CONTENTdm
British Columbia Historical Books Collection
Bryce, P. H. (Peter Henderson), 1853-1932
"Cover title. Imprint from Canadian Catalogue. Includes a short chapter, 'A day with the Doukhobors of the Kootenay Valley, British Columbia.'"-- Edwards, M. H., Lort, J. C. R., & Carmichael, W. J. (1975). A bibliography of British Columbia: Years of growth, 1900-1950. Victoria, BC: University of Victoria, p. 41.
56 pages : tables ; 23 cm
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X t> The Value to Qanada of the Qontinental Immigrant A Series of Articles By Peter H. Bryce, m.a.,m.d. FS03i Ai B? PRINTED IN CANADA Foreword PETER H. BRYCE, M.A.,M.D., the author of this series of articles, has had unusual opportunities over a long period of years for observing at first hand the people and the conditions of which he writes. For nearly twenty years he was Chief Medical Officer of the Federal immigration service. It was during the period when he held this important position that Canada received its first large influx of colonists who, to-day, are known as "New Canadians." Dr. Bryce was born in the village of Mount Pleasant, Ontario, his father having come to Upper Canada from Scotland in the forties. By that time Mount Pleasant was an "old settled Canadian village." Here the doctor grew up during a period of marked expansion, which followed the immigration of the forties and fifties when Upper Canada increased from 450,000 to 1,000,000 in population. He saw the tragic days of the American Civil War, when village boys went to fight for the North, and experienced the excitement caused by the Fenian Raid of 1866. His brother, Rev. Prof. George Bryce, was Color-Sergeant of the Toronto University Company at the Ridgeway fight. Following graduation from grammar school, and Upper Canada College, Dr. Bryce had a brillant career at the University of Toronto, winning scholarships and prizes, and graduating with the Gold Medal in Science, a Silver Medal for an essay on the Geology of the Grand River, and the Graduating Prize of the Literary Society for another essay. Appointed Professor of Science in the newly established Guelph College, he cultivated still further his capacity for outstanding achievement, and later returned to his Alma Mater, graduating in medicine at the head of the Medical College with prizes and Double Medals. There followed a year abroad in Paris and Edinburgh, where graduation from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons completed his preparation for his life-work in the years when Pasteur was startling the world with his amazing discoveries and Lord Lister putting into practical use in surgery the truths of the germ theory of disease that Pasteur had proven. 1 r With such an unusual equipment Dr. Bryce was set to work under Sir Oliver Mowat, the Premier, to build up the Public Health Service of Ontario, as Secretary of the Provincial Board of Health established by the Act of 1882. There he drew up the Public Health Act of 1884, and its many amendments later during a period of 20 years, and in 1904 turned over one of the best organized and equipped public health services on the Continent to his successors when he went to Ottawa to undertake the organization of the Medical Service of the Federal Department of Immigration. At every sea-port he established, equipped and manned a hospital; drafted with legal assistance in 1906 the Immigration Act largely as it stands to-day, having a special clause dealing with different classes of immigrants by Regulations, and Orders in Council. During the long period of Dr. Bryce's public service, he wrote 41 annual departmental reports, which to-day comprise the official record of most of the progress in public health over nearly half-a-century in Canada. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Society of Officers of Health of England, and a Past President and now an Honorary Fellow of the American Public Health Association, and of the Canadian Public Health Association. As a scholar in English, History and Anthropology at his University, he has through all these years cultivated the Muses Nine; has written his novel "On to the Land" and supplied many magazine articles and papers before literary and scientific clubs, and is completing a History of Early Canadian Immigration. His has been a full life, spent almost wholly in the public service, and in no field is he to-day more interested or busier in promoting the economic and social progress of his native land than in encouraging the settlement of its vast unoccupied areas with people from every country who are moral, industrious and willing to work to make Canada worthy of her traditions and her prospective splendid destiny. During an extensive and, what to many men would have been an "exhausting" tour, Dr. Bryce during the past Summer and Fall pursued his investigations in the vast western country with amazing interest and vigor. With the eye and brain of an unusually trained observer, he has followed the maze of threads, which comprise the warp and woof of the individual and collective life of the "New Canadian," and of its influence in Canadian development. And now, as another authority has remarked, in the following pages—"the facts are stated plainly, without fuss." W. S. Ottawa, November, 1928. The Value to Canada of the Continental Immigrant INTRODUCTION IT is my pleasing task to illustrate to all interested in Canadian progress the part played in this by the "Continental Immigrant"; but before dealing with the subject it is well that I present to my readers a picture of Canada as delineated in her history during more than three hundred years. Probably never in history was any country more blessed in her "national origins" than Canada, since the day she was returned by England to France in 1632, when the great pioneer Samuel de Champ- lain, as Governor of New France, began her development under the aegis of the Company of One Hundred Associates, whose activities were closely scrutinized by that wise and astute statesman, Cardinal Richelieu. Company agents as Robert Giffard began to bring out immigrants from Normandy, Perthes and Poitou, chosen for their loyalty to the Crown, and, as was the custom of the time, directed according to the strict tenets of their most holy Catholic religion. Yet it was not till 1665 that Colbert, the great Prime Minister of Louis le Grand, undertook seriously the establishment of French colonies, and to this end sent Jean Talon, already high in favour at Court, as Intendant of the Colony of New France. So successful were his efforts that in six years he had, through immigration, increased the population three times up to some 7,000, and had elaborated a Seigneurial system of land tenure, which remained almost unaltered till the time of the British occupation in 1760. To-day along the whole St. Lawrence to Montreal, and along the Richelieu and Lower Ottawa, the traveller sees the charming French villages, which delighted English travellers early in the last century, who passed over the single highway from Quebec to Montreal, le Chemin du Roi, as a post-road, which seemed to them a continuous settlement of contented and polite habitants, whose hostelries were compared favorably with the crude hospitality offered by the inattentive inn-holders of American breeding in Upper Canada. Owing, however, to the almost constant wars between New France and the neigh-1 bouring British colonies, no extension of settlements had been possible to the lands along the north shore of the Great Lakes of Ontario and Erie, so that the Peace of Paris in 1763 found what became Upper Canada, little more than the hunting grounds of the Iroquois and Mississaugas, with forts at Cataraqui, Niagara, and Detroit. Indeed it was not till 1783, when peace was signed at Versailles on September 3rd between Great Britain, the United States and France, that the Upper Lake Country was opened up to Settlement and the several settlements of United Empire Loyalists were begun, from the French Border to Brockville on the St. Lawrence; from Kingston to Belleville on the Bay of Quinte, and on the two peninsulas—that along the Niagara River, and that on the Canadian side of the Detroit River. Following the Loyalists came many frontier Americans attracted by the virgin lands in this fertile peninsula between the Great Lakes, much to the regret of the British and American merchants and fur traders, who had displaced the entrepreneurs and coureurs-de- bois of the French period. The new settlers were encouraged by the activities of Governor Haldimand, Lord Dorchester, and Sir John Graves Simcoe, whose instructions were to build up a British colony there, to be a rescript of England's laws and constitution. How well these instructions to the early Governors and their successors have been carried out may be seen in the figures of Canada's foreign trade to-day. To the native-born Canadian, who can go back to the period of Confederation when in 1870 the total trade of Canada was only $132,473,386 while the capital invested in manufactures alone in the United States was $2,200,000,000, having increased over $1,000,000,000 in the previous decade due largely to immigration, the present position of Canada with her less than ten millions of population seems but a dream—not a fact to be realized as possible except through some strange alchemy. What this has been I propose in subsequent pages to indicate in some detail. CHAPTER I Early British Settlements in Canada DURING the wars of Maria Theresa, so-called, which broke out between England, France and Spain, Louis- burg, and with it all Nova Scotia, had been taken by the British; but by the Peace of Aix la Chapelle in 1748 Cape Breton with Louisburg was returned to France. As a result, Great Britain established a naval base and colony at Halifax in Nova Scotia to protect especially the fishing industry of her New England colonies. As a result, an active immigration took place and at the outbreak of the American Revolution the provinces of Acadia had a population, largely British, of some 20,000, located on the lands once occupied by the French colonists. But it was only after the Peace of Versailles in 1783 that the British Government systematically began an immigration policy by locating not only the United Empire Loyalists in the Maritimes, but also instructed the several governors of Canada to encourage in every legitimate manner the migration to that province of all Americans who would take the oath of allegiance, and who would come in and take up land. As Canada then included what became Upper Canada after 1791, the old feudal seigneurial system of land tenure everywhere prevailed; but Governor Frederick Haldimand was instructed to survey the new territory on the Upper St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes into areas, which later were called townships, of ten miles square. Under the new Constitution, with Upper Canada established in 1792 as a separate government, immigration from the United States proceeded rapidly, and the 20,000 of that time became by the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1820 some 110,000. The epic story of these first settlements has been often related in histories oi individual families; but the broader incidents, with England at war with France from 1794 almost continuously to 1815, and with French revolutionary agents in America carrying on a propaganda, which finally resulted in the War of 1812, are not so well known. Leading republicans like Adams of Massachusetts and Joseph Jefferson of Virginia opposed the migration of any Americans to a country under the tyrannous and insane British monarch. But this immigration kept up, especially from 1800, till hostilities broke out, through the influx of German Mennonites and others from Pennsylvania, who said they had fought seven years during the Revolution against taxation and now afterwards were being taxed still more on account ot the War. John Maude, a traveller in Canada, tells of these "Continentals" and states "hundreds of them are removing and will remove to Upper Canada, where they will form a nest of vipers in the bosom that fosters them." In 1811 the Governor estimated the militia in Upper Canada at 11,000, of whom it would not be prudent to arm more than 4,000! Christian Schultz, visiting Canada in 1807, quotes the following as heard in a tavern— "If Congress will only send us a flag and a proclamation, declaring that whoever is found in arms against the United States will forfeit his land, we will fight ourselves free without any expense to them." No wonder then that the heroic General Brock should in his correspondence express fears of a successful resistance without reinforcements; yet he bravely addressed the Legislature in the Speech from the Throne on July 22, 1812, saying— "A country defended by freemen, who are enthusiastically devoted to their King and Constitution, can never be conquered." Never since 1814 has it been necessary to question Canadian loyalty, even when the Family Compact drove thousands to despair in 1837 of ever obtaining land tax reforms such as had saved Great Britain from revolution in 1832. But now a new population from Great Britain began to pour into Canada, for the hundreds of thousands of unemployed soldiers and others were causing serious disturbances, and so forced the Govern- ment to turn again to emigration as a practical means of relieving social and political agitation. Money was voted, ships chartered, and the first 2,000 Scotch weavers and their friends sailed from Glasgow as a military colony in 1815, and founded the first post-war settlement in Upper Canada in the Perth district on the Rideau. Even more disturbed through over population and poverty was Ireland when in 1823 the Colonial Office was ordered to supply passages for 500 Irish emigrants, approved by the magistrates as likely to lessen the agitation there. These were placed in the township of Ramsay next to the Perth Scotch settlement, given 70 acres of homestead land, and supplied with implements and provisions for one year. Suspicious lest the Government was shipping them to some Canadian Botany Bay, they were induced to embark only through the tact of Hon. Peter Robinson, the Canadian Land Commis- . sioner, who told them that all their past would be forgotten and "no questions asked" when they arrived in Canada. Then, as so often since, Lord Dalhousie expressed the fear that the arrival of poor Irish settlers at a time when the Canadas were "already overwhelmed by a voluntary emigration" must add seriously to the difficulties consequent upon all sudden, great increases of population. He feared that the peaceful Scotch settlers would never become reconciled to their unruly neighbours, whom they looked on as | little better than banditti. Indeed he | urged that the Robinson scheme be stopped as a waste of public money and a detriment to the progress of Canada. Yet in spite of these fears the arrangements made between the Upper Canada Government agent and the Colonial Office, which had a grant of £30,000 for emigration in 1825, resulted in the sending of 2,024 more in nine chartered vessels, who arrived in Quebec on July 8th. Smallpox and typhus broke out on the vessels, which were over two months on the ocean, and many were poorly clothed; yet in two weeks they had reached Co- burg, the place of debarking for their future home in Peterborough up the Trent River. In spite of bad roads to Rice Lake, most of the settlers were located on their homesteads by October; but over 300 had had fever and S3 were dead by the time Coburg was reached, and Lord Dalhousie said these immigrants would do as those of 1823 had done—take their rations and decamp for the United States. On the other hand, the Lieutenant- Governor, Sir Peregrine Maitland, had addresses presented expressing approval of this emigration scheme "which in relieving the United Kingdom of a redundant population might at the same time transform the Canadian wastes into fruitful fields." Three years later we have an official report made of the progress of this settlement, which once more confounded the fears and prophecies of failure. The town plot of Peterborough had been laid out previously in }4 acre lots with streets at right angles, and held for sale at £8 Halifax currency, and an Immigration Depot was erected by Hon. Peter Robinson. The Government had placed a dam in the Otonabee and erected a saw mill for 3,000 feet of lumber daily and a grist mill to grind 40 barrels a day. Settlers from Cumber- landshire had already settled in Smith township on Mud Lake and on the Portage Road, while the Irish went to Monaghan. In 1832 Mr. Richards, Commissioner of the Colonial Office, presented his official report on a visit to Canada and gave a most interesting account of the progress he had found in the different provinces of Canada. He spoke of his visit to the Robinson settlement at Peterborough, and of how there were only 300 vacant lots, and that the only obstacle to progress was absentee ownership, while recent military grants exacted actual settlement. Mr. Richards insisted that a court of Escheats should be established to recover lands where settlement conditions were not fulfilled. How serious this was he illustrated by saying that as late as 1828-9 some 81,200 acres were granted on loyalist or military grounds, while in the same year only 17,650 had been granted to actual settlers, and added that when it is remembered that two-sevenths of the total area were Crown and Clergy Reserves, the burden of labor for roads and bridges, which is borne by residents, must fall too heavily upon such a scanty population. There was, however, by 1832, a very complete system both of settlement regulations established by the Colonial Office, which included the selling of land at 4 shillings an acre and 7 shillings if partly cleared, and a low scale for ocean passages being from £2 to £5, with or without provisions, while the route inland from Quebec to York by steamer and batteau was £1 for 550 miles. In 1832 immigration increased to 50,000, though for the moment the cholera epidemic of that year, which was brought to Quebec by the immigrants on sailing ships, created consternation, and for a time immigration decreased. This is illustrated by the following table: Table of Immigrant Arrivals at Quebec Year Number Year Number 1829 15,945 1834 30,935 1830 28,000 1835 12,527 1831 50,204 1836 27,728 1832 51,746 *1837 21,901 1833 21,752 1838 3,266 *Year of Canadian Rebellion. How popular and well-established then was the St. Lawrence route may be gathered from the fact that the total arrivals at Quebec for the decade above recorded were 264,054 as compared with 237,647 to New York. Unfortunately, as pointed out in Commissioner Richards' Report, the enormous amount of land being held as military grants by public officials, friends of the Family Compact, and as Crown Grants and Clergy Reserves, much of which was held by absentees and was untaxed, was forcing thousands of immigrants to continue their journey to the Western States, who, under better conditions, would have taken up lands in Canada. But in spite of these handicaps, immigration increased again rapidly after Lord Durham's Report was made and reforms were introduced by Lord Sydenham at the union of Upper and Lower Canada in 1841. With the building of settlement roads, canals on the St. Lawrence, the Trent and Grand River, much labor was in demand, and even pauper immigrants from Sussex parishes and the House of Industry, Isle of Wight, were soon absorbed, for they were unemployed and mostly young men in good health, sent at the expense of the parish, and each was given one pound (£1) on leaving the vessel. The Annual Report of 1839 of Mr. A. C. Buchanan, General Superintendent of Immigration at Quebec, states that Scotchmen had arrived in August from Greenock with considerable capital and families from Cape Breton were going forward to friends in Burford Township, and others from the Bay of Chaleurs going to settle on the Bay of Quinte. Two hundred Scotch Highlanders arrived the next month, going to the lands of the British American Land Company in the Eastern Townships, and in October tradesmen and laborers arrived bound for Toronto, Hamilton, and London. The following illustrates the increases made in population from 1825 to 1844: It was the coming decade, 1840-50, when the Canadas were united, that was to have the great immigration of the century. Canal builojing in the United States had gone on, and this decade was to see great development in railway construction both there and in Canada. There was in Great Britain and Ireland great agricultural depression and much unemployment in manufacturing towns. Social reformers and radical agitators were voicing the general discontent, and Sir Robert Peel was at his wits' end to meet the attacks of free-traders on the high tariff involved in the Corn Laws. Ireland was in rebellion against absentee landlordism, and Daniel O'Connell was keeping the whole country under intense excitement. To bring matters to a head, the continuous rains of 1845 caused rot in the potato crop and the peasantry, poor before, were now starving and famine stalked through the land. In three years the population was reduced from 8,000,000 to 6,000,000 by disease and emigration, and in spite of the abolition of the Corn Laws in 1845 and the removal of the duty on wheat, the Chartists were burning hayricks in England in 1848. The following table tells the story of British Emigration during the period to North America. Table of British Emigration to North America 1840 to 1860 Upper Canada 1825 157,923 1830 213,156 1835 347,359 1841 455,688 Lower Canada 1825 479,288 1831 553,134 1844 597,084 To British North America Year 1840 1845 1847 1848 1849 1850 1851 1852 1853 *1854 1855 1856 fl857 1858 1859 1860 1861 1862 1863 1865 Emigrants 32,293 31,803 109,680 31,065 41,367 32,961 42,605 32,873 34,522 43,761 17,966 16,378 21,001 9,704 6,689 76,244 To United States Year Emigrants 40,642 58,338 124,154 188,233 219,450 223,078 267,357 244,267 230,885 193,065 103,414 111,837 126,905 59,716 70,303 1830 1845 1847 1848 1849 1850 1851 1852 1853 1854 1855 1856 1857 1858 1859 1860 $1861 1862, 1863< 1864 1865 719,438 ♦Outbreak of Crimean War. fFinancial Crisis (world-wide). {Outbreak of Civil War. The problems of immigration had been worked out during the years preceding 1840 for the most part, and succeeding years enjoyed the fruits of the efforts of those on both sides of the ocean, who had organized schemes, small or large, successful or otherwise. English travellers had written many books, and much information regarding Old Canada had been distributed by Government publications, and the letters of immigrants sent to their friends. The sailing ships, which still carried most of the emigrants, up to 1850 were being replaced by steamers, and the readily available lands of Upper Canada and those of Lower Canada in the Eastern, and Western Townships on the Ottawa were yearly being opened up for settlement. The organization of the Canada Census, irregular before, now properly began with 1851, and for the first time a record of the population by origins is given as seen in the following Table: Table Giving the Population of Upper and Lower Canada in 1851 by Origins. UPPER CANADA English 82,699 Scotch 75,811 Irish 176,267 United States 43,732 Nova Scotia 3,785 New Brunswick 2,634 Newfoundland and Indies.... 530 Natives of Canada, not French 526,094 French 26,417 France (old) 1,007 j Germany and Holland 155 j Russia, Poland and Prussia... 188 I Sweden and Norway 29 \ Italy and Greece 15 Spain and Portugal 57 Swiss. 209 Austria 11 LOWER CANADA English 11,230 Scotch 14,565 Irish 51,499 United States 12,482 Nova Scotia 474 New Brunswick 480 Newfoundland and Indies.... 102 Natives of Canada, not French 125,580 French 669,528 Germany and Holland ....... 152 Russia, Poland and Prussia... 