Steel mills belching smoke and large vessels in the harbour were Maritimers' favourite images of progress around the turn of the century. Pamphlets such as this one depicting industrial advance were artfully presented to attract distant capital to manufacturing. In reality, they presented a false sense of optimism about the future. By the time this publication, featuring Sydney harbour on its cover, was published in 1913, there was growing concern over the withdrawal of capital from the Maritimes.
Nova Scotia also tried to cultivate an image of stable labour relations to attract investors but this somewhat belied the extent of labour organization and the more or less constant strife in the coal fields. Maritime governments, like governments elsewhere in Canada, intervened quickly in confrontations threatening industrial harmony. A tradition of disharmony erupted into a period of almost constant dispute just after World War I, when Nova Scotia's industrial ascendancy was largely a thing of the past. As with so many things, image and reality clashed in the perception of the role of workers in the community.
