s ; and t h e i r e f f e c t ; g r a d u a l l y become e v i d e n t . And a t t h i s time (1966) a number of the s e d i s p u t e s were r a p i d l y approaching th e stage were a p u b l i c e x p l o s i o n was i n e v i t a b l e and unavoidable, d e s p i t e the f a c t t h a t the l e a d e r s were r e a l l y r e l u c t a n t t o q u a r r e l i n p u b l i c The l e a d e r s g e n e r a l l y agreed t h a t t h e i r disagreements had t o be s o l v e d i n p r i v a t e f o r they f e a r e d t h a t a p u b l i c d i s p u t e would antagonize o r d i s t u r b many members t o the p o i n t were they would simply w i t h -draw from t h e community. But sometimes t h e i r d i s -agreements c o u l d not be r e s o l v e d i n p r i v a t e , e i t h e r because t h e d i f f e r e n c e s were too extreme o r because a p r i v a t e s o l u t i o n was not r e a l l y wanted, and e i t h e r o r b o t h f a c t i o n s would choose t o f i n i s h i n p u b l i c what they had s t a r t e d i n p r i v a t e . And such a f i n i s h i n v a r i a b l y had the f e a r e d e f f e c t on the membership. Give n such an a t t i t u d e on t h e p a r t of the l e a d e r s and the o f f i c e r s t o g e t h e r , i t i s not s u r p r i s i n g t o note t h a t t h e members were not g e n e r a l l y o r c o n t i n u o u s l y aware of an y t h i n g which c o u l d be d e s c r i b e d as an important i s s u e . I n s o f a r as they knew, t h e community was u s u a l l y a t peace w i t h i t s e l f and t h i s c o n d i t i o n p e r m i t t e d them t o a c t w i t h i n i t as they d e s i r e d . And what they - 144 -desired was an opportunity to meet their fellow Icelandic Canadians and to share a cup of coffee and the latest personal gossip with them. They generally did not want to be directly Involved i n the often onerous task of keeping the associations i n operation - that, after a l l , was what the o f f i -cers were supposed to do. Accordingly, they had l i t t l e desire to get involved i n the disputes which might arise between those officers. But because not a l l disputes could be resolved in private the members could not avoid a l l contact with the important Issues of the day. If a dispute was thought to be insoluble, within the limits of the traditional method of handling such affairs, or i f , for some reason, a private solution was not desired, then one or both of the factions involved would decide to refer the dispute to the members for their decision. This would be done at the regular annual meeting or a special general meeting. Such meetings are usually very poorly attended and the outcome of any votes taken by those attending can be manipulated rather easily, often by as few as a dozen persons acting together on prior instructions. The decision i s often made so quickly that the members do not realize that an important issue has been settled and i t may take - 145 -some time b e f o r e they f u l l y understand t h e meaning of t h e events they witnessed. By then, of course, i t i s too l a t e t o o b j e c t , i f the d e c i s i o n was o r i s not a c c e p t a b l e t o them. They were t h e r e and by t h e i r presence became a s s o c i a t e d w i t h the p a r t i c u l a r d e c i s i o n i n q u e s t i o n . The p r i n c i p a l b e n e f i t t h e members r e c e i v e from th e s e a s s o c i a t i o n s i s the o p p o r t u n i t y g i v e n t o them t o meet and t a l k w i t h f r i e n d s and acquaintances, who do not o n l y Just share a common a n c e s t r y w i t h them but who have o f t e n shared t h e i r l i v e s s i n c e c h i l d h o o d . The remembering and r e v i e w i n g of past events w i t h such f r i e n d s , as w e l l as an exchange of i n f o r m a t i o n about t h e more r e c e n t events i n t h e i r l i v e s , I s one of the p r i n c i p a l reasons f o r t h e i r p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n such g a t h e r i n g s . Such exchanges can be and a r e h e l d at any p u b l i c g a t h e r i n g . But the g e n e r a l meetings, which a r e h e l d to approve d e c i s i o n s taken on r o u t i n e o r s p e c i a l matters p e r -t a i n i n g t o the o p e r a t i o n of the a s s o c i a t i o n s , p r o v i d e r e l a t i v e l y l i t t l e time f o r such exchanges. Such meetings have a tendency to be v e r y long, s i n c e t h e o f f i c e r s g e n e r a l l y want to have the f o r m a l a p p r o v a l of t h e membership f o r every minor o r major d e c i s i o n o r a c t i o n they have taken o r p l a n t o t a k e . The members, a c c o r d i n g l y , s t a y away from - 1*6 -such meetings quite deliberately, except for the few brave souls who risk being caught in the cross-f i r e , should the leaders be fighting again. There was, or appeared to be, a consider-able difference in the extent to which different individuals were attached to or had a sense of belonging to the community or one of i t s associa-tions. The officers, especially the leaders, had a very high and often a very personal commitment, serving a worthy cause with with selfless devotion and humility. "Some one must do i t and no one else will? But the ordinary members, by and large, were not as deeply or as continuously committed to the community, since the benefits they sought and received could be, and often were, obtained outside of the community. - 1*7 -CHAPTER V LEADERSHIP AND POWER IN THE ETHNIC COMMUNITY Leaders and Officers The minutes of the annual general meeting of the Women's Auxiliary of the Icelandic Lutheran Church, held i n November, 1950, contains the following description of the elections held that year: "At this time of the meeting the election of officers commenced. The president stepped down and asked Mrs S to take the chair, which she did, and the annual struggle commenced, "The Executive a l l resigned and no one wished to take over, Mrs U was the unanimous choice for president and was pressed into servioe with Mrs GJ as vice-president? Matters improved somewhat over the years, as the following excerpt from the minutes of the Auxiliary's annual meeting i n October, 1959* indicates: "There were no elections nec-essary as the same executive willingly accepted their offloes for another term? The minutes of the annual meeting of Strondin, held i n January, 1963, describe how J intro-duced a more democratic method of electing the asso-ciation's offloors. Instead of presenting a single •late of nominees for the seven positions on the Executive Committee and the nine sub-committee positions, he presented the nominees one by one. - 148 -i n v i t i n g f u r t h e r nominations from the f l o o r f o r every p o s i t i o n . No fur t h e r nominations were made, and those nominated by J were elected by acclamation. One dissenting vote was east against one of these nominees. The secretary, nominated f o r r e - e l e c t i o n , voted against himself. The chairman of the nominating committee presented a f u l l s l a t e of nominees f o r the Board of Trustees to the members attending the annual general meeting of the Icelandic Lutheran Church i n January, 1964. The nominees were a l l elected by acclamation. One of the new trustees was Mr GB, who was not present at the meeting. By an unfortu-nate oversight the ohairman of the nominating committee had forgotten to t e l l Mr GB that he was to be nominated f o r a seat on the Board of Trustees. By an equally unfortunate oversight he forgot to t e l l Mr GB that he had been eleoted to that seat. Some time l a t e r Mr GB was asked by the Board* s senior member why he was not attending the Board's meetings. Mr GB, l n return, wondered why he should be attending those meetings. The balance of t h e i r conversation was probably not without i t s humourous overtones, as Mr GB i n s i s t e d that he was not a trustee and his colleague i n s i s t e d that he was. Mr GB f i n a l l y persevered, but only - 1*9 -with great d i f f i c u l t y and i n the face of a determined opposition. The Ladies A i d Solskln celebrated i t s f i f t i -eth anniversary i n November, 1967* In recognition of t h e i r past services the Board of Directors of the Home Soolety honoured them with a banquet. One item on the programme required the president of the Home Society to introduce the Aid's present o f f i c e r s to the and!ence. He encountered no problems u n t i l he came to the p o s i t i o n of the vice-secretary. He d i d not know who the vice-secretary was, nor apparently d i d anyone else since h i s request that she i d e n t i f y herself was met by a dead si l e n c e . There followed an extended period of whispered conversations as those present searched t h e i r ranks f o r the misslog o f f i c e r . This search was brought to an abrupt end when one of the searchers Jumped up and shouted: " I t ' s mei" The president of the Home Society stunned the members attending the annual meeting i n January, 1968, by declaring that i l l - h e a l t h forced him to decline nomination f o r a ninth consecutive term i n o f f i c e . Only a f t e r overcoming strenuous objections from those present was he able to c a l l f o r nomina-tions f o r the post of president. Three such nominations were made, the candidates being D, 0 and - 150 -T2. The l a t t e r two demanded that they be allowed to decline nomination and the p o s i t i o n went to D by acclamation* The next p o s i t i o n to be f i l l e d was the dir e c t o r s h i p being vacated by Mrs R, her term having expired* She was not present, but she had sent a l e t t e r to the meeting indicated that i f no other candidate could be found she would accept nomination f o r re-e l e c t i o n * The members accepted her o f f e r and elected her, i n the usual manner, to her seventh conseoutlve three-year term* E l e c t i o n time has not always been as peace f u l or as lacking i n general Interest, as the above-desoribed events might indicate* As recently as I96I there were two opposing slates of nominees f o r the executive positions i n Strondin, although the el e c t i o n I t s e l f was no contest* S i m i l a r i l y , there were opposing candidates f o r the vacant seats on the Home Society*s Board i n 1958, 1959 and i960, though, of course, the outcome of the elections was predictable* The p o s i t i o n of an o f f i c e r l n one of these associations i s not a highly desired one. Because the o f f i c i a l work force i s small and the quantity of routine house-keeping duties great, his l i f e can be a d i f f i c u l t one. He must be ready and w i l l i n g to - 151 -give an almost unlimited amount of his time and energy to help deal with the one hundred and one tasks which must he performed i n order to keep the associations in operation. These tasks are contin-uous and often onerous, requiring frequent meetings with his colleagues and solo performances, often several times a month. In addition to the time he must give i n private he i s under an obligation to attend every public gathering held by the association of which he i s an officer. Although his position i s not always an envied one, l t i s , for the associations and the community, a very Important one. When the community i s defined i n terms of i t s constituent associations, those associations must be kept operational. They are kept operational by the combined efforts of the individuals who occupy the offices which constitute the office structures of the associations. Only those individuals who hold such o f f i c i a l positions are accorded the right, by their colleagues and, to a lesser extent, by the members, to act as leaders or to share in the formulation and implementation of policy. It i s , of course, conceivable that the officeholders represent only the formal leadership, with real or effective control being exercised by non-- 152 -officers behind the scene. But this i s not the case i n this community. There i s a shortage of potential or actual officeholders, and this shortage i s a continuing problem for a l l of these associations. This shortage i s partly due to the fact that the members, by and large, participate in the activ i t i e s of these associations for the personal benefits they re-ceive i n the form of opportunities to meet friends and acquaintances. Generally they do not have a desire to take part in the activities which enable these associations to operate. The office structures of these associations have been reduced to a minimum i n size, usually a board or executive committee with six to twelve members. Despite the minimal size, i t has often been the case that not enough officers or potential candidates for office have been found to f i l l a l l the available offices, even when a potential candidate was offered a position but freed of any obligation to take an active part i n the activities of his colleagues. GB was not the only person to be elected to an office without his prior consent, nor was he the only person to be urged to retain his office without an obligation to perform the duties which might be attached to i t . If he had accepted this offer, the - 153 -other officers would not have had to engage.in yet another tiresome search for a successor," Because there i s a shortage of acceptable officers or potential candidates for office; i t , i s not surprising to note that any individual; regard-less of his membership status, who expresses more than a passing interest i n the business affairs of these associations becomes a potential candidate for office* Whether this potential i s translated into actual election to an office or an appointment to an office depends upon other factors, especially the assessment made by the leaders of his (her) potential effect upon the association and; more importantly; upon their own status as leaders* Miss M had been a relatively inactive member of the congregation for several years prior to the time (mid-1966) that she began to object to the planned dissolution of the Women*s Auxiliary; an organization which she had never joined or supported to any extent* Her objections were based on the grounds that an Icelandic organization simply could not be permitted to die; and she promised to see to i t that new members would be brought i n to give i t : a new lease on l i f e * Her objections and promises angered some of the Auxiliary's officers, such as Mrs L, who f e l t that she had no right to interfere - 154 -In an organization which she had never supported. But Miss M was giving voice to the growing fears of most of the congregation*s members, whose ethnic patriotism was being aroused by I and E. Her objections carried the day at the annual meeting i n 1967* But her objections also carried her Into office as the Auxiliary's treasurer* Once i n office she became so absorbed by the quantity of work which had to be performed that she was never really able to mount the promised drive for new members* The writer's acti v i t i e s during 1965 were interpreted by the leaders of Strondin as indicating the existence of a personal interest which transcended any other interests* Because of the purges carried out i n earlier years, they were In an even more d i f f i c u l t situation than the leaders of the other associations, and they offered him as many positions as he oared to accept* In a matter of months he was elected; by due democratic process; to serve as the secretary of the Executive Committee and as the senior delegate to the Scandinavian Central Committee, and was appointed the chairman of the centennial committee, the chairman of an ad hop public relations committee, the secretary of an ad hoc by-law committee and the secretary of the Scholarship Committee* By his service i n these and other capacities he, i n the - 155 -course of time; became as prominent and; by reputation, as powerful a leader as H and J. In timet i n fact; the threesome of H, J and V (the writer) was recognized as a clique, known unofficially within a small c i r c l e as the Unholy Trinity; which was';' by reputation, so powerful and influential that no individual or asso-ciation within their sphere of interest could challenge them and feel his or i t s future to be secure. But, not un-expectedly,' their reputation lived longer than the reality . The writer made It clear; or tried to, that he accepted these positions because they might prove useful for the purposes of this study. It was assumed