Before anything else, I must clear up a false impression that some people in the United States have with regard to Dr. Tompkins' place in our Movement. We have had several requests for details on the sensational find (as they thought) that Father J.J. Tompkins, "Jimmy" as they called him - which by the way he hated and I don't blame him - was the Father of the present Antigonish Movement while he was at St. F.X., that he was kicked out of St. F.X. for holding such advanced ideas, banished to Canso and has been persecuted ever since. As you are well aware, this is all fiction. It is true that Dr. Tompkins was the pioneer adult educator of this part of the world and of course the precursor of the present Antigonish Movement.
Dr. J.J. Tompkins was removed from St. F.X. College and made parish priest of the fishing village of Canso, but his removal had nothing to do with the Antigonish Movement of adult education and economic co-operation. In 1920 he recommended the federat ion of all the colleges and universities of Maritime Canada at Halifax. The Carnegie Corporation, New York, was to put up $3 million to bring this about. This was violently opposed by many of the colleges and never went through. This was the row in whi ch Dr. Tompkins left Antigonish in 1922. Several years afterwards, in 1929, the Antigonish Movement started with the opening of the Extension Department.
It is true that Dr. Tompkins worked with the Extension Department, first at Canso and then at Reserve Mines, a coal mining town in Cape Breton, but he did this as parish priest and not as a member of the faculty of the Extension Department.
Dr. Tompkins had many titles to glory, any one of which would make a man famous.
1) Dr. Tompkins is know first of all as an educator. He came to St. F.X. from the Urban College in Rome in 1902 and joined the staff of St. F.X. as professor of Greek. In 1907 he became vice-President under Dr. H. P. MacPherson. He was the great spa rk-plug with Dr. MacPherson that inaugurated the new era for St. F.X. They rallied to the support of the institution men like Neil MacNeil and Dr. John E. Somers of Boston, and many others. Money flowed in from many quarters and a building program was i naugurated.
Dr. Tompkins' greatest title to glory is the part he played in this golden era of St. F.X. from 1905-18. He was connected with a great variety of movements during that time. He travelled widely in America and Europe in the interests of St. F.X. He a ttended the meeting of the Universities of the Empire in London in 1912 and came back fired with the importance of the idea of higher education and adult education. His imagination was kindled by the story of a college man from either Australia or New Ze aland who visited Wisconsin on the way to London and carried with him the inspiring story of the work done by the Extension Department of the University of Wisconsin. This prompted the writing of his pamphlet, "Carrying Knowledge to the People - A Challe nge to St. F.X." The experience of the London Conference definitely threw him up as the first and perhaps the greatest advocate of adult education at that time.
The Casket during the period of 1905-18 was largely a record of James J. Tompkins and his times. Its pages were full of his thoughts and acts. The years 1914-15 were taken up with rural education dictated by the great survey made in the State of Vermont by the Carnegie Corporation. Later on, in 1918, he promoted an educational conference for Eastern Nova Scotia in which rural education was the chief topic. Later, labor conferences were held. Then came the People's School. These activities in connection with St. F.X. College are the foundation of his greatness. He demonstrated himself not only to be a man of ideas in action so keen and alert that he attracted world attention but he was also a clever executive and a keen financier as he dem onstrated later on as a parish priest at Canso and Reserve Mines.
2) Dr. Tompkins is the pioneer adult educator of Antigonish and perhaps one of the first, if not the first adult educator in North America. He was one of the 72 outstanding Americans called to New York in 1924 by the Carnegie Corporation to set up th e American Association for Adult Education. Before this, in 1920, he had established the People's School at Antigonish. He wrote the pamphlet "Carrying Knowledge to the People: A Challenge to St. F.X." on this occasion in 1920. The People's School was carried on for two years at St. F.X. and ceased when he left in 1922. It was continued in Glace Bay by Dr. T. O.R. Boyle of the St. F.X. Faculty for two years in response to an urgent plea by the miners of Cape Breton. It stopped, and this was the end of a period in adult education. The St. F.X. Extension Department was opened in 1929 and the new era came in - represented by the Antigonish Movement which is an adult education movement that added the new features of economic co-operation, the discussio n technique, leadership courses, radio, etc.
3) The next era in the life of Dr. Tompkins was the Canso era. He precipitated the Royal MacLean Fish Commission which was established by the Canadian Government in 1927 to investigate the conditions of the fishermen in Eastern Canada. Out of this Commission came the United Maritime Fishermen which fanned out into many other activities. In Canso also he floated the idea of local libraries. His principal work here was done through local study clubs and discussion clubs. He was the fir st to propose credit unions for Nova Scotia. As a matter of fact, study clubs were established on the Canso coast for a few years before the credit union law was passed in Nova Scotia. But for a snow storm, Canso would have had the first credit union in Nova Scotia.
In the Canso era Dr. Tompkins laid the foundation for the credit union and the library movement. He is the father of both as far as the Maritime Provinces of Canada are concerned.
4) He went to Reserve Mines as parish priest in the early '30's. His career here was even more spectacular than in any of the other periods. He swung right into the industrial controversy. He was a driving force behind the co-operative housing of C ape Breton, the first group having been established in his parish, called after him, Tompkinsville. It may be noted that his housing movement was started in Reserve Mines by study club before his arrival. Miss Mary Arnold who remained for two years in R eserve Mines carried the Tompkinsville group through to a successful conclusion.
Dr. Tompkins came into action in Reserve Mines with greater zest than ever before in his career. Here he established the People's Library and the Children's School Library which were so spectacular in results as to challenge the admiration of all Amer ica. He went still further and advocated the creation of regional libraries. This is his last great achievement. This movement which he so hotly advocated is taking shape and regional libraries will surely become a reality in the near future. In Reser ve Mines he also took a great interest in the development of the Co-operative Movement generally. The development of this mining town of Reserve Mines is one of the spectacular achievements of the adult education and co-operative movement in North Americ a.
Conclusion
It will be thus seen that Rev. Dr. James J. Tompkins has five titles to glory, any one of which would make a man famous: dynamic modern college educator who more than anybody else set off St.F.X. to its golden era; the pioneer adult educator and found er of the People's Schools of Eastern Canada; the man who started the agitation about the conditions of the fishermen; the father of the credit union movement; and the promoter of regional libraries. Dr. Tompkins is internationally know not so much for h is writings as for his thinking and activities. He was a dynamic man of action and an inspirer to people of his day and age. Perhaps the inspiration that he gave to men along the way is his greatest contribution to Canadian life.
- M. M. Coady