8 Sweden and Norway 12 Italy and Greece 28 Spain and Portugal 12 Swiss 38 Austria 2 The story of origins thus told, was the same which in a large degree continued until what may be called the new era of emigration both to the United States and Canada began after the close of the Civil War in America and in Canada after the opening up of the Canadian North-West in 1870 and the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway begun in 1882. In both the United States and Canada the first half of the past century was an almost wholly British immigration except the large influx of Germans after the Continental revolution of 1848 to the United States. The early settlers for 30 years in the Canadian West were chiefly from Ontario and the Maritimes, and time was given to establish there the laws and social traditions of the British settlers, so largely Scottish from Upper Canada. As will be shown in the succeeding chapters, these have been maintained and added to under the activating influences of the scientific developments of the Twentieth Century. CHAPTER II A Morning with Sir Clifford Sifton HAVING been as often irritated as amused at recent newspaper articles and correspondence regarding immigrants and immigration, I had decided that I would revisit the immigrants whom as Chief Medical Officer of Immigration I admitted in many thousands to Canada during the first twenty years of the century, and make an unofficial enquiry into their social and economic progress. It seemed logical and proper that I should first call upon my old Chief, Sir Clifford Sifton, who as first Minister of the Interior in the Laurier Cabinet after 1896, initiated and developed an immigration policy, which in fifteen years brought in 2,000,000 immigrants, and started Canada on a career of development, whose extent is only now beginning to be understood. Hearing that Sir Clifford was at home at his country-place in suburban Toronto, I arranged an interview; but had to assist the chauffeur in threading the maze of new streets leading to the banks of the winding Don north of the City, where twenty five years ago, as Chief Medical Officer of Health for Ontario, I had developed from springs, a public water supply for the little town of North Toronto. I was shown into the ample reception room and had a few moments to examine its furnishings and adornments. Chiefly was I interested in a series of framed photogravures of many of the greatest Canadian men of action from Champlain to Sir John McDonald, Sir Wilfred Laurier and the Honourable Mackenzie King. Later, remarking on them, I was interested in Sir Clifford's answer to the effect that he preferred to have about him portraits of men, who had done something for Canada rather than pictures about which he knew little, and the men who sold them knew less. Sir Clifford, however, soon came in dressed in top boots and khaki ready for the morning round of his stables of favorite race-horses and a canter in the pleasant pathways of the Don Valley. After the usual compliments, I stated to Sir Clifford the object of my interview and recalled to him how he had once said to me, that when at Fort William he saw a car load passing of the first Galician immigrants from the wooded slopes of the Carpathian Mountains in Austria, dressed in their rude sheepskin coats and caps, he felt that he had begun a successful immigration policy. Reminiscent he, in his old abrupt manner, said, "Bryce, you must go and see one of the earliest of their settlements, on what was then the wet, undrained lands beyond the Red River, east of Winnipeg, now Gonor, Tyndal and Beausejour. For thirty years Canadian and British settlers had been coming to Manitoba, but none would go on to these lands where I as a boy with my father, who was a railway contractor, had sunk deep into the swampy muck. Perhaps it was hardly fair to place these people there; but it was grown up with poplar and was wooded like their old home, and they went there willingly, first settling on the old river road, then little more than a trail leading to East Selkirk, on lands, which had belonged to the Scotch half- breeds,-surveyed in the old French way of three chains on the river front and running four miles inland, and which they got at a cheap price. All these people asked for was peaceful possession and a chance to work and by now they have made a great success of it." What they have done will appear in a later article. He further said, "Go to the settlement west of Lake Winnipegosis, another picture of rough land where we placed other foreigners. Here, too, they made good, and speaking from a long experience, I am not much inclined to granting immigrants special favors. The man who will work usually makes good and values his success, and perhaps it is better that we should allow those unfit for settlement to drift somewhere else." Illustrating the success of the colony east of Winnipeg, Sir Clifford Sifton said, "I recently had to laugh when I saw a notice in the papers that the newly organized Board of Trade of Beausejour had held its first meeting in the Village, which is now the centre of a prosperous farming district." Again he said, "You must go to an Hungarian settlement west of Neepawa beyond Lake Manitoba. Those people went there with nothing but their clothing and not too much of that. They were so poor that they first cut poplar wood and had to carry it on their backs to sell it at the station to get a few shillings. Then later they got an ox and made a cart, and so on to horses; but never did they get any assistance. They were the first people, who knew how to select the clay for building log houses to make them warm for winter and also cheap." "Another district where the Railway Company refused to select its land grant was in what was looked upon as a hopelessly dry district now known as Rosthern along the Regina and Prince Albert Railway, and one of the most prosperous farming districts of the North West." "Besides these settlements I recall the lands west of Swift Current, looked upon as the northern end of the 'Great American Desert.' Some Mennonites proposing to settle there came to me and said that it would be very difficult to make a settlement there as they would have to bore artesian wells; while the land, divided into alternate blocks by railway lands, would keep the settlers isolated too far apart. So I arranged with the C.P.R. to take its land grant elsewhere, and to-day this has become a connected and prosperous settlement." "The same story may be told of the Galicians, who went in west of Dauphin, where no Canadian settler would go. Here they set to work to build their log and turf houses, getting no assistance and to-day are a prosperous and contented community. Indeed the only time that I remember where this class of immigrant got any assistance was when a number of their poor people got stranded in the immigrant sheds at Winnipeg. We sent them down east of the Red River toward the border on fair land and gave them flour and bacon as a loan; every cent of which was paid back, which I imagine is one of the few instances where a Government loan was ever fully re-paid. Indeed, recalling those events, now long past, I can say that had it not been for these foreigners filling up many of the waste places, there never would have been a prosperous and populous Canadian North West. In fact, much the same may be said of the mining districts of Northern Ontario. Of course, there are bad as well as good in this class, but the same may be said of every other class or nationality of immigrants. Really the only way to judge of the relative success of any settle ment, such as the Barr Colony at Lloyd- minster, for example, is actually to make a census as in that case of the thousand first immigrants and find out how many of those who came in to any district, say twenty years ago, are actually there to-day. Today, every second man in the northern mining camps is a foreigner, and most are going to remain there to extract by hard work the hidden wealth out of the ground." "When I Went first into the Government at Ottawa from that of Manitoba, I recall a long cabinet discussion on immigration. None seemed to have given the matter much attention and had no suggestions to make. At last I spoke out and said, ' I know what to do to get immigrants and how to do it,' when Laurier said, 'Go at it and do it;' so I undertook the task on the understanding that my plans were to be worked out and not interfered with." "When you go to the West, go to Kam- sack, where a banker lives who wrote raea series of letters about immigrants. His bank is now doing a large business with the foreigners in lending small and larger amounts of money, and he said there was not one who failed to meet his engagements." ^ Recalling another incident, Sir Clifford said: "During an election campaign, I took D. C. Fraser of Guysboro with me to Rosthern on a speaking tour. When we came to the Ruthenian district there was a large gathering and I was presented with an address, which I have still, in which they thanked me for having given them an opportunity to work in comfort, security and happiness, and all they asked for was the privilege to labour and make a living. Afterwards Fraser said: 'Mon Dieu! Sifton, I cannot imagine a lot of electors asking for nothing more than the chance to work. Why, not to ask for roads, bridges, wharves or something else, is too absurd.'" On speaking of the Saskatchewan Land Company, which he got organized and granted 2,000,000 acres of the dry lands in Central Saskatchewan, where the Regina and Prince Albert R.R. refused to take their land grant, Sir Clifford told of how he had sent an officer to the United States and arranged with land agents there to go into districts where "dry farming" had to be carried on and try to obtain settlers. They were so successful that most of this land was soon located and patents given for farms only when all the settlement conditions had been fulfilled. Sir Clifford said he understands that in the war-torn countries of Central Europe there are thousands of Hungarians who want to come to Canada, who would all make good at lumbering and mining. They hate and fear war and attendant taxes, and only seek a country giving them peace and liberty. Recalling to Sir Clifford the Barr Colony j of 1903, he said the Rev. Mr. Barr was an English parson, who had some young fellows as parishioners, who had been in the South African war, and on their account developed the idea of arranging for their getting land in some locality in Canada and settling together. It happened, however, that his friend, the young Rev. Mr. Lloyd, became actively interested in the scheme, and so it grew into a colony of over one thousand persons of the better class of English people, who came together and were gathered at Battleford, where the Government agents had assembled older settlers, who had horses and oxen to sell. Amusing stories still are told illustrating their inexperience and ignorance of agriculture; but he was glad to say that their colony about Lloyd- minster has proved a success after twenty full years; but it would be a matter of interest to know what proportion of the first settlers now remained in the district. Here again, Sir Clifford said: "In the long run the law of the survival of the fittest will have prevailed, and the fine country on the border of two Provinces will have proved a prosperous district." Such in substance is the outcome of my interview with the young Lochinvar, who thirty odd years ago "came out of the West" where he had played an active part as a young lawyer in the Manitoba Government, and whom I remember meeting there in a visit to Winnipeg, where I had gone as a consultant in some matter of school ventilation. I have just visited my old Upper Canada College school-fellow, E. M. Wood, son of the first Chief Justice of Manitoba after Confederation, and who has been for over forty years in the public service and is now Deputy Minister of the Department of Municipal Affairs in Manitoba. He can go back to when Manitoba had a handful of people and which in 1901 had grown to only 255,211, while Saskatchewan, although it had had the C. P. Railway for fifteen years, had only 91,270 of a population, and Alberta 73,022. He has seen his Province grow to 639,- 056 population and the two other prairie provinces increase to 821,042 and 607,584 in Saskatchewan and Alberta respectively since 1901, and fully appreciates the part played by Sir Clifford Sifton in producing these results. He can put his finger on every township and tell which ones have failed to meet their municipal responsibilities, and indicate the causes, whether /of soil, climate or economic inability. I hope to be able to get further reminiscences from both Sir Clifford and Mr. Wood, who, like myself, can now afford to be on-lookers or scrutatores temporis acti. 10 CHAPTER III The Progress of Continentals in the Low-lying Lands near Winnipeg SIXTY years ago some 20,000 people were found dwelling on the banks of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers, which join at what was then Fort Garry, a village of two or three hundred people. A few English Canadians were associated there with the adjoining old Kildonan Scotch settlement known as Lord Selkirk's Colony of 1813, distributed along the lower Red River banks. Above these toward Pembina on the American border and along the Assiniboine westward were parishes mostly of French-speaking Metis, all giving the future Province of Manitoba a racial coloring which the succeeding years have only tended to intensify. We learn of more than forty languages being spoken in the metropolis of the Prairie Provinces, a delight to the enthusiastic student of language, but a cause of cursory remarks to the practical-minded English Canadian, who is too intent on pushing business to be interested in linguistic differences and ethnical peculiarities. But nowhere has there ever been a better illustration of the superior qualities of Anglo-Saxon civilization in reducing to a common denominator the diverse national elements, which have come to make up a population of over 200,000 in the City of Winnipeg, and half as many more in the surrounding municipalities. In my interview with Sir Clifford Sifton, inapreceding chapter, reference was made to one of his first settlements of foreigners to the east of the Red River on the wet lands, which run east to the valley of the Whitemouth River and beyond till it touches the borders of the higher Laurentian outcrops toward Lake of the Woods. In a recent report of the Manitoba Government on "Unused Lands of Manitoba," a special study of this District No. 8 is made, which covers the townships along the Red River of St. Clements and of Springfield, Brokenhead, White- mouth and Lac du Bonnet. Old travellers westward used to wonder at the one hundred miles of unoccupied lands along the railway before Winnipeg was reached, who to-day would marvel at the changes which they saw should they motor through the District toward the Lac du Bonnet electrical development. Just as the old Province of Quebec, which had chronic deficits yearly before 1900, has now advanced to the premier position in annual surpluses owing to the wonderful development of her water power, so this district of wet land, relegated twenty-five years ago to a few Austrian immigrants, is fast becoming a composite hive of industrial bees of variegated species. To it, as being first referred to by Sir Clifford Sifton, I took an early opportunity of going, motoring over its wonderful Provincial highways, which have been in part paid for by the 40,000 settlers in the several townships. In the 1921 census, these consisted of the following:— English 5,888 Irish 1,561 Scotch 3,696 Others 173 French 1,172 Austrians 4,694 Belgians 109 Dutch 595 Finish 175 German 2,150 Greek 47 Hebrew 286 Italian 164 Polish 3,920 Russian 1,531 Scandinavian 1,399 Ukrainians 5,015 Others 371 Orientals 200 Total 33,783 Following the road to the east of the Red River northward, one sees near the beautiful city, homes with groves of the poplar and elm along the river bank, and soon comes to the foreign settlements 11 occupying the farms surveyed in the.old colony days after the French fashion in Lower Canada of three chains wide on the river front, running back for four miles or, as described in "The Women of the Red River," as far as a man could see under the belly of his horse. For twenty miles to-day, the eye sees an almost continuous garden of truck produce, finer and better cultivated than anything I had seen in my recent summer trip west from Boston to Toronto. Perhaps less varied than around Ottawa, the tillage is really first-class. The ordinary town motorist, however, knowing little and caring less of history, immediately turns up his nose at the log houses, at times with plaster partly falling and stables and even pig-stys in close proximity to the house, and speaks of the dirty foreigners; forgetting, however, to observe that all along may be seen new modern clapboard houses being erected to keep pace with the advanced financial and social status of the settlers. After a rapid survey of the western portion of St. Clements and East Selkirk, along the river and easterly to the rear of the river lots, then fast ripening with thousands of acres of grain, I returned to the river road and stopped to interview a store-keeper, selected by accident from the several along the route. Without mentioning who I was, except that I was a visitor from the East seeking information, I asked Mr. John Stasiuck, born in 1883 and arrived in the settlement with his father and three brothers in 1900, to tell me about the settlement. His story is so simple and yet so complete and illustrative that I shall reproduce it here. He lives in the centre of what is called the Gonor settlement, where his father bought one of the old river farms from a Scotch half-breed in 1901, paying $1.50 per acre. At that there was no cultivation around, the settlers making a living, drawing wood and hay. The road to Winnipeg was little more than a wagon trail between the woods on either side, and there were very few farms at all. Now the farms on the front are often sub-divided into a single chain frontage for other members of the family. Most settlers began with a garden to get something to eat, for as Mr. Stasiuck, said,"At first I walked many times to Winnipeg to get some flour and carried it home on my back." He went to work on the railway to get money and stayed there some years, then came back and farmed till 1919. Since then he has kept store and is only recently married and has one child. He speaks English almost without any foreign accent, and, as I learned later, has been reeve of the township. Illustrating, Mr. Stasiuck said there were only three other settlers to the north and four to the south when his people came. Now many different people have come in, and the settlement is about three-fourths Galician or Boukovinian and one-quarter Polish. About half belong to the Orthodox Greek Church and half to the Roman Catholic, most of these being Polish. The land now, varying as to cultivation and location, is worth from $25.00 to $100.00 per acre. There is a school in the district to which all the kiddies go, and an English-speaking teacher, and are regular in attendance, as the authorities see to this. The young men go out at times to work to get ready money, on the roads or the electric power companies. He said they are all naturalized as soon as the five years after admission are up, which used to be three years. Every available young man enlisted and went to the war. A number died in the war, but those who returned are, with the rest, contented and happy. Asked regarding prohibition, Mr. Stasiuck replied that all have been accustomed to their beer or spirits and voted for repeal of the Act since, as they would have it, many were spoiled through taking to making home-brew. Things are better now that open sale has returned, since on the raw stuff they would get drunk and go crazy. They have a church, but the priest lives in Winnipeg. Evidences of modernity were seen in the billiard-room behind the store, and the fact that the settlers busy in the fields usually buy their bread at the store in summer, while the telephone installed costs $52.00 a year. An illustration of what seemed to me a mark of sturdiness and enterprise was seen in the statement that Stasiuck's father and three brothers had gone West to the fine farming district of Melfort in Saskatchewan in 1908, where they now have a big farm. His father died there three years ago, and his mother lives here with him and his young wife. The picture of a single prosperous settlement seems so complete and satisfactory that little needs to be added to it. Probably the student of development would enquire, "Why should the early settlers for over seventy years have sold their lands in 1900 for $1.50 an acre to foreigners, who now ask $100.00 for it? There are two answers possible. First, that they moved to towns and took advantage of the new developments there, and the other is, that they did not understand intensive cultivation, and would not work as did the incoming foreigner or as the Scotch, Irish and 12 English did in the Thirties and Forties in Upper Canada to make a hard living through clearing the land, to become later, prosperous farmers. History here has simply repeated itself. As remarked in "Unused Lands in Manitoba"—"The settlement of the western end of Springfield and the river front of St. Clements began very early in Manitoba's history, but the composition of the population has been rapidly changing within the last 25 years. Settlement began in the other municipalities between 20 and 30 years ago; but considerable increase in the population did not take place until the great influx of Slav immigrants in the first decade of this century." Speaking of the whole five townships of the district, the report further says: "Wheat and oats are becoming less popular and increasing attention is being paid to forage. Dairying is popular and profitable in Springfield, Brokenhead and Whitemouth. The practice of dairy farming and truck raising may account for the small percentage of abandonment, which is only 3 per cent. The abandonment of farms has been prevalent only in the regions of central and eastern Springfield." This reminds me of the wholesale selling out in Massachusetts so soon as the railways reached the American fertile West, and of the desertion of the sand and stony townships on the Upper Otonabee east of Peterborough in Ontario. The report speaks of "the farmers of the Whitemouth District as showing unmistakable signs of prosperity. M any who took up homesteads in the district, starting with practically no capital and who have been in Whitemouth 20 years or more, are now rated as worth over $20,000. It is worth while noting that of the 2,0311 population of Whitemouth Valley in the 1921 census, there were only 261 persons of Anglo-Saxon origin, 584 being German, 256 Polish and 478 Ukrainian. What a few years ago was a wet, cold, inhospitable river valley is now spoken of by college experts as follows: 'As a community in which to begin a campaign for the production of high-grade dairy products, we know no better in all Manitoba.'" Little more need be said to illustrate the assurance of a happy future for this real foreigners' paradise. If we add to these townships that of Lac du Bonnet, where the Scandinavian and some French and English have been attracted by the construction work in connection with the Lac du Bonnet Hydro-Electric Power Plants, and which in 1921 had 2,141 persons, many of whom have taken up quarter- sections of land, we get a further appreciation of the value of the foreigner to Canada. We can remember, too, that in 1874 there were in Canada only 0.87% of such continentals in a population of 2,894,186 and 1.85% from the United States, while in 1921 there were 5.88% continentals and 4.25% of United States born, against the latter of whom pages of oratory by politicians were uttered when they began seriously to make their appearance. To-day, however, Americans are joyfully accepted even though of continental origin; but the outcry now being heard is against the unspeakable foreigner, as against the unspeakable Scot in England, and in Scotland the unwashed Irish. So perhaps we can understand and pardon those even in high places, as in the Church, who allow themselves at times to be carried away by their prejudices, uttering words unworthy of their station and calling. 13 r CHAPTER IV A Happy and Prosperous Settlement of Contented Peoples in East Saskatchewan IT gave me a pleasing sensation of being at home to re-visit, after twenty years, when I was inspecting Indian Schools, the beautiful Qu'Appelle Valley, and enjoyed the hospitality of Rev. Father Hu- guenard of sainted memory, and Rev. Hugh McKay, the beloved missionary of Round Lake, now gone to his rest. To-day the Lakes are the summer resort of Central Saskatchewan, and so I was not surprised to meet a summering clergyman, the Rev. Hector Black, from Broadview, a companion of my boys in Toronto years ago. At that time I had traversed the difficult roadway, winding between scrub and frozen slough, still keeping the winter snow, as I drove from Whitewood along the old immigrant trail northward to beyond the lakes. Then the Qu'Appelle was in flood and where is now a fine bridge there was then a ticklish floating pontoon, which I was glad to get over safely. To-day my objective was these settlements bordering the valley to the north, which are now reached by the Kapella Branch of the C.P.R. Eastward from Regina are a number of prosperous small towns, of which Lemberg, Stockholm and Esterhazy are centres of the German, Scandinavian and Hungarian colonies. I put myself in the hands of Mr. V. S. Ferguson, an old Ontario friend from Port Hope, who for many years has been prominent in business and public affairs m the district. So for a day we motored north, south, east and west and interviewed Czechs, Scandinavians, Hungarians, Ukrainians, Germans and English. The beginnings of this settlement are especially interesting to one who can remember the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway and the labors of its first officials. Like many other investors then, Lords Mount Stephen and Strathcona obtained a tract of selected land in a block, and following the example of Jim Hill and others in Minnesota, brought in, as a colonization company, Scandinavians in 1887. West from Esterhazy are the Swedes, especially around Stockholm, with Czechs to the south-west and Hungarians to the south-east at Kap Sovar, where is the beautiful cathedral church of stone erected in 1907. Around it are some 60 Hungarian families, and there rises in the pretty churchyard the cross, surrounded by the graves of most of the pioneers of the settlement. To avoid repetition, a rough diagram of the Fertile Belt municipality is given here and includes 15 townships 6x6 miles square. Fertile Belt District N English & Welsh Czechs & Canadians Hungarians & Norwegians Czechs Ontario Canadians & Czechs Hungarians & Swedes Czechs Esterhazy English Canadians Swedes Hungarians Hungarians & English Canadians s 14 My thirty-mile-an-hour motorist took me over good country roads, first southwest into the Czech settlement, and soon we were visiting the beautiful home of Joseph Dolejse, a Bohemian, the possessor of six quarter sections, or 1,000 acres. We found nis wife at home in what might well be called a mansion. Joseph and wife are of the second generation in the settlement and are only an illustration of most of their neighbors. An ample house, equipped with water tank and piping, electric fighting and modern heating, has beyond it in large grounds, levelled with care, a large stable and barn. Nicely located, not too far from the house, is Madam's poultry yard, where an eastern housewife would go green with envy at seeing the 100 turkeys brought in for the night from the wheat fields to defend them from the coyotes. To the turkeys are added more than 100 chickens of various ages. < Of course, there are plenty of cows, eight milking, whose cream is shipped to town, with young cattle. In addition to the green crops there were 80 acres in wheat, 60 in barley, and 70 in oats. The four girls and two boys were baptized by good missionary Mackay of the Round Lake Mission, and go to the local school or the Esterhazy High School, and all speak good English. The family are surrounded with brothers, on farms equally good and prosperous, and friends such as Joseph Sobotka, who is also of the second generation and has house and barns similarly equipped with modern conveniences. Land has recently been sold at $50.00 per acre here, and perhaps nowhere in Saskatchewan would a more prosperous, happy and contented settlement be found than these fifteen or twenty Czechoslovak families, whose fathers came in just forty years ago. Beyond these, two miles west, begins a Swedish settlement with such names as Christofersen, Olsen, Erickson, Sanders, Jacobson, Sjostrom and Nichaelsen, all doing well and old timers, and each holding several quarter sections of land and having houses equipped in different instances with the most modern appliances for comfort. Thence going west and south we reached the Hungarian settlement near Stockholm and visited the house of John Pangracz with his brothers Joseph and James nearby. Here, too, we found the now familiar barn with foundation made of concrete, with stables, and covered with a great hay-mow, while about the grounds were several steel granaries. His fine house is worth $7,000.00 with plumbing and septic tank, more up-to-date than most farms even in old Ontario. Of course, the farming is on a large and successful scale and good crops are looked for as naturally as in the east. Perhaps no better illustration can be given than this settlement to justify the opinion of Sir Clifford Sifton "that the best settlers are those who have worked out their own salvation," as has been shown by so many failures in the recent Soldiers' Settlement. Other Czech families are John Vrahetz, Stanley Yecny, Jos. Antos, Frank Yecny, Jos. Lomenda, Frank