48 Silt't’mx (m the Edge

Union and Tignish Co—operative Association. Among them were some remarkable men, such as Joseph—Aime Arsenault and Cletus Gavin. These new leaders came not from among the wretchedly poor, but simply from the poorer class. Their presence in the community was all the more striking in that the leaders who had died had no successors, while others, such as the priest who succeeded Father Dugald MacDonald, had less impact on the community than their predecessors. The slow drain of professionals, which was to go on for two generations, had begun.

In short, during the early twentieth century, the breakdown and disappearance of much of the old was followed by the beginnings of the new. In retrospect, this short period seems like an interim. At the time, the years up to 1914 must have looked like further progress, although there was little outward change. While the Great War itself had, little direct impact on the area both the feeling and the fact of progress died away as i‘: went on. There remains a sense of things going on, but without the same enthusiasm that marked the earlier period. Physical survival was more or less assured, independence was alive, albeit not well, and co-operation was going on more or less invisibly. [ts wider implications had not yet been discovered elsewhere in the Maritime Provinces.

WWV

No one could have predicted what happened next: in 1922, some local fishermen - many fron the tiny community of Seacow Pond - started an organzation for self-help, which included bulk buying of fishing supplies. It seems to have come about as follows:

At that time, many fishermen lived in a tunkhouse at the shore during the fishing season. There was plenty