that the process of leadership could best be studied by close observation of and controlled participation i n the deliberations and act i v i t i e s of the leaders. r These individuals; howeverf declined to accept that reason as a real one; at least they declined to do so for the benefit of their public; and In time the writer was l i t e r a l l y paraded by H and J as l i v i n g proof of the success of the new policy they developed during 1966 and formally Introduced in I967. The positions accepted permitted a very & close scrutiny of the operations of the leaders i n this association and gave almost unlimited access to the operations of the other associations i n the community ( via the centennial committee) and; to a lesser extent, to the operations of the leaders of other ethnic communities (via the Scandinavian Central Committee)• In these two cases the expression or appearance of an Interest i n the business affairs of the associations i n question brought Miss M and the writer to the attention of the leaders of these associations. Given the shortage of officers, that interest made them potential candidates for office. And once i t was established that their interests and opinions were not contrary to those of the leaders; or were thought to be neutral i n the current disputes;' the way for nomination was open and election to office was guaranteed. Once In office each of these individuals had a choice between operating as an officer, by performing only those duties which by tradition or formal description were attached to their offices, or moving towards the status of a leader, by taking advantage of the opportunity to perform additional duties. Both, each for his or her own reasons; chose the lat t e r path. There are considerable differences between the position and status of officers and leaders in such a community. The leaders are usually the individuals who played a major or a dominant role - 157 -l n the original establishment of one or more asso-ciations and have remained officers of such asso-ciations since then. Because of the role they played i n the original establishment of the associ-ations the leaders are usually the individuals who formulated the policy pr policies which govern the operations of those associations and who super-vise the on-going implementation of those policies. The officers tend to be individuals recruited by the leaders, for shorter or longer periods, to aid i n the implementation of these policies, 4 Such officers are generally limited to performing certain specific tasks while no such limits are placed on or exist for the range of duties or tasks which are or may be performed by the leaders. The leaders tend to be visi b l e to the members to a far greater degree than the officers. This high v i s i b i l i t y i s the result of a complex of factors, some of which are more important than others. The fact that the leaders were the chief or among the chief organizers of the association means that their membership records usually ante-date those of the other members and officers. The l a t t e r cannot r e c a l l a time when the leaders were not there i n their respective positions; The duties performed by the leaders in effect put them on display - 158 -before the members during public gatherings while the officers, though present, do not appear as prom-inently; 1 And because the officers generally do not perform i n offices or work situations which are v i s i b l e to the members they tend to be unknown by the lat t e r . Their relative lack of v i s i b i l i t y tends to exaggerate the v i s i b i l i t y of the leaders, and tends to create the Impression that only the lat t e r have a part to play in the act i v i t i e s which keep the association i n operation. This sharp division between the leaders and the officers i s maintained; i n part; by the relatively poor development of any formal means of spreading information amongst the members of the community. At the time that this study began none of the associations issued a newsletter, or a comparable instrument, on a regular basis. Specific events, such as the i n i t i a t i o n of a charter f l i g h t or the calling of a general meeting, were sometimes publicized by means of a short newsletter or post card. Such announcements generally provided a minimum of information and generally gave only a f i n a l decision without any explanation of the deliberations, i f any, which led to i t . The leaders did not think i t was necessary to provide a more detailed or a more continuous presentation by such - 159 -Formal means and tended to r e l i e on an Informal verbal grapevine to a much greater extent. But the grapevine tends to be very selective i n the kinds and quantities of information transmitted, as well as In the speed with which such information i s trans-mitted. And Insofar as i t i s effective i t tends to emphasize the roles of the leaders by trans-mitting messages regarding on-going or future events which are specifically associated with one or more leaders and which do not mention the other individuals who might have played a part in the formulation of the message. The newsletter issued by Strondin, on a monthly basis, beinning i n the spring of I966, did not effectively change or Increase the amount of information given to the members of the community. It was generally restricted to announcing the dates and locations of future public meetings to be held by this and other associations. The use of names, of leaders, officers or members, i n connection with such events was deliberately restricted. This restriction was, i n theory, Intended to de-personal-ize the events i n question but, because some names had to be mentioned as sources for tickets and/or further information, i t s actual effect was to emphasize the roles of the leaders who organized and - 160 -supervised these events. The newsletter became a means whereby the roles of the association's leaders were given a particular prominence* while the roles of the association's other officers, as well as those of the leaders and officers of the other associations, were either not mentioned or were de-emphasized. The high positions of the leaders are not due solely to the fact that they generally control and can manipulate the community's infor-mation services, such as they are. The leaders have also achieved their positions by doing more for the associations, or appearing to have done more, over a longer period of time than anyone else. The five Individuals nominated as top leaders had been officers for an average of 23.8 years;3 or 28.2 years i f P i s excluded. But the ten second-rank leaders; on the basis of the nominations;1 had been officers for an average of only 10.6 years and the twenty three other officers for an average of 5»3 years. The top leaders;' with the exception of P, had been the leaders for so long and had done so muoh to earn their positions that no one, least of a l l they themselves; questioned their right to those positions. The attitudes of the top leaders are not - 161 -without importance i n explaining their positions. D attained the presidency of the Home Society i n January, I968; after P was obliged to retire because of poor health. He was asked by the writer how long he expected to retain his new position; He replied by t e l l i n g a story about a woman who had asked him some years earlier, how long he planned te retain the vice-presidency of the Home Society, an office he had held for so long that It was generally believed that he was the only person to have held i t . His reply to her was allegedly i n the following form. "A murderer gets a l i f e sentence for his crime and I hope to get the same for mine - which Is being only humble enough to serve? His fellow leaders did not use quite such an analogy, nor did they proclaim their humility quite as loudly as he did; but they share his attitude. To them It Is only right that they should both reign and rule - after a l l , somebody had to do It and no one else would. The fact that they used their control over the recruitment of new officers to ensure that no competitors appeared on the seene was not a subject to be discussed i n public or i n private. Elections are usually held every year or every three years and they can be quite humorous for - 162 -an observer. The Individuals about to be re-elected, especially the leaders, move about complaining; at length and with apparent bitterness, about the long and hard years behind them and the others which stretch before them. They wonder why no one wants ; to succeed them and suggest, to their listeners; that they would only be happy to step aside for anybody else. Their complaints are often addressed to individuals who are trying to let i t be known, by word and by deed; that they would l i k e to be officers. But such efforts are not noticed by the complaining officers; who complain right up to the moment when they are nominated for re-election by the chairman of the nominating committee. Then, resigned to their fate, they accept yet another term by acclamation. Selected Profiles The leaders of the community have shaped i t into i t s present mold by the parts they have played in i t s history. It has moved as they have acted and the constituent associations have become; i f they have not always been, the creations and the creatures of the leaders. The l i f e and history of the community can be described in terms of the l i f e - 163 -histories of Its leaders; as Is shown by the following profiles of the f i v e nominated top leaders. Leader E E was born in Manitoba, i n 1900, and Is of the f i r s t native-born generation. He l e f t school before completing his education and worked at various jobs before joining the Hudson*s Bay Company ln 1937. The Company sent him to i t s offices i n Vancouver and he worked there u n t i l he retired in 1962. At the time of his retirement he was the Company's chief comptroller for i t s operations in Br i t i s h Columbia and Alberta. E's career as a leader i n the local Icelandic community began as soon as he arrived l n Vancouver. He became Involved l n the establishment of the Icelandic Choir i n 1937 and was elected by Its members to serve as i t s director. He continued to direct It after i t was merged, at his suggestion; with the church congregation i n 1944 and i s s t i l l i t s director at the present time (1969). The choir's fortunes have changed through the years as his own personal interest In It has changed. His Interest and the choir's ac t i v i t i e s were at a high point i n early 1967 when the pastor offended his son by not thanking him properly for performing a solo number during a church - 164 -service. There was; accordingly; an element of genuine anger in E's reaction to an event which not only hurt a member of his own family but which damaged an organization which was intimately connected with him. E was appointed; In the f a l l of 1941; to head a committee of laymen organized to help the pastor; who was working to re-establish the Icelandic Lutheran congregation In Vancouver. When the congregation was formally set up, In March; 1944; E joined the Board of Trustees and has remained a member of i t since then. He served as the president of the Board i n 1944-45, again in 1948-50, when the congregation's charter was being revised; and then in 1956* when the construction of the church was completed. At the same time (1956) he was the chair-man of the Building Fund Committee and was respon-for raising, or trying to raise; enough money from the community to meet the congregation's financial obligations to the Board of American Missions of the United Lutheran Church. In between sessions as the president of the Board he has served as i t s vice-president, serving i n this latter capacity for nineteen years. In 1965 the charter of the congre-was revised again and the vice-presidency of the Board, then held by E, became the highest lay office - 165 -l n the congregation. E played a leading role l n defending the congregation's ethnic identity when that Identity came tinder attack i n 1962-63 and i n I966. But before the l a t t e r incident he appeared to have changed his own opinions on this matter and did indicate that the pastor's'actions on the membership question had his support. But I's campaign to preserve the church's character as an Icelandic organization received an immediate response from the members, and E changed his opinions again. He became the chief defender of the congregation as an ethnic congregation and the pastor's principal c r i t i c . When the pastor resigned E sought out and hired a replacement and then ini t i a t e d negotiations with another congregation which produced an agreement concerning the sharing of the Icelandic church by both congregations. This agree-ment had the further effect of solving the congre-gation's perennial financial dlfficultes and gave E's prestige a major boost. Although he has been primarily concerned with the congregation; E has taken an interest in the other associations i n the community. He was Involved i n the negotiations which preceded the establishment of the Icelandic Old Folks Home Society and served as a member of i t s Fund Committee and as the chair-- 166 -man of a committee which selected a name for the home. He took a deeper interest in the Home Society's affairs during the 1950's and served on i t s Board, as the representative of Strondin, for several years. During this time he appears to have tried to establish a more direct and firm control over i t s operations by arranging the election of a number of directors who were members and usually officers of the congregation. In June, 19*4* E was appointed to serve as the f i r s t diplomatic representative (Honourary Vice-Consul) i n Vancouver of the newly established Republic of Iceland. He served i n this position u n t i l 1955. when he resigned at his employer's request. Gn his recommendation the position was then given to U, who was then a trustee of the congregation and the chairman of i t s Building Committee. E was awarded the Order of the Falcon i n 1957 by the Icelandic Government in recognition of his services as the Vlee-Consul. In 1961 E became the chairman of the committee established to prepare a reception for the President of Iceland, who visited Vancouver during his State V i s i t to Canada. E's service in that capacity further increased his reputation and his public standing in the community. However, his manner of operating the committee angered many - 167 -people, among them several of the officers of Strondin, They f e l t that he had manipulated the nec-essary arrangements to benefit himself and his friends. Their anger was increased when, at the banquet arranged in the President's honour, E deliv-ered a welcoming address which, i n their opinion; was a lengthy catalogue of his own achievements and contributions to the community. His position was not improved when he, unintentionally, Insulted the President during the course of that welcoming address, E made some remarks about the Order of the Falcon which he had received and the President f e l t or chose to feel that those remarks were a deliberate insult. After he returned to Iceland he took steps to ensure that the leadership of the local community learned that he had been Insulted, E's reputation among his fellow leaders, p a r t i c u l a r l y among the leaders of Strondin (other than F), already damaged by the events whioh occurred during the President's v i s i t , took a beating from whioh i t never recovered. But because the members of the community never learned of this incident his public reputation, p a r t i c u l a r l y among the members of the congregation, remained as high as ever. They could see. In the arrangements made for the v i s i t s of other di s t i n -guished visitors (such as the Ambassador and the Prime Minister i n 1964), that he was being snubbed - 168 -by his colleagues but they never knew why. He continued to be the most prominent leader of the congregation, a man whose long and devoted service gave him a f i r s t claim on their loyalty and support, such as l t was. Leader I Leader I was born i n Manitoba, i n 1912; and i s of the second native-born generation. He i s an elec t r i c a l engineer and has been employed by the B.C. Hydro and Power Authority (formerly the B.C. Electric Company) slnee his a r r i v a l i n Vancouver i n 19*6. Leader I arrived in Vancouver in 19*6 