The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1895-02-21
EMIGRATION FROM QUEBEC.
Why Thousands of French Canadians Are
Swarming Into New England.

Under the heading of "A National Ca
lamity" the Montreal Witness prints the
report of a correspondent who had been
sent to investigate the proportions of the
emigration to New England now flowing
from the rural districts near the city of
Quebec. 1t appears, according to the esti-
mate of the railway agents at Quebec and
Lewis, that the inhabitants of this section
of French speaking Canada are abandon
ing their homes to an extent hitherto I'M
paralleled, the average number of depar-
lures being from 100 to $50 day from each
of the principal stations on the lines run
ming to the northeastern states.
This loss of population is irreparable. EN-.
igrants from Europe cannot be induced to
occupy the forsaken farms so long as the
province of Quebec is included in the Do
minion of Canada, while the French Cana
dams who migrate to New England never
return to their native villages except for
brief visits to relatives and friends. The
result will be that vast tracts of land once
cultivated will relapse into a waste. What
renders the situation hopeless is the fact
that the impulse to eXpatriation shows no
signs of weakening, but is decidedly strong
er this year than it was last. Strenuous eff
forts have been made to check it, but in
vain Episcopal commands, sermons and
personal appeals from the clergy, farmers
clubs, repatriation societies, organized at
tempts to divert emigration to the north
west, have all failed to stop the drain of the
| life blood of the Dominion.
The Canadian loyalists have endeavored
to explain the discomfort and misery which
cause the exodus from the province of Que
bee by attributing ruinous habits of intern
perance to the French speaking popula
ton. One might object to this eXplana
ton on the priori ground that it fails. to
account for the ability of habitual drunk
ards to obtain a comfortable livelihood as
soon as they migrate to New England
| But as a matter of fact there is, according
to the correspondent of the Montreal Wit
ness, no foundation for the charge. 1t
seems that within the last generation there
has been a vast change for the better in the
drinking habits of the French Canadians,
and that now there is scarcely habitant
house on either side of the lower St. Law,
renee in which you do not encounter the
temperance cross, the emblem of the reform
started by the Rev Mr.. Chiniquy many
years ago.
No, the French Canadians are deserving
by tens of thousands the farms on which
they were born, for the simple reason that
they cannot keep body and soul together
there. They cannot get lucrative work fol
their hands to do. 1t is useless to till theil
lands when they cannot get remunerativt
prices for the produce. What between the
low returns for everything they have tc
sell and the high cost of everything they
have to buy, coupled with the inordinatt
taxes which they have to pay, they cannot
live any longer in their country. By the
fear of starvation they are forced to e
where, although taxes will be levied upor
them, they can at least earn the money
with which to meet them. They know
where to go, because their relations anC
friends, who have already emigrated, ar,
continually sounding the praises of New
England
The French Canadians who have settlet
in our northeastern states are not only sci
supporting, but they are constantly givin!
substantial proofs of their prosperity b,
sending remittances to those whom the,
have left behind. Under such condition
the time cannot be far distant when nearl,
the whole of the ablebodied population o
French speaking Canada will have trans
ferred itself across the border
There is one way and one way only t.
stop the depopulation of lower Canada
and that is to support the movement start
ed by ex-Premier MERCER, which aims a
independence as preliminary step, bu
contemplates the eventual admission of tn
province into the Union. The instant Que
bee becomes a state in the Union its take
will be lightened, and the prices of most Q
the commodities purchased by the farmer
will be lowered and, what is of far create
moment, its products will have free acces
to the American markets. Farming
lands throughout the province will az
quire a value greater than they hav
ever yet possessed, and the output c
their staple products will acquire propol
tions for which there is no precedent Th
parish priests, whose flocks are dwindlin
and whose stipends are with every yea
drawing nearer to the vanishing point, wi
recover the means Of subsistence whic
they have right to expect. 1t is strana
that they have not already awakened
the truth that the interests of their churcl
no less than the secular interests of Frenc
Canadian laymen, are threatened with c.
tastrophe by the present connection
Quebec with the Dominion and with Grei
Britain and that they can only be promote
by the union of the province with the Anne
lean republic New York Sun.