Hermancke. I met the old father of the Pangracz brothers, who now lives in Esterhazy with his wife, but enjoys his days in going out to the farms and helping in the harvest. In his broken English he told of there being no railroad when he came in, had worked on the railway, in the mines, and thinks the boys to-day have an easy time of it. His son, when asked regarding the new immigrants, held the opinion that they were not fond of work or willing to settle down as farmers. On the way to Stockholm we passed the pretty home, with flower garden and farm, of old Rev. A. G. Olsen, the Lutheran clergyman, who came in long ago via Minnesota to these Swedish people. Late at night we called on Rev. Father Santa, of the West Hungarian Settlement at Stockholm, who had just recently held a commemorative celebration, or the silver jubilee of the founding of the settlement. It is worth while to quote a paragraph from the message of the Hon. James G. Gardiner, Premier of Saskatchewan, to these people, near whom he long resided: "The success which has marked the meeting of the Hungarian settlement at Stockholm, Sask., is indicative not only of the ability of that race to flourish under conditions existing here, but it is indicative also of the fact that they are amenable to the discipline which the laws of the British Nation have imposed." These Hungarians, with 4,000 others, sent a beautiful volume of signatures to Lord Rothermere for a Christmas gift in 1927, expressing their deep gratitude and appreciation of the efforts of their great British friend in favor of the revision of the Peace Treaty with Hungary, to which Lord Rothermere replied: "It is difficult to find words adequately to express my appreciation of the very beautiful volume of signatures you have sent on behalf of the hundred thousand Hungarians resident in Canada. What gives me special pleasure is the fact that amongst the signatures I see representa- 15 m tives of every religious denomination and every social class throughout this great British Dominion." Rev. Father Santa said that most of these people came into the Stockholm district 25 years ago and those east of Esterhazy some 40 years ago. All the children attend the public schools and are taught in English and become good Canadians. Most of the first settlers have remained and continued farming, while each farmer strives to have a farm for each son. Many of these are of the best classes in Hungary. Asked if they will assimilate with Canadians, Father Santa replied that in his opinion they are already assimilated. Only one of the old generation has expressed his wish to return and end his days in Hungary. Father Santa thinks that sticking to the soil and getting interested in public affairs as elections and schools is the best way to make them good Canadians. As regards language, the old settlers have learnt fairly well, but the young people never think of using any other than English. He thinks Bishop Lloyd does not know the conditions among the foreigners. The young people do not read Old Country papers as much as the papers here. He thinks it is desirable that, while large districts of a foreign people should not be settled together, enough be settled together to form a group community, to have common interests, as in their church and religion, for if isolated amongst others, they become dissatisfied. It is most desirable that they be given every opportunity to learn the very best methods of farming. Thus the later Hungarians copied the better methods of the earlier Swedes. Mr. Santa thinks a bolder emigration policy of allowing even non-agricultural emigrants to come would be good for the country. There is no propaganda needed to induce Central Europeans to come except the assurance of good employment and fair treatment. So ended the pleasant interview with Father Santa, who was very proud of the programme of his Jubilee on July 7th. The next morning we drove to the more easterly Kap Sovar Cathedral and met a modest, quiet man at his presbytery. The church, built of granite gathered from the fields, in 1907, is very attractive and Rev. Father Blickhards is very proud of it. Most of his 43 families got their farms as half sections some 30 or 40 years ago, and Mr. Ferguson stated that a Frenchman had recently sold to a Czech there a farm at $95.00 an acre. One Hungarian farmer has 17 children living near Hazelcliff, while the Austro-Germans of the Lemberg District, like the Czechs at Esterhazy, have always made good, as have the Welsh in the North. There is also a Finn settlement of 70 families south of Esterhazy, an Icelandic settlement north-east, while French and Belgians occupy the Qu'Appelle Valley. A morning spin down the steep slopes of the Valley to the summer resort and camping grounds beside the beautiful Lake of the Half-Breed Indian Maiden, served to complete my visit to a district of intense interest. Nothing could seem more Arcadian, for all seemed well-to-do, happy and satisfied that this part of Saskatchewan, or indeed of Canada, had no superior. As Mr. Ferguson of Esterhazy said, "This district is populated with contented Canadian farmers, who are well assimilated and proud of the Province under its present administration." I add a letter from the Rev. Hector Black, which expresses the situation so well that nothing need be added to it: Broadview, Sask., Aug. 20th, 1928. Dr. Bryce, Ottawa, Canada. Dear Dr. Bryce: In accordance with my promise to write you my impressions of the European settlers in Western Canada, I submit the following:— For twenty-three years I have lived in districts surrounded by settlements of "foreigners" mostly from Europe, and having visited in their homes, noted their ambitions and ideals, and shared their joys and sorrows. I am fully convinced that these peoples are "already" making a contribution of permanent value to the life of our country. The majority of them came to our shores in poverty; settled on homesteads remote from towns and railways; endured the manifold hardships of the frontier life; and "have made good." To-day beside the pioneer "shack," of sods or poles, stands a house, modern in design and comfortably furnished. In many of these homes the photos, which adorn piano and mantelpiece, demonstrate that the children and grandchildren of these settlers from Europe are now occupying prominent places in business, all the professions and our Legislative Assembly. I am personally acquainted with the sons and daughters of Hungarian, Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, Roumanian and Finlander pioneers, who are University graduates and registered nurses; one of these is a professor in a University, others are teachers in Collegiates, Doctors, Lawyers and Ministers of religion. Most of them are married to Anglo-Saxons, and are raising families 16 V r of healthy "Canadian children," who in mentality, artistic talent, athletics and histrionic ability have no superiors. To the inexperienced, the "foreigner" talking his mother language and thinking, in it, as he follows the practices of the country from which he has come, may inspire grave doubts regarding his presence in our land; but in these older settled districts such doubts are speedily dispelled. The "foreigner" is being assimilated, is "thinking Canadian" and is actively and intelligently interested in our Canadian problems and Government. And wherever the Anglo-Saxons are seeking to understand them and co-operate with them, their worth to Canada is realized and appreciated. Respectfully submitted, (S.) W. Hector Black. 17 r CHAPTER V A Solid Block of Wheat and Immigrants SHOULD the goddess Ceres return to-day to our Western Prairies from Jove's court on lofty Olympus, she certainly would appear decked in garlands of poppies, bearing in her arms wheat sheaves of as perfect grain as these plains have ever been blessed with. Travelling westward for some ten hours from Qu'Appelle, I arrived at Saskatoon, and got in touch with the colonizing agent of the Ukrainian Colonies in the west and arranged to make a trip through a wide settlement, which has been mostly opened up since I journeyed through the district 21 years ago. All seemed very strange to me since at that time I had been storm- stalled in a Prince Albert and Regina train for two days and had passed through Saskatoon, then little more than a name on the map, while, to-day, it marks the place where the University and educational life of the Province of Saskatchewan is centered with ample grounds for new college buildings, representing all the faculties, even to the newest one of medicine. My friend the Medical Officer of Health drove me to the College farm, where a strange sight, indeed, was seen when, in a corner of the beautiful ornamental grounds, the Dean of the Agricultural College was demonstrating to the 50 selected British young men and women, lying about on the green sward, who have come as Ambassadors of Empire, to be taught lessons about Canada and her resources. Going east from Saskatoon one is very soon in the country and the farms begin to appear with their crop treasures. The permanent highway, a part of the great Transcontinental Highway, is being completed westward and north, along which we ran for some twenty miles, then turned east, travelling toward the Rosthern district. I recall an American lady, long ago in Paris, trying to describe an Italian sunset seen from the Aventine Hill, who finding language inadequate, said at last, "Why, it was all red," and it is something of this sort that I feel in speaking of continuous miles of wheat fields as far as the eye could see till we reached Rosthern. To say that it was better than much we had seen would be incorrect; but what most impressed me was the fewer uncultivated spots in the wide fields. Either the land was lighter and more evenly cultivated, or more labor has been expended in cutting the poplars and willows, which are especially found in new damp places. We stopped to examine the crop and those familiar with grain said it was grading high. Fields of oats were here and there seen and some barley, but as yet wheat is king. Stopping to speak to a farmer, who was driving a motor to which was attached a ten-foot reaper, which bound the sheaves and put them aside in bundles to make stookmg easier, we asked of his progress in Saskatchewan. His name was Kinsil and he had come from California some 18 years ago with his father and family. He had cropped this field for ten continuous years with wheat, but this year had fair crops of oats. He had broken up 50 acres of scrub this year in a short time, using the motor and most approved methods to level the ground and remove the roots. The family were of Russian-German descent, and had others of the same nationality near by. I remarked regarding a fire in the distance and he replied j 'those are the burning straw stacks of Mr. , who is too rich to have to grub up new land." The houses of the district are new and adequate, but almost no cattle are seen; the time hardly having arrived here for the better mixed farming that we saw around Rosthern, ten miles farther on. Mr. Kinsil was interesting in his replies and inquiries. He had come with his father from California in 1906, who had settled on the section near where he now lives. It was all brushwood and had to be cleared. Incidentally it might be mentioned that the tractor, which is now so general in use, pushes a kind of machine of snow plough pattern, fitted with cutting knives, and can cut trees ten inches thick through and throw them aside and can even cut roots underground. He spoke of the incoming settlers, saying three families will stick at it but the balance are poor and cannot farm. He has 280 acres under crop, has 400 acres, 4 horses and a 18 tractor and one man besides himself. This is his first season with a tractor and he thinks horses now are quite beaten. He said his people (Germans) came first from Saratoff, Russia. His wheat went 38 bushels to the acre last year and oats 100, and he is proud of his family of three boys and four girls, the oldest 17, while he is only 37 years old, but glad he married young. He thinks he must soon sell out and go farther north where he has visited, so as to have enough cheap new land for his children. Most of the settlers came in 1898. Crossing the Prince Albert railway, we came into Rosthern, with its 6 large elevators, from the south, past ■ the Dominion Experimental Farm, which is an object of admiration as well as education for all. The town has 1,400 population and, as the census shows, is almost half Continentals and some French. I was introduced to Mr. J. Roshruk, agent for Massey-Harris implements, who told me of the various people there with their 11 churches. The Germans settled first some 33 years ago but the most 30 years. All are on good farms, but the Germans coming first got the best land. The foreigners are building new houses and getting all modern machinery and tractors. The crops run mostly from 30 to 35 bushels an acre and there is quite a lot of mixed farming, the new creamery taking the milk. Land sells for $55.00 per acre. There is good country around Duck Lake to the north where the French settlers are. The Hungarians to the east have been in some 30 years and are good farmers and have a $25,000 church, and get their implements at Wakaw. Rosthern grows and is getting a $28,000 post office. He is proud to be in the constituency of Premier King. There are several very good German farm houses. The town has a high school but no separate school. The mixed quality of the place is illustrated by the fact that there is a Swedenborgian Church, Lutheran, Uniat, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, 2 Mennonite German Churches, Brotherhood and Old Colony. Mr. Roshruk is evidently a very active and up-to-date Ukrainian, who, as an agent, thinks it worth while to sell rather than farm, as he thinks himself too fat. Such is a brief description of as interesting and progressive community as there is in the north-west, and it is believed not only as prosperous but as well behaved. Going east, the road leads toward the Saskatchewan River, which was to the south but now had turned northward. A few miles before reaching the river we came to the home of the Saskatchewan Burbank, I Mr. Seager Wheeler. To an old biologist his special plantation of probably 20 acres of experimental plots became, of course, a centre of immediate interest, and we were fortunate in finding Mr. Wheeler busy cutting the heads of his ripe crop of experimental wheats, of which he has 300 varieties. He does the work personally, and talks genially with an old English accent as lie explains some of the mysteries of hybridizing. Wheat with bright yellow straw, hardier wheat with reddish straw, others having a hundred kernels on a single stem were shown and their virtues illustrated. Not less interesting was a field of potatoes, where no potato bugs were found, which he planted about the 24th of May and is still green but ripening. ^ Mr. Wheeler is especially proud of this crop from selected plants of Irish Cobbler, and, as he showed them, explained how they have year by year grown round, large and perfect, being solid through and through and with few eyes. Beyond this he had some rows of sunflowers of the Burbank strain, which pleased him greatly as the many crosses have produced almost as many varieties as there were plants. In his orchard, which we did not have time to visit, are apples, cherries and plums. Returning toward the house, his flower beds were clean and filled with rare specimens of double Marguerites, pinks of an exquisite red, and a yet more remarkable exhibit of poppies, finer than I have ever seen. Pompons and peony poppies with blooms as large as good-sized chrysanthemums, of whites, pinks and purer reds, were all there to solace Mr. Wheeler in his labors. Besides these, he has copses of special evergreens and perennial borders, which show what one man may do if he loves his plants. I learned too that he has only one assistant to carry on this work on his quarter section, with himself to manage all the experimental part. The whole farm is equally an example of the patient, scientific worker, the general farmer and the industrious settler. As a gardener, I would like to have carried home a load of the surface of his extraordinarily mellow soil, cuttings and seeds of some of his wonderful productions. But I am forgetting this is a story of the "Progress of the Continental Immigrant" rather than an agricultural lesson; but the essential interest of a trip through the prairies is the discovery at every turn of some new mark of human energy and intellect, and one is especially pleased when he finds intelligence, science and infinite courtesy in a simple English settler, who is also a gentleman, and whose labors not only lend dignity to agriculture but are an 19 r object lesson to his less scholarly and intellectual neighbors, who may perhaps illustrate Tennyson's lines in "The Lotos Eaters" of English farmers of the Lincolnshire fens— "Chanted from an ill-used race of men, that cleave the soil, Sow the seed and reap the harvest with enduring toil." Passing, however, eastward over admirable roads so swiftly as to keep a thunderstorm just in the back of our motor or democrat wagon, as the immortal Dave McDougall of the Calgary country used to tell about, yet not get wet, we reached the western bank of the Saskatchewan River, which had to be crossed by a ferry just north of Fish Creek. Old-time Canadians will recall Riel's second rebellion started here and how Gabriel Dumont, the most famous buffalo hunter of all the plains, became for the nonce a patriot and rebel. His half-breed associates have immortalized his memory in the crossing called "Gabriel's" where is now a Government ferry, operated night and day, only you pay after 8 p.m. Beyond the deep river valley the road passes over a sandy plain for four miles, pleasant in the old Metis days for simple cultivation, but now a pasturage and having but little settlement as it is too light for wheat farming. A few log cottages, mostly abandoned, remain; but some settlers' cottages appeared again as we approached a district with several considerable shallow lakes, where all the people are either Ukrainians or Hungarians. We came to Brouchuch's, a very prosperous farmer, and chatted with Yarko Kindrachuk in Wakaw, who had been in the district 22 years, and has a fine barn and house and had come in from Kolomya, S.D. We passed a good school with its teacher's house alongside, the teacher keeping school 210 days and getting $1,300 a year. Nearby was the Greek Orthodox Church of the district. On this lighter land the wheat harvest was well through, where all were busy, the women stooking the grain alongside the others, as in the old Scotch days of "Comin' through the Rye." Everywhere were great fields of summer-fallow and but few cattle, though those seen were good. Here and there a pretty garden was seen in front of some old picturesque cottage, while new clearings of the scrub were quite frequently met. It was the schoolmaster, Paul Sorchuk, whom we met here, who had been a Ukrainian boy from the public school and had worked his way as a student, living at the Ukrainian Institute in Saskatoon, where many young men board while they attend the High School and University. His sister kept his house, but had gone, and he is looking for a wife. At length our objective, Wakaw, was reached at evensong, and having completed nearly 100 miles since dinner we were naturally ready for supper. This village is made up almost wholly of foreigners and presented quite a busy scene; farmers buying and implement dealers busy. It has its stores, churches and garage, the last modern need. We had the sauce of appetite and found a well- spread table, moderately served by a young woman, who seemed tired and spoke good English. On later inquiry, Sir Boniface showed he was an Englishman, who had come into Prince Albert some 17 years before, as he told me with a rather blase air, as if it had been too long and a mistake. Madam came after supper to the public room and kept up a conversation with one or two young Englishmen regarding the last novel. The whole was reminiscent of the old settlers, who had gone , into some parts of Muskoka in Ontario over 50 years ago. There was that imperturbable air of superiority, which marks faded gentility everywhere, and which has my respect since it has a cultural value in such a place as Wakaw, even though the hard-working Continental peasant may have contempt for the man who does not work. Such a man, to speak geologically, is an outlier of the main rock formation of society, and there is no doubt forms a link of Empire in what might otherwise become a foreign land. Night had fallen, and after learning about the prosperous settlement of Hungarians north and east and Ukrainians south and west, who had come in about 1902, we decided to make for home in Saskatoon after 8 o'clock. Passing out the road from town, marked by 5 great elevators, we found the roads greasy from a sudden downpour, and so went cautiously till the light lands over the plain were reached. Darkness came on before we reached the ferry, but the courteous Metis boatman answered our horn and t came from his house, and after the fashion of the boatman of Twickenham ferry rowed our motor over, only it was by the modern use of the steel cable across the stream of over 1,000 ft. wide, which enables the ferryman to make use of the swift-flowing Saskatchewan waters to drive his large ferry across. Rising up the winding roadway of the valley, we made good speed till Rosthern lights came into view. Soon we were pass- sing through the muddy streets with water standing about, but escaping, found our- 20 selves on a road made sticky by the rain, which impeded our pace for the next two hours. It may be that eastern clay roads are bad and those of Manitoba worse, but with very limited experience nothing could make a road more impossible than this Saskatchewan mud. Only the superior skill of our Ukrainian chauffeur kept us out of the ditch, where we found a fellow-traveller, more unfortunate, settled down in his car to sleep till morning, when he hoped his companion might return with aid and succour. Needless to say, I arrived tired, after midnight, from an over two hundred mile jaunt through the solid block of wheat fields of mostly Continental settlers. Peace and plenty seemed to reign everywhere, and the new city of mid-Saskatchewan shows in its wonderful growth, the advantage of having all around, east, west south and north, a country of wonderful fertility as a steady market for its supply houses. This chapter may properly close by adding that the next day's travel was for three hours till nightfall westward to the foothills beyond Vance. The run to the rising bluff carried me through another region across a plain, yellow with continuous wheat fields, and Joseph of old might have rejoiced had he seen such with which to fill his granaries to provide for the seven lean years to come. It is to be hoped that should this pleasant plain ever experience such, its people will have become so independent and prosperous that even a modern Joseph will not be able to end the account by saying—"And so all the land became Pharaoh's!" 21 CHAPTER VI A Wonderful Development in the Edmonton District by Continental Immigrants PERHAPS to few has there been given a better opportunity than myself of comparing a prairie district of 21 years ago with the same as it is to-day. Then I had started my inspection of Indian Schools at the Crow's Nest Pass, and in March and April, besides the railway, drove over a thousand miles eastward through what were then very recent settlements. The first twenty-five miles to Fort Saskatchewan was through Canadian settlements, and thence eastward for some twenty-five were German settlers and beyond these the thatched log houses with interstices filled with clay for forty miles of newly-arrived Ukrainians mostly from the Carpathian slopes in Austria. This summer in harvest time I have just completed a visit through the same territory, extending the trip south to Vegreville some thirty miles, which I had not reached in my trip of 1907. It has indeed been a delight to note the wonderful progress made in what is proving to be one of the most fertile wheat-growing areas in all Alberta or, indeed, in the whole northwest. This country, from Edmonton to the Fort, shows to-day the fine quality of old Canadian farmers, having their pretty houses along the national highway, with well-cultivated farms and magnificent crops. But beyond this is to be seen throughout the whole territory in a drive of some two hundred miles, the same continued high quality of cultivation and crops, though perhaps the soil first settled west of Vegreville may be lighter in the older settlements. Passing through Fort Saskatchewan, I was reminded of my former visit by the station of the Canadian National Railways, where I stood alone at 1.00 a.m. on the platform, waiting for the first train east for a fortnight, and had the chilly feeling increased by the lonely howls of the coyotes on the nearby prairie, answered by the barking of the village dogs. The town has to-day the usual number of churches and schools, but is no longer looked upon as the entrep6t for settlers' supplies as other towns have sprung up to the east. Needless to say, the crops in that German settlement were superb. The cultivation of a land surface remarkably free from sloughs, allows whole farms to be cleared, and mile upon mile of continuous wheat fields were to be seen. School-lands set apart in different townships have recently been sold at $67.00 an acre here; while the two-roomed school we passed illustrates the fecundity of these German settlers, who are peopling Alberta with citizens of the best type. As we proceeded south of the Canadian National Railways, the large farm of McKenzie & Mann was passed, of several miles square. It seemed in perfect cultivation, and the wheat was already being cut; while several local elevators prove that the crops from year to year of the district must be large. Mixed farming is to be seen here and great barns and silos complete the farm-steading. Another large farm owned by John Gratz, an old German settler, was passed, where splendid barley was ripening and cattle-farming has been begun well. In the distance to the north was seen the German village of Brudenheim, as we approached the grading of the Cut-Knife and Willingdon branch line of the Canadian Pacific Railway being pushed northwest to increase the facilities for placing new colonists. These Germans came into the district first in 1900 by way of Edmonton and had heavy work to clear the land, and to-day continue to clear up odd spots of scrub, which at first were too wet. The farmers are well off and now can afford to employ the newly-arrived continental immigrant at two dollars a day with board, or contract with him to clear the land ready for a crop. Soon the railway town of Lamont was reached, where I arrived