ECON 321 FALL 2019 – INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT 5

TO BE SUBMITTED VIA COURSESPACES BY 11:59 PM ON NOVEMBER 5th, 2019

Name (First, Family)

Last 3 digits of SID

TO SPEED UP MARKING, PLEASE ANSWER THE QUESTIONS IN THE FORMS AND SPACES PROVIDED. THE T.A. RESERVES THE RIGHT TO NOT MARK ANY QUESTIONS THAT ARE NOT ANSWERED IN THE EXPECTED LOCATIONS.

By submitting this assignment you agree to the following honor code, and understand that any violation of the honor code may lead to penalties including but not limited to a non-negotiable mark of zero on the assignment:

Honor Code: I guarantee that all the answers in this assignment are my own work. I have cited any outside sources that I used to create these answers in correct APA style.

Marking scheme – Make sure you answer all the questions before handing this in!

Question

Marks

1

a

12

2

a

3

b

3

c

3

3

a

4

b

4

Total

29

QUESTIONS

1. Read the following paper:

MacDonald, N. (1977). The Canadian Pacific Railway and Vancouver’s Development to 1900. BC Studies, 35, pp. 3-35. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.14288/bcs.v0i35.936

(The article is open access, so you should have no trouble accessing it off campus.)

a. (12 marks) Write a 3-2-1 report on the article using the form provided on Coursespaces.

2. [Analysis] Read the following two short articles:

· From the textbook: VI.8 “A Subtle Ingenuity in Advertising” (1914), p. 440.

· Oyeniran, C. (2019). Sleeping Car Porters in Canada [Web Page]. The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/sleeping-car-porters-in-canada

After you have done so, briefly answer the following questions, based on what you learned in your reading and in ECON 321.

a. (3 marks) According to the textbook article, the C.P.R. “tried the American cooks and waiters” but found them “unreliable, leaving after two or three months’ employment.” Meanwhile, “the men found in London remained the whole season”. Based on the readings and other material from ECON 321, why do you think that American cooks and waiters were more likely to quit than cooks and waiters brought in from Europe? Briefly explain your reasoning.

b. (3 marks) According to the textbook article, the C.P.R. wanted to “harmonize” the skin tone and hair color of waiters and cooks to “the setting of the particular car to which the shade of color should be confined”. In 1914, the company went to a lot of trouble and expense to find employees of just the right appearances in London. Based on the readings and other material from ECON 321, why would the C.P.R., in 1914, have found it desirable (and presumably, profitable) to employ cooks and waiters with appearances that matched the customers in the cars in which they would serve?

c. (3 marks) The C.P.R. made an effort to match the skin and hair tones of its cooks and waiters to the passengers in their cars, but even in 1914 most of its porters, who also had face-to-face contact with passengers, were black. Why would the C.P.R. in 1914 prefer black porters, but cooks and waiters of mixed appearances that matched the passengers?

If you feel you need more information for this question, I recommend skimming these optional readings:

Black Porters on the C.P.R.: Matthieu, S. (2001). North of the Colour Line: Sleeping Car Porters and the Battle against Jim Crow on Canadian Rails, 1880 – 1920. Labour, 47(47). Retrieved from https://go-gale-com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/ps/i.do?p=ITBC&u=uvictoria&id=GALE%7CA79381643&v=2.1&it=r

C.P.R. Cooks: From the textbook, VI.7 How the Canadian Pacific Selects Cooks (1912), pp. 439-440.

3. [Math] In 1881, the Canadian Pacific Railway syndicate was awarded $25,000,000 as part of its contract. By 1893, some people were complaining that the $0.75 that the C.P.R. charged for its meals was too high.

In 2019, $25,000,000 isn’t that much for a large infrastructure project, and paying $0.75 for a meal would be a bargain. This is because the purchasing power of the Canadian dollar has changed over time. In this question, you will be asked to adjust for inflation, and turn the 1881 and 1893 values into 2019 dollars.