This slide shows two retiring miners at the end of their last busy eight-to-four shift. As the mining operation on Bell Island became technologically more complex, the gradations in the work force became more elaborate. Accordingly, formal retirement, which was foreign to traditional Newfoundland society, became part of the rhythm of Island life. Not surprisingly, the social and economic thinking of the people lagged behind this technologically imposed change. In other words Bell Islanders went on thinking about old age in the old-fashioned Newfoundland way long after that way had become inappropriate to the circumstances of their working environment. Until the post-Confederation period, a miner's retirement benefit was regarded as little more than a handout, which the Company was in no sense required to pay. As a result of Newfoundland's confederation with Canada in 1949 and the subsequent introduction of the old age pension, the position of retired people on the Island was greatly improved. Finally, in the 1950's Bell Island workers became members of a pension scheme of their own, to which both they and their employer contributed. That it had taken so long to reach this stage of development was yet another mark of their traditionalism.