at evening twenty-one years ago after wandering 22 along a new road, where miles and miles of new fencing were being constructed to enclose the rough country of the Beaver Hills as a National Elk Park. The village at noon was busy, all the farmers seeming to be in town to obtain binder-twine or parts of machines, and among them I got my first view of the men from the great Ukrainian settlement to the eastward. I was introduced to perhaps the oldest settlers, amongst them Mr. John Pyly- poresky, or as he now signs himself "Ply- poe," which soon will become Phillips or Philpott. I learned that he had come in thirty years ago from Galicia by way of the "Fort," and as we can say, grew into the soil. His farms were later seen, where he is surrounded by several sons, while others of his six children are married and living in Edmonton. He came through Fort Saskatchewan thirty years ago from Galicia. As one illustration of the past, and of how one meets old faces everywhere, I learned from the chief hotel-keeper where we had dinner, that he had come into the country in 1905, and gone north beyond the river where trapping beaver was carried on by Americans, but not much clearing had been done in the heavy timber. He had first come in with the railway and had had a livery stable and toted supplies from the south into Lamont. There were then, he said, quite a few people from Ontario, as Sam and Matt Campbell and Johnston from Parry Sound. Asking his name, he said it was Alexander McQueen of Guelph. He proved to be a Scotchman, who had come out to his friends there. When he told me further of old James McQueen of Fergus, who came from Scotland in 1836, was postmaster and township clerk of Garafraxa for seventy years and who was a second cousin of my mother's, I concluded that the breed must have spread far and wide over Canada during a century. There is a moral in the fact that he now owns two village lots and his hotel, while my old Ukrainian friend owns many quarter sections. Driving towards the north-west into the fine Ukrainian settlements we passed by the same golden wheat fields, and the Greek Orthodox Church, which it is said cost $47,000.00 and over which a great fight took place between two sections of parishioners several years ago. Near, too, is the public school where all the children attend, as they are greedy for knowledge. We next reached the village of Andrew, which in 1907 had a hotel kept by an Ontario man, with whom I stayed on my return from the Saddle Lakes, and who told me much about the social cus toms of these ancient Slav people. For centuries they have lived their simple lives in the villages of the Carpathian Mountains, and gone out to their small plots to cultivate them in an intensive fashion and so learned the value of every foot of ground; hence year by year they are clearing the scrub and making their farms amongst the most highly cultivated on the prairies. As a Calgary banker, who has lived in Alberta all his life, said to me: They love the land, since, as one of his clients in real estate told him, he had refused to sell a piece of land to an American, who simply wanted to speculate with it, but sold it on easy terms to the Ukrainian, who loves the soil. The town of Andrew has taken on a new lease of life recently; a good number of new buildings are springing up, and an Ontario doctor who practised there has now bought farms and deserted medicine for agriculture, as he told me. Perhaps he is seeking political honors, the dream of the successful Canadian in the West. Going on, we passed here and there some early Galician house with its thatched roof, still artistic, even if rude; but came to one so outstanding that I was forced to stop and explore it. Once a sample of the thatched cottage, 20 x 16 , built of logs, with chinks filled with clay, it has now been extended to fifty feet and is beautifully plastered, while outside it retains its thatch entirely. There is a space ten feet wide with its earthen floor between two large rooms, one for living and working and one for sleeping. Most interesting, however, is the fact that this central hall space opens to the roof, although the two other rooms are covered with boards as a ceiling. As chimneys are expensive and difficult to build, the simple plan has been adopted of putting a stove in each room and bringing its stove pipe into the middle space, where its smoke rises to an opening in the roof, but spreads throughout the whole gable space, which becomes the smoke-house for curing the family bacon. The woman came to meetme and my cicerone, who addressed her in her own language, to her delight, as she proudly showed us the interior of her home. She is well-appearing and has a beautiful young girl with golden hair, who spoke sweetly as good English as one could wish. She is in grade 5, and when I suggested she would soon be going to Edmonton to High School, she seemed almost to heave a sigh at what seemed for her an impossibility. I would advise anyone who doubts the social capabilities of those interesting Canadians, to visit Madam Bilez and her lovely child. 23 r Over to the north lay the village of Shandro, named after a rich farmer who owns eleven quarter sections of land, who is married to a cousin of my cicerone, an educated young man from Strathcona College. As the afternoon was advancing we turned south toward Vegreville, thirty miles away. Soon we came to another settlement of Canadian farmers, one of whom was Mr. Dick Houston, living in a fine modern residence with good barns and equipment, and quoted as worth $25,000. Here we met the local farmer doctor, an old Ontario boy with brothers down there, but who is certainly making his influence felt in this new community. We soon reached the new boom town of Willingdon on the Wilkie Canadian Pacific Railway extension, made impor^ tant as taking on our Governor-General's name. Already it has stores, hotels, machine shops and all the requirements of a new rural centre. The Canadian Pacific Railway bought a farm of eighty acres at $70.00 an acre, and in its usual provident fashion has sold lots to the newcomers. Going south we passed the usual country school, then a store^ at a crossroads, and drove rapidly, hoping to avoid one of the floating dark rain clouds moving south-east, as most seem to do there. These storms have proved a source of constant interest and study to me, as day after day I have driven across the open prairie. The treeless plain has the horizon far distant, and, seemingly gathering for no special reason, a dark cloud appears, travelling perhaps slowly till it meets a cold current and suddenly precipitates its rain, and often as suddenly hail, over a usually narrow area. Thus while for ten minutes the rain poured upon us, we drove out from under it as it travelled eastward. Luckily this year, and especially in the north, the prairies have largely escaped hail storms and the danger daily passes as the nights grow cooler. Soon we entered Vegreville, the first most important town centre some eighty miles east of Edmonton, which has for twenty years been on the map as a centre of the first medical mission and hospital within many miles. As I had heard much of the work done in it, I called, only to find the matron on her holidays. Wishing to obtain an opinion of one who has worked for seven years where many Ukrainians have been patients, I have endeavored to get an opinion, which I hope to be permitted to make use of. After taking on gasoline and putting chains on the motor, for the rain had made the roads greasy to a degree only possible in western black earth, and getting some nutriment, we started from this thriving but muddy town, which has a water supply and drains, on our road homeward to the west. The early settlers here seem to have been mostly Ontario Canadians, who took up first what were lighter and then more desirable, land, and now have good homes and crops. The road leads to Mondaire, a small town where almost every shop name is Ukrainian, Mike Henso being prominent. It has the usual supply houses of a rural community, and has its Greek Orthodox Church as well as a Uniat Church. Everywhere the crops continued good and we went spinning along a road too much ridged, but with a track on either side. The clever driver was, like the horses with their heads turned home, wanting his supper. Trying to avoid the rough spots, he went too far to the left, found a soft spot, and in a moment we were in the ditch, with two feet of water and against the traditional telegraph pole, which was snapped. What might have so easily happened didn't, and we climbed out, viewed the damage and considered our position. A good Samaritan came along, took up our Pegasus or whatever a modern chauffeur is supposed to be in classical language, and went to look for teams to extract us. Another winged horse came along and I begged a seat, kindly given among the four hundred pounds of samples in the back, feeling that I could be of no use to lift the motor out of the mud. My new guides proved to be most interesting and kept up a constant drummer's chaff for forty miles home. Night came gradually down as we entered the winding road south of the Beaver Hills Park, and with several stops to coax our headlights into good humour by means of patched up fuses, about which I confess ignorance, we gradually approached the lights of Edmonton, crossed the splendid bridge over the River and ended the long day with a generous supper at the fine "Shasta" Cafe, it being my treat. Incidental to this trip it will be of interest to many in the east to know something of the progress in the far-off district of north-western Alberta, or the Peace River country. Some years ago the Government built a railroad to Athabasca Landing and from time to time since have extended another line to Peace River Crossing some three hundred miles from Edmonton. It is difficult for one who knew Edmonton in the days following the boom to appreciate her present splendid position. Then a city of 25,000, she now has built up many vacant spaces, brought the town oj Strathcona with its University 24 of Alberta within the common municipality of Edmonton, and proudly speaks of a population of some 75,000. A part of this is undoubtedly due to its being the supply depot of a country, which we in the east know almost nothing about. I got this first-hand information from the travelling salesman, who brought me back to Edmonton. He now makes regular trips into the Grande Paririe country, or Peace River district, where towns are springing up, enough to give him in a few days an order for furniture and house equipment of $1,500.00, where a year ago he got only $300.00. He stated that sleeping car berths must be secured days ahead on the train, which goes to Peace River Crossing twice weekly, having twelve coaches. Some seventy settlers were going in a week with their effects at the company's rate and laborers are getting special cheap rates. The land values have doubled and trebled within the year. Thus settlers and investors are taking money with them and are mostly Canadians and Americans. It is the same unconquerable spirit of adventure, enterprise and speculation that for two centuries has carried Americans beyond the Alleghenies to the western prairies, where they met and drove back the red men, who came in during the boom days of immigration to Alberta in 1909-13, and who ultimately will travel on until Atlavic within the Arctic Circle becomes their goal. 25 CHAPTER VII A Day with the Doukhobors of the Kootenay Valley, British Columbia HAVING known the history of this interesting but much misunderstood people since their first arrival in Canada to escape further persecution in Russia, I was determined to visit them in the new home they have carved out of the rough, timbered lands in the Valley of the Kootenay River below Nelson City in British Columbia. No fairer day could have come than that in August as I motored down the Valley from the prettiest town of all the interior of British Columbia. Environed with mountains, the air in the cool streets of Nelson, sheltered by the mountains to the south, was delicious. The splendid buildings in stone, the paved streets and flowered parterres abutting the houses all reminded me of some charming village in the South of England. At nearly 2,000 feet the atmosphere is translucent and stimulating, and every pretty child met in the streets was clear-skinned, bright and smiling. So it was a good day to take the fine motor bus down the Valley, having for company Deputy Minister Camsell, of the Dominion Mines Department, for companion, he being on his annual inspection tour, and go rapidly along the fine road at the foot of the mountain. Though often cut out from its side, our chauffeur seemed to negotiate its many bends and curves as easily as the kiddies navigate the sidewalk with their tricycles between the feet of pedestrians. We passed by several local ports and soon came to where the Valley widened out somewhat, and saw the irrigated fields and gardens of the first Doukhobor settlement. There are seven of these in this and nearby valleys, those in the Kootenay reaching to where it meets at Brilliant the great Columbia river flowing south to Oregon and the ocean. The several village settlements are at Thrums, Farrys, Glade, Sure Acres, Tarquin, Winland in the Slocan, Dery and Sidney. Seen from the highway several huudred feet above, many fields and orchards seemed as regularly cut out as a quilt pattern, and were planted with apples, plums, pears and cherries, and the orchards interspersed with patches of strawberries, raspberries and currants, with tomato fields to complete the materials for the canning season. All together, as I was informed, possibly incorrectly, the several settlements include some 20,000 acres. At any rate, the Electoral Division for Kootenay West had a total value for all fruit in 1920 of $408,- 566, of which apples were most important. As many trees were young and non-bearing, the crop to-day would be probably twice this amount. In 1920 the fruit crops of the Kootenay West Division were third largest in British Columbia. These beautiful fields serve as a border to the wonderfully limpid, blue-green water of the Kootenay River, which in its 30 miles descent of some 500 feet in 25 miles, creates a series of cascades and falls like that at Bonnington, which are now supplying power to distant towns and will ultimately develop 500,000 H.P. A simple platform at the roadside on the upper river bench is all that marks arrival at the town of Brilliant with its railway station; but just beyond this is the outcrop of granite now made historic through the elegant mausoleum of gray granite, which marks the tomb of Prince Peter Verigin, whose memory is held in reverence by every good Doukhobor as being the Moses, who brought them to this promised land. Who could have imagined this simple Russian people from the far Caucasus would have possessed the pure artistic taste shown in this remarkable creation of modern art ? The top of the cliff has been levelled and a perfect square of 50 feet is enclosed in a stone wall of fine masonry surmounted by an iron railing. Within the enclosure is a border of flowers in full bloom; again within this a green sward kept in perfect order; within this again a concrete walk surrounding 26 the tomb, then a bed of flowers, and in the centre the beautifully carved tomb of gray granite. Outside the wall on a lower level is another parterre nearly an acre in extent, of perfect green lawn, bordered again with flowers. The face of the cliff has also another stone structure like the bastion of a fort, having crenelated openings at the top, as if inmates might be set there to guard the Valley. Just what its purpose is I did not learn. Still on the cliff-side is a pretty cottage, embowered in shrubs and flowers, even a rose or two, where many hives of bees are sheltered, a veritable "Sunny Hymettus with the sound of bees' industrious murmur." The old gardener and caretaker lives here, and from his broken speech I learned that an annual gathering takes place at Brilliant of the faithful, and services in the open are held at the tomb of their Protector, At last, out of the clouds, I came to earth and slowly descended the steep hill, and at length reached the railway station and the offices of the canning company, with its sign in large letters, "Christian Community of Universal Brotherhood of Doukhobors in Canada." Enquiry of a clerk revealed that Mr. Shukuf, the General Manager and Accountant, was absent in Vancouver on business, but I was courteously invited to inspect the plant with work going on in the cannery near by. Mr. P. H. Katasonoff there informed me that he had come to Canada in 1898 as a child with the first contingent of Doukhobors from Russia. When Peter Verigin and fifty per cent, of the 7,000 Doukhobors near Yorkton refused to accept the Dominion Government's ultimatum either to take out the patents for their homesteads or vacate them, they igave up under protest many thousand acres of cultivated land and came to the Kootenay Valley, and bought a tract of wooded waste land on the river bottom at the junction of the Kootenay and Columbia. Katasonoff said he came to Nelson in 1911 and worked in the Cannery Company there, but in 1915 came to Brilliant when the new cannery was built. The canning expert manager is, however, Mr. Zilein, who had learned the art in the Nelson cannery, where he worked two years. The several Doukhobor communities in the Valley begin to ship their fruit to the cannery in June, strawberries coming in first, then raspberries and currants, and next cherries and plums. Already in August some 20,000 cases of jam have been made, and when the tomato season is over by October the Manager hopes to have 50,000 cases of all kinds. The extensive cannery buildings were all erected by the workers of the community, which has its own large saw mill, cuts its own timber, and has its own carpenters and blacksmiths. The buildings are admirably constructed, large and scrupulously clean. The tin cans are purchased in Vancouver; but some of the machinery is home made, as the machine cleverly invented to separate the stones and pulp of the fruit. Strawberry and apple jam was being largely made out of the early apples. Merchants come from the East and West to buy the products and pay good prices for the finer brands. Enquiry was later made regarding their schools from young Shuken, son of the General Manager, who kindly gave me much information. He speaks fair English as does Mr. Huddeken, and both stated that all the children now attend school till 14 years, when they go to work in the fields or at other employment. So far they have not educated any doctors, lawyers or teachers, but send to Nelson for a doctor when sick, and when necessary employ their lawyer, who lives at Yorkton. Their social organization is very simple. In each of the settlements a group of 100 select a committee, one of whom acts as Chairman for as long as the group wishes. From time to time the representatives of the several groups meet for consultation with their permanent senior brother, the son of the late Peter Verigin. As brotherhoods of Christians, the people of the various villages meet on Sunday morning, and on other occasions, to sing psalms and hymns and hold converse, but have no regular clergy. One of the large stone buildings is used as a Community Hall, and Sunday afternoon is given up to ball games and other amusements. All cultivate the Christian spirit, which is embodied in the word Doukhobor, meaning "Spirit-wrestler," and they profess to follow in every detail the teachings of Christ. Tobacco and fermented liquors are absolutely "taboo" to these good people, and young, as old, obey the precepts. It appears that from time to time individuals may wish to leave the community to live an independent life. No compulsion, however, is exercised toward them, and from time to time some of such return.| At the present moment some extremists have left the community and, calling themselves "Sons of Freedom," are demanding as a primary right that they need not send their children to school, employ doctors or register births, marriages or deaths, and on one or two occasions have made street parades in 27 order to add strength to their protest. But as we have seen elsewhere, other political and religious bodies adopt the same practice, so this need not be looked upon as unusual, though a cause of complaint in the Valley. I have not read the discussion in Parliament regarding these people; but from what one casually hears on the train and in hotels we can easily understand that it is the very virtues of these communities making for business success that are the occasion of complaints by competitors. One such was made to me by a Valley gentleman to the effect that those people are making it impossible for the other fruit growers to make a living. We have seen that their output is perhaps $500,000, and that of all British Columbia $5,000,000, so that even if they are successful, others need not suffer greatly. When noon arrived I naturally thought of dinner, and asked whether there was a hotel. I was told "No," and then said, "I must have something to eat" as the bus did not return till late in the afternoon. So I was invited to come with young Shuken to his father's house, a fine brick dwelling on the river bank. After waiting in a long hall seat, I was ushered into the large dining room and kitchen, where were several long tables and common benches drawn up to each, and was shown to one of those where only male members of the household eat. All stood, and I looked to my young friend for the next move and suggested " Prayer," when he looked across to an old man beside me, of benign appearance, who, I later learned, had been an exile in Siberia for five years for his faith. He spoke a long grace, and after dinner again gave thanks. Our meal was simple, as these people eat no meat. We had a good vegetable soup, with what seemed unleavened bread, then potatoes and vegetables with fine pancakes and butter. This was followed by cherry preserves, bread and tea. Indeed it was for me a quite model dinner. Some half-dozen middle-aged women sat at another table or served the meal. Naturally I was much interested in all I saw, and found my young friend well informed on all pertaining to his people. When I remarked about the women being in the fashion with their bobbed hair, I was told it had always been their custom, so that I made then, incidentally, a scientific discovery as to the source of our most modern female fad. Asking about their social life, I asked how many deaths, marriages and births occurred in a year, and I learned that this was an internal matter, which they thought the State had no right to interfere in. Of course, I said, but supposing influenza or other epidemic disease breaks out, you will require a doctor and he must report deaths. He agreed, but evidently it was another matter of State interference they are afraid of, as in that of military service. They are gradually, however, learning to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and now that they have taken to buying automobiles, and as an engineer on the bus told me, "are not satisfied with a Ford but demand the best," I am quite certain they will gradually show other signs of what we call advanced civilization, and possibly have a golf course in the autumn after the crops are in, as otherwise land is too valuable. It is not part of this study to investigate deeply social and religious problems, but from the picture of this Christian Brotherhood, as I have seen it, surely no danger to Canada can result from it. It is as far as possible from Bolshevism. Like the early Christians, these people are trying to imitate the life of Christ, and if they choose to live in a quiet community apart from the world, in a sense they are only imitating the early Christians. The story has been frequently told of how these people of Quaker persuasion were persecuted in Russia because of their refusal to become military recruits, and of how Leon Tolstoi, Prince Hilkof and others there were assisted by English and American Quakers in supplying funds to emigrate them to Canada. The late Prof. Mavor became active in their behalf in Canada, while the clause in the Canada Militia Act, a repetition of the Imperial Act of 1793 regarding Quakers, was utilized to make them feel protected when they became citizens here. It reads: "Every person bearing a certificate from the Society of Quakers, Mennonites or Tunkers, and every inhabitant of Canada of any religious denomination otherwise subject to military duty, who from the doctrines of his religion is averse to bearing arms and refuses military service, shall be exempt from such service." • It was on January 23rd, 1899, that the Steamer "Lake Huron" landed the first party of 2,100 at Halifax. They were met by Government officials, by a representative of the Philadelphia "Society of Friends" and, perhaps most notably, by a representative of a society of working- men. This gentleman, Mr. Bulmer, said, after giving them a hearty welcome: "You bring to Canada something more needed in this country even than immigrants—men who stand by their principles, no matter how much suffering it 28 costs them. You belong to the races which we want in this country, like the Russian, which,in its commercial organization and corporation has a lesson for even as advanced a country as Canada. On behalf of the working-men of this country I welcome you to Canada and bid you God-speed." Trie correspondent of the "Montreal Daily Star" of that date greeted Captain Evans, who had had the Doukhobors as passengers on a long and stormy voyage. He said he had been agreeably surprised at the intelligent, industrious and cleanly nature of the Doukhobors. Not only had they cared for themselves and kept the ship perfectly clean, but they had earned small wages shifting coal from the hold to the bunkers. Over 800 tons they had moved as skilfully as any crew could have done. They were quiet and peaceable, and always seemed cheerful. He had not seen a row or heard a cross word among them during the voyage. There was no vice of any kind among them, and he believed they would make a superior class of immigrant. Thirty years have proved the Captain's belief. It is quite true that to-day they illustrate the benefits of co-operation in their commercial life, since they all work together and receive the benefits from well- directed industry. They spend nothing on the luxuries of tobacco or spirits of any kind, and buy their own yarns for spinning, just as the Crafts and Guilds Society is inculcating among other immigrants, as seen in the recent Winnipeg Exhibit. Naturally they dread Bolshevism as they do war, and even to-day, after thirty years in Canada, fear that they may be made to move again on account of their religion. After several experiences in Canada they cannot fully trust even the King's word given them through the Government when they first came. It cannot be