as a member of the armed forces and remained i n the city after demobilization. He joined the congregation i n 19*8 and was elected a member of the Board of Trustees i n 1950» Leader I was originally nominated by E, then the chairman of the nominating committee, for the position of secretary. His immediate predecessor i n that office had successfully opposed E on a key Issue and had suffered the fate of a l l rebels. The issue concerned the name to be given to the congregation under the revised constitution being prepared at that time. E favoured the name Grace Lutheran Church and at his suggestion the Board of Trustees recommended this name to the members attending - 169 -the annual meeting In January* 194-9. The secretary, who had apparently not taken a part ln the Board's deliberations on this issue, objected to this name on the grounds that the church, being the Icelandic church, should be clearly identified as the Icelandic church. At his suggestion the members of the congregation advised the Board to reconsider and bring back a name which reflected that fact. The Board did as requested but two months later, at a special general meeting called for this purpose, they recommended that the church be named the Grace Lutheran Church. The secretary objected again, for the same reason, but then presented a motion to the members which would name the ohurch the Icelandic Lutheran Church. This motion was accepted, apparently without an actual vote. E took his defeat with grace but eight months later he declined to nominate the secretary for re-election to another term. The nomination was given to Leader I. Leader I served as the Board's secretary for seven years. During this time he took part i n the planning of the congregation's building programme and i n the planning of the associated fund and membership drives. In 1957 he succeeded E as the president of the Board of Trustees and held this position u n t i l I965, when a revised constitution gave the office of president to the pastor. During his term of office - 170 -Leader I was deeply involved in a continuing effort to place the congregation*s finances on a sound foot-ing and i n a number of special drives designed to raise enough money to meet the financial obligations incurred during the construction of the church. These efforts generally did not achieve their objectives and by the time that Leader I turned his office over to the pastor the congregation*s financial d i f f i c u l t i e s were extreme. But the fact of those d i f f i c u l t i e s did not reflect on his position or reputation as a leader. Leader I continued to serve as a member of the Board after he gave up the presidency. He worked with the new pastor during 19&5* while the latte r was making his try at resolving the financial problem. This effort was partly successful sinee the proposed def i c i t for 19^ 5 was reduced, by a special drive, from #4,000 to $15,000, i n a budget totalling some $14,000. But their co-operation came to an end when the pastor began to enforce the constitutional regulations governing membership. Leader I objected to this step and insisted that as an Icelandic organization the church must never do anything which might make the potential members think they were not welcome. When he f a i l e d to deter the pastor he sought the support of the congregation*s members. He based his appeal to the members on - 171 -patriotic grounds. As members of an Icelandic organ-ization they could not stand aside and let that Icelandic character be attacked or undermined. The members responded, generally because they accepted his interpretation of these events. But some of them were already disturbed and angry and needed l i t t l e encourage-ment from him. There were members of the Auxiliary who were not willing to accept the planned dissolution of their group. There were members of the Board of Deacons, abolished in 1965* who f e l t that they had never been properly thanked for their past services by the new pastor. 1 As soon as i t became evident that the members of the congregation were being aroused by Leader I and his campaign, E, who had been rather inactive for about a year; stepped i n and took command. Leader I took a back seat during the c r i t i c a l years which followed, when E successfully defended the congregation's image, obtained a new pastor and then solved the perennial . financial problems. Having solved a l l the problems E stepped aside and, in March, 1969, Leader I resumed the leadership of the congregation, at least in the formal sense by accepting, on E's nomination, the highest lay offioe, that of vice-president of the Board of Trustees. - 172 -Leader P P was born in Iceland in 1924 and emigrated to Canada i n 1958* The immediate cause of his decision to leave Iceland was the bankruptcy of the construction firm he had established. He continued to work l n this l i n e after he came to Vancouver and eventually established a small and thriving business, F was the f i r s t of the new Immigrants to achieve the position of a top leader and the f i r s t to lose It, He joined Strondin ln 1958, shortly after his a r r i v a l , and was among those who asked for less poetry and more dancing. He was unable to do anything on his own to achieve this objective u n t i l after he , became a l l i e d with D. After the successful conclu-sion of his fight to wrest control of the Home Society away from the congregation, D supported the efforts of P and others to seize control of Strondin, This was done at the association's annual meeting in January, 1961, F , on D's nomination, was elected i t s new president, ? The f i r s t of the many problems F encountered began immediately. The deposed leader, SE, refused to surrender the association's records and the library. After trying and f a l l i n g to reason with SE privately F sought legal assistance. Private efforts by the - 173 -lawyer proved equally unsuccessful and a law suit was initiated. Only then did SE surrender the records and the library. F's conduct i n this unfortunate incident was observed by many, some approved but others, among them J, did not. Another of his early problems was caused by the resignations of the other two new immigrants elected i n January, 1961. Both were elected without their prior knowledge and consent and both refused to serve i n the positions to which they were elected. A mini-election had to be arranged, at which J, a new immigrant, and C, one of the association's founding officers, were elected. In the spring of I96I P was advised that the President of Iceland would be vis i t i n g Vancouver and that Strondin was to be i n charge of the preparations for his v i s i t . The Executive Committee of Strondin decided that P should chair a reception committee, to which the other associations would be Invited to send a single representative. Among those who accepted the offer were H, then the president of the Icelandic Male Choir, and E, who arrived at the f i r s t meeting of this committee accompanied by seven of the Trustees of the church. F, on his own authority, turned the chairmanship of the committee over to E. F was aware of the incidents which occurred before - 17* -and during the President »s v i s i t but he did not plaoe any particular blame for these events on E, nor did he support those of his colleagues who did. The years of P's presidency were marked by a series of public successes which built his prestige as well as that of the association. He appears to have paid considerable attention to his relations with the members and with some of the community's other leaders, especially E and D. But he did not give as much attention to his relations with the other officers of Strondin, partieularlly J and H, who became Strondin's treasurer, on J's suggestion, i n 1963. As time passed they became quite disturbed over mistakes he made or was alleged to have made in connection with specific events and the effect these mistakes had on the association. They were also becoming convinced that P was more interested in building his own career as a leader then i n putting the association on a stable basis. P apparently never realized the extent of their feelings, even though there had been arguments ©ver various matters, such as the manner in which H and J had deliberately excluded E from the arrangements made in connection with the v i s i t s of the Ambassador and the Prime Minister i n 196*. Possibly he f e l t secure because his good friend J was, as he had been for several - 175 -years, the chairman of the nominating committee. A few days before the annual meeting i n January, 19^5, J informed him that the slate of nomi-nees to be presented to the members for their approv-a l was ready. This slate excluded F, D, C, and two other officers. It was expected that the new slate would be unopposed but F could expect to be nominated as the delegate to represent the association at the annual convention of the Icelandic National League, which would be held i n February i n Winnipeg. F accepted this turn of events; there was l i t t l e else he could do given the fact that the meeting was only a few days away and the additional fact that his opponents were well prepared. But he was not quite ready to abandon his position as a leader* and this became evident when he accepted two new positions offered to him, by groups outside the community, on the grounds that somebody had to accept those positions and no one. else appeared to want them. One reason why no one else wanted them was the fact that no one else knew of their exist-ence u n t i l F announced that he had them.' The f i r s t of these positions was that of a member-at-large and Special Plenipoteniary of the League's Executive Committee, which earrled with i t direct responsibility for and control over the League's - 176 -a c t i v i t i e s i n Vancouver and Seattle, The other posi-tion was that of the Icelandic member of the Ethnic Organizations Sub-Committee of the Provincial Centennial Commission, i n which capacity he was to supervise the participation of the Icelandic community in the coming centennial celebrations. The new leaders of Strondin, E and J, were not pleased to see him re-appear after they had gone to considerable lengths to remove him from the scene. But for the moment they were obliged to work with him. They accepted his request to set up a committee to work on the community's centennial projects but selected the committee's members on their own. They also co-operated with him in preparing a reception for an Icelandic actor, who was to tour several Canadian and American cit i e s under the aus-pices of the League i n the spring of 1966. But they accepted this situation with reluctance and acted only because they believed they had no other choice. They could not refuse to participate i n the coming act i v i t i e s , nor could they refuse to receive a vi s i t o r from Iceland. As time passed E and J became increasingly bitter over the manner i n which F was continuing to interfere in their affairs and in the affairs of the association they controlled. They decided to act - 177 -against him i n a more forceful manner; partly to protect their own positions and to give emphasis to the fact that they and not he commanded i t s affairs* Having decided, they waited for an opportune moment. Their opportunity came during their prep-arations for the association's annual meeting in January, I967. This meeting was to approve a plan for reorganizing the association along the lines of the Icelandic Club of Greater Seattle. The actual preparation of this plan had been completed during the summer of I966. The two key Issues, or the two potential key issues, were the changing of the name from an Icelandic name to an English name and the termination of the association's ties with the League. The leaders assessed the reaction which these and other changes might produce among the members and concluded that there would be no opposition unless someone deliberately organized an effort to block the introduction of this plan. P was Judged to be the only person who might want to do so and; furthermore, i f he did so he could be expected to base his objections on patriotic grounds. That i s to say, he could be expected to insist that an Icelandic association, because i t was an Icelandic association, should have an Icelandic name and should be a f f i l i a t e d with the Icelandic National League. - 1?8 -Such an objection, based on the grounds of ethnic patriotism, might arouse the members to the point were they would defeat any attempt to reorganize the association. Evidence was available, however, which, i f revealed, would tend to discredit F i f he made such an attempt to block their plans. The leaders had i n their f i l e s a copy of a let t e r written and signed by F i n 1961, in his capac-l t h as the president of Strondin. This le t t e r was addressed to a local catering firm and in i t F had translated the association's name from Strondin to the Icelandic Canadian Society. Obviously, any attempt on his part to object to the planned change, from Strondin to the Icelandic Club of Br i t i s h Columbia, on the grounds of ethnic patriotism would be undermined by the revelation of his own aetion on this matter i n an earlier time. Simllarily, If he were to object to the termination of the ties with the League he would have to explain why he, as the League's o f f i c i a l representative, had fa i l e d to inform the League's officers of the terms under which the association might retain i t s present status as an a f f i l i a t e chapter. The leaders decided to use this information against him, for the purpose of discrediting him, before the annual meeting, A special general meeting - 179 -was c a l l e d , f o r November, I966, ostensibly to give the members a chance to discuss some proposed amend-ments to the present c o n s t i t u t i o n of the association. The leaders were not very Interested i n the opinions that the members might have but they did want an audience f o r t h e i r actions against F. His attend-ance was guaranteed rather simply by giving him Just enough information, and misinformation, about t h e i r proposals to arouse his i n t e r e s t . The meeting i t s e l f followed the s c r i p t prepared by the leaders to such an extent that I t appeared that F had had a part i n writing i t . The proposals brought forward by the leaders covered eight typewritten pages but the discussion centered on the f i r s t a r t i c l e of the proposed new constitu-t i o n , which dealt with the name, and the l a s t a r t i -c l e of the by-laws, which dealt with the t i e s with the League. H i n i t i a t e d the discussion over the name by noting that an English name was required both f o r the benefit of the younger native-born members who di d not know what Strondin meant, as a word, and also f o r the benefit of the firms the association had to deal with, such as catering firms. F re-sponded to the l a t t e r suggestion by st a t i n g that the association was f o r the benefit of Icelanders, - 180 -not for the benefit of non-Icelandic firms. H then pulled out the letter P had written, described i t s contents and asked F to explain why he had thought i t necessary to change the association's name for the benefit of a non-Icelandic firm. From this point the meeting became rather heated and the lan-guage which was used, p a r t i c u l a r l y by F after he began to realize what was happening, was not the kind of language normally heard in public meetings i n this community. The events which occurred at this meeting could not, in themselves and by themselves, achieve the desired goal of destroying F's position as a leader, whatever the damage done to his reputation. That depended, to an extent, upon the assessment made by F of the damage done to him by these events. His assessment may be indicated by the fact that after this meeting he virtua l l y ceased to participate i n the community's public activities and,' more impor-tantly, he made no further attempts to act i n either of his two positions. The leaders of Strondin, their control publicly demonstrated, then proceeded with their plans. Leader D D was born In Manitoba, i n I9I3, and i s of - 181 -the second native-born generation. He did not f i n i s h h i s grade school education, being obliged to go to work at an early age. He served i n the armed forces during the war and was stationed i n Vancouver. He remained i n the c i t y a f t e r demobilization. He i s a carpenter by occupation. D's career as a leader, or at least as an o f f i c e r , began i n 19*6, when he entered the f i r s t executive of Strondin as Its treasurer. He was nomi-nated f o r the p o s i t i o n by his good f r i e n d C, who as the l a s t president of I s a f o l d automatically received the vice-presidency of the newly established Strondin. C became the president of Strondin i n mid-19*6, a f t e r the o r i g i n a l occupant of that o f f i c e l e f t the c i t y . C retained his new o f f i c e u n t i l 19*9 and D retained the treasurer's p o s i t i o n u n t i l the same year. Both were among the o f f i c e r s removed by the group l e d by SB. D became a member of the Home Society i n 19*7t by v i r t u e of a $25.00 donation. He worked on some of the Home Society's subcommittees and a f t e r the home had been purchased, i n 19*8* he worked on the renovations needed, f r e e of charge. Largely as a reward f o r these services he was elected a d i r e c t o r of the Home Society i n January, 19*9* the same month i n which he l o s t his o f f i c e i n Strondin. - 1 8 2 -The elected directors of the Home Society, other than the president, are elected to serve three-year terms.