Chapter Three 3 I

thousands of French-speaking workers there to keep in touch as well as to preserve their culture. It too was in the health insurance business and is perhaps the only mutual to have survived until the present, though it has undergone great changes over time.

The Tignish fishermen, who were looking for a way to be less at the mercy of Myrick’s and of the other fishing businesses which dotted the coasts up to North Cape, were already more independent than some. They farmed a little, as well as fished, which meant not all of their food came from the store, and that they had fewer debts. They also were among the minority who owned their own boats. Realizing they needed the help of an educated man, preferably a lawyer, in order to set up an organization that would conform to all the laws involved, they contacted Chester McCarthy.

Chester McCarthy was one of the first in the area to go to university, graduating from St. Dunstan’s College in Charlottetown in 1907, and then studying law at Dalhousie University in Halifax. Eventually he opened a law office in Tignish. A quiet man, he had the reputation of being “as honest as the sun". He understood the fishermen’s life and point of View; not only had his father owned a lobster factory, but he himself had fished several summers in order to raise his tuition. He also came from Seacow Pond. In addition, he had connections in the fields of law and politics in the capital, Charlottetown.

With Chester McCarthy’s help, the fishermen, among whom were both Irish and Acadians, organized and then incorporated Tignish Fishermen’s Union. It was to be an organization for mutual help with some new features. As well as secret weekly meetings with rituals similar to the mutuals, there was a sharing of information.