Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1900-04-06
TIk -rgEMING VEST
Western Csnn',a Prairie Lands Being
Filled with Excellent Settlers.

Filled with Excellent Settlers.
The salient fact that presents itself
IN taking a birdseye view Of the Ca
madam West, is that Of intense activi-
ty in every department. Whether the
glance be turned upon the district
east of Winnipeg, the Red River VAL
ley south or north, the Dauphin and
M. & M. w. district, the Southwestern,
or whether it take in ths great central
division along the MAIN Zine of the G.
p. r., stretching away out to the
Rockies and from there bending north
and south to Prince Alberta and Ed
monitor, Mcleod and Lethbridge-
whether the examination be made IT,
any of these directions the same ac-
tivity, growth and hopefulness are OBJ
servable.
The Canadian West is not only
good place to locate permanently.
but 1t is also a good place to invite
ones relatives and friends to come to.
This is the spirit that seems to ami
mate the West at the present time,
and it's effects are to be seen on every
hand. To enumerate the towns where
handsome and substantial blocks ard
residences have gone up this yer
would be simply to give list of he
towns and villages alcng the railway
lines. And this movement has nc;
been confined to these centers of popu.
lation, but in many cases it has been
overshadowed by the improvement in
farm buildings.
So far as one can see, this is no pass
ing phase, no repetition of any tenn
porary boom following a period OF
good crops and fair prices. 1t is q
movement more spontaneous, more
general, more marked than anything
that has gone before, and seems to in
dictate that the great West, like Sam
son, bursting the encompassing bands,
has awakened to period of activity
and development that will surpass
anything we have known in the past
and which will only be paralleled by
the opening out of some of the most
fertile OF the western states Of the
union.
Look at some of the figures. Over
thousand schools in Manitoba. and the
number going up by leaps and bounds;
something like 500 schools in the terri
tories. Winnipeg as representing the
gateway of the West, the third city
In the Dominion in regard to bank
clearings, postal business and proba-
bly, In regard to customs, the customs
return at Winnipeg running about 81
to 40 per cent greater month by month
than in the fiscal year of 1878, the
largest previous year for actual bust
ness entries, when over 100000 was
paid through the Winnipeg office fol-
duty; the G. p. R. and Canade
Northwest lane sales together running
over $1,500,000 for the year. These
and thousand more signs show how
the West has leaped into new life.
This is an inspiring and cheering
spectacle, but it brings with it great
responsibilities. The business men
realize this, the banks realize it and
have spread their agencies through
every bustling little town clear outaA9
the coast; the churches realize it, I'D
one denomination alone has opened an
average of about thirty new stations
in each of the past two years. and VIII
increase this in the year now entered
upon; the government departments
realize it, and there is talk of redis-
tribution and additional members. The
-educativnal branches realize it, and
new schools are springing up every
where. Over $4,000 settlers came in
from the United States alone last year,
and these, with the people who came
in from the East, prove the most rig
orous westerners. They lose no time
in developing their farms, in filling
their grazing lands with stock, and in
every district is to be found evidences
Of thrift and prosperity.