* In the last year of his f i r s t term, 1951; D was elected, by the members of the Board of Directors, to f i l l the vice-presidency, which was l e f t vacant when the incumbent moved out of the city. In January; 1952, D was re-elected as a director and; subsequently, as the vice-president. The new president elected at this annual meeting, LS; f e l l i l l shortly afterward and remained i l l throughout his one-year term. Effective responsibility for his duties devolved on D. D was almost immediately presented with a very d i f f i c u l t problem. The matron of the home had exceeded her authority and hired an accountant to look after the Home Society's House Account; which shey as the matron, controlled. The Board ordered the matron to dismiss the accountant and also conducted a routine audit of the House Account. The matron refused to dismiss the accountant she had hired but since the audit had revealed no errors the Board did not press the matter. But shortly after this occurred one of the directors learned that the matron had cashed some large cheques, made out to and by herself, i n a local department store. As these cheques were drawn on the House Account the Board ordered a special audit. This audit, which was not completed, revealed losses amounting to several hundred dollars. The matron was - I83 -f i r e d immediately and was replaced by Mrs K, who re-signed from the Board to accept the position. The Board was faced with the problem of what further action should be taken against the matron. They wanted to recover the money which had been lost but they did not want to take any public action;' partly because the Home Society's public reputation might suf-fer as a result of such action. But they were also reluctant to act publicly because the matron had many friends and potential supporters, among them her cousin E.s D suggested that this a f f a i r should be settled d i -rectly, and i n private; by himself and E. The Board agreed and D informed E of the evidence against the matron. E examined this evidence on his own and then repaid the known losses from his own funds. The entire a f f a i r was effectively hushed up and D was quite satisfied that he had handled this very delicate matter i n the best way possible; His opinion changed abruptly when he was made the scapegoat for the entire a f f a i r . E joined the Board in the following year; I953f as the representative of Strondin. He also engineered the election of a friend as the Home Society's president and placed a member of the congregation in one of the vacant directorships. The following year, 195** he was able to arrange the election of two more - 184 -members of the congregation to the Home Society's Board. And, ln January, 1955, D» his seeond term having expired, was denied an o f f i c i a l nomination for re-election. D was understandably bitter at this turn of events. He f e l t that E had mistreated him and abused him without cause, p a r t i c u l a r l y in view of the fact that he had, by his actions, saved E's family from the embarrassment which a public action against the matron would have caused. He was determined to avenge himself for that mistreatment. He attempted to regain his seat on the Home Society's Board on his own but fa i l e d to achieve this in either 1955 or 1956. He f i n a l l y suc-ceeded in 1957. He had no sooner regained his seat before he revived the old plans for building a new, and bigger, home. D made a bid for the presidency of the Home Society in 1958 but was decisively beaten by the incumbent, CE, a former trustee of the congregation. He continued to promote the plans for the immediate construction of a new home and the i n i t i a t i o n of a drive for funds. The latter proposal could not help but antagonize the leaders of the congregation, who were trying to raise enough money from the community to meet the financial obligations which had been i n -curred in connection with the construction of the - 185 -church. Any other project requiring large amounts of money would only make their task more d i f f i c u l t . The leaders of the congregation then negotiated an agreement with the directors of the Home Society under which the latter agreed to take no action on any plans for expansion u n t i l after the congregation*s financial d i f f i c u l t i e s were resolved. The Board of the Home Society; dominated by the seven members who were members of the congregation, accepted this agreement over D*s objections. Other events, however; played into his hands. At this time the new immigrant group i n Vancouver was a large one and growing rapidly. Many of these immigrants had originally l e f t Iceland because they were not able to adjust to l i f e there. Not sur-prisingly, many of them f a i l e d to adjust to l i f e i n Vancouver, Their failures, which were often rather public i n character, not unnaturally; offended the older immigrant and older native-born members of the congregation and Strondin, They saw the good reputa-tion established by the Icelanders in Canada endan-gered by the antics of these newly arrived immigrants. And, being offended by them, they tended to let the new immigrants know the nature and the extent of their feelings in a variety of ways. The new immigrants, not unnaturally, were, in turn, offended at the treat-- 186 -ment they were receiving. D noted what was happening and took advantage of their anger. Since It was establised the directors of the Home Society have operated on the assumption that a l l Icelandic Canadians were, and are, supporters of the Home Society. Anyone who attended the annual general meeting or any special general meeting was considered a member and entitled to vote on a l l and any matters placed before such a meeting, whether or not such persons had ever paid membership dues or donated anything to the Home Society. D now took advantage of this as well. He, in effect, told the new immigrants that they could return the slights they had received, and were receiving, from the members of the congregation and Strondin by voting them out of their offices i n the Home Society. The new immi-grants listened and acted. The annual general meetings of the Home Society had rarely attracted more than thirty members of the older immigrant and older native-born groups. Now these meetings began to be attended by scores of new immigrants, few of whom had ever or would ever contribute a dime to the Home Society. Seven directors associated with the congregation f e l l one after another. They and their supporters were simply over-powered by numbers and out-voted. And as they - 18? -f e l l so d i d t h e agreement w i t h t h e l e a d e r s of t h e c o n g r e g a t i o n concerning t h e t i m i n g of t h e Home S o c i e t y ' s p l a n s f o r expansion. D d i d not a t t a i n t h e p r e s i d e n c y - t h a t p o s i -t i o n went t o P, one of t h e f i r s t d i r e c t o r s e l e c t e d by t h e new immigrant b l o c . But D d i d r e t a i n t h e v i c e -p r e s i d e n c y and h e l d i t u n t i l 1968, when he f i n a l l y i n h e r i t e d t h e p r e s i d e n c y . D p l a y e d a major r o l e i n t h e p l a n n i n g and c o n s t r u c t i o n of t h e new home, an o p e r a t i o n which began w i t h the purchase of l a n d from t h e C i t y of Vancouver I n i960. C o n s t r u c t i o n began i n 1962 and t h e home was opened i n I963. A f t e r t h e home was opened D was I t s most f r e q u e n t v i s i t o r , s e r v i n g not o n l y as t h e Home S o c i e t y ' s v i c e - p r e s i d e n t but, i n e f f e c t , as t h e home's c h i e f j a n i t o r and handyman as w e l l . He was, and s t i l l I s , an almost d a i l y v i s i t o r , s u p e r v i s i n g v i r t u a l l y every d e t a i l of I t s o p e r a t i o n s and s o l v i n g many problems as soon as they a r e r e p o r t e d t o him. D r e p a i d t h e new immigrants by h e l p i n g them o r g a n i z e a coup which swept SE and h i s c o l l e a g u e s out of t h e i r o f f i c e s i n S t r o n d i n . He served on S t r o n d i n ' s e x e c u t i v e , under P, from I96I u n t i l I965. when he was removed from o f f i c e by y e t another coup. I n i960 D had become i n v o l v e d w i t h t h e p r o -posed c o n s t r u c t i o n of a c h r o n i c c a r e h o s p i t a l , t o be - 188 -built and operated by the fi v e Scandinavian Rest Home Societies. There was l i t t l e interest in this project among the Icelanders, partly because the planning and construction of the home was just beginning. Five years later, i n 1965* D revived this project and put a considerable effort into promoting i t among the various Scandinavian associations. As a part of this effort he approached the members and officers of the Home Society. The project was discussed, rather i n -differently and not too favourably, at the Home Society*s annual meeting i n January, I966. When the motion involved was put to a vote ten out of the some f i f t y persons i n attendance raised their hands to pass i t by a vote of seven to three. Under this motion a special general meeting was to be held in March to consider a f i n a l decision on this project. This meeting was never held. But, at their February meeting, the members of the Board, most of whom were against any such project, voted unanimously to support i t f u l l y . This decision, however, became rather academic when the project failed, due, i n part, to a lack of interest on the part of the other Scandinavian associations. The Icelandic home was freed of a l l debts in the spring of I967 and D Immediately proposed an expan-sion, costing some $50,000. The proposed additions - 189 -Included eight more rooms and an expansion of the home's auditorium, A detailed outline of the expan-sion was given in a story which appeared i n the Icelandic language weekly, Logberg-Heimskrlngla, which is published i n Winnipeg, two months before these plans were presented to the members attending the Home Society's annual meeting in January, 1968, Those members gave their formal approval after about five minutes of indifferent discussion. Leader Mrs R Mrs R was born in North Dakota; in 1885, and i s of the f i r s t native-born generation. She moved with her parents, while s t i l l quite young, to Winnipeg. Her parents later moved to Vancouver in 190* but Mrs R remained i n Winnipeg u n t i l she graduated from the University of Manitoba, as a teacher, in I906. She then followed her family to Vancouver. Mrs R was active in a number of Icelandic associations during her f i r s t ten years in the city. In 1917 she was one of the founders of the Ladies Aid Solskin and served on i t s f i r s t executive as the secretary. The following year she became the Aid's f i r s t treasurer and held this position u n t i l 1922. During this time she successfully opposed a plan under which the Aid was to be incorporated. Mrs R held no - 190 -office l n 1923 hnt served as the Aid's vice-president in 1924- and 1925* Absent again in 1926. she resumed the treasurer's position in 1927V replacing her sister, who became the vice-treasurer. Mrs R held the treas-urer's position continuously u n t i l 1959. By the time that she retired from this office she had held i t for so long that no one could remember a time when she had not been the treasurer. It was generally believed; and she encouraged that belief, that she had held this office continuously since 1917* Mrs B was deeply involved i n the negotiations which preceded the establishment of the Icelandic Old Polks Home Society and served on i t s f i r s t executive as the representative from the Aid. She was instru-mental in having the Aid promise an i n i t i a l donation of $1,000 to the Building Fund. After the Home Society was established the Aid began to divert most of i t s net earnings to It and continues to do so to this day. These donations have been accepted but not because they have been needed. The home has always been operated on the basis that the inmates would pay for the costs of housing and feeding themselves, i f not individually than collectively; Mrs R was elected to a three-year term as a director of the Home Society i n January; 1951 • She was subsequently elected by the members of the Board - 191 -to f i l l the vacant treasurer's position. She i s presently (I969) serving her nineteenth year In this office, having been re-elected as a director six times without opposition and i n the usual manner; that i s to say, with applause. She was not too deeply involved i n D's efforts to remove the church contin-gent from the Board i n the late 1950*s. But she did take an active part in the planning which preceded the construction of the new home. Partly to reward her for her services the Board appointed ywo of her sons to serve as the consulting engineers to this project. She did not, of course, abandon her interest i n the Aid after she retired from the treasurer's posi-tion i n 1959, She gave this position to her friend; Mrs K; whose own record as an officer, of both the Aid and the Home Society, extended back into the 19*0's, Mrs K held the position u n t i l I963, when she decided to r etire. In her opinion she was getting on i n years (she was then 75 compared to Mrs B's age of 78) and f e l t that the time had come to let someone younger take over. This younger person, at Mrs H's suggestion, was Mrs D. The latter has indicated that while she had the office and t i t l e of treasurer the work involved was performed by Mrs R or i n accordance with her In-structions. And when Mrs D became the Aid's secretary - 192 -she was replaced, at Mrs B's suggestion, by Mrs H2. The Aid holds an annual spring bazaar, whioh usually attracts between 125 and 150 people. Such a crowd i s too big to be comfortably handled i n the home's auditorium. When D f i r s t thought of the need to increase the number of rooms in the home he discussed his proposal with a number of interested persons, among them Mrs R. He suggested that the auditorium could be expanded at the same time, at a cost of about $12,000, to accomodate this crowd more comfortably. Mrs R, who had not been i n favour of any action which increased an old debt or created a new one, gave the entire project her whole-hearted approval; Four of the five nominated top leaders actu-a l l y held the position which the members believed them to have. They were not leaders of the community, but they did lead specific associations within in; and they had done so for so long that they were intimately connected with those associations in the minds of the members. E was not just the leader of the ohurch he was the church and the same could be said for I, D and Mrs R. Each of these nominees has continued to act i n the capacities they held l n 1965-66 and can be expected to continue to do so for the foreseeable future, provided that death or other disasters do not - 193 -strike them down. Only in Strondin (later the Icelandic Canadian Club) did matters take a different turn and the extent of the difference, as well as i t s long-term v i a b i l i t y ^ i s perhaps d i f f i c u l t to judge. The principle of limited tenure (no more than three consecutive one-year terms in the same office) was introduced i n January, 1967, and was made retroactive to January, 1965. This, added to what may be regarded as the normal turnover which could occur i n any group of eight people, had a striking effect. The officers elected at the annual meeting i n September, I968, were so new, not Just to offlcershlp but to membership as well, that they, by and large, did not know the members; nor did the members know them. Only TI remained of the officers brought in by the coup of I965 and he was being elected to his third (and final) term as the treasurer, with no prospects of receiving another office when his term expired. Five other officers, re-elected by acclamation, had been members of the association for an average of 2.2 years and officers for an average of l.