overlooked that in essence this self-contained community is nothing more than an agricultural business just as Eaton's or Hudson's Bay Stores, both of which have under their direct control more than an equal number of co-operating workers toward the end of efficient, cheap, mass production. That the business has been built up on a religious principle would at any rate seem to secure to the public honest goods of 100% quality, and it is conceded that all, who trade with them are paid fully every debt owed. 29 J CHAPTER VIII Progress in the Old Home of the Cattle Ranges and Cow-Boys MUCH of the charm of the Wild West in the first days of our North-West history attaches to the country, which centred about Fort McLeod fifty years ago, where Major Walsh of the Mounted Police and Stipendiary Magistrate Col. McLeod brought law and order to the American Border and checked the running of horses and cattle into Montana. No one then ever dreamed of this country ever becoming other than a cattle run, and I can well recall my first trip through it thirty-five years ago, a few years after the C.P.R. was built and the boom towns that had sprung up were awaiting population, and my old college friends, with no clients to serve, meantime consumed immoderate quantities of a doubtful beer, then chiefly manufactured for the detachment of Mounted Police stationed nearby Pearce's ranch. To-day, all is changed! Where in 1909 I saw the first crops of wheat waving and my old Calgary medical friend, almost hysterical, every day, as we drove over the prairies, would speak of the chances of frost on the coming night to injure the wheat on a few thousand acres, now millions of bushels in wheat fields can be seen, and towns then, with a dubious future, to-day have their splendid public buildings, paved streets, public parks, and modern hotels and town water-works, sewerage systems, fine schools and all the amenities of a modern city. One marvels at what has been accomplished, and is forced to enquire how it all has become possible. The reply is chiefly to be found in the unconquerable optimism and energy of the first Canadians who settled in that country. There was, too, and in his element, the English capitalist, who^ came in first as a rancher; and if all did not succeed, they at any rate cast a halo of romance over this bunch-grass county, which has left its impress on the billowy prairies under the shadow of the eternal snow fields of the Rockies. Time has shown that two things chiefly were necessary: Knowledge of what the physical features and climate of the district demanded and capital to put this knowledge to work. As in the western dry American prairies, water formed the solution of this problem, so in the McLeod and Lethbridge districts, the abundant water of the mountain streams began to be set to work by our ever-to-be-revered Wm. Pearce from the London, Ontario district. In a small way he began an irrigation system as early as 1894, but there were few to come to help him realize his dream. Indeed it was American settlers of a religious persuasion foreign to our old ways of thinking, who came in from Utah, and with a knowledge gained through cruel experience in a rock-bound, sun-burnt plain, began a reconstruction of the country in what is now the Cardston district, when they constructed their own irrigation ditches and introduced for the first time in Canada the cultivation of the sugar beet. It seems almost absurd to say so, but it is more than fifty years ago that, as a callow Professor of Science in the Guelph Agricultural College, I wrote an article on sugar-beet growing in Canada and sent it to the Toronto Globe, when my old friend the agricultural editor affirmed their production as impossible in Canada. But perhaps we owe as much to the forward policy of the Hon. Frank Oliver, who with the hundreds of thousands of Americans come in with capital seeking land for investment or settlement, determined to subdivide the great ranch lands into farm lands for homesteads with the right of pre-emption to all of an additional quarter-section. Thousands of such were taken up, but melancholy years came for many, when drought succeeded drought, the land boom burst, inflated values were reduced often to zero, and failure stared thousands in the face, and men who had grown wealthy, as the Nobles, who had 15,000 acres in wheat yielding 40 bushels. 30 saw their heroic efforts fail and their fortunes disappear, like snow before a chinook, with nothing left but land and blasted hopes. To-day one goes out from the fine city of Lethbridge, kept alive through trying years by the coal mines, and sees, north, south, east and west, fields of grain as splendid as any seen elsewhere, running into thousands of acres, but on irrigated fields, where should a dry season come they are protected by available water on four large irrigation developmentsamount- ingin all to 1,300,000 acres; while many farmers have additional non-irrigated land, which in these abundant years they have farmed succesfully. At first sight this description might lead people to conclude that the problem of the Dry Belt has been solved and its success assured; but this is only partially true. I have just come through areas of British Columbia and seen that even in irrigated land the primary need is the human element of population. So, too, here! While driving eastward from Lethbridge, we passed the Dominion Experimental farm, the Smith estate of 5,000 acres of absentee English owners, and other large farms with their wonderful crops; yet I soon learned that to be assured of continuous success a method of scientific rotation of crops on even irrigated land is essential. Here and there as we passed, a large field of wheat filled with wild oats would be seen, whose continued presence means not only ruin to its owner, but also a menace to the whole district, if a rotation of crops is not followed. I was assured that not even summer-fallow is enough to destroy this noxious weed, whose seed remains in the ground for years, and that the only remedy is beetroot cultivation for two or three years, followed by sweet clover or alfalfa on the clean ground seeded with a crop of wheat, and then after turning down the sweet clover for green fertilizer, grain and beets again. But the problem is how are the beets to be cultivated? It is found that a family of Hollanders, Hungarians or Mennonite Russians can cultivate a crop of 10-15 acres of beets and insure a crop of 14-16 tons to the acre for the sugar factory. This method has gone on now so long that a regular schedule of wages has become established by owners and workers, dependent on the acreage and the present price of sugar. It must be apparent to the most superficial observer that if no group of British immigrants has proved adequate for this kind of cultivation, then the continental immigrant, who for many years has en gaged in this intensive cultivation, becomes essential if development of those splendid areas is to be made possible. An illustration of what is being done in this district, largely taken up fifteen or more years ago by Americans, who often abandoned the land later, was given me in the story of Henry Klassen, a Mennonite from Southern Russia, which I obtained from himself personally. Klassen informed me that he had been for a time settled near Calgary, but for five years had been on his present irrigated lands. He had been allowed to leave the Russian Ukraine, where he had 1,800 acres,, which had been taken from him without compensation, leaving him only 15 acres. The same year 5,000 of his fellow-Mennonites came to Canada. It will be recalled that a number of thousands of these worthy German- Russians, who are Quakers, came to Upper Canada about 1800 and settled in the Niagara and Waterloo districts of Upper Canada and have remained till to-day, most prosperous and permanent farmers, business men, and progressive Canadians. Of these recent Mennonites, some 50 families have bought farms in the district east of Lethbridge, getting at the same time one-quarter section of irrigated and one-quarter section of dry land. Klassen this year has 100 acres in wheat and 27 acres of sugar beets. During the growing season he employs 8 laborers in the beet fields, who go from one farm to another beet field. The men employed by Klassen and others are Hungarians without capital, who came to Canada a year ago, and after the harvest was over went to work in the coal mines, and never needed any financial assistance. All proved good beet-workers as they had worked at them at home. They are paid $23.00 an acre for hand work, the whole family working, and get 20 cents for each load placed on wagons. This picture is typical of Ontario conditions over 50 years ago, when poor Irish immigrants could be seen even 15 or 20 to a farm, cutting hay with scythes, and all found employment in the woods later. This year, 1928, some 7,200 acres were put into beets in the district; but some 1,800 acres were drowned out by the rains in June. These Mennonites form a community of over 50 families, have a Mennonite church at Coaldale, and a school to which all the children go. Klassen says they like Canada, but Russia has a better climate. There he owned and cultivated 1,800 acres, employed 48 men and grew fall wheat. Perhaps some critics of the continental immigrant may be interested 31 to know that Mr. Klassen not only lost his farm to the Bolshevists, but also 7 binders, 30 ploughs, 7 mowers and 12 wagons, and that he is not enamoured of the ways of Russia. Mr. Klassen says all take an active part in municipal and school affairs, and he smiled when asked if any were in gaol. Those of the Quaker sect have their own religious services and do not drink, and like Quaker Hoover are strong for prohibition. Their history is well known. Some 150 years ago, Czarina Catherine of Russia invited these good people from Holland and Germany to come to the Ukraine in Russia to teach her peasants good farming, and promised them exemption from military service, as was done by Governor Lord Dorchester in Upper Canada when such people asked to come in from Pennsylvania. They are fortunate in speaking both Russian and German in addition to English. An interesting note may be made here concerning my taxi driver, an intelligent Roumanian emigrant, who owns his own taxi. He was anxious to know how his father could get to Canada as he lives in that part of Boukovina taken over after the war by Roumania, and his migration to Canada is refused. The matter of getting such to come to their friends is also one for the generous consideration of Canadians. Possibly with the recent coming into power of the Agrarian party in Roumania a solution may be found. Equally interesting are the Hungarians who have come and others who want to come where all succeed and are adding both to our producing and consuming population. This beetroot area now irrigated is a strip perhaps 20 miles wide by 120 long and is only awaiting settlers to become a garden. We naturally ask: Shall we delay its development by keeping out the best of cultivators, until we have tested British immigrants, who have been tried, in vain, in Ontario for 20 years in the beet fields and have proven inadequate, while the work is being done there by Hollanders and Belgians? An old-time American settler, now land agent and farmer, conducted me through the district, and supplied much most interesting information. He pointed out that the American settler, accustomed to modern machinery, will come in and utilize tractors and would take farms now too large, and cultivate them on the rotation plan if they could get the beetroot labor of Belgians and Hungarians, who would soon make enough to buy 80 acres, which one family would prove adequate to take care of. Here, as is abundantly shown in Manitoba, the problem is one not of leasing prairie land but one of keeping the irrigated land under perfect cultivation if the weed problem Is to be dealt with successfully. Southern Alberta has already 1,300,000 acres of Company irrigated lands and many small private systems, and one naturally asks how the 40,000 miles of Canadian railway are to be kept busy in any other way. That, however, this District known as Division No. 2 in Alberta in the 1921 census is progressing steadily, may be judged from the fact that excluding Lethbridge with 11,097 and some 18 other villages and towns about the coal mines with some 2,000, there were 46,823 in 1921, while to-day Lethbridge has grown to 17,000 and is a splendid young city with paved streets and all city amenities. Nowhere has the general progress of the West been greater recently than here, where can be seen the intimate relation between rural, industrial and commercial prosperity. The coal mines give work in winter to the surplus farm labor of the summer, so that business is being maintained in a highly prosperous state. The chief complaint of a business friend, a long resident of the district, was that the Government at Edmonton spent about all the road money up north, not even completing what may be termed tourist routes. My experience on at least one road after three days' rain led me to conclude that no matter what the reason was, that provincial road proved quite the worst I encountered in all my travels. 32 T CHAPTER IX How Americans and Continentals have Made the Country South of Edmonton Famous I RECALL with mingled feelings my journey over twenty years ago n through the territory which during August I have just journeyed through south of Edmonton. Then I had come up from Calgary and spent the day inspecting the Red Deer Indian School and to make progress caught the train north, and late at night was put off at a way station, a mile from the Indian Mission on the Hobbema Reserve. Nothing but the section-man's house was available as a stop-over place and the Mission was too far to reach so late at night. But the next day with the old Oblate cur6 in charge of the Mission for over thirty years and but recently returned from his first visit to Old France, repaid me for any hardship endured. So I travelled on to Edmonton, still within the grip of winter, and thence visited the Indian School at St. Albert. On August 18th last I had the privilege of returning southward over the new Government highway from Calgary—one of the best roads in Alberta—to observe one of the most splendid agricultural developments in all Canada. Primarily settled near the railway line were many Upper Canadians, whose beautiful homes and wonderful wheat-fields made one from the Old Provinces, where so much land is out of commission, positively envious. As far as the eye could see were the same great stands of wheat, almost thicker and stronger, if possible, than those seen the day before, and one could only guess the millions of bushels, which would be ready shortly for the foreign market. Already we are hearing from the recipients of these bounties of nature complaints lest there should be too much wheat grown that might affect profits. It might be well for any such to thank Providence that has been so good as to bring them to this abundant land first, where land values are higher even than in the Old Provinces. Arrived at Leduc, some twenty-five miles south along the railway, I had the good fortune to find at home Mr. Charles Carroll—the "Land King" of the place— in his real estate office, which on a Saturday afternoon was as busy as Eaton's in Winnipeg. Meeting Mr. Carroll in good humour after lunch, I was soon making notes of his conversation, which is so important and interesting as good history that I must relate some of its details. Mr. Charles William Carroll came into the Leduc district in 1906. His grandfather, Alexander, had left Peterboro, Ontario, for Iowa in 1852. Knowing about the early Peterboro settlement of Irishmen, I was able to make out the following genealogy, part of which Mr. Carroll did not know. (1) Alexander I arrived in the Irish colony in Peterboro in 1825. (2) Alexander II went to Iowa in 1852, taking his son Charles, then twelve years old. (3) Charles William, son of Charles I, was born in 1871 and came to Edmonton as land valuator in 1901 and settled in Leduc in 1906, where he has been land agent for the Hudson Bay, Canadian Pacific Railway, British Canadian Land Companies, and now having only three sections of Hudson Bay land, and eleven of Canadian Pacific Railway lands unsold, thinks it time to retire and rest on his laurels. But Mr. Carroll is especially interested in his seven quarter sections of land, which he has farmed in shares. He first clears and puts the land in order with the assistance of new immigrants, who immediately begin to make good. He may then place some of them on the farms to work on shares, he taking one-third of the crop delivered at the elevator and paying half the taxes. Having, as he regrets, no children, he has adopted three and looks for a comfortable old age with these around him. Mr. Carroll sums up his success briefly in a single sentence, "Hard work and patience." Next I was introduced to Mr. Jonas Johnson, a Swede of about fifty years, who came into Wetas- kiwin first to write for a Swedish news- 33 paper. He informed me that south-east from there is a large Swedish and Norwegian settlement, the first coming in perhaps forty years ago. These settled to the east of the Hobbema Reserve, a part of which was sold about 1909 by the Government to investors, most of which were German farmers from the district west of Leduc. The Canadian Pacific Railway lands south-east, first sold to the Scandinavians some twenty-five years ago, are to-day highly cultivated, with fine homes fitted even ^ with electricity. Mr. Quittam, a Swedish settler from the Malwa district, having settled there twenty-five years before, was introduced and gave me further information. He stated that land sales are still made there to newcomers; but most are to old-time farmers whose boys are growing up—the dream of each old farmer being to have enough of land to supply a farm to each of his boys, and so some are selling their high priced lands and moving to new lands in the Lacombe district to the west. A glance at the land map makes it plain that almost all the lands in and about these fine old settlements have been taken up and that new districts must be opened to the west and farther north. But when this is stated and made use of as an argument for arresting efforts to extend immigration, it becomes necessary to closely examine the map showing the extent of Alberta to understand the truth of the statement in the 1921 census that gives only three per cent of all the lands of the Province as occupied. The land map of the Canadian Pacific Railway up to date 1925 plainly shows the large areas of lands in new districts for sale and unoccupied. Remembering that the Company's Charter in 1882 gave it the right to select its lands over a period of twenty years and that it sent expert cruisers over all the Government lands, it is plain that much that remains is likely to be as favorable for future settlement as were the present occupied lands. If my survey of the areas where great groups of foreigners are settled, selected by myself only because they were chiefly Continentals, has been satisfactory, it is a fair assumption that most of the land taken up by Canadians and British during the past forty years will be at least equal in quality to the rest. Having obtained all this valuable information, I proceeded through the fine old German colony to the west and north of Leduc, where are good crops and fine homes, and then into a district settled wholly by Ukrainians, somewhat newer and less advanced. Nevertheless their crops are all good and clearing the soil is steadily going on. Quite a community was found north-west with three separate churches, one Greek Orthodox, one Uniat and one Roman Catholic, and near the latter was a roadside cross emblematic of old country customs. Returning from this district, where road-making is steadily going on, we crossed to the east, where is the old French settlement of Metis. Here, too, good crops prevailed although the amount of clearing of wet spaces was somewhat less obvious. Good modern houses are found in the district, and it was with even greater hopes that we kept on east and north to visit the other French settlement of Beaumont. Arriving there at tea-time I found the cure, Rev. M. Gaboury, at home in the Presbytery with several younger priests on a visit. Telling him I was making a survey of some of the principal settlements of the west to note the progress of my immigrants, said I would like him to tell me about his parish. He had come to Canada from Old France some eighteen years ago and thence to Edmonton, where he had built up the parish of St. Mary's. For the past five years he has had the parish of Beaumont, which has to-day a congregation of some nine hundred persons though a few years ago it was only a mission. All the parish was prosperous, having good farms, and has in all eight public schools within its bounds. In two of them, all being French, a French teacher teaches both in French and English with a special educational programme. All, however, have the same school books approved by the Provincial Education Department, which sends two inspectors, one English and one French. The English and French of the district dominate social affairs and exercise a good influence amongst the surrounding Continentals, who are both German and Ukrainian. Asked as to their social relations, M. Gaboury said all these people join most cordially in social affairs and are all friendly. The Continentals do not differ in spirit and manners from the French and English. The first settlers there were the French-Canadian Metis, who are to-day all English-speaking and all are a willing community, cordially working in harmony to build up a good Canadian spirit. Thanking the cure for his gracious condescension in answering my questions, which he understands may be published, I said 'Bon soir' and then came away, passing near the village the home of the wealthiest of the parishioners, a French Canadian, Mr. Barrabee, whose 34 I people we met just leaving the spacious mansion, I understand he has many (eleven) sections of land, which he keeps steadily clearing and cultivating. He is a large, strong, bustling man of intelligent and well-directed energy. He has cattle, silos, employs Continental immigrants to clear the land and hires others, who carry on his farm work. Then we rapidly drove home for a time, and then more slowly as the rain made the roads greasy; but soon arrived back in Edmonton, having completed a week's tour through wide stretches of country for nearly a thousand miles and in settlements largely of Continental immigrants. I had a feeling, indeed, of unqualified satisfaction that I had taken a considerable part during some seventeen years of service in admitting to Canada men of the various Continental groups described, who have helped in a large measure to construct a social edifice in Saskatchewan and Alberta than which none is more progressive and enduring in any part of Canada. 35 r CHAPTER X An Unique Problem of Colonization in the Inter-Laken District WE have a good right to adopt the pretty Swiss term for the Manitoba District between Lakes Winnipeg and Manitoba, the two words so inclusive of our first North-West Province. If the map be examined, there will be found in a line some 40 miles directly North of Winnipeg the Village of Teulon, named, I learn, after a first settler, now on the highway to Winnipeg's Summer Playground, Winnipeg Beach. Teulon is a centre of what has really become a social experiment, dominated by two naturalists, a medical missionary and a school inspector. If a line be drawn through Teulon from East and West for 45 miles, the heads of Lake Winnipeg and of Lake Manitoba will be touched. North beyond this line lies what is a level prairie, once covered with poplar for a hundred miles till it approaches the rocky Laurentian Country, interspersed with lakes and streams of the Lake Winnipegosis District, whose waters drain finally into Lake Winnipeg and thence to Hudson Bay and the Ocean. Into this country settlement naturally was extended from the good lands North of Portage La Prairie by the then usual Ontario Canadians, for it was a most pleasant-appearing land, which attracted men from a forested province. Besides these, toward the end of the century, a colony of Icelanders came in and settled on the West Shore of Lake Winnipeg, and later Swedes and other Scandinavians went in. There was fishing for the Icelanders and wood-cutting and clearing for the others, and all seemed likely to make a good settlement. Later, about 1900, a very considerable number of Galicians from the Carpathians went in, fond of a wooded country. So that by that time settlement had become general for some fifty miles North of Teulon. Since 1900, we have the story told in the history of what is known as the Teulon Medical Mission, where Dr. A. J. Hunter, a Canadian science graduate, physician and clergyman, went in and established the first rural hospital in Manitoba. His presence as a physician was a god-send to the poor settlers, and he travelled over rough and often impassable roads and on hand-cars up the single-track railroad, and became known everywhere for his self-denying labors and devotion to humanity's needs. But he was a naturalist, and brought his scientific knowledge to bear in what has become two mission boarding schools, where the children of his continental immigrants and sometimes Indians get a Christian home and an opportunity of learning all a common school could teach, under Mr. Cummings, his Nova Scotia colleague, now a Provincial School Inspector. So, in this unique district of organized townships, fishing villages, unorganized territory and Indian reservations to the North, life has gone on now for forty years, uninterrupted by anything tragic, but as we now can see with very indifferent results so far as agricultural development is concerned. When the wood covered the lots, the country looked simply a wooded prairie; but as clearing went on, there was found a shallow clay or sometimes sandy soil, the bottom of what had once been a shallow post-glacial lake, where the round stones were so imbedded in the clay as to make a veritable pudding with gravel stones replacing the raisins. As the people were only poor immigrants, for the Canadians had mostly left, clearing was slow and difficult, and the fields, even where cleared, required constant labor to pick off the large stones. I am reminded of my surveying days in Muskoka, when my chief told me he had purchased our grindstone from a settler. Asking the daughter what father did with the grindstone, he was told: "Father kept it to sharpen the sheep's noses to pick out the grass between the stones." In many cases, any little humus was on the dried land, while around the swampy depression only coarse grasses grew. Looking back over forty years, it is obvious that it would have been far better to have left this territory as a forest reservation or, if cleared, then a ranching cattle- 36 run for the cattle of the frontier farmers, as has been done in various parts of Ontario. But for centuries the higher virtues have been common to the hill-peoples of Scotland, Scandinavia and other mountain countries, and these we find illustrated in many of the settlers of our Inter-Laken district. As described in the "Unused Lands Report," this whole area is underlaid mostly by a dolomitic limestone, which comes to the surface in many places, having been left uncovered by retiring lake waters. It includes 10 municipalities and some 4,000,000 acres, of which 2,000,000 are in organized territory, and 900,000 acres have been occupied farms during the past fifty years, over which a population has been distributed, at present about 28,000, of which 40% are Ukrainians, 24% Scandinavians, 21% British, 10% French and Belgians and 5% Germans. Already the timber had been largely cut off during the period of Canadian occupation, these settlers having later pushed on to better lands farther West. To-day only about 70,000 acres are really occupied. One of the results of these successive occupations was that public schools have been established in the different districts, and departmental regulations forced the erection sometimes in an expensive manner of school houses, and charged the cost to the rate-payers. Of course, as settlers left, the number of tax-payers decreased, and so it has come about that five municipalities forfeited their lands and to-day have an official administrator, appointed by the Minister of Public Affairs, resident in the district, who is also what is called The Official Trustee for the schools. To Mr. G. H. Lavender, Administrator, living at Inwood, some 15 miles North of Teulon, I am indebted for much important information. He is an Englishman, has resided in Canada for 27 years, and, like others, came into the district 12 years ago and tried farming with indifferent success. Having had all these years of experience, he can speak with much knowledge. He recognizes that the district has several natural advantages to-day; 1. Proximity to Winnipeg and to railroad for easy communication and transport. 