Collection search - Endicott, James G. - Interview

Record information – Brief

1

Endicott, James G. - Interview

Item number (ISN):

379006

Series title:

[The Great War and Canadian Society]

Hierarchical level:

Item (Accession level)

Date:

1974-06-13

Item number (ISN):

379006

Type of material:

Sound recordings

Found in:

Archives / Film, Video and Sound

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Record information – Details

Fonds/collection:

THE GREAT WAR AND CANADIAN SOCIETY PROJECT

Accession:

1975-0098

Media:

Sound

Part:

1 of 1

Production date:

1974-06-13

Production company:

Opportunities for Youth

Production credit:

interviewer, Bradley K. Adams

Description:

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Interview of Reverend James G. Endicott of Toronto, age 76 who was born in China in 1898.~Subjects discussed include: his father's work as a Methodist missionary; his childhood education; his father's education dislike of class differences in England; the influence of family servants on Endicott; his rather secluded existence in China; the feudal structure of Chinese society at that time, with the people conditioned to be loyal to a master, and the later revolution in which people struggled against this conditioning; leaving China in 1910; attending the same church and school in Toronto as Mike Pearson; his father's work as a field secretary for missions; the family's residence in a working class area; Endicott's lack of interest in the church at this time in his life; his views on religion; his father's evangelical but also practical approach to his missionary work in China, such as work in education; the role of missions internationally; Endicott's being influenced by this view; the social gospel; the view that capitalism could be humanized; Joseph Flavelle; Endicott's high school education; the First World War; his being brainwashed into believing in the "total rightness of the cause"; his enlistment at age 18 in 1917; his belief in the rightness of the British Empire, something he did not question at the time; his discovery that this view was held by a minority such as teachers' sons and preachers' sons and that average soldiers were a much more brutal and coarse lot; the sheltered family of army comrades with their coarseness and sexual norms; Endicott's feelings of trauma and freezing up inside; the cynicism of people who had been overseas; conscripts in 1918; the trauma of sending young men to the front; training; the work of signalmen; ambivalence about not being in danger; the moral position of contributing to the full; hanging onto the hope that the war would make the world safe for democracy; questioning God; not discussing such feelings with others; his father's view that the war was justified; his return after the war and wondering whetherto become a preacher; his father's advice; his father's liberal theology but conservatism in his essential beliefs; a talk with Joe Atkinson in 1947 about developments in Russia and whether it was right for Christians to support them; his father in Winnipeg around the time of the Winnipeg General Strike; his father's telling prominent Winnipeg businessmen that as capitalists they should have brought about conditions that would have prevented the strike; Endicott's years at university, where he tried to "unfreeze" a bit; his resentment about luxurious events such as dances and about war profiteers; the idealistic belief that the war had made the world safe for democracy; the League of Nations; his inner tension between this hope for the future and the horror he still felt about the war; his temptation to become a pacifist, a position he rejected because it was too simple and did not take history into account; literature and philosophy; the link between philosophy and feelings of meaninglessness; teaching history; his sense that Khaki College was inconsequential and stupid; a riot among Canadians at a venereal disease hospital at [Epsom]; a raid by Canadians on a police station to free a Canadian held there and a police officer was killed; the delay this caused in getting back to Canada; his student life at the University of Toronto after the war and his involvement in organizations such as the Student Christian Movement (SCM) and the Student Volunteer Movement; the rivalry between the SCM and the SVM; a student conference with speakers on French Canada, colonialism and the reasons for war; the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA); the role of the war in shaping the SCM; his suspicion that some of the men in the background, such as Huntley Gordon and Gilbert Jackson, were Marxists; views of socialism; his missionary work and his work as a missionary in China starting in 1925. ~He also speaks about: his sympathy for Chinese aspirations; the refusal by some Westerners to leave China as the uprising grew; unrest in the 1930s; Endicott’s beginning to think independently during the war in a social and moral sense; his views of the Communist system in China; and the challenge of Christianity to deal with Marxism in a constructive sense.

Language:

English

Notes:

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1. The interviews took place in 1974 and resulted in the publication of a book entitled "The Great War and Canadian Society" edited by Daphne Read - copyright 1978 - New Hogtown Press, Toronto.~2. Release forms, data sheets, and summary analysis/transcripts are available in binders labelled Opportunities for Youth - War and Canadian Society in VSA's audio-visual section.~3. Part of a series of recorded interviews with elderly citizens who lived in Canada during the period of World War I. The interview material consists of their opinions and observations about the war, the war years, and the effect on Canadian society during and after WWI.
~4. The interviewee signed an agreement giving consent for a recording of this interview to be placed in the Public Archives of Canada for the purposes of historical research and also signed a publication agreement allowing any transcribed portions of the interview to be used in the book under the condition that no full names, addresses or phone numbers would be published.
~5. Subject description is based on information found in the fact sheet, deposit agreement, publication agreement and summary analysis.

Detailed holdings information:

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Vault ISN:

436271

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

C01353

Vault code:

GAT

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

R/R

Technical description:

POLY

Made from:

FROM LOANED MATERIAL

Status:

MASTER

Vault ISN:

436272

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

C01354

Vault code:

GAT

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

R/R

Technical description:

POLY

Made from:

FROM LOANED MATERIAL

Status:

MASTER

Vault ISN:

438137

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

A1 2007-05-0018

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

CD

Duration:

79:28

Status:

REF

Vault ISN:

438139

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

A1 2007-05-0019

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

CD

Duration:

69:32

Status:

REF

Vault ISN:

736926

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

1975-0098/025
1975-0098/026

Vault code:

GAT

Number of items:

2

Kind of sound:

CASSETTE

Made from:

DEPOSIT

Status:

ORIG

Vault ISN:

1003782

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

A4 2007-05-0018

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

CD

Made from:

C01353
C01354

Status:

MASTER

Vault ISN:

1003783

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

A4 2007-05-0019

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

CD

Made from:

C01353
C01354

Status:

MASTER
Ordering and viewing options

Conditions of access:

Open

Consultation copy number:

A1 2007-05-0018
A1 2007-05-0019

Restrictions on consultation:

No Restrictions / Pas de restrictions

Reproduction access:

With written permission of Copyright Owner / Avec la permission écrite du détenteur des droits d'auteur

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Date modified:: 2024-07-24