~8 years. The two officers elected for the f i r s t time had never previously participated in the activ i t i e s of the association or the community. By contrast, the then directors of the Home Society had been in office for an average of 6.7 years and three had been i n office - 19* -for ten or more years. And the then trustees of the congregation had been l n office for an average of 12 years and three had been i n office for sixteen or more years; The Leaders and the Community, The United Effort The foundations of the present community were l a i d during the 19*0*s, when the associations were being reorganized or, i n some cases, established for the f i r s t time. The leading figures of the day; as well as those whose roles were not quite as prominent, were involved i n a co-operative effort to place the community on a stable footing, E was the chief organizer of the congre-gation but he was also involved i n the establishment of the Home Society, The f i r s t president of the Home Society was the husband of the then president of the Ladles Aid Solskln; Mrs K. His successor (K died i n mid-19*6) was at the same time the president of the congregation*s Board of Trustees; The Home Society's f i r s t treasurer was the husband of the then vice-president of the congregation's Women's Auxiliary, The Home Society's f i r s t secretary (who held the posi-tion from 19*6 u n t i l 1957; when she moved out of the city) was at that time the vice-president of the Aid. There were numerous other ties of this nature which; - 195 -when added to those created by individuals with offices in two or more associations, embraced the leadership of the community and made i t a single; relatively well-integrated network. There was a considerable degree of co-opera-tion i n the establishment of policies and p r i o r i t i e s . The congregation was established before the Home Society but there was a general agreement which gave the building plans of the latter a priority over the similar plans of the congregation. Everyone worked together to raise the money needed to purchase and renovate the f i r s t home. The officers of the congre-gation, some of whom were also officers of the Home Society, and the pastor, who was the immediate past president of the Icelandic Lutheran Synod, used their influence with the Synod to obtain an interest free loan with no strings attached. The Synod wanted the local home to be owned by the local congregation but the leaders of the local community wanted these two associations to be at least formally independent of each other. This decision on their part was moti-vated, to a certain extent, by the s t i l l - f r e s h mem-ories of the scandalous conditions which had existed u n t i l quite recently in the f i r s t such home, estab-lished by the Synod i n Gimll, Manitoba, Brought into being with the purest of motives, i t had been turned - 196 -into a sweatshop operated for a profit and for the benefit of the Synod. Following the establishment of the home the community1s leaders tackled the f i r s t stage of the congregation*s plans, the purchase of the land needed for the church. Once the land was selected i t was nec-essary to raise the money needed to pay for i t and this objeotive had the highest priority and the f i r s t claim on any funds which might be available in the community for an Icelandic project. The plans for a new home or a major expansion of the existing one were shelved to ensure that there would be no competition for such funds. The land was selected in 19*9 and the fund drive was conducted over the next two or three years. Subsequently, work began on the planning and later the construction of the church i t s e l f . During 19*9 there were two developments which effected a further degree of integration in the leadership of the community. By this time the asso-ciations were, in a sense, settling down and less work was required of the officers. The office structures tended to shrink in size as a number of sub-committees, especially those i n the Home Society and the congre-gation, completed their work and were abolished. Fewer officers were required to keep the associations in effective operation and the leadership corps tended to - 197 -shrink ln size. In addition there were some personnel changes which effectively Increased the degree of inte-gration within this reduced network. The new officers of Strondin were a l l members of the congregation and were, or would soon become, officers of other asso-ciations. Other ties between the associations at the offic e level continued to be important. The secretary of the Home Society 1s Board was now the president of the Ladies Aid Solskln. The Home Society*s new treas-urer, the son of the congregation's founding pastor, was a former trustee of the congregation. And, among the officers of the Women's Auxiliary, there was Mrs SJS. Then the Auxiliary's vice-president, she was soon to become the matron of the home. She was related by marriage to the pastor and by blood to, among others, E, then the president of the congregation's Board of Trustees, and to OS, then a director of the Home Society and a member of the congregation's Board of Deacons. Mrs SJS became the home's matron i n the f a l l of 1951. Eight months later she was f i r e d . A special audit of the Home Society's House Account revealed losses amounting to several hundred dollars. Part of this loss was covered by several cheques cashed by the matron i n a looal department store and the balance in a number of entries for payments for goods and services - 198 -rendered by local firms which could not be authenti-cated* The known losses were repaid by E and the entire a f f a i r was quietly forgotten. But while the a f f a i r i t s e l f was burled i t had a considerable and a long-term effect on the com-munity. At f i r s t i t brought about a greater degree of integration i n the community's leadership corps but eventually i t became the original cause of the decline of the community. E's reputation was threatened by this a f f a i r , because of the family ties between himself and the matron. He took steps to ensure that i t remained a secret by accepting D's offer to handle the matter quietly. Then he made an attempt to establish a degree of personal control over the Home Society. He joined the Board of Directors as the representative of Strondin and over a period of three years arranged the election of a number of the congregation's members, including some past and present officers, to the Board. This was not a very d i f f i c u l t task as the Home Society's annual meetings, at which elections were held, were usually poorly attended. In the f i n a l act of this move to establish his control D was denied a nomination for re-election to a third term as a director. The church contingent on the Home Society's Board of Directors for 1955 included the president and vice-- 199 -president (both former trustees of the congregation); a l l three elected directors and the representatives of Strondin (E) and the congregation (SE, then the presi-dent of Strondin), In the following year E, pre-occupied by the construction of the chureh and under pressure from his employer to reduce the extent of his participation in the o f f i c i a l a c t i v i t i e s of the community, l e f t his seat, turning i t over to another trustee of the congregation, D made a second un-successful bid for re-election i n 1956 and then tried again, more successfully, i n 1957* The years 1957 and 1958 marked a high point i n the community's unity. The integration of the leadership corps was the highest ever, with members of the congregation occupying a l l of the executive offices i n Strondin and most of those i n the Home Society. These individuals negotiated an agreement, largely i n reaction to D's proposal that an immediate start should be made on constructing a new home and an asso-ciated fund drive, under which the directors of the Home Society agreed to defer their plans u n t i l after the church's financial d i f f i c u l t i e s had been resolved for a l l time. This agreement, as well as the congre-gation's control over the Home Society and Strondin; f e l l to the new immigrant bloc organized and used by D. - 200 -The Decline of the Community The new Immigrant bloc, whose appearance on the scene was largely fortuitous and generally short-lived, became the instrument whereby the united and co-operative effort which had marked earlier a c t i v i t i e s of the community was ended. This bloc was used by D to end the congregation's control over the Home Society by the simple device of having them stack the Home Society's annual meetings and vote against the election or re-election of anyone associated with the congre-gation. Subsequently this bloc was used to bring an end to SE's control over Strondin, thereby separating that association from the congregation as well. The new immigrants did not take a part in the Home Society's affairs, beyond the limited role they took ln breaking the congregation's control over i t . Only one of their number ever served on the Home Society's Board of Directors, and he was an appointed representative who served only one one-year term (i960). They did, however, elect a new slate of officers drawn either from outside the community's existing membership or from among the mem-bers of the Ladles Aid Solskln and their husbands. There were considerable changes in the membership of the Board i n the years after i960 but these changes were of relatively l i t t l e significance as they Involved - 201 -the appointed representatives or the directors-at-large rather than the individuals who held the four executive positions (president, vice-president, secre-tary and treasurer). P held the presidency from i960 u n t i l 1968, when 111 health forced him to retire. D, who had retained the vice-presidency during that time, then virtu a l l y inherited the highest office. There was no one else whose claim to l t was as great as his and, of course, no one else wanted It. Hrs B retained the treasurer's office throughout this period. It took these individuals some time to find a suitable candi-date to f i l l the secretary's office. The principal quality being looked for i n such a candidate was an a b i l i t y to perform the duties of secretary i n the same manner that the Home Society's original secretary (who held the position from 19*6 u n t i l 195?) had per-formed them. After trying several candidates who proved themselves to be below this standard the posi-tion was given to D's aunt, who has held i t since 1963. In later years there were a number of changes which furthered the integration of the Home Society and the Ladies Aid Solskln at the leadership level. The executives of these two associations elected for the year 1969 included four husband-wife teams." D was the president of the Home Society at the time that his wife was the secretary of the Aid. D was succeeded as vice-« 202 -president by T2; who had been brought Into the Board of Directors to f i l l a vacancy created by the resignation of H2 i n mld=l966. Mrs T2, a non-Icelander, served as the Aid's president i n 1968 and then demoted her-self to the vioe-presidency for 1969* She was succeeded by Mrs T3» another non-Icelander, whose husband, T3, a cousin of T2, was elected to f i l l a vacant seat on the Home Society's Board i n January; I969, Finally; H2 returned to a seat on the Home Society's Board i n January; 1969, at a time when his wife was beginning her fourth term as the Aid's treasurer* And i n the previous year; H2»s niece had served on the Home Society's Board as the representative of the Aid and her husband had served as the representative of the congregation; re-placing 0, who had been allowed to stand for election to the director's seat vacated by D when he became the president* Some of these individuals had ties with the other associations i n the community or with their officers* T2, for example; was the younger brother of T l , one of the supporters and benefactors of the 1965 coup i n Strondin* H2; i n turn; was the older brother of H; one of the principal architects of that coup. T2 was also a member of the congregation's Board of Trustees; having been elected to that Board i n 1966, the year i n which he joined the congregation* Such - 203 -ties, however, did not become a means whereby the asso-ciations were brought into closer or more co-operative contacts with each other. These ties involved officers only at a time when the leaders of these various asso-ciations were barely on speaking terms i n public and rather c r i t i c a l and sometimes quite abusive of each other in private* The co-operative efforts which had marked the earlier relationship between the congregation and the Home Society ended i n I960* The Home Society immedi-ately in i t i a t e d i t s plans to build a bigger home. Land was purchased i n 1961, the sod turned i n I96I and construction began i n 1962* At the same time the direc-tors of the Home Society i n i t i a t e d a massive drive for funds, which brought i n over $30,000 from local r e s i -dents between i960 and 196*. Additional sums were raised by the Aid and by Strondin. At this time the congregation's financial d i f f i c u l t i e s were increasing steadily* The annual deficits, which had been between 10$ and 15$, grew to as much as *0$ i n some of these years* Meetings of the trustees often turned into two hour debates over small issues; such as whether or not the monthly telephone b i l l should be paid. The congre-gation's leaders were bitter and protested, privately, over the way in which the Home Society was draining the community of a l l available funds. Their protests - 204 -f e l l on unsympathetic ears. As far as the leaders of the Home Society were concerned i t was not only their problem but one which they had created by f a i l i n g to operate the congregation i n a manner which induced increased donations from the community. Similar p r i -vate protests were made by the congregation's leaders i n 1966, when the leaders of Strondin were conducting a drive i n behalf of the association's Scholarship Fund, These, too, were rejected on the same grounds. The recently planned expansion of the home was dealth with entirely by the Home Society's Board. There were consultations between D and other inter-ested persons, namely Mrs R, Mrs E, and the then presi-dent of the Aid, Mrs AJ, There were no o f f i c i a l or unofficial consultations with the leaders of the other associations and the suggestion that such talks might be i n order was f l a t l y rejected. The new immigrant bloc made i t s last appear-ance at Strondin's annual meeting i n January, 1961, were It voted SE and his colleagues out of office. The new executive was headed by a new immigrant, F, and included two other new immigrants, both of whom declined to serve, A mini-election held i n March, I96I, elected J, a new immigrant, and C, one of the founders of the association. The years after I96I saw increased co-- 205 -operation between Strondin and the Home Society. Two men, C and D, held offices i n both and they were i n -strumental in having Strondin change the location of most of i t s meetings from the church to the home. They were also instrumental i n having the library given to the home and in having Strondin raise money for the Home Society's Building Fund. The changes which took place In the asso-ciation's a c t i v i t i e s after 1961 were not so much the result of deliberate planning as they were a reaction to outside events, such as the vi s i t s by various Icelandic dignitaries and the sales campaigns of