2. A number of good gravel roads. 3. Immense areas of unoccupied but partially cleared land, which supply any quantity of prairie grasses for hay, fit for dairy farming and cattle-runs. Mr. Lavender is quite clear in his opinion that the first great mistake was in locating settlers in the usual way on 160-acre homesteads, and obviously the second mistake was in attempting to make of it a wheat and grain growing district, as seen in the abandonment within 30 years of many thousand cleared acres. He further deems it little less than a crime that holders of land were allowed to sell some 60 farms to the Soldiers' Settlement Board at $25.00 an acre, when to-day he, as Administrator, gladly disposes of such lands to resident actual farmers at $2.00 an acre. He states as antecedent to this that his municipality of Armstrong about 1915 had much land taken up in the Greater Production Campaign of the War by Canadians and other British, who, failing to make good, disposed of their farms in this way, so that only two ex- soldiers remain, who are making^ headway. Such lands, even with buildings, are not worth more than $3.00 to $5.00 an acre, and at this Mr. Lavender thinks a real stock-raising farmer could buy them and make good. Having pointed out the actual history of this mid-lake district, it is pleasant to be able to say that this experienced officer is most optimistic for its future. He recalls the frost in cold seasons and the poor crops in dry ones, but insists that success is assured if proper methods of farming are followed, and illustrated this by taking me to an Ukrainian's farm some three miles from Inwood to support his opinion. At my request, Mr. Lavender has supplied me with the following letter, so complete in its details that I give it in full: "Municipal Administrator and Official Trustee, Inwood, Man. "Dr. P. H. Bryce, Rockcliffe Park, Ottawa, Ont. "Dear Sir:— "I regret the delay in writing to you, but having to wait some time to get pictures, and other matters taking up my time, it seemed to slip my mind from time to time. In any event, I now send you a sketch re the Maskow family. "In the year 1902, Sam Maskow, a man of small stature, arrived from Austria with his wife and three small children. He was placed in this country by the Immigration Authorities on to the homestead where he still resides. At that time, his total worldly possessions amounted to $7.00 in currency. People of his own country, who had settled in the district one or two years before the arrival of Maskow, gave him accommodation until such time as he was able to build a small log house. In 37 course of time, the family was increased by 7 more children, and a larger log house was built, which has accommodated the increased family up to the present time. But this year will see the erection of a nice frame house to replace the old log home. "The first few years that Maskow lived in this country, he was bound to go out to work to support his family with the necessities of food and clothing, and for a couple or three years he toiled in the quarries of Stonewall and Gunton, whilst his wife dug and worked the garden to supply the necessary vegetable food for the winter months. Sam, from his earnings, supplied the flour and other necessities, taking them home about every two weeks on his back from the nearest village, which at that time was Teulon, practically 15 miles distant. "About six months after his arrival, by saving a few dollars to make a small cash payment and signing a note for the balance, he procured the first cow for the family. As time went on, with Sam out working, on the same basis as the purchase of the cow, an ox team was bought. With the oxen on hand, Sam found himself more or less independent of having to go so far to work, and he then confined his attention to getting cordwood and hauling the same to Teulon, where he was able to get $1.25 to $1.50 per cord. "From these small earnings, Maskow would purchase, whenever opportunity arose, a heifer calf from some of the farmers around the Teulon and immediate district, until such time that he had quite a few cattle around. "Conditions for many years were not all to be desired, with a large family eating up all sources of revenue with clothes, boots and food, and it was not until the last ten years that Maskow made very definite progress. The progress can be traced to the children, who were brought up and educated in the rural school of the vicinity. The older branch of the family consisted of three girls, who eventually married small farmers of the same nationality and who still reside in the district.^ After the three girls, comes the son Mike, who is now about 24 years of age, with Steve and Harry, around 20-23; then, of course, the younger branch, running down to little Pete of 10 years of age. "The three boys mentioned above, Mike Steve and Harry, are workers, and are both careful and shrewd. They have increased the cattle herd until Maskow now has around 50 head of cattle, with approximately 20 milking throughout the year. They have seven horses, which are used for the making of hay and the cultivating of land. This year 50 acres of cultivated land will net Maskow about 1,500 bushels of grain, which will be practically consumed on the farm. "Great progress has been made through the endeavor and hard work of the young men, as shown in the accompanying pictures. The splendid barn which is built is the result of real labor. The young men secured the logs for the outer walls from the bush some 20 miles distant, and all the lumber used is lumber that was made from logs cut by the boys and hauled to the sawmill and made into the dimension lumber as required. The shingles, of course, were necessarily purchased from the lumber merchant. 11 may add that in figuring out the cost of the structure, without taking into consideration the value of time, it was $700.00. The size of the barn is 80' by 30', and an addition by way of a lean-to on the north side is to be added during the coming season, which will accommodate another 20 or 30 head of stock. "Another feature about this family is their attitude in respect to borrowing money. They never borrow, or go ahead with any improvements unless they have the money on hand or actually in sight to make the said improvements. They are truly co-operative insofar as the family is concerned, for whenever one or two of the boys may find it necessary to go out and seek work, on the return, whatever money has been made is brought to the home, and there it is put into the common fund of the family. Whatever clothes, boots or requisites are needed, or a car needed for the benefit of the family, the common fund of the family makes the purchase, and not before a thorough discussion by the whole of the family. There are no debts, and every head of stock on the place is paid for, the same thing applying to implements and other necessaries to conduct their operations. "Their revenue from cream marketed at the local creamery will average $100.00 per month throughout the year, i Chickens and eggs, a few hogs and a certain amount of young cattle to dispose of yearly, put these people in an independent position. The oldest boy, Mike, has purchased an adjoining property; the son Steve contemplates a purchase very shortly; and I look forward to the day when the Maskow family will be a little community centre amongst themselves, working ■>. co-operatively until such time as conditions will allow them to work their respective lands individually. "There are other families following the methods of the Maskow family, and 38 building good barns and increasing their cattle herds, and, in general, making good. "I trust this little outline will give you sufficient to make your remarks, and that the accompanying pictures will be illustrative of the old and the new. You will note that Sam Maskow is not dolled up for the occasion, for I got Samuel to have his picture taken just after feeding up. "Yours truly, "(Signed) G. H. Lavender." Mr. Lavender insists that if each farmer could have a half-section to cultivate of more or less good land, and a nearby range for his cattle of, say, 1,000 acres, then his future as a grower of cattle and dairy products would be assured, though the difficulty of paying for schools and roads would not be lessened. At present there is a school tax of $30.00 against every 160 acres, so that Mr. Lavender is forced to think of some socializing scheme which will obviate the present difficulties and be a blessing to the whole district. At present, there are several large school buildings, partially utilized, and he thinks that if instead of 21 schools in his municipality these could be reduced to two or three consolidated schools, where the children could be brought on Monday morning, be educated and socialized until Friday, when they could go home, the desired end would be met. At present, home conditions in some poor cases are appalling. With the school buildings put up at a high cost during the war and the population reduced in numbers, the debt amounts to-day to about $125.00 per pupil, which should be as low as $25.00, in keeping with the earnings of the people. At present, where 20 children are sent to school for 5 families, the actual taxes collected were $196.00. As the Provincial Grant is $2.00 per each teaching day to the school, which keeps in 160 days, the total amount obtained for teachers' salaries is $332.00, and the balance must be collected from the school section. Such, then, is the situation as described by an officer who has had long experience and speaks with accurate knowledge of a district at least 40 years old, whose population as seen has gradually decreased and cannot improve until the local financial conditions have become ameliorated, since new settlers will not go in, only to be saddled with oppressive taxation. I had learned from Mr. E. M. Wood, Deputy Minister of Public Affairs, about these township lands held by the Government for taxes, almost the only ones in Manitoba, and after Mr. Lavender's explanations, now understand something of the problem to be solved. Still a man of, say, middle age, Mr. Lavender, with his wife, an English lady and trained nurse, who plays the part of a Red Cross Nurse and general charitable "Lady Bountiful" to the community, seem to have assumed the position of anges gardiens to their community. They are enthusiastic in their work, steadily reducing the school indebtedness and encouraging the settlement of the deserted farms. Mr. Lavender, with such examples as the Maskow family, states they are most hopeful of the future of their district, and it was with more than ordinary feelings of sympathy that I said "good-bye," after their generous hospitality, to the Lavenders, when the lady said, "Send us more Galicians to the district, for we love them." When it is understood that I was the means many years ago of having Dr. Alexander J. Hunter located in Teulon, as a medical missionary under the Presbyterian Women's Missionary Society, of which the wife of Prof. George Bryce of Winnipeg was Local Secretary, it will be easy to see that I have taken a personal interest in this Inter-Laken settlement, and had already visited it and seen the wonderful social work being developed at Teulon. To-day a first small house with some rooms utilized as a hospital, superintended by Dr. Hunter's mother and his young lady cousins, has grown into a good- sized general hospital of twenty beds, where operations of the most serious kind are performed; a doctor's residence and two resident schools, supervised by trained lady missionaries; a four-roomed public school, and a similar sized village High School, while Mr. Cummings, who was first the Public School master, has advanced to the position of Inspector of Schools for the whole wide district. I spent two delightful days in their company, driving through the territory, and can only say, in spite of all the drawbacks, which have been described, that there is probably no rural community in the North-West or elsewhere where a sense of the essential values of life is better appreciated. I shall conclude the chapter about this interesting and indeed unique rural experiment in colonizing, by a letter which, after much persuasion, I got my modest friend to write: "Teulon, Sept. 4th, 1928. "Dear Dr. Bryce: "Mr. McKinnell, M.L.A., has also promised an article and some photos, I think^ shortly. He has some of the best material for your purpose that I have 39 come across. He is especially interested in 'Calf-Clubs,' placing good heifer calves with the children in those districts most suitable for stock-raising. In fact, what he tells me rather cheers me up about the prospects for our own district. "I enclose a little leaflet printed four years ago, about the work of our Mission, which gives a few cases of our pupils. Since then the number of children we have had under our care has come up to over 300. Six of our old Ukrainian boys are now practising medicine among their own people. I had an interesting letter from • an old pupil (Ukrainian) who is teaching High School in Atlanta, Georgia. "The pupils of our two schools are chiefly Ukrainians, with a few of other nationalities. In the Public and High Schools of Teulon there is a slight majority of English-speaking over other nationalities (villagers). In a mixed community Canadianization undoubtedly proceeds more rapidly than where the people are all of one nationality. "Needless to say, I can cheerfully give my testimony to the great merits of Ukrainians as pioneer settlers and to the wonderful advance they have made culturally and economically in a generation. It is also to be noted that while the settlers we have got from their country in the early days were mostly from the poorer class, at the present time, owing to the upheaval caused by the war, many of the very first of their people are anxious to emigrate. I enclose a few pictures with descriptions on the back. "With best regards, "Yours sincerely, "(Signed) A. J. Hunter." I have taken more than ordinary interest in the story of the Mid-Lake District of Manitoba, because it is 40 years, since its first settlers went in to try their fortunes there. From the standpoint of soil and climate, it has presented problems quite unique and unlike any other district in the North-West, and to-day, in my opinion, demands the special attention and interest especially of the Provincial Government to so adjust conditions as to make the district tolerable for its citizens, and a centre of increasing productiveness. With a northern wooded Laurentian area, with its fisheries and its hunting grounds, this territory between the lakes, with its summer resort beaches and many interesting approaches to a large city, is in many ways unique, and bears the promise within the next 25 years of as great suc cesses as it has had struggles in the past. May the gods grant that the omens be favorable! Notes from the 1924 Report of the Teulon Mission: Hospital has been in operation 21 years, 3,022 patients treated in Hospital. Dispensary treatment and visits in homes 3,000. In this period 235 children have been boarded and educated in the Mission. Three girls have trained as nurses, one became a Hospital Superintendent; 10 trained for teachers; 3 college graduates; 12 girls were married. Of the boys, 2 were killed in the war; medical men and students 6; law students 4; agricultural college students 6; University students 3; teachers 28; telegraphers 2; farmers 7; machinists on Fords 4; blacksmith 1; postmaster 1; storekeeper 1. The Interlake Section of Manitoba While all that has been stated lends force to the belief in the future of the Mid-Lake District, yet still greater importance is added in the following statement of the local Member of the Manitoba Legislature, Mr. McKinnell:— 'To anyone not acquainted with this territory and its problems an erroneous idea is apt to be held as to its people, their problems and its possibilities. Apart from the Icelanders who were the first settlers in this district, it was settled for two distinct reasons. The Federal Government in 1898, 1899 and 1900 were determined to settle their portion and consequently brought in hundreds of families of Ukrainians whom they placed on these homesteads, and then in 1908 the land that had been held in reserve for selection in the old M. & N. W. land grant was also thrown open for homesteading, and this was taken up by the Scandinavians, English and Canadian born settlers, who felt the urge for the ownership of land, or who were in some cases artizans and mechanics and wished a home to raise their children in the country although still continuing their occupations, hoping ultimately that they could settle down to the life of farming. This was and is a hard country. There is some very good land, some fair and some poor, and some practically useless as it will neither grow grass nor bush. It was a hard country and it certainly needed men of strong rugged constitution and health to be able to withstand the hardships. I can recall the time when Ukrainians used to come to the village of Teulon and haul their flour and supplies out on hand sleighs for miles, hitching two to four to a sleigh. Then in the summer 40 I if any supplies were needed they had to be taken on their shoulders. Where the bulk of the Ukrainians were settled was at that time heavy poplar and spruce bush, and as the railroad advanced this wood was cut into cordwood in the winter and in most cases allowed to season in the bush and hauled to the nearest station the next winter. The land where this lumber grew is good land for the production of crops, but owing to the lack of very necessary drainage the only part they could cultivate were the knolls and ridges, and these were, although not covered with heavy timber, either gravelly or stony. The good land could not be cultivated on account of the heavy stumps and being flooded with the heavy rains in the summer and the want of drainage. To a stranger's eye this country has not progressed as they think it should, considering the length of time it has been settled, and it is often remarked the lack of improvements. But when you take into account that these people were brought out to this country and placed on the land in some instances without even a line cut through the bush, with very little money, generally enough to buy a yoke of oxen and a cow and hog, unable to speak a word of English, having to go out and work on improved farms, railroad construction and other kinds of labor in order to supply their children with the necessities of life, and then endeavoring between seasons to clear and break a little land without capital or assistance from the Government or anyone, I consider the development and state of some of the country at the present time remarkable. The Scandinavians, French, Germans and English settled in the more open country where there was little heavy bush and some open prairie, but unfortunately the soil was shallow and exceedingly stony and very hard to break and cultivate. In the first years this land was settled and broken, with the natural fertility in the soil, very fair crops were obtained off the small fields they were able to bring under cultivation. Also at the same time the price of cattle was good and there was a good market and price for stockers shipped south and out to the ranches; but with the post war conditions in the price of cattle and grains coupled with some exceedingly dry years the country has suffered tremendously. Schools have been built, municipalities formed, the cost of municipal government added, some good road work done, etc., that raised the taxes to such a point coupled with the hard times due to drought and poor prices that forced numbers of these settlers from the land to seek homes in the cities where they hoped to get work, but unfortunately very often swelled the ranks of the unemployed. Also during this time their families were growing up, and seeing conditions that prevailed and seeing that the future did not look promising, left the remaining farmers' homes to seek employment elsewhere until it might conservatively be stated that west of the first principal meridian there are only approximately 60% of the settlers who were there 15 years ago, and east of the same meridian 75%. The thing to consider is: Is this the fault of the people or of the land? In my opinion it is both. Can this land be made productive and can you have it settled with people, who will be contented and who can be assured of a good living and a competency for their old age? I think so. What can be done to bring this about? Several things. Until lately it has practically been neglected by our governments, and the reason has not been hard to find. It was a poor country in comparison with the bulk of the arable land in the Province. There were not the organizations to take up their difficulties. The most of the people were formerly immigrants and were more diffident in asking for assistance, and naturally any government likes to do the most work where they can make the best showing; and yet if they had been properly assisted and directed, I believe the 30 to 35,000 people up in that part of the Province can become successful farmers. If they are directed along the lines of growing wheat they will be starved off the land; but they can grow good crops of coarse grains and fodder, and the mainstay of the country is cattle and hogs and dairying and the chief thing to consider is how to bring this thing about. The depopulation of this district is a serious thing. Local improvements have been put in, schools built, etc., and have to be maintained and paid for, and if the people leave, the few that are left are consequently taxed off the land. There is no doubt, however, that the land can produce enough to make it pay, but different systems have to be introduced and the people have to be directed along the right lines. They have been told times without number that they should go in for mixed farming, but how could this be accomplished by people who were compelled to work out most of the time to allow them to get enough money to feed their families ? Another thing was that, with the exception of a few places where 41 the Government had supplied them with thoroughbred sires, their stock was very much run down through the use of scrubs. My idea was to get them started in the stock line through the Calf Club idea, as it was the only way that I could see where they could obtain good stock, in some cases thoroughbred, in any event good grades at a low price, and receive assistance, direction and education at the same time. The first thing that is important is having the local committee in the district where the club is going to function. This committee is the medium that looks after the bulk of the work and is the Court of Appeal and the intermediary between all parties. Then comes the Government with their Agricultural Representative, who chooses the calf, sizes up the boy or girl to see if they are likely to take an interest, sizes up the buildings and possibilities of the child raising the calf, visits the boy and girl and gives advice on feeding, etc., holds stock judging competitions and is advisor in general to the whole district. After the child has been approved, he or she can purchase their own calf if they wish, if they have the money, or they can buy a calf through the Club by going to the bank and borrowing the money at a low rate of interest, the Club going collateral to the bank for the loan. The calves are supposed to be raised under as natural conditions as possible, pail fed and with no extra trimmings and be fit to show in the fall. The show is the climax of the season's work and is an added stimulus to the work done in raising the stock. The idea is to raise none but heifer calves in the dairy classes and as many heifers as possible in the beef class, and it is the object of the Club to carry forward these heifers and show them in the yearling class, and the third time with calf at foot if at all possible. It is almost impossible to compute the good to be received out of this work if it were carried on through a period of years in this inter- lake area at different points. First of all the children would be directed along stock- raising lines, they would have an incentive to go ahead with the work as they would be receiving a direct benefit, pecuniary and otherwise. It would show them that it is possible to make a living and more in this rough country and they would not be so keen to get up and leave. It would also show their parents what could be done with cattle if they got the proper attention, and, one of the most important things, it would fill the country up with a class of cattle that would not only be a credit to own but would make money for the owners. As an example of what can be done. A grade shorthorn calf was purchased in the open market for $17.00 by a girl to raise at the beginning of June. This animal was calved in the end of April. On September 7th, the day of the Club Fair, the calf weighed 490 lbs. and was worth $55.00 at market price. I might say that the children are paying their loans to the bank, and I believe that the only loss will be $12.00 that was paid for one calf which strangled itself. Also, with the coming of the creameries at different points, there is an added incentive for the people to go in for cows. In the old days they had to make their own butter, sometimes not under very good conditions, owing to lack of ice, etc., and this had to be traded in for goods and was only accepted by the storekeeper at a nominal value on account of him receiving so many grades, etc. To-day that has practically vanished and the farmer's wife delivers her cream and takes her money with her. As I stated before, thousands of acres have been depopulated and vacated and allowed to stand idle. This land is in the hands of the municipalities and can be purchased at very reasonable prices. Municipal and school management has been placed on a more economical basis, where the taxes are not too much of a burden, and right to-day this district offers an opportunity to the man with small capital who is willing to work hard and go in for mixed farming in all its phases." 