Families, Private Property, and the State: The Dionnes and the Toronto Stork Derby

In the middle of the Great Depression, a number of state institutions in Ontario (the legislature, the judiciary, the Attorney - General's office) felt called upon to administer two sets of "problem" families. One was the Dionnes, the other those competing in the Toronto Stork Derby. The former "group" was perceived by the Hepburn government as two distinct families: the Quintuplets on the one hand, and their five siblings and parents on the other. In 1934, the Ontario government declared itself the true parent of the newborn Quintuplets and made a complete physical as well as legal separation between them and their kin. Eventually the Quints were legally and physically reunited with the other Dionnes, at a time when their fame and fortune had in any case been rather exhausted, and control over their trust fund was no longer a source of wages to many retainers and of tourist revenue to the province. A close analysis of the government documents on the Dionne case reveals that the Quintuplets were not dealt with as children in need of state protection: the Children's Aid Society was not involved.(f.1) Rather, they were managed as natural resources or scenic wonders requiring nationalization. In other words, the guardianship of the five little girls had very little to do with child welfare or family policy; rather, it became an aspect of provincial economic policy. Just as the "natural beauty" of Niagara Falls has been sold to tourists and exploited by Ontario Hydro, so too the apparently priceless Quintuplets were economically exploited by their legal father, the government of Ontario.The unusual degree of government intervention in the Dionne case stands in contrast to the more laissez - faire position taken by the same government in another regulatory dilemma, namely the so - called Toronto Stork Derby of 1926 - 38. The Stork Derby was occasioned by an eccentric lawyer's will leaving a very large amount of money to the Toronto woman giving birth to the largest number of children over the subsequent 10 years. Immediately after the will was probated, in December of 1926, the Conservative government at Queen's Park attempted to declare the Stork Derby clause invalid on the grounds that it was "disgusting" and against the public interest. However a public outcry, mostly from women's groups, managed to reverse the government's decision: both Premier George Henry's government and the subsequent Hepburn government let the various mothers and other potential heirs fight the case out in the courts, with little political interference. The courts, concerned with safeguarding the principle of the autonomy of property owners, decided to uphold the will against the claims of distant relatives, but only after resolving tricky issues regarding the moral and legal status of both children and mothers.A comparison of these two cases raises some interesting questions about the role of the state in the administration of reproduction. The relationship between the state and mothers and children is always analyzed under the rubric of family policy or social policy, but the present study shows that at least some children and mothers were managed and administered through processes normally associated with the regulation of the economy. Property, rather than family, is the central category in both the Dionne and the Stork Derby cases, casting some doubt on historians' generalizations about the 20th century's view of childhood as a sentimental, non - economic category. At a theoretical level, this study shows that instead of assuming the family and the economy to be fixed realms with unchanging boundaries, they might be better regarded as categories in flux, which the state can invoke with astonishing flexibility.(f.2) What is and is not a family question and, even more surprising, what is or is not a child, turns out to be largely a matter of which administrative techniques are brought to bear on a particular situation.A Human Goldmine to their Province": The Paternal State and the Dionne QuintupletsElzire Dionne, a 25 - year - old francophone farm woman living in the village of Corbeil near North Bay, Ontario gave birth to five identical girls in May of 1934. …