local airlines looking for business for their charter f l i g h t s . The lack of a concentrated effort to deliver the new ideas promised in I96I had a predictable effect on the association's membership. It grew i n response to such outside events and then declined as these events declined. It was evident by 1964 that such changes as had occurred were not achieving the objective desired by some, which was to place the association on a course which would assure i t s survival beyond the life-times of the older immigrant and older native-born members. The new immi-grants, though numerous i n the late 1950's, could not be relied on to maintain i t , mainly because there were so few of them l e f t in Vancouver. Beginning in I96I there was a general exodus of the new immigrants from - 206 -the city, some returning to Iceland and others, the majority, moving to the United States. By 1964 there were only a few new immigrants l e f t i n the city and most of them were not taking an active part i n the association*s a c t i v i t i e s . Not a l l of Strondin*s officers were con-cerned over this state of affairs - most of them did not think that there was anything wrong. But H and J were worried, though i t i s perhaps d i f f i c u l t to judge whether they became worried over the signs of decline before or after they decided that F had to go. That decision, i n turn, may have been prompted by their own leadership ambitions, which could not be f u l f i l l e d while he remained l n office. The successful imple-mentation of their decision to remove F and his sup-porters was guaranteed by their control of the nomi-nating committee. Subsequently, they were obliged to take further action to impress upon F, and everyone else, that they controlled the association. They also, after a further assessment of their situation, decided to try to emulate the Icelandic Club of Greater Seattle and attempt to attract increased support from the younger native-born group, whose members were just beginning to take an Interest i n the association*s a c t i v i t i e s . That decision provided a justification for the formal reorganization of the - 20? -association i n 1967* even though, i n the end, there was l i t t l e substance to that reorganization since the a c t i v i t i e s supported by the associations after 1967 were those introduced i n a piecemeal fashion between 1961 and 1965. Their membership objectives were realized, however, to the extent that the majority of the o f f i c i a l members; i n early I969, were from the younger native-born and non-Icelandic groups and a l l but one of the association's officers were from these two groups. Furthermore; some 60$ of the 229 o f f i c i a l members l i v i n g i n and around Vancouver had f i r s t joined the association i n 1967 or later* And only 19$ of these new members were or had been members of other associ-ations i n the community* At the same time only 8$ of the o f f i c i a l members l i v i n g i n and around Vancouver had membership records which began before 1961. The association's participating membership (which Included many o f f i c i a l members) was drawn to an even greater extent from groups that had not previously p a r t i c i -pated i n the activ i t i e s of any of the associations in the community. The one other element which prevented the formal reorganization of the association from being a complete farce was the more or less deliberate introduction of a new pattern of leadership. This - 208 -came about In part because H and J were or became convinced that the tendency of the other associations i n the community, as well as that of Strondin before their time, to move as one or two persons wanted was not i n the best interests of any such association. Permitting a greater number of persons to play a real part in operating the association would or should give i t greater s t a b i l i t y and ensure Its future. But their conclusions on this question were i n part prompted by the fact that two separate purges of the association* s leadership l n fiv e years had effectively wiped out the supply of potential future officers. Too many people who might qualify for office simply could not be trusted to support them and the association i n the desired manner. Accordingly, they had to endeavour to recruit new officers from outside of the community and they believed that i t would be necessary to offer these new officers at least a chance to advance to the highest possible positions. The officers recruited by these leaders from the time of their coup were a l l recruited i n this manner. Partly because of their laek of experience and partly because of the fact that they were so new to membership that they knew virtually nothing about the association or the community, i t took some time for these new recruits to begin to play an effective - 209 -role In the management of the association. The leaders continued to decide a l l matters of policy and pro-gramming, though there were some efforts made to i n -volve the other officers and the o f f i c i a l members i n their deliberations. The effective control of the leaders was ended, rather unexpectedly, on October 7» I967i when their fellow directors reversed a decision made and already implemented by the leaders on a key issue of that day. During I967 the leaders decided to give fur-ther emphasis to the fact of the association's inde-pendence of the other associations in the community by ceasing to use their f a c i l i t i e s , especially the audi-torium of the home. Having decided they waited for an opportunity to implement this decision i n a manner which would place the blame for this break i n relations on the Board of the Home Society. Such an opportunity presented i t s e l f , quite by accident, at the association's annual meeting in September, 1967* which was held i n the home. Due to an oversight on the part of one officer, the matron was not specifically advised of the date and the time of the meeting and she reacted rather badly when the members of the association came in to attend the meeting. The leaders decided to use the manner of her reaction (verbal abuse) as a pretext for ending their use of the home's f a c i l i t i e s . A letter was accordingly - 210 -written to the Board of the Home Society explaining that ln view of the matron's ho s t i l i t y they f e l t obliged to seek other quarters for those of the asso-ciation's meetings which were held in the home* Their decision and the action taken were communicated to their colleagues at a meeting of the Board of Directors (of the Icelandic Canadian Club), held on October 7. 1967. The leaders had acted i n this manner for some time* Decisions were made and Implemented and only then were the association's other directors informed of the steps taken i n their collective names* Each time the directors had given formal approval to those actions* But this time they objected and objected vigorously* In their view the relations between the Club and the Home Society were too important to both to be broken for any reason* They unanimously rejected the suggestion that a written complaint be lodged with the Board of the Home Society and they also rejected the suggestion that other quarters be found for those meetings which had previously been held i n the home* Their objections placed the leaders in an embarrassing situation since they had already acted upon both of their suggestions* They were saved from increased embarrassment by a very conciliatory response from the Home Society's Board and by a mutual and generally - 211 -unspoken agreement by those involved to forget this event. This incident may sound t r i v i a l but i t was, nevertheless, an important one. Never again would the leaders aet without f u l l and genuine consultations with their fellow directors on every issue, no matter how minor. Never again would one or two people rule the association as i t had been ruled in the past, even i f the public appearance of the Board's ac t i v i t i e s tended to imply that that was s t i l l the case. The leaders continued to reign but from now on they ruled with and by the consent of their colleagues. This change i n the manner i n which the asso-ciation was operated had at least one unexpected effect. The decision-making process became a more extended process, both i n the time i t took to reach a conclusion and i n the extent of discussion and inves-tigation involved. Eight people require more time to decide on a certain course of action than would be required by one or two persons. As the decision-making process became more extended and involved the number of actual decisions made began to decline. And as the number of decisions made declined the act i v i t i e s which resulted from the over-all process declined as well. This trend towards a more extended decision-making process contributed to the need to reduce the - 212 -association's schedule of act i v i t i e s to manageable proportions* Among the programmes eliminated in the course of this step were most of the programmes which had involved public meetings using the f a c i l i t i e s of the home* Conclusions A sub-community which i s defined i n terms of the people who belong to It, by virtue of their actual participation, does not come into being on i t s own volition* Generally, i t w i l l develop only In response to the actions taken by specific individuals to bring i t into being* Such actions tend to be limited i n nature and i n effect. That i s to say, the individuals who i n i t i a t e the action do not, as i t were, say "Let us set up a community" but, more specifically, "Let us set up a community of this kind? And the individ-uals who i n i t i a t e the limited actions which may result i n the creation of a sub-community may become or later acquire positions of leadership within that sub-community. With the exception of the Ladies Aid Solskln, the associations whose members constitute the population of the present Icelandic ethnic community in Vancouver were established i n the 19*0*s. Each of these associa-tions was set up for a more or less clearly defined and - 213 -limited purpose* Individuals of Icelandic origin were invited to participate i n the activities of those asso-ciations; within the limits set by their various o r i g i -nal purposes. For example, the decision to build or acquire a home for retired individuals of Icelandic origin was taken before the Home Society was established to implement that decision. Accordingly, wide-spread participation i n i t s affairs was restricted to donating the funds which might aid in the attainment of the objective involved. Further participation by the members of the Home Society i n their capacities as members was severely restricted by the general pre-emption of such other roles as were open by the members of the Ladies Aid Solskln. Since the associations were originally set up for limited and defined purposes, they tended to attract only those potential members who supported those purposes. The decision to re-establish the Icelandic Lutheran congregation effectively defined those who would respond to i t s re-establishment by be-coming members of i t . Only those local residents who were Icelandic by origin; Lutheran by religion; and church-goers by habit were l i k e l y to respond to the c a l l for members. The members who responded to the invitation to Join one or more of these associations at this time - 21* -(l9*0*s) did not join in order to aid in defining the act i v i t i e s or objectives which the associations would perform or seek. These had already been defined and i t was the acceptance of the defined acti v i t i e s or objectives which, i n part, motivated the potential members into becoming active members. They joined to participate i n on-going a c t i v i t i e s , not to participate l n defining what those ac t i v i t i e s would be. Someone else had already done that. It appears that when individuals decide to participate i n the ac t i v i t i e s which result from deci-sions made by other individuals they tend to restrict themselves to accepting the limits of those ac t i v i t i e s and do not try to change them. Nor do they tend to take an interest or an active part i n the necessary organizational operations whioh precede such a c t i v i t i e s since they are, almost by definition, only interested i n the ac t i v i t i e s themselves, whether these are r e l i -gious services, food sales, poetry readings or dances. The responsibility for performing the opera-tions which must precede such ac t i v i t i e s tends to be l e f t , almost by default, to those who want to perform them or to those who performed them in the period of time when the associations were established. The latter, i n particular, have or appear to have an option to peform i n their original roles as organizers - 215 -for as long as they want to do so, provided that neither the a c t i v i t i e s nor the characteristics or the Interests of the participants change. The attitudes of the I n i t i a l organlzaers he-comes very Important In such a case. If they, whatever their reasons or reasoning, have a desire to lead or to play a leading role, or i f they believe themselves to be p a r t i c u l a r l y endowed with the qualities of leaders, then they w i l l tend to retain their original roles over a long period of time. Mrs R i s very proud of her long record of service (now past the half century mark) and equally proud of the fact that that record has made her, in her opinion, "a very important person" i n this l i t t l e community. E matches her feelings and gives particular attention and emphasis to his long and personally cher-ished l i s t of f i r s t s : f i r s t director of the choir (1937); f i r s t president of the congregation (19*4); f i r s t Icelandic diplomatic representative in Vancouver (19*4); f i r s t to receive the Order of the Falcon (1957); f i r s t to head a committee receiving a President of Iceland on an o f f i c i a l v i s i t (1961). His l i s t includes other f i r s t s earned i n his act i v i t i e s i n the greater com-munity. Since the members, by and large, participate i n order to receive the benefits they might obtain from specific events they do not interfere with or in the - 216 -a c t i v i t i e s of the leaders or other individuals who organize such events. The interests of the members are quite limited and they tend not to exceed those limits, as long as they continue to receive such bene-f i t s . Accordingly, the leaders, in effect, have a free hand within the limits which the nature of the associa-tion's a c t i v i t i e s places upon them. The leadership pattern which develops appears to be authoritarian in nature, with the leaders acting without referring their actions to their fellow officers or the members, except for the most routine and formal expression of interest or approval on their part. But there i s l i t t l e sub-stance to this appearance, since i t i s generally under-stood and accepted, more or less consciously, that there are limits within which the leaders must and do operate. Exceeding those limits by, for example, changing the nature of the activ i t i e s w i l l have an immediate effect on the participating members, who would no longer have a motive for continued p a r t i c i -pation. This pattern of leadership i s also poten-t i a l l y unstable. When the members are not interested in the necessary organizational operations, but only i n the public act i v i t i e s which result from those oper-ations, they tend to stay away from those meetings arranged, by custom or because of legal requirements, 217 -to approve or to act upon various decisions or actions which might require formal approval from the membership, including the election or re-election of officers, Most of these associations operate under charters or consti-tutions which are registered with the provincial govern-ment, under the provisions of the Societies Act, That Act, among other points, requires that a certain number or percentage of the o f f i c i a l members, I.e., those who have paid their membership dues, i s necessary for a quorum before the decisions made or approved by annual or special general meetings are legally binding. The required number among these associations ranges from 15 members in the Icelandic Canadian Club to Z$% of the members ln the Home Society, The Home Society has not held a legal annual meeting