Alvin Ratz Kaufman
Alvin Ratz "A. R." Kaufman was a Canadian industrialist, philanthropist, birth control advocate and eugenicist from in Kitchener, Ontario. In 1920 he became president of the Kaufman Rubber Company following the death of his father, Jacob Kaufman, with whom he founded the company with in 1908. He held the position until 1964 with his time in the role marked by a strong and persistent opposition to organized labour. An active member of the municipal activities in Kitchener, he chaired the city's planning commission and was a significant supporter the local YMCA and YWCA. Kaufman was also a member of the University of Waterloo's first Board of Governors.
Beyond his civic engagements, Kaufman was a member of the Eugenics Society of Canada and a vocal advocate of birth control for address social and economic hardship. He founded the Parents' Information Bureau in the early 1930s in order to distribute information about birth control and provide access to sterilization services. In 1936 one of the Bureau's employees, Dorothea Palmer, was arrested and charged under section 207 of the Criminal Code, which outlawed the selling or advertising of contraceptives. Her legals fees covered by Kaufman, Palmer was acquitted on the basis that her actions had passed the criminal code's pro bono publico clause.
Biography
Kaufman was born February 11, 1885 in Berlin, Ontario to industrialist Jacob Kaufman and Mary Ratz. Kaufman, like his parents, was a life-long member of the Zion United Church. His mother served as the first president of the Berlin YWCA, which was founded at the church in 1905. Kaufman began working with his father in 1903, as an employee at the Merchant's Rubber Company. Prior to the sale of he company, he served as an apprentice and as an office administrator, after which time he spent time travelling in the United States and Europe to see other rubber factory operations in person. Kaufman and Jean Hutton, a secretary at the Kaufman Rubber Company, were married in 1911 and together they had four children, one of whom died in infancy.Kaufman Rubber Company
Kaufman founded the Kaufman Rubber Company with his father, Jacob Kaufman, in 1908. His father as president until his death in 1920, at which time A. R. stepped into the role. Kaufman served as president of the company until 1964 when he became chairman of the board. He was replaced as head of the company by his son William Kaufman.As head of the family company, Kaufman repeatedly prevented the unionization of his employees and acted punitively in response to efforts to organize. Historians John English and Kenneth McLaughlin framed his approach to management as "paternalistic," noting that the Kaufman Rubber Company was the only factory in the rubber industry to remain unorganized, long after others had unionized.
In the fall of 1937 Kaufman Rubber Company workers went on strike after he refused to accept employment terms similar to those reached by competing local rubber companies Goodyear and B.F. Gooderich. Believing a privately owned company would be in a weaker bargaining position, the employees pushed forward more extensive demands that Kaufman refused to discuss or take seriously for the majority of the strike. A compromise was eventually struck by the Department of Labour, in which Kaufman agreed not to discriminate against strike organizers and to submit disputes for mediation. The agreement dissolved when Kaufman explained that he had only agreed to the terms until December 1st, after which time labour historians Judy Fudge and Eric Tucker quote him as saying there would be "plenty of discrimination." Amid Kaufman's continued threats to close the factory for the winter, the workers ultimately gained nothing with wages and work conditions remaining in line with those in place prior to the strike.
Birth control and eugenics
Kaufman is recognized for playing a key role the birth control movement in Canada. He became interested in birth control in 1929 at the beginning of the Great Depression. Although company operations had previously relied on seasonal labour, increased layoffs during the Depression yielded complaints that it was employees who most needed the work that were being impacted. Visits to family homes by a company nurse who confirmed that it was those with the most children and the poorest living conditions struggling compared to the people who remained employed. Anne Weber, the nurse tasked with visiting the homes, found growing families and evidence of feeble-mindedness. Ruling out the financial feasibility of keeping seasonal employees on year-round, Kaufman determined the best way to assist was to provide family planning services.Initially extended to current and former employees, the family planning services funded by Kaufman were extended to anyone in the Kitchener area, eventually receiving requests from elsewhere in the province and across Canada. He founded the Parents' Information Bureau to help meet increasing demand. The organization employed approximately 50 people in locations across the country who worked to distribute birth control and family planning information in women's homes rather than at clinics. Families visited by PIB representatives were able to make orders for supplies that were in turn mailed directly to their homes. Mailed kits included spermicides, condoms and information about purchasing additional items like diaphragms.