42 CHAPTER XI A Survey of the Productive Results of the Continental Immigrants of Canada WHILE it is apparent that theseveral investigations described are necessarily limited, yet I deem them sufficient to supply a fair estimate of the general conditions in all those parts of Canada where the continental immigrant has become a permanent resident. Though nothing less than a complete survey would provide material for estimating absolutely correctly the productive capacity of those immigrants, yet we have given in the Census Report of 1921 the following statistics of 9 municipal sub-divisions, which help us in our enquiry. Table I. Census Figures of 1921 for Three Electoral Divisions in each Province of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, giving Population, Land Cultivated and Total Continentals. Total Total Province Rural Acreage Population Improved Manitoba 348,502 8,057,823 Division 2 (South of Winnipeg) 32,642 989,927 Division 5 (Between Lakes) 28,390 168,790 Division 14 (Gilbert Plains) 20,143 459,594 Total Acreage In Crop 5,857,638 734,512 121,913 364,573 Total Continental Population 198,516 23,037 20,436 11,379 Total 81,175:24% 1,618,311:34% 1,220,998:20% 54,852:27% Saskatchewan. Division 5 (North Qu'Appelle) Division 6 (North of Regina) Division 15 (Rosthern Region) 538,552 36,582 42,227 49,626 25,037,401 1,374,095 2,538,096 1,174,190 17,822,481 980,152 1,713,479 916,379 299,503 23,505 28,638 37,073 Total 128,435:24% 5,086,281:20% 3,612,010:20% 89,216:30% Alberta Division 2 (Lethbridge Region).... Division 8 Wetaski- win) Division 10 (East of Edmonton) Total 365,550 22,112 40,457 39,746 11,768,042 912,772 1,023,065 784,926 8,523,190 623,807 829,605 646,405 102,315:29% 2,720,763:23% 2,099,817:25^ 43 183,545 13,080 19,724 29,356 62,160:34% TABLE II. H| Giving Total Field Crops and Percent-1 age grown by Continentals. All Field Per Cent Crops of Acres Total j Manitoba 5,857,635 100% Divisions 2, 5, 14.. 1,220,998 21% Saskatchewan 17,822,481 100% Divisions 5, 6, 15,. 3,610,010 20% Alberta 8,523,190 100% Divisions 2, 8, 10.. 2,099,817 25% It will be seen from the Tables that while the percentage of the Total Rural Population in the 9 Divisions together of the three Provinces is just 25% of the whole, and the total continental population in these 9 Divisions is 30% of their total population, the total acreage in crops in the 9 Divisions is just 23% of the total acreage To illustrate what this means it may be stated that in two groups of townships in Saskatchewan which I visited, where the Continentals predominated, the wheat and oat crops were approximately— Fertile Belt Rosthern (5 Tps.) (9 Tps.) Wheat, acres 34,663 59,875 " bushels.... 600,711 320,784 Oats, acres 23,227 21,058 " bushels 671,724 360,263 When it is remembered that Saskatchewan had 592 municipal sub-divisions in 1921 and has more organized to-day, we can form some idea not only of the total bushels of grain produced in the province, roughly on this basis some 250,000,000 bushels of wheat, but also of the part played in their production, probably not less than 25% of the whole by Continentals. But a further examination of the census figures supplies still more interesting information. Taking Division No. 2 in Manitoba near Winnipeg, in which out of a total rural population of 32,642 some 23,037 are Continentals, I find that with 3 towns and 3 villages in the Division there are only 971 Continentals in the towns and 1,514 in the villages. When it is recalled that very considerable numbers of the poorer Continentals worked for years at railway construction, it is not surprising that some such should have retained their positions and come to live in railway centres such as Winnipeg; but the outstanding fact is shown in the above figures and in further census returns, which show, for instance, in Saskatchewan the following:— Total Total British Population and French Continentals races 757,510 442,568 314,948 Yet if we analyse any Division such as No. 1 south of Regina we find that though it has a total population of 35,297 and has 6 towns and 21 villages, the total continental population in the towns is only 838 and 749 in the villages. Or, if we take the very populous Division 15, including Rosthern and Prince Albert, with a high percentage of continental population, having 37,053 out of 65,284, including the city of Prince Albert of 7,558, fourtowns of 3,716 and 23 villages with 3,404 I find that Prince Albert has only 1,122 Continentals, including 222 Germans, while in Humboldt with 1,822 population the British,French and Germans made up 1,470 of the total. In a word, we see everywhere in the three provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta that the continental immigrants have remained agriculturists to the extent of at least 75% of their total number, performed the tasks essential to the prosperity of the towns and cities there and of Canada, and are giving themselves gladly to the building up of great prosperous communities and provinces where, quite properly, native-born British Canadians in large measure guide the ship of state toward her desired haven of nationhood. I have taken much trouble to abstract from the mass of census returns these illustrative figures, because they prove beyond cavil the almost ^ invaluable nature of the continental immigrant in the matter of the development of the material resources of Canada. In 1911 I wrote a paper on "Saving Canadians from the Dangers of Urbanization" based on that census, in which I pointed out the national dangers from the public health standpoint of an undue urbanization of our people. I then indicated that rural Ontario, in spite of a natural rural increase in ten years of 250,000 and of 700,000 immigrants during the census period 1901-1911, had not only lost all this rural increase, but was short by 43,000 of what she had in 1901. Without dwelling here on all that this means physically, morally and economically, I deem it sufficient to say that I can conceive no factor in our national life at the present moment more important than that we should be replacing those Cana- 44 dians of British descent, who have left or are leaving the farms, with a rugged rural population of peasantry, for generations sprung from the soil, as were our early British immigrants, who built up the old Eastern provinces seventy-five years ago. On page 353 of the Census Report for 1921 is given a table of populations by racial origins, which is^ of extreme importance. It is therein pointed out that while our continental immigrant population was roughly doubled in twenty years, yet the percentage of British born to the total decreased by less than 4%. Table III 1921 1901 British Races 53.40 57.03 French 27.91 30.70 Other Europeans 16.69 12.27 It is of special interest to note that while the total increase of other Europeans in 20 years was 4.4%, it included 109,985 Hebrews, and 136,317 Scandinavians, and that the total increase of Continentals of Central Europe, including Germans and Austrians, was in twenty years 372,535. Of the total 754,884 in Canada in 1921 almost exactly 200,000 are in the old Eastern Provinces and British Columbia. Thus to the 129,625 Scandinavians, and 286,048 other Continentals in the prairie provinces in 1921, with any additional since, must we give the great credit of producing 25% of the great crop of 1928. In the running commentary made during my rapid trip through the continental districts of the prairies, I gave what evidences were possible of the outcome of their industry, and now after having examined the census returns, I am still more confirmed in my opinion as to the enormous benefit these hardy pioneers are conferring upon Canada, just as they have done upon the United States, as producers. It cannot be overlooked, that in another sense their value lies in their consuming foods, purchasing clothing and other materials, and in buying machinery to an extent perhaps greater in recent years than any other agriculturists. As was abundantly shown to me, they are to-day so prosperous and progressive that tractors, ana the last improvement in reapers and threshers, are taken advantage by them as readily as any other class, so that from any economic standpoint the Continentals, who have had time to make good on land have done so. The value of the Continentals to Canada from the standpoint of laborers on our railways has been incidentally referred to. It is of course impossible to get statistics of the part they have played in the construction of our 40,000 miles of railways; but that many millions have been earned by them in this work is obvious. To-day from Labrador and the Sague- nay to the Flin-Flon and to Trail Smelters, we find the same Continentals doing the work of mining development, and giving employment to such manufactures as the agent of a British Company, which makes mining machinery, told me of at Nelson, B.C. He was selling such at satisfactory prices and having the machines sent to the Slocan District via the Panama Canal. Any person, who passes a deserted mining town in the mountains, can understand the meaning of any district, which has reverted to the desolation of a land spoken of in Scripture as being given up to wild beasts and emptiness. A rather notable feature of agricultural progress seen on the prairies is the increase of land being brought under cultivation on the occupied farms. I have referred to the natural desire of old settlers to increase their holdings and bring into cultivation their pre-empted sections; and of how the recent immigrant gets ready employment at clearing the land. But I obtained from an old English lady, the widow of a gentleman who went into the Northwest in 1894 as physician to the railway and to Indians, another interesting sidelight on the problem. She had evidently become part owner of lands many years ago now being administered by her son for a land company, and told of the practice of her son in hiring new Continentals to go on those farms and clear the scrub at fair wages and put the farms into such an improved state that they could be readily sold to new settlers at a fair price. So at every turn we find the Continentals performing a most useful part in building up our national heritage, and I shall in my next chapter show how they are progressing in educational and social matters as well. 45 CHAPTER XII Progress in Education of the Continental Immigrants IN order to obtain any correct idea of the educational progress amongst our "Continentals" it is necessary to widen our horizon by referring to some historical facts, relating to education in general in different countries of Europe, and so we may start with Scotland. Scotland has long been famous for her parish schools, established first by John Knox, the quality of which has become a tradition. It has given Scottish immigrants everywhere superior status as seen in many old Ontario counties, where many of the first teachers were Scotch scholars; while the number of Scottish students at the Provincial and other Universities was equally notable, and Scotch officials in municipalities such as township clerks were equally important in those early years of settlement. Compared with England, this superiority will be realized when it was stated by J. Thorold Rogers, political economist, that the English peasantry of sixty years ago were more ignorant even than those of Ireland. We have the situation illustrated in "Punch" of March 20, 1870, "On the introduction of the Bill for Establishing National Schools to Parliament" by the memorable cartoon, The 'Three R's; or Better Late than Never,' in which he portrays the Right Hon. W. E. Forster (the blind chairman of the Board, surrounded by his committee), addressing a lot of ill-dressed school children: 'Well, my little people, we have been gravely and earnestly considering whether you may learn to read. I am happy to tell you that, subject to a variety of restrictions, conscience clauses and the consent of your vestries, you may.'" If such was the situation in Protestant England, we scarcely need conclude that in the Slavic provinces of Austria the education of a peasantry, who approached the condition of serfs, was likely to be any better. The value of education to a new country is summed up by Thorold Rogers in a simple paragraph^ "An educated community is more apt in doing what it knows, and in learning what it does not know, than one which is generally un- instructed. The German immigrants to the United States, most of whom are possessed of primary education, Eire much more handy than those who come from States where equal care is not taken." We are not surprised then that the many Continental immigrants, who came to Canada between 1900 and 1915 were not only poor but illiterate and that this circumstance placed in 1905 a very heavy responsibility on the newly organized provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta, to see that the large number of immigrants, while cultivating their new homesteads, should not neglect the education of their children. The educational problem of course grew out of the population problem, as seen in the following table of population of provinces. Table I Saskat- Manitoba chewan Alberta 1906 365,688 257,763 185,195 1911 461,394 492,432 374,295 1916 553,860 647,835 396,454 1921 610,118 757,510 588,454 1926 639,656 820,738 607,584 Roughly, the table shows for Manitoba an increase of 100% in 20 years; Saskatchewan of 400% in 20 years and Alberta of over 300% in population. It will not be forgotten that while some form of district organization existed before 1906, yet a complete reorganization under Provincial Governments had to take place in Saskatchewan and in Alberta. As these new provinces received the bulk of the more recent "Continentals," I shall deal especially with the school problem in these two. We find in a Special Report by Harold W. Foght, Ph.D., of the Bureau of Education, Washington, D.C., published in 1918, made at the request of the Government of Saskatchewan, some of the figures of school population to which later figures are added: 46 I Table II Showing Number of School Saskatchewan Districts in No. of No. of School No. in Departments in Districts Operation Operation 1906... 1.190 873 1915... 3,702 3,367 1926... 4,776 1,017 4,006 7,000 Table III Showing the Number of School Districts in Alberta. 1905. 1926. No. of School Districts 602 2,478 No. of Districts in Operation 476 2,138 No. of School Rooms 628 3,082 These figures from the Reports of Departments of Education illustrate with that of Saskatchewan the amazing growth of the schools of the two provinces, better seen by comparison with the older provinces in school population. Table IV Showing School Populations Quebec Ontario Manitoba Sask. Alberta 1905 1915 1925 255,470 360,897 437,988 281,674 365,959 496,355 33,794 68,250 106,819 (1926) 13,493 72,113 152,231 13,375 61,112 110,928 Thus while the school population in Quebec increased from 1905 to 1925 some 40%, in Ontario 44%, it increased in Manitoba 300%, in Saskatchewan 1,000% and in Alberta 800%. The sudden enormous burden placed upon these provinces is well illustrated in the Special Report of Mr. Foght, when he says that the five-year period up to 1916 saw an increase in Saskatchewan of 28.4% in occupied farms, or in ten years the rural population had increased from 209,301 to 471,673. The fact was that though some 300 schools were being erected yearly the supply was still far short of the demand. Hence it was in such a crisis that the Government of the day had the survey undertaken in June, 1915, after the Hon. Walter Scott, Premier and Minister of Education, made his address on the "Bill respecting Schools." Public opinion everywhere in the province approved of the movement for making a survey of the whole school situation with a view to improving a school system, which had proved inadequate to meet the needs of the situation. The seriousness of the problem may be judged from the fact that the 1916 census showed 54.5% of the population of Saskatchewan to be of British descent, 11.9 German, 9.21 Scandinavian, 9.15 Austro-Hungarian, 6.16 Russian, Polish and Ukrainian, 5 French, and 4.08 others, and a similar situation existed in Alberta. It must further be remembered that nearly 75% of this population was scattered over some 700 rural districts and that it was there that most of the "Continentals" were to be found. With these statistical facts we are in a position to estimate a progress in education, which probably has no parallel in any English-speaking country. The Annual Report of the Municipal Department of Saskatchewan gives the population for 1926-27 as 795,306, the total School Districts 4,776 and the number of Schools 7,000, or an increase in ten years of 3,000. Thus we have one school for about every 1,000 population. As the percentage of school children to the total population is given at 18%, we thus have one school for every 20 pupils. When, however, it is remembered that 77% of the farmers have 300 acres or over, which means a sparsely distributed population, we can better appreciate what has been done in ten years by the two Provincial Governments to insure that every child whether of native or foreign birth is being educated under a compulsory school system. Of equally great importance is the fact that 99% of the total school children of every nationality are attending Public Schools, since there are in the whole of Saskatchewan only 32 Separate Schools. It is well to know that in every school the teaching must be by teachers certified as being able to speak English; while even in Separate Schools the same series of school books is used, and Public School inspectors supervise the general education. Very similar regulations exist in Alberta. 47 So much then for the official information supplied; but I felt a real pleasure as I interviewed different persons to hear the same story, whether from German, French, Ukrainian, Scandinavian or Hungarian, cf their pleasure at having their children get the same common education in English with those of Canadian parentage. The words Canadian and British stand for much with these "Continentals," and to me, an Ontario-born boy, it was a matter of much congratulation that I should find another Canadian boy, born of an Alsatian-German father, who came to Ontario in 1871, in the responsible position, though a Catholic, of Minister of Education in Saskatchewan, administering a Public School law, which he had learned the value of in an Ontario village. So general is the system that even in the few schools in French settlements a child may only have its first year when it can be taught in its mother tongue, for after that the teaching is in English. I recall very well the remarks of Rev. Father Huguenard of the Indian Mission School at Qu'Appelle made to me that he kept telling his French parishioners: "Send your children to school to learn English. It is the language of the country and of commerce and it will be best for their future." That the practice is general in Saskatchewan may be judged from the fact that of 77 children in a French Separate School at Gravel- burg only one was rejected at the general departmental entrance examinations; while I have already referred to the satisfactory situation in the French parish of Beaumont in Alberta. In the matter of religious instruction provision is made for half an hour for such teaching at the end of the school hours, though the Lord's Prayer may be repeated on opening the School if so ordered by the Trustees. It has, indeed, been publicly stated by a Minister of the Crown there that 99% of the school children of Saskatchewan play together in the same public school grounds, and the late Minister of Education delights to illustrate the rapid assimilation of Continental children by telling how he had been at a School Convention in Northern Saskatchewan, where he made a speech showing how there goes on an assimilation not only of language but of character, when afterwards ^ a young woman came up and spoke to him, saying she was one of the foreigners who had been assimilated, since she was now a public school teacher. She had been born in Roumania and had been brought to Canada when twelve years old and had passed through all the grades and taken her^Normal School training. The Minis ter was later introduced to the mother, who, with tears, expressed her delight at the advantages which her daughter had received in Canada. The School Reports for Alberta are of equal interest as illustrating the rapid growth of that Province. Thus in 1905 Alberta had 476 School Districts in operation and in 1926, 3,041, with an average length of school year of 187.6 days and an average monthly attendance of 86.56%.^ Thus the number of school rooms in twenty years increased 7.7 times. The result of this wonderful progress is found in the census figures for 1921, which state that of the total population of ten years and over, who can read and write Manitoba has 92.26%, Saskatchewan 93.47% and Alberta 94.4%; while from 17% to 18% of the total population is made up of school children. Indeed, nothing can be more pleasing to an old Upper Canadian, who lived before Confederation, than to find transplanted to Western Canada the school traditions of that premier Province. It may not be known to the general Canadian public that in the oldest of these Provinces, Manitoba, which had only 20,000 people in 1870, the nucleus of the Provincial University was created in 1875 when the various denominational colleges became federated, thereby enabling the Government to establish one University and supply a grant for teaching the Sciences. The work was accomplished through the energy and foresight of young college educationists from Ontario, who saw the future greatness of these Northwest plains, and whose first immigrants with the coming of the railways were largely from that Province. Its first Chief Justice was a native-born Canadian, and it is of much interest and importance to find the following charge to the Grand Jury in Winnipeg delivered in October, 1877, by the Hon. Chief Justice, E. B. Wood: "It may not be amiss to congratulate you on the solid evidences around us of the growing development and of the prosperity of our Province. The hidden wealth of Manitoba consists in her prolific soil from which our permanent riches must be drawn. In its cereal productions and the cattle grazing on its expansive natural pastures must we look for our wealth. Hence the importance, insofar as it is possible, of making every quarter section the homestead of some actual owner or occupant. It is most gratifying to know that at last the Government at Ottawa have in earnest set about the distribution of the 1,400,000 acres of half-breed reservations and that 48 I these, the finest lands in the Province, will in small portions soon be in the hands of the settlers, and thereby Winnipeg, instead of being in the midst of a desert and wilderness, will be the centre of and be surrounded by a populous agricultural community." Over fifty years have passed since then and the two younger Provinces have taken advantage of the experience of older Manitoba and have established not only Public Schools but beautiful modern University buildings at Saskatoon and Edmonton with complete courses in the Humanities and Science, and have added, in keeping with the demands, Departments of Agriculture with fine College Farms and some Medical Departments. I have been able to obtain the statistics of the nationality of the students attending the three Universities, which are most important in connection with our study in illustrating how the ' Continentals' as already shown are advancing in education and culture. Table V Giving the Nationalities of the Students of the Universities of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Man. Sask. Alberta Year. 1927 1927 478 940 318 183 46 211 38 25 32 10 33 65 50 213 ... 1928 Canadian ] British \ 2,007 U.S J Slavs. 108 Scandinavian . 20 Teutons 127 Others 438 From the Table it is apparent that a notable number of students of foreign nationality or of those presumably born in foreign countries are taking advantage of the opportunities given for obtaining collegiate education in all these provinces. An interesting fact as illustrating how the Canadian-born of British parentage are taking advantage of these Universities is seen in the following taken from the Calendar of Saskatchewan University. TABLE VI Religious Denominations of Students in the University of Saskatchewan Anglicans 134 Baptists 22 Methodists-Presbyterians 634 Roman Catholics 74 Others 70 Not stated 61 It is rather notable that while the Anglicans in Saskatchewan in 1921 were 166,224 as compared with 263,016 of Methodists and Presbyterians, or rather less than 58%, their students in the Provincial University were only 13% of the total. Probably this is due to the more recent arrival in the Province of a large percentage of Anglicans. In view of the fact that in Saskatchewan 199 and in Alberta 311 foreign born with 213 whose nationality is not stated are taking advantage of the Universities, or over 500 in all, it ought no longer to be possible for exception to be taken to the Continentals as being incapable or unwilling of uplift to the plane of the ordinary Canadian population. Indeed with such evidences as have been given it is difficult not to speak strongly in favour of these, who under the difficulties of starting life in a new country, with different language and customs, have in so many cases thrown off the bonds of circumstance and have been able later to take their places in the field of higher education and thus become fitted to play their parts in the national life of Canada. Already from amongst them members of Parliament have been elected, Ministers of the Crown have been chosen by Premiers, and as such have shown the same capacity to legislate and direct public affairs as our Canadians have. Should, however, any be fearful of Continental domination, it must afford them some comfort to know that 841 out of 991, and 1,545 out of 1,858 collegians are of Anglo- Saxon descent, and that in the several provinces almost all the Ministers of the Crown continue to be Anglo-Saxon Canadians. While it is natural that these should govern, it is a source of satisfaction to find in every western Province native- born Canadians, who have been educated along the broad lines of consideration for others, and who have grown beyond the limiting prejudices, which their forefathers brought with them from Old Lands. Another quarter century and the fluent mass of British and Continental born now in Canada will have taken on much the same temperature, density and color in what may now be a chemical mixture, but will shortly become by synthesis a chemical compound of the finest quality. 