for several years, i f the let t e r of the law i s applied. The most recent (I969) annual meeting of the congregation had to be postponed because a quorum of the members (20$) was not present. The quorum required for an annual or a special general meeting of the Icelandic Canadian Club i s 15, a figure that was adopted i n I967 largely because i t was equal to the number of directors and their wives. Because these meetings are in general very poorly attended It Is always possible that a coup against the existing leadership can not only be organ-ized but successfully carried out. A l l that would be - 218 -necessary i s a group of perhaps twenty persons who have been instructed or who have agreed to vote as a bloc for or against certain candidates. The motivation for such a step might come from the general membership as a result of a general dissat-isfaction with the state of a f f i r s i n the association. But such an origin for a coup i s unlikely since the member's dissatisfaction i s more easily, and more usu-ally* corrected by withdrawing from the community or the association, with or without an explanation. A coup or the purge of the existing leader-ship of an association i s usually the result of a dis-pute between the leaders, involving either personality clashes or disagreements over policy or both. One of the parties to such a dispute may decide to eliminate the opposition by manipulating the election process at an annual meeting. In the case of the Home Society there was a disagreement over policy, though this dis-agreement concerned the timing of the expansion, not the expansion plan i t s e l f . But this disagreement was overshadowed by a bitter personal clash between E and D. The latter believed himself to have been unjustly treated by the former and acted, to a great degree, out of a desire for personal revenge. His plans were suc-cessful largely because of the fortuitous presence of a large number of new immigrants who, i n turn, f e l t - 219 -themselves to be collectively mistreated by the older immigrant and older native-born members of the congre-gation and Strondin. Their anger was used to eliminate those directors of the Home Society, and later those officers of Strondin, who were a f f i l i a t e d or associated with the congregation. The subsequent palace revolt in Strondin did derive in part from a disagreement over policy but was derived at least equally from a person-a l i t y clash between F, on the one side, and H and J, on the other side. This coup succeeded because i t s authors combined the element of surprise with the time-honoured technique of stacking the annual meeting. But, having learned a lesson from the coups they had observed and participated in, the new leaders took steps to ensure that subsequent meetings would be well attended by fa i t h f u l supporters. The changes i n the personnel of the Home Society's leadership corps did not result i n a pattern of leadership which diverted from the traditional mold of apparently authoritarian rule. Eventually, however, the leadership pattern in Strondin (later the Icelandic Canadian Club) became more diffused, i n the sense that a l l of the association's officers took a significant part i n both the formulation of policies and In the continuous decision-making process which i s needed to implement those policies. - 220 -The leaders i n such a sub-community play a most crucial role, since their actions are not only re-sponsible for the sub-community's creation but also for Its continued existence. In the case of the sub-community studied here, the actions of the leaders have catered to the desire on the part of some local r e s i -dents of Icelandic origin to continue to participate l n certain a c t i v i t i e s which they can share with others of that origin. The nature of the act i v i t i e s Is notas important to them as the fact that those ac t i v i t i e s are shared with such people. Within the limits placed on them by the nature of the act i v i t i e s they have begun, the leaders have a virtually free hand to operate as they please and, i f they so choose, to build themselves, by force of personality and/or by the extent of their own efforts i n behalf of the associations or the com-munity, into individuals who are recognized as and may actually be the top leaders, whose word i s law within that restricted sphere of social space embraced by those shared a c t i v i t i e s . Their word i s law or at least appears to be law. But It i s not law because the leaders are able to oblige others to comply with their wishes. A leader can act and his actions are usually taken i n the expectation of a response from the members of the community or an association. But the response comes only from those - 221 -individual members who agree with or accept the partic-ular action i n question. The leader's action merely provides them with an opportunity to do something they already want to do. Those who do not agree with or who do not accept his action can and do ignore i t and there i s nothing that the leader can do to compel them to. change their reaction. Although they may not agree on anything else, the researchers who have examined the role of the leader i n a community apparently dp agree that the leader must have power or the a b i l i t y to impose his w i l l , continu-ously pr intermittently, upon other people i n the com-munity. If this i s what a leader must have i n order to qualify for the t i t l e of leader than thiscommunity has no leaders. No one, no matter how great his reputation; can impose his w i l l were i t is not wanted. The.officers of the congregation, led by the community's most promi-nent member; E, spent more than ten years in one.special fund drive after another i n an attempt to place the con-gregation's finances on a sound footing. And, although they came close to their objective on occasion, they f a i l e d . Failed because the members of the community, including the members of the congregation, simply were not Interested enough i n the church to make the desired response. Yet the community does have leaders. Leaders - 222 -who do not impose their w i l l but who, i n a sense, comply with the w i l l of the led. The members of the community desire or want to share some of their a c t i v i t i e s with their fellow Canadians of Icelandic origin. Shared a c t i v i t i e s ; especially when or where the numbers involved are large or relatively large, must be.organized l n advance, to a lesser or greater degree. Those individ-uals who perform those necessary pre-actlvity operations can become leaders. Leaders who may.spend many days; spread over a longer or shorter period of time; organ-izing a meeting for the members. Leaders whomust.then wait, with crossed fingers and a prayer on their lips,' hoping that they have complied withthe wishes or the w i l l of enough people to justify the effort they have expended. Hope springs eternal, as the old expression goes, and nowhere does i t spring so often to such disappointments as among the leaders of this community. They; as leaders, are the servants of f i c k l e masters. - 223 -CHAPTER VI THE STUDY OP LEADERSHIP AND POWER Introduction A great deal of energy has been expended in recent years on investigating the phenomenon of leader-ship but the results which have been obtained or achieved do not appear to be satisfactory, i n the sense that the conclusions reached in various studies have not been generally accepted. Some of the disagreements which have arisen between the researchers involved i n this effort appear to be beyond resolution. There are three interrelated areas of disagreement.The f i r s t i s i n the area of methodology: how are the leaders to be identified and their a c t i v i t i e s observed?The second Involves the problem of defining and measuring the element which i s , or is represented to be, the essence of leadership, namely, the power possessed by the leader. The third, which is an extension of the second, involves the more general problem of how power i s distributed within a specified community or social system. It i s not the intention of the writer to attempt to resolve these disputes. The sub-community, such as the one examined here, differs in a significant manner from the communities in which this phenomenon - 224 -has usually been studied. This difference i s particu-l a r l y connected with the manner i n which power i s present i n the sub-community and the effect i t s exercise can have on the sub-community*s membership. The reliance on voluntary Identification with the sub-community, as a basis for active participation, i s such an important element and so crucial for the sub-community*s continued existence that power, though i t may be present, cannot be effectively used. Since power cannot be. used, i t i s d i f f i c u l t to generalize from this sub-community or study into communities or studies which have examined those communities in which power Is not only present but can be used, possibly within certain limits, without endangering the continued existence of such communities. Research Methods Insofar as methodology Is concerned, the researchers involved have tended to use one of the two major research techniques or methods developed for this purpose. The f i r s t of these, the reputational approach, was used by Hunter (1°53» 1959) and other writers. It involves the use of panels of judges, who are usually selected by the researcher i n accordance with certain specific c r i t e r i a . These Judges are asked to name or nominate the ten (or more) top leaders, key influentials; effective workers, etc., of their community. The other, - 225 -the decision-making approach, used by Dahl ( I96I) , i n -volves the identification, by the researchers pr by selected members of the community, of the key or impor-tant issues and the subsequent identification of the individuals who participate in the process whereby decisions are made i n connection with these issues. The relative merits of these two techniques have been the subject of an extended and apparently unfinished debate amongst the writers who have used them. The reputational technique has been used and sometimes defended by such writers as Agger and Ostrom (1956); Barth and Abu-Loban (1959); D*Antonio, et a l . , (I96I, 1962a, 1962b); Form, et a l . , (1959); Klapp, et a l . , (i960); Larsen, et a l . , (1965); Pellegrln, et a l . , (1956); Schulze (1957/58); Skinner (1958) and Thornetz (1963)* The decision-making technique has been mainly used and/or defended by Dahl (1958, I 9 6 I ) ; Polsby (1959a, 1959b. i960, 1963) and Wolfinger (i960, I962). Other writers have used both of these and other methods simultaneously, (Freeman, et a l . , I963), or have refined one of these main methods, as Bonjean (I963, 1964a, 1964b) refined the reputational method. Each of these methods has i t s faults or at least i t s potential faults. The individuals nominated as the leaders are nominated, to a greater or lesser extent, on the basis of their reputations for being - 226 -leaders, and those reputations may not reflect their actual positions. But a similar objection can be raised, and has been raised (Bachrach and Baratz, I962), i n connection with the identification of key issues. There i s no guarantee that the identification of an issue as a key issue i s not made i n the same manner or on the same basis as the nomination of an individual as a leader. A belief in the importance of an issue may be as misleading as a belief i n the reputation of a leader. It i s to be assumed, or at least hoped, that the individuals who have used these methods are s u f f i -ciently competent to judge their effectiveness i n their particular studies. The experience gained in this study i s by no means thought to be such that either of these techniques can or should be discarded. A research technique i s , after a l l , only a tool to be used by a researcher and the quality of the data gathered and the subsequent analysis made of i t Is at least as much a test of the researcher*s a b i l i t y as i t i s a test of the validity of that technique. The writer, having been a sometime p a r t i c i -pating member of the sub-community studied here; had no d i f f i c u l t y In gaining access to the community. Data was gathered I n i t i a l l y through interviews with the community*s members and officers, followed by observa-tion at public meetings and then, increasingly, by - 2 2 7 -observation of and participation i n the act i v i t i e s of the leaders. Eventually, by the extent of that p a r t i c l - . pation, the writer joined the ranks of the top leaders. In this community, the view from the top, or from the inside, i s quite different from the view from the bottom, or from the outside. But such a method of obtaining data, especially about the activities of the leaders, i s not always possible, nor i s i t always practical. The i n i t i a l data on the identities of the leaders of the community studied was gathered by obtaining nominations from the members of the associa-tions. The distribution of the nominations at least suggested that some leaders were not as well known, as individuals or as leaders, as some others. The d i f f e r -ential distribution of the nominations might also have been interpreted as showing the existence of a hier-archy of leaders embracing the entire community. But; although his participation i n this particular sub-community had been quite limited prior to the i n i t i a -tion of this study; the writer was aware of the fact that the leadership of the community was not united. Detailed analysis later indicated that the divisions i n the community's leadership were rather recent, i n origin; as was noted elsewhere. The divisions derived - 228 -i n part from the largely fortuitous presence of a Large and angry group of new immigrants at a crucial time. Had they not been there, or i n the mood they were in, i t i s unlikely that D's efforts would have succeeded. The congregation*s leaders were too concerned over i t s financial d i f f i c u l t i e s to permit any competition for the funds which might be available. Under normal (i.e., pre-1958) membership conditions they would have had the numerical strength to protect their control of the Home Society from any coup, no matter what Its origin or who led i t . Once the nominations were compared with the associational a f f i l i a t i o n s of the nominators, a more r e a l i s t i c picture of the community's leadership emerged. With the exception of the leadership of Strondin, the members were relatively accurate l n the nominations they made. Pour of the five nominated top leaders were s t i l l i n their offices In early 1969. But only three- (0," Mrs D and U) of the nominated second-rank leaders were s t i l l i n office; along with eleven of the twenty three other officers of 1966. Insofar as the issue-oriented or decision-making approach i s concerned, i t should be noted that the only issue which the members of the community were aware of to any great extent during the course of this study was the membership issue in the congregation. This - 229 -started out as a routine administrative decision by the pastor to remove from the membership r o l l those individ-uals who did not qualify for membership in accordance with the constitution's financial c r i t e r i a . I t should be noted that most of the individuals involved were not interested i n maintaining their membership status and did hot object to the step taken by the pastor. .But this decision was deliberately turned into a major issue by the leaders, f i r s t I and then E, who interpreted i t to the members as an attack designed to destroy the con-gregation's character or image as the Icelandic congre-gation. But there were many other issues - issues which interested and preoccupied the leaders and some-times the officers but never the members. Such issues were usually dealt with entirely within the small c i r c l e of individuals who occupied the offices of the various associations. The ordinary members frequently never heard of these issues and when they did they displayed a total lack of interest i n the issues or the actions taken on them. The special general meeting of Strondini held i n November! 