the "entertainment value" of speeches. In spite of that, the government had police spies keep track of the goings-on of the meetings. According to , Wallace-Johnson's success with the WAYL was attributed to his "concrete militant efforts to publicize and combat the economic, political, and social dissatisfaction which by the late 1930s affected the lives of the majority of the population". One source of frustration stemmed from the lack of change in unemployment and wages despite the recent discovery of mineral wealth in Sierra Leonean mines. Wallace-Johnson exploited this popular sense of "imbalance between rising expectations and actual living conditions" to rally support for the WAYL. Exploitative mining companies, both public and private, that profited from the mineral wealth of Sierra Leone while ignoring the very poor living and working conditions of the workers were consistent targets of his message. Utilizing his previous experiences in the Gold Coast labour movement, Wallace-Johnson helped organise eight trade unions in Sierra Leone: the Public Works Workers' Union, the War Department Amalgamated Workers' Union, the Mabella Coaling Company Workers' Union, the King Tom Docks Workers' Union, the All Seamen's Union, the Bonthe Amalgamated Workers' Union, the Pepel and Marampa Miners Workers' Union, and the Motorists' Union. Each union's objective was to obtain increased wages and better working conditions through collective bargaining. Wallace-Johnson's charisma and lack of pretentiousness made him well liked among Sierra Leoneans. At one point, he declared to working class Creoles, "I am not anything above yourselves. I am at par with you." His opponents conceded that Wallace-Johnson's "considerable personal magnetism for the masses" were admirable qualities. According to , Wallace-Johnson's most important characteristic was his "truculence and his apparent willingness to thumb his nose at officialdom". In public, he spoke jokingly of colonial officials who most Sierra Leoneans feared. He casually referred to officials on a first-name basis and criticised them "in diatribes and invectives the like of which had never before been heard in the Freetown society where decorum and savoir faire were the hall-marks of the leaders". His associations with England's members of Parliament also lent credence to his reputation. While not primarily a political party, the WAYL sponsored four candidates for local elections. The WAYL pioneered issue-oriented politics in Sierra Leone and was the first political group to make a concerted attempt to involve the people of the protectorate in the process. Despite restricted suffrage that favoured the