CURRENTLY IN MEMORY

A saint in rubber boots
WALTER BERGEN

In January, 1996, I began work for Mennonite Central Committee B.C. as director of development. As part of my orientation, I set out to read as much as I could about the beginnings of MCC. I read John B. Toews's Lost Fatherland; biographies of Orie O. Miller, P.C. Hiebert and B.B. Janz; and Mennonite Exodus by Frank H. Epp. I wanted to know what inspired these Mennonite leaders to work in new ways, to solve insurmountable problems, to face challenges that could have crushed them. I wanted to feel their faith, and energize my own.

The story of David B. Toews and the Reiseschuld (transportation debt) was particularly inspiring.

In 1919, letters began to arrive from Russia describing the unspeakable horrors of civil war and famine. Many were moved to compassion, but individual acts of mercy could not begin to address the need. A new structure was needed.

The Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization was formed in 1921. The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) was prepared to advance this Mennonite agency credit so that those wishing to get out of Russia and Ukraine could leave as quickly as possible. Many took advantage of the opportunity, and by the summer of 1924 the Board of Colonization was $800,000 in debt to the railway.

The CPR's generosity wasn't endless. The company finally demanded a payment of not less than $100,000 before any more funds could be advanced. Mennonite leaders in Canada were heartsick. David Toews travelled the length and breadth of Canada and the US seeking funds, begging and borrowing. When all the collections were tabulated, the Board had raised only $75,000. Discouraged, Toews travelled to Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont.

A. R. Kaufman, a businessman who had a rubber goods factory, had already contributed generously to the cause of Mennonite emigration. He had lent the Board $25,000, saying, "Do with it what you like. I don't expect it all back." Then he had given rubber boots to those Russian emigrants coming to the Kitchener-Waterloo area, a gift worth $3,000 in total. Some of the emigrants were employed in his factory.

With the deadline looming, Toews went to Kaufman again and asked him to make up the remaining $25,000. Kaufman, an experienced and successful businessman, considered Toews's desperate pleas.

Kaufman then wrote to the CPR: "My business instinct tells me that I should not advance more money, but I am willing to advance an additional $25,000 if you will allow Kaufman Rubber Company to defer payment till October 1 or November 1. . . . If $25,000 advance is going to be the difference between getting these Russians to Canada and allowing them to freeze or starve in Russia, I think I will run the risk of using the company's financial reserve to this extent."

In 1925-26, an additional 9,712 Russian Mennonite emigrants came to Canada, nearly half of all those who came--all because of the generosity and compassion of this manufacturer of rubber boots. Who would have thought that so many members of today's General Conference Mennonite and Mennonite Brethren churches in Canada owe their existence to this little known saint?

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