1966, for purposes described elsewhere; was attended by twenty persons.' Thirteen were then off leers or had been officers i n recent years; and these officers; past and present, argued around the two key issues.: the - 230 -change i n the name and the termination of the a f f i l i a t i o n with the Icelandic National League. The seven members who had never been officers watched and listened and contributed two remarks to the debate. After one partic-ularly angry outburst from F one of them, a grandmotherly type, remarked: "Tut! Tut!" After the meeting adjourned for coffee another of the watchers; another grandmotherly type, remarked; with a laugh: "It's good to see you boys fight!" When the decision to terminate the associa-tion's ties with the League was publicly announced; some of the members learned for the f i r s t time that there had been such an a f f i l i a t i o n for twenty years. The officers; however, have yet to make an announcement about another important issue which arose at the time that the ties with the League were ended. The officers i n i t i a t e d negotiations with other similar associations; including the Icelandic Canadian Clubs of Winnipeg and Toronto; for the purpose of developing interest i n a new national organization. 1 These negotiations, conducted by mail and in personal contacts; have reached the stage were a general agreement exists on the structure of the new organization and the ac t i v i t i e s i t i s to support. But the members are not interested i n the activ i t i e s engaged i n by the leaders and could not care less what they were plotting and planning. - 231 -So Ions as the leaders spend some of their time organizing public meetings were the members can meet their friends and acquaintances, they w i l l be l e f t alone. Given the very limited interests of the members i t i s not r e a l i s t i c to expect to find them in a contin-uous or even occasional turmoil over issues. This does not mean there are no issues which are important, but that they are generally only known and of interest to the leaders and officers. The Concept of Power Simon (1953* P* 501) suggests that power i s a word that "means what we want i t to mean? That seems > to be an apt description of a word or a concept which; despite i t s crucial importance to the analysis of leader-ship, i s more often assumed or taken for granted than i t i s defined. Hunter (1953* PP* 2-3) does state that power i s "a word that w i l l be used to describe the acts of men going about the business of moving other men to act i n relation to themselves or...to organic or inorganic things? Drucker (1961) appears to talk of, but never actually defines, the power of a government (and how i t i s no longer the supreme or effective center of power i n society) and personal power or "personal freedom outside of organized power? (oj>. cit.-. p. 21). Dahl (1958); i n turn; appears to believe that power exists - 232 -only in oases of conflict, and in such cases he who wins would presumably be more powerful. Other writers; such as Miller (I96I) and others who use the reputational approach, often speak of power or powerful leaders but rarely give a definition or* i n some cases; even an il l u s t r a t i o n of i t s presence. Danzger (1961) quotes Weber1s definition of power as being "the probability that one actor within a social relationship w i l l be in a position to carry out his own w i l l despite resistance?- (p. 713). Danzger ties Weber's definition into his own and defines power as the potential capacity, for action rather than the action i t s e l f . The outcome of an action to achieve a goal would depend on the resources available to the actor and on the desirability of that particular goal. Danzger*s distinction between power as a potential capacity and, as i t . were; power i n action i s echoed by other writers, including Ehrlich (I96I). But Bachrach and Baratz (I963) suggest that power Is rela-tional instead of possessive or substantive. In an earlier paper (1962) they suggest that while some power actions are vis i b l e to the observer others are not and the latt e r may well be the important power actions. This would appear to be a research problem which would decline i n importance and in effect as the observer got closer to those who not only have but who wield power. - 233 -But the concept remains, as Bachrach and Baratz point out (I962), elusive. Their particular ap-proach cannot bring l t Into clearer focus, largely be-cause of the assumption they make, for the sake of safety If nothing else, that not a l l of the power actions are visible to an outside observer. In that case the observ-er can never be certain that he has observed a l l there i s to observe or that he has observed the important power actions. Yet there i s no way i n which he can be certain, unless he has penetrated right into the heart of the power structure, to use another term which appears to defy definition, and participated i n the power actions which take place there. Danzger's approach seems equally d i f f i c u l t to use, since the potential for power i s almost impossible to measure or, more importantly, to test; u n t i l and unless i t becomes a power action. But then the outcome of such a power action may not reflect the real extent of the actor's potential since the action may only involve a token show of force or resistance or a limited applica-tion of his potential. Generally, these approaches seem to treat power, however they define It, as a unitary entity. There are other approaches to the problem of defining power; such as that of Goldhammer and Shils (1938); who define power as influence over others, based on law; - 23* -tradition or charisma. They also mention physical force and manipulation, i n which one actor manipulates the events affecting another actor, without the letter's knowledge. And Peabody (I96I) makes a distinction be-tween formal power, based on law or positions described as having certain powers or authority, and functional power, based on technical expertise or the a b i l i t y to get along with others. There are two social relationships which occur i n this community in which power, i n one form or another, may operate. The f i r s t i s the leader-member relationship and the other i s the leader-leader (or leader-officer) relationship. It was suggested previously that power, whether i t be the a b i l i t y to influence or to compel others to act.or respond i n a certain way, does not appear i n the leader-member relationship. The leader cannot influence or compel the member to take certain actions or respond i n certain ways unless the member i s already1, of his own volition, ready to act or respond in such a manner. Attempting, by any means; to compel a member to respond i n a certain manner is dangerous, since i t may drive the member out of the community. The problem of the leader-leader or the leader-offi c e r relationship Is rather d i f f i c u l t to assess, i n part because so many of the specific relationships - 235 -involved appear to be in the same form as the leader-member relationship. Because the limits of the activ-i t i e s to be organized are generally known and the acti v i t i e s themselves tend to be routine and repetitive; there are few opportunities for observing situations which might c a l l for the use of influence or compulsion. The purges which have occurred from time to time since 1959 at best indicate, that some leaders; given the required conditions; can manipulate specific events for specific purposes. Power does not appear very clearly, i f It-appears at a l l , i n the leader-leader or the leader-officer relationship. Frequently the officers accept, without question, the right of the leaders to tahe such actions as they see f i t , within the limits imposed by the nature of the activ i t i e s of the association. Years of service have, in a sense, given them a right - a right which i s accepted by members and officers alike - to act in this manner. Leader E i s not the congregation's most prom-inent nor its. most influential member just because he has been associated with i t since i t was conceived. He has also done more for the congregation than any other member. His part i n the recent congregational dinner, held In honour of the congregation's twenty-fifth anniversary; illustrates the extent of his contribution. He suggested - 236 -that the dinner be held; supervised tieket reservations; greeted guests at the door; escorted them to their seats; gave the opening address; introduced three speakers and seventeen charter members (including himself). After dinner he led the way from the church hall to the church proper, where he introduced the entertainers he had obtained to provide an evening of classical music and gave an extra five-minute speech while the last of the enter-tainers arrived and prepared to perform. He then gave a closing statement and remained behind to supervise the clean-up detail. He does so much, not just for this event but for a l l of the congregation's a c t i v i t i e s , partly because he wants to, partly because he is the f i r s t to volunteer to do something he has suggested and because everyone automatically gives him the f i r s t chance to acoept another job. Yet the power which E may have in his relations with his fellow leaders and officers i s largely potential; assuming he has any. As far as i s known E has never been directly challenged by another leader or officer. But he has often been beaten i n decisions involving public meetings, which have been manipulated by his opponents, just as he has had to, on occasion, manipulate events against such opponents. D's case i s somewhat similar to E's. D i s always doing something for the home or the Home Society. - 237 -He i s an almost daily v i s i t o r to the home and looks into everything or anything, though he cannot manage to solve a l l the problems which are put before him. He, lik e E, has earned the right to have a dominant voice i n every-thing and i n effect Inherited the presidency of the Home Society. Yet i t i s possible that i f he had been opposed he would have been decisively beaten. D's personality, i f that i s the right word to use, has a flaw which i s at the same time a weakness and a source of strength. In D's opinion i t i s impossible for anyone to have an honest difference of opinion with him. A person who disagrees with him does so not of his own volition but because he is a tool being used by sinister and e v i l forces, which are blackmailing such an Individual to act against D. D's reaction to such misguided opponents - and his reaction i s seen and heard frequently - i s vituperative abuse of those opponents in private and i n public. Pew, i f any, individuals can stand up to such verbal abuse, as i t goes far beyond the boundaries of reasonable debate. This feature of his behaviour has contributed to the loss; for the Home Society; of a number of able officers and potential leaders. The most recent such victim was D's old friend C, who was so shaken by D's f i r s t performance as the president of the Home Society that he withdrew from the community. The leaders possess a very limited form of - 238 -power i n t h e i r r e lations with t h e i r colleagues, but i t i s very poorly developed. I t i s l i m i t e d and need not be constantly used, since the o f f i c e r s , no l e s s than the members, accept the leader*s r i g h t to act within the l i m i t s imposed upon him by the a c t i v i t i e s of the association. So long as the leader does not exceed those l i m i t s he w i l l not be challenged. Power i n the Community The study of leadership has as one of i t s main objectives the description of the manner i n which power i s d i s t r i b u t e d and used l n communities. I t has generally been the case that those who have used either of the two main research techniques have reached quite d i f f e r e n t conclusions regarding the d i s t r i b u t i o n of power i n the s p e c i f i c communities they have studied. These researchers have tended to accept t h e i r conclusions as being generally v a l i d f o r a l l communities. The d i s t r i b u t i o n of power i s usually s a i d to be such that those who hold power are either welded into a single, integrated power structure or e l i t e , or they are divided into several d i s t i n c t and usually opposing groups. Hunter described the leadership of Atlanta i n terms of a s i n g l e e l i t e dominated by business men, and those who have used the reputational technique have generally reached the same conclusions f o r the communities they studied. But - 239 -Dahl and others contend that power i s d i s t r i b u t e d between d i f f e r e n t groups, as i n the case of New Haven. Each side has generalized from t h e i r p a r t i c u l a r studies, i f f o r no better reason, because i t i s customary to generalize on the basis of a s i n g l e study or several studies. This problem appears to derive i n part from the general f a i l u r e to define power i n mutually acceptable and accurate t h e o r e t i c a l and operational terms. The manner i n which a community becomes a community i s pre-sumably relevant f o r describing the manner i n which power enters into i t and how i t i s or can be used within i t . The community begins at some point i n time and i n some s p e c i f i c and more or less organized form. Not a l l com-munities begin at the same time nor do they possess the same o r i g i n a l form or the same s p e c i f i c or general pur-poses. Some communities may remain i n t h e i r o r i g i n a l form, as i n the case of an a g r i c u l t u r a l community which remains an a g r i c u l t u r a l community, with or without any changes i n technology, etc. Others may change over time, developing or acquiring new or d i f f e r e n t purposes. A l l communities have leaders, indi v i d u a l s who take a leading r o l e , f o r one reason or another, i n organ-i z i n g , supervising and advising upon the performance of a c t i v i t i e s within the community. The leaders may obtain t h e i r positions, r e s p o n s i b i l i t i e s , prerogatives, etc.; f o r any number of reasons, such as t h e i r control of - 2*0 -economic resources, their personal wealth, their social status, or their knowledge of relevant matters. But the definition of their positions w i l l be within the limits for which the community was organized or which have developed in that community subsequently. The leaders may operate effectively i n their positions and achieve the objectives which they set for themselves or which are set for them. One of the reasons why they can do so may l i e i n their a b i l i t y , whatever the source of that a b i l i t y , to compel others to act i n roles which aid i n the attainment of those objectives. In any one community the individuals who possess this a b i l i t y i n any degree may combine for Joint action over a longer or shorter period of time, but whether they actually do so w i l l depend on particular events which occur at par-ticu l a r times. The results which may appear i n one com-munity as a result of this combination of forces may not and need not appear i n any other community. Even i f such combinations do appear In two communities, the fact of that appearance i s not i n i t s e l f of significance to events which occur in s t i l l other communities. Sub-communities, such as the one examined in this study,' are sometimes based on, both i n their original creation and i n their subsequent survival, voluntary deci-sions by individuals to participate in their a c t i v i t i e s . In such a community, no individual can compel others to - 2*1 -p a r t i c i p a t e and, as a r e s u l t , that p a r t i c u l a r a b i l i t y (or form of power) does not and cannot become a relevant or useable operational feature. - 2*2 -BIBLIOGRAPHY I Cited government publications; including s t a t i s t i c a l sources. B r i t i s h Columbia, Bureau of P r o v i n c i a l Information. Population of B r i t i s h Columbia According to E l e c t o r a l D i s t r i c t s . 1902. V i c t o r i a , B.C.; King's P r i n t e r , 1902. Canada, Bureau of S t a t i s t i c s . Census of the P r a i r i e Provinces; 1916. Ottawa; King's Pri n t e r , 1917.' Canada, Department of Citizenship and Immigration, Citi z e n s h i p Branch. Some Not es on the Canadian Family Tree. Ottawa, Queen's P r i n t e r ; I960. Canada, Department of Citizenship and Immigration, Immigration Branch. Annual Reports. 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