As a member of the Eugenics Society of Canada, founded in 1930, Kaufman counted sterilization as a viable means of birth control. He thought that the poverty experienced by poorer classes of people could be remedied by alleviating the financial burden of having an excessive number of children. He further believed that the socially and mentally deficient were unable to reliably use alternative methods of birth control such as properly inserting a diaphragm, making sterilization the best way to prevent them from reproducing. In 1935, while pushing for a government department dedicated to birth control, Kaufman recommended sterilization for "patients in the dull normal class or worse" while addressing the American birth control league. Kaufman continued to support and advocate eugenics well after the widespread abandonment of eugenic social policies following World War II.
The Parents' Information Bureau continued to operate until 1978 with Kaufman reportedly telling an associate:"We're now respectable - as you can see on any drugstore counter." Between 1930 and 1969 approximately 1,000 sterilization procedures were performed on Kaufman factory employees. In a review of the Canadian birth control movement, historian Dianne Dodd framed Kaufman's interest in birth control as financially and politically motivated, rather than one rooted in providing women reproductive control, as it provided an easy way to address the social unrest tied to poverty and unemployment while avoiding social or economic reform.
Eastview Birth Control Trial
In September 1936 Dorothea Palmer, an Ottawa-based employee of the Parents' Information Bureau was arrested and charged under section 207 of the Criminal Code, which stated that the selling or advertising of contraceptives was illegal. She was arrested for promoting contraception to women in the poor Roman Catholic Ottawa community of Eastview. At the time 1,000 of the 4,000 people living in the area were on social assistance, many with large families.Kaufman welcomed the chance to test Canada's laws in court. He spent the then considerable sum of $25,000 mounting a defence for Palmer in what would later be known as The Eastview Birth Control Trial, which lasted from 1936 to 1937. F. W. Wegenast, a fellow member of the Eugenics Society of Canada, was hired to defend Palmer in court. Kaufman testified during the trial disputing a claim his interest in birth control was commercially driven, explaining his actions were philanthropic in nature. He was also asked about the services provided to employees following visits from company nurse Anna Weber, swearing that some seasonal employees were provided with birth control while sterilizations had been arranged for others who requested the procedure.
On March 17, 1937, Palmer was acquitted based on the conclusion that her actions passed the criminal code's pro bono publico clause and were carried out in the interest of the public good. The verdict was challenge in the Ontario Court of Appeal, but ultimately upheld. In comments following the trial, she explained her position as having had to do the "dirty work" on behalf of men involved with the birth control movement. Although contraception was not fully legalized in Canada until 1969, Palmer was the only person to be prosecuted for providing information about birth control.
Philanthropy
Kaufman was a generous benefactor of Kitchener's public works and services, including the donation of three parks - Kaufman, Hillside and Huron. He and his wife donated the funds for an addition to the Emmanuel Evangelical Church, which was dedicated in their honour in 1938. Kaufman was a member of the city's Planning Commission for 36 years and continued his family's active support of the Y and its various activities. Kaufman was also served on the Kitchener Hospital Board and was a member of the first Board of Governors at the University of Waterloo. The A.R. Kaufman Charitable Foundation was founded in 1973 to manage donations. Following his death in 1979, remaining assets totalling close to one million dollars were distributed to various projects, including $665,000 put toward the construction of what would become the A.R. Kaufman Family YMCA.Death and legacy
Kaufman was honoured along with Elizabeth Bagshaw, Lise Fortier, George C. and Barbara Cadbury, by Ortho Pharmaceutical Ltd. in 1973 for their roles in advancing family planning in Canada. Kaufman was again honoured in 1976 by Planned Parenthood of Ontario for his work in advancing access to birth control and family planning services. Kaufman is a member of the Waterloo Region Hall of Fame and in 1973 Kitchener's A R Kaufman Public School was named in his honour.Kaufman died in his sleep on February 1, 1979. He was interred at Woodland Cemetery in Kitchener.