In Canada, the depression of the 1930's forced existing private and public charities to adjust to the overwhelming financial pressures of the decade. Canada's largest urban centre, Montreal, was markedly different from every other major Canadian city because of the municipality's failure to accept any degree of responsibility for the poor and unemployed prior to 1930. Montreal was dominated by a complex private charity network that was divided by religion and language. This thesis examines how one large private charity organization, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies reacted and adjusted to the depression of the 1930's. Because the Montreal Council of Social Agencies was English and Protestant, it borrowed its methods and ideas from England, the United States and other provinces rather than from the largely French Catholic province of Quebec. During the depression, conceptions of charity were radically altered. The Montreal Council of Social Agencies tried to compel municipal, provincial and federal governments to play larger roles in welfare work and supported the professionalization of social work. Most significant, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies was guided through the 1930's by its own charity philosophy which was retained and reinforced rather than weakened by this crisis.

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