The League for Social Reconstruction (LSR) was a circle of Canadian socialists officially formed in 1932. The group advocated for social and economic reformation as well as political education. The formation of the LSR was provoked by events such as the Great Depression and the completion of World War One as well as increased industrialization and urbanization.. The league esteemed 'rational moralism' as the ideology that could be utilized and applied to prevent suffering in Canada. The league aimed to act as an independent supplementary force influencing public policy reform in Canada during this tumultuous period. Working with both intellectuals and politicians, the league assisted in the creation of centralized social welfare and national assistance schemes. The LSR disbanded formally in 1942 during the Second World War. Origins and ideology The Canadian economy had boomed during the late 1920s and showed no sign of weakness, but during the 1930s the Great Depression swept across Canada and provoked mass unemployment, and this incited the LSR into action. The LSR believed that the roots of the Depression were laissez-faire capitalism and governance and that the "free" market was anything but. Politicians worked closely with businesses, securing interest-free loans, developing tariffs, and managing labor disputes; in short: manipulating markets. A small group of political businessmen controlled public policy and economic development and guided the centralization of finance and power into private hands. Widespread unemployment marked the Depression and served to underscore financial inequity. In the eyes of the LSR, the problem facing Canada was not an economic depression, it was a corrupt political economy. Faced with what they believed to be profiteering politicians, a group of men and women were united in their resolve that this could not stand. Three key influences stood out among the members of this group: religious affiliation, maturation in an environment of war and urbanization, and intellectual cultivation in the university environment. These characteristics defined the group's ideals. Believing the existing system was not practicable, the league set about promoting a new system. The solution to ending this and all depressions would be a planned economy, and the transformation of Canada from a royal commonwealth into a socialist commonwealth. To achieve this transformation, the league planned to perform research, and apply the results toward public education and public policy. However, because the LSR believed that the system was not only corrupt but corruptive, the league planned to lay