49 CHAPTER XIII m The Continental Immigrant as an Observer of Canadian Law I HAVE attempted in previous chapters to illustrate the industrial quality and j social status of the continental immigrant, and now propose to apply the "acid test" to him as to his obedience to Canadian laws and regulations. I recall having to deal with a riotous Glasgow Jew, who was inciting others in one of our immigrant hospitals to a hunger strike on the ground that he was being unfairly detained. I explained to him that he happened to be in Canada, which hac made laws, which I was appointed to administer and he to obey. In an accent typical of Glasgow and with a Scotch sturdiness he maintained his sullen attitude, and so I informed him there was no special reason for his entering Canada ii he was not prepared to obey her laws, and as he had not only disobeyed himself but also had incited others to disorder I thought it well that he return to whence he came on the steamer, which would be leaving that afternoon, and so gave instructions for his deportation. This attitude on the part of a British immigrant is likely to be more common than in the "Continental," who too often has had to submit to oppressive laws, anc soon comes to rejoice in his freedom in Canada, which it is our duty to see does not run into license. But in nothing is the test of good citizenship so well appliec as where the citizens of a country have, as T. H. Green, the sociologist, says, given their adhesion to sanctions often restricting the liberty of the individual for the greater good of the community as a whole. In a recent article in "The Century Magazine," Berton Brayley makes some clever criticisms of English and American characteristics and defines for his purpose "civilization" as follows: "Civilization is that form of society in which the individual has the broadest opportunity for physical well-being and for mental anc spiritual development," and in our study we cannot do better than accept this definition in its application to the continental immigrant. We have seen that in Dr. Foght's study in 1916, the attendance at public schools of all children in Saskatchewan was unsatisfactory, especially in the later school years, and that illiteracy among the native-born population above six years of age was 15.45%. Then he says: "The surprisingly large percentage of illiteracy among the Saskatchewan-born is due largely to the comparative poverty of the early settlers, which forces them to keep their children at work, and more particularly to the far-scattered conditions of homes to-day, long distances to school, bad roads and severe winters." Naturally these very conditions must have at first operated in leaving the new immigrants to their own devices, and had they been imbued with criminal instincts were free to exercise them. What their behaviour has been can fortunately be illustrated from statistics now extending over ten years up to 1926. For many years the Federal Department of Justice has paid the clerks of the various district courts in the several provinces for sending in annual returns of the criminal and misdemeanor convictions, and these returns for statistical purposes are examined and collated by the Census Department. In the three western provinces the Judicial Districts do not closely conform to the Electoral Districts, but with the assistance of the Chief Clerk in charge I have been able to abstract some comparative figures, showing the criminal cases in several of these districts. In Manitoba District No. 8, there is a population of over 36,899, lying directly north-east of Winnipeg, having in it a large industrial population and many workers at the electrical development on the Winnipeg River, as well as of agriculturists. Its population is 45% Central Continentals, 34% are British and about 8% Dutch and German. Theoretically with a comparatively recently settled population and much casual labor and proximity to a large city, no part of the Northwest should be so likely to have frequent crimes, if they were to prevail anywhere. The census officer took the following from the Annual Returns for 1927. 50 Table I Table 1 giving convictions in Judicial Districts of Manitoba Judicial District of Manitoba East— Country of Birth Convictions Austrians 13 (Galieians, Bukovinians and Poles) Russians 1 Indians; 1 English 1 Canadians 1 Germans 1 Southern Judicial District—Gretna. Austrians 1 Canadians 7 Russians 4 United States 2 Thus we find in the two districts the following: Eastern District, 13 Austrians convicted in a population of 14,000 and 2 British born in 10,000; but in the Gretna District, nearer the border, in 2,400 Austrians there was only one conviction, while of British there were 7 Canadians in 9,000 British born and 2 United States. Other Judicial Districts examined were yet more free from crime in the several Provinces, and in the very wide area included in the Edmonton District in Alberta, which has over 8,000 Ukrainians, the total convictions were remarkably few and those of the Continentals as low as of any other nationality. But in any case it is apparent that such limited statistics for one year are of little value in forming any fair estimate of relative total criminality. On page 1001 of the Canada Year Book for 1927-8 is a table giving Convictions of Persons of 16 years of age and over for Indictable Offences by Provinces from September 30th, 1915, to 1926, inclusive. For our purpose it is sufficient to take three periods five years apart showing criminal offences. Table II Table giving number of Criminal Convictions by Provinces Prince Edward Island. Nova Scotia New Brunswick Quebec Ontario Manitoba Saskatchewan Alberta British Columbia Yukon Total Convictions 1915 1921 1926 Pop. 12 15 14 88,615 840 712 752 523,837 206 313 222 387,876 2,427 2,654 3,053 2,361,199 7,112 7,548 7,248 2,933,662 1,362 1,159 1,383 611,118 1,993 1,220 1,235 757,519 2,082 1,233 1,463 588,454 1,517 1,282 1,252 528,582 24 3 3 4,157 17,575 16,169 17,448 *As the figure for 1927 for Saskatchewan maintains the previous decline it has been used, though in 1926 it was 2,052. We have no census of the Eastern Provinces for 1926; but it is probable that the increase in them will be much the same as in the West, so that the divisors will be much the same relatively as in the population taken in 1921. As a result we obtain the following deductions:— Table III Giving Average Convictions Relative to Population per 1000. One conviction to Prince Edward Island . " 6,000 pop. Nova Scotia | 700 " New Brunswick " 1,700 " Quebec " 650" Ontario " 400 " Manitoba " 500 " Saskatchewan I 500 " Alberta I 400 " British Columbia .. " 420 " 51 f But another even more satisfactory comparison can be made as regards these Western Provinces, where Continentals are present in largest proportions, by showing the steady decrease in crime during the eleven year period from 1915 to 1926. Table IV Giving Increase or Decrease in Convictions by Provinces. The Increase or Decrease is given in percentages in the following Table:— P. E. Island The same low %. Nova Scotia Decrease of 9% New Brunswick.. .Increase of .09% Quebec Increase of 20% Ontario Increase of 0.2% Manitoba Increase of .05% Saskatchewan .Decrease of 20% Alberta Decrease of 40% British Columbia.. Decrease of 20% The story told by the Tables is so plain that but little comment is necessary. During the years following the enormous influx of immigrants in 1913, which was followed by a great business depression in the West, it was natural that there should be much social unrest, movement of people and crime increase in the early years of the war; but 1915 was also the year of a phenomenal crop, which encouraged the people of the West to renewed energy, which has since continued. Where crime stood relatively high in Alberta, with strikes in the mining regions in 1915, we find the decrease in crime in 1926 has surpassed that in every other Province, while that in Saskatchewan is lower per 1,000 and is less than in the older Province of Ontario. It seems, however, desirable that a few general remarks be made regarding the prevalence of crime as a measure of civilization. In Canada, cities, towns and incorporated villages are called urban and the rest rural. As, however, the law of Saskatchewan provides that 50 persons may become incorporated as a village and Ontario requires 750 and Quebec 150, it is apparent that the many little centres in the former make the urban population there notably higher than relatively it should be. Allowing for these differences, the following Table gives the comparative urban and rural populations. Table V Giving Urban and Rural Populations in 1921 by Provinces. Urban Rural per cent 21.55 78.45 56.66 67.92 43.99 41.87 57.12 71.10 62.12 52.81 Prince Edward Island Nova Scotia 43.34 New Brunswick 32.08 Quebec 56.01 Ontario 58.17 Manitoba 42.88 Saskatchewan 28.90 Alberta 37.88 British Columbia 47.19 It has been impossible to obtain from the criminal statistics comparative urban and rural figures for comparison, but it is common knowledge that the criminal finds cities a greater field for his operations, and that the distributed populations on farms are too busily engaged in cultivation in the open air to find time for illegal work. In fact, to the increasing urban populations relative to the rural is to be ascribed the tendency to the increase of crime in Provinces where are great cities as Montreal, Toronto and Winnipeg. Another factor, which cannot be overlooked is the long, exposed international boundary in these Provinces, where from early times criminals have prosecuted certain kinds of illegal activities. But besides these factors is the general influence in Border towns of the greater prevalence of crime in the United States as a whole. In an able article in the last August number of "The Atlantic Monthly" a comparative study is made of crime and the administration of law in England and the United States, which speaks of "the alarming growth in our criminality." in the United States—"with statistics of crime showing a varying but steady increase, with all prisons full to overflowing" ... "On the other hand we have the irritating spectacle of England going through hard times, suffering from unemployment and heavy taxes, yet steadily diminishing her criminal classes, closing prisons, selling jails and lockups found to be no longer needed." It may be fairly said that in spite of the over 3,000 miles of International Border Canada may place herself, as I have in the abundant statistics quoted shown, on the side of England in regard to a decrease in crime. A note in the Year Book for 1927 states: "The recent trend of total convictions, including those of juveniles, and of sentences imposed is shown by Provinces for the year 1920 to 1926 in Table 25. Death sentences, which numbered 28 in 52 1919 and 26 in 1920, fell to 15 in 1923, rose to 22 in 1924 and dropped to 18 in 1925 and 15 in 1926." When the immigration by nationalities of these years is compared, it will be seen that this decrease has taken place, while the British immigration has shown little or no increase yet that of Continentals has almost steadily increased. Year Table VI Showing Immigration to Canada for the Years 1920 to 1927 British Races United States Continental Europeans via Ocean Ports 1921 74,262 1922 39,020 1923 34,508 1924 72,919 1925 53,178 1926 37,569 1927 50,378 48,059 26,156 29,345 21,634 22,007 16,372 20,521 55,120 15,818 42,366 itish Origin Cont. Origin 10,397 8,381 39,480 11,069 9,954 72,588 Thus in the two last years with death sentences decreasing, the total immigration of British origin was 108,280, while that of continental origin including 2,264 non-European races was 131,775. ^ I need not, however, supply more statistics to show that the continental immigrant in Canada, as in the United States, has more than fulfilled the good estimate held of his qualities. Not only in performing the pioneering work of a new agricultural country, but also in the other occupations, in his obedience to law and his readiness to assimilate Canadian ideals, he has shown a surprising readiness and aptitude in all matters, which make for good citizenship and advanced civilization. 53 CHAPTER XIV A Review of the Personal Observation and Statistical Facts of Preceding Chapters THE physicist is accustomed to estimate the amount of energy exerted as the work done in footpounds; that is, the energy required to lift one pound through one foot at sea-level, and at ordinary temperatures. As a scientist I propose to apply this elementary law in testing the value of the continental immigrant in building up Canada. The story of the early French habitants has often been told, the privations and heroism of the first Loyalist settlers in Upper Canada and the Maritimes have time and again been related, and the part played after the Napoleonic wars by the British and German emigrants in making prosperous eastern provinces is common knowledge; but the energy exerted and work done in peopling and developing our great western land has not been properly understood or estimated from the standpoint of applied science. We may leave to the historian the romance of the early explorers, but in the story of the development of the North-West their adventures and labors form a notable part of the work done in discovering and mapping out our splendid heritage. But it was not till Canada became possessor of the lands beyond the Great Lakes that she began the expenditure of her energy and wealth in opening up that country as the home of millions, when this work primarily was assigned to a group of Scotch-Canadian capitalists, who possessed not only vision but also a well directed energy, which was to overcome physical obstacles previously deemed insurmountable. We have no correct measure of intellectual energy in foot-pounds; but it is possible at least partially to estimate the amount of earth removed, the masses of rock blasted, and the length and weight of iron in the thousands of miles of railway tracks laid and in the bridges constructed. It is quite possible further to estimate the pounds of food consumed, the yards of clothing bought, the lumber used to build dwellings, and the value of all similar items in terms of money; but from the day that Onderdonk imported Chinese coolies to British Columbia in 1883, to build the C.P.R. up the Fraser and through the Kicking Horse Pass to that where Foley and Stewart imported Russians to construct the G.T.P. up the Skeena, no estimate has been made of the brain energy exerted to direct, and of the muscle to perform, tasks compared with which the pyramids of Egypt and the temples of India seem the work of pigmies. As has been indicated in my account of interviews with Continentals, work on railway construction became the first source of ready money to supply the families of thousands of immigrants, just as building the canals of the St. Lawrence and the Grand Trunk R.R. supplied work for the thousands of famine-stricken Irishmen in the forties and fifties of last century in Upper Canada. Some day it will be the pleasing task of some railway engineer and economist to fix definitely the amount of work done by and the number of navvies employed and energy exerted and foot-pounds lifted. I wonder if it has occurred to British Parliamentary parties, passing in private cars over our two great continental roads, to estimate the amount of capital expended and human energy exerted by many thousand continental emigrants to make their trans- Canada pleasure jaunt possible? I recall a Scotch sea-captain "grouching" as I lunched on his ship in Halifax harbour, which had just discharged its 1,200 emigrants, saying that we Canadians were not playing the game in refusing to borrow more money to build up a great navy. When I asked him if he recalled the number of passenger ships that had brought emigrants to Canada ten years before that time, he said, "No, but why do you ask?" Then I said, do you know that where there was one then there are two ships to-day and many larger now than then and having more tonnage? Then I asked him if he had thought of the cause 54 L of this. He was rather hesitating in his reply, so I said that he must realize how much borrowed British capital Canadians had spent up to hundreds of millions of dollars to build their railways to carry his passenger emigrants, who first helped to build these railways and then labored on their homesteads, cultivating the millions of acres of virgin prairie to grow the grain, which helped to enrich his steamship line as return cargoes. What this means may be measured in foot-pounds since the capital expended is equivalent to work done. Thus in 1881 when the Canadian Pacific charter was granted and the road begun, the liabilities of Canadian railways in stocks and funded debts were $284,419,294, whereas in 1926 the liabilities had reached a total of $3^60,048,932, or almost thirteen times as much. As an outcome of this capital, $493,599,714 were used in expenditures, of which $389,503,052 went out in operating expenses. With much labor and foot-pound energy exerted in visiting many parts of our great West, and some mental labour, I have given many illustrations of work being accomplished by Continentals in producing at any rate a considerable part of these prodigious results, upon which every other national activity directly depends. Let there be a failure in western crops or a financial crisis, limiting the activity and enterprise of over 10,000,000 people, and at once there will be a less number of passengers and amount of freight carried, resulting in the laying off of men from employment of every kind, a reduction in salaries, and a limitation of the people's subscriptions for church purposes, as was experienced by every church during the years of depression after the war. To-day's (Sept. 22) Canadian press report of the meeting of the Anglican Social Service Council in Hamilton states that the following Resolution respecting immigration was endorsed by the Council: "That this Council for social service desires to emphasize in the strongest measure possible that the utmost care should be taken to see to it that the flow of people to our shores should be so regulated that at no time would the numbers from the non-preferred countries show a greater ratio to the British-born than 50 per cent., and this Council would urge that the executive committee of this Council be instructed to maintain the closest possible contact with immigration authorities both in Canada and the British Isles so that the influence of the Church be exerted to the limit of its power in an effort to assure the development and carrying out of an immigration policy that will achieve the desired end." While to the person even the least experienced in the complicated and difficult business problems involved in establishing agencies and selecting immigrants, whether in Great Britain or the Continent, the impractical nature of the suggestions of the Resolution cannot but be evident, it is quite plain that the Council of one of our great Churches has definitely placed itself on record as opposed to the immigration to Canada of those continental peoples whose actual accomplishments I have referred to in preceding chapters, except on the condition that there must be two British-born immigrants brought into Canada each year for each Continental. Reduced to its simplest form, the Resolution means that if British immigrants were reduced to a minimum, then the development of Canada by such capable immigrants as I have investigated must cease. Without questioning the right of Church Councils, Labor Unions or other organizations to express their views on immigration by Resolutions, I surely have a right to protest, as a British native-born Canadian who has spent a life-time in the public service trying to build up a healthy, moral and united people, generous in their sympathies and tolerant of the opinions of one another, against the obvious implications contained in this Resolution. If it means anything it must be either a fear lest the foreigner is going to take the place of some British immigrant and so lessen employment or the standard of living in Canada; or must indicate a terror lest our sturdy Canadianism, which for a century and a half has withstood attacks from every quarter, might become weakened in its respect for the Crown and Canada's place as one of the sister nations of the Empire; or, lastly, it must mean that the morals and social advancement of Canadians are likely to be seriously injured by contact with those whom the caste system of India calls "untouchables," since they do not come up to the standard of those professing the Anglican faith. One could have hoped after the Great War, when an Anglican chaplain read prayers for the dying over a Catholic, and a Catholic priest consigned to the tomb the remains of a London Tommy who had died for England and world peace, that this attitude of a Church, once called National, as expressed in the Resolution would forever be impossible. The implied insult to members of other Churches must inevitably act injuriously upon the 55 friendly relations of neighbours, who must act together in business and in social and political affairs, and must make difficult the carrying out of the constructive and progressive policies, which Canada's most enlightened statesmen and business men are spending their energies and capital in developing. My protest is made all the more seriously, not alone in the light of all the facts brought [out in preceding pages, relating to the material, educational and social progress of the continental immigrants, but also in view of the statements made by other Protestant clergymen, who have labored earnestly among these continental peoples. I have also interviewed Catholic clergymen of different nationalities as French, Hungarian and Ukrainian, and I have quoted their expressed pleasure at the thought of the great communities of different faiths growing up together, and generousjn their charity as the prairies are broad, with each free to worship according to his own beliefs but working unitedly toward the great end of making Canada the home of every 'National' who does honest work in the spirit of the League of Nations, and the greater Christian League, which the Master set up in the early Church with the prayer that they all may be one. As a student of Canadian immigration from the coming of the first French traders and adventurers to the period of the American Revolution, and from the coming of the United Empire Loyalists to the present, I am intimately acquainted with every phase of the problem in every decade of the last century and of the present. I recall Lord Dorchester's and Governor Simcoe's anxiety to encourage the coming in of Americans soon after the close of the Revolution, so long as they took the oath of allegiance, on the principle that it was population that built up a nation. I have quoted the fears of Lord Dalhousie of a later date lest the poverty-stricken Irish immigrants should become agitators and outlaws in Canada, and have shown by the census of 1851 that these soon became successful settlers, playing their part in building up all the old eastern provinces. I recall too the more recent agitation in the House of Commons by partisans against the rapid influx of American immigrants after 1900, on the ground that they would endanger our British connection and hinder the growth of a Canadian spirit, and last and most regretfully have I read the public speeches of Anglican Bishops only a few weeks in Canada, warning us against Continentals. Now, both as a historian of our immigration and a native-born Canadian, I desire to direct the attention of all who are fearful for our national future to the fact that in spite of the large number of Germans and Irish immigrants in the early days of Upper Canadian settlement, every one was so busily engaged in making a living that he had no time to become an agitator, and that it was only when some excited person, politician or sectarist, fired the heather, that any serious political or religious question came to the surface. At the very moment when both our American and Continental immigration was at its height in 1913 and a depression due to over-speculation in boom times east and west was followed by much unemployment and then the Great War, we to-day know that though spies and paid agitators were numerous in trie West, many Continentals enlisted to fight for the Empire and more would have done so had they been permitted. I have found amongst old Canadians, who recall our limited population and development before 1900, a natural resentment against the advicefgiven that we now must be warned against dangers, which the past has shown to be imaginary, though the immigrants for 1901 to 1911 numbered 1,847,651 or rather more than one-third of our previous population. Fifteen years since have seen these all assimilated and adding enormously to our realized prosperity. To-day with every person, willing and capable of working, being employed, there is a common demand by our people that every means by which Canada has been enabled to make such marvellous progress since 1901 shall be further stimulated in every legitimate manner until we have reached that national status to which our resources point us and our destinies invite us. Our Diamond Jubilee has found our people happy, united and prosperous, and he who would in any way urge any action, which interferes with our national development cannot be called "a friend of Canada." 56 Ik
Other copies: http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/933007166
Books
F5031.A1 B9
III-0520
English
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
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Original Format: University of British Columbia. Library. Rare Books and Special Collections. F5031.A1 B9
Canada--Emigration and immigration
The value to Canada of the continental immigrant : a series of articles
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