The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-08-21
Miners Beware.


~ that man named George A.
Whitney, secretary. of the
Western Oil Mems Exchange and the
local homesteading agent for the Can
adan government expects to take up
ward of five thousand Pennsylvania
strikers to the Dominion. Whitney
states that he outlined his plans to
John Gerahty, agent at Wilkes-Barre
for District No. 2, and that it met with
that officials approval. Any wildcat
scheme will apparently meet with the
approval of some people. The milder
and more elusive it is, the more certain
is it to appeal to their obtuseness. We
should like to hear what Mr.. Gerahty
knows about the Whitney colonial
tion scheme, or why he should set the
sign of his approval, presumably as an
officer of the miners union, to propo-
sition which may leads hundreds or
thousands of miners and their families
to certain hardships and perhaps to
ultimate ruin. The Toronto World
must be accepted as an impartial judge
of the prospects Of the men seeking a
homestead in the Canadian northwest.
This is what it said no later than last
Saturday:
In its present state it is not a poor
mans prospect" as they say in the wild
west. Land can be had for the asking,
and practically no capital is required for
this purpose for several years, but man
cannot subsst with his family on dirt.
however plentiful and however rich.
Something else is necessary temporarily.
After the first crop is harvested new
settler may be said to be on the high
road toward independence, but a year
must elapse before this source of reve-
nue. can be relied upon. The large num-
bers who are rushing into the great
stretch of country west OF Manitoba are
facing a serious problem unless they are
supplied with small share of worldly
goods. A young man without incum-
brances, without a family, can hope to
secure employment in that wonderful
country almost as soon as he jumps
from the train, especially at this season
of the year. but while his compensation
will seem ample as compared with prices
for the same labor prevailing In the
eastern sections to which he is accus-
toned he will find that the expenses of
living are enormously out of proportion
to those to which he has been used.
The World was not Of course maxi
ing any allusion TO Whitney's and
Gerahty's scheme. 1t was endeavoring
to discourage the indiscriminate rush
of Canadians to part of the world
which is wilderness, and which will
remain a wilderness during the next
thirty years at least. Canada Is an
agricultural country, and those who are
recklessly turning their faces toward
the Northwest are mainly farmers and
farm laborers. Men who have follow
ed any other occupation have no pros
poets there. A raw miner in Manitoba
would have infinitely less chance Of
making a living or even sustaining life,
than a Manitoba farmer would have in
the mines of Pennsylvania. The World
goes on to say:
The labor market is very likely to he
congested in the territories within the
next few months Capital is required to
develop the country. Everybody cannot
live on farms, and especially is this true
of the class who have nothing with which
to buy grain, farm implements, stock
and provisions to carry them over several
months,
Nor is this any more cheerful pic
ture than what we have already quoted
from our able and conscientious con-
temporary.
These are questions that even the en-
thusiastic individual contemplating this
trip should be interested in. The plains
present an enhancing panorama at this
season. Wild flowers grow in the great
est profuson, and the blue lobelia and
the dainty daisy can be seen there in the
widest Jtangle, The virgin sod once
turned Fields abundantly. But In win
ter the Scene is a bleak one on those
same prairies now carpeted with the most
attractixe fora. Nature here presents a
very dieary aspect, and a substantial
dwelling Is necessary. The young man
figuring on such a prospect should have
from $500 to $1,000 In his pocket when he
lands int.the northwest If he is accom-
panied by his family. A less amount will
subject him to hardshps of which he
never dreamed
The agents who have been rushing
around the anthracite regions during
the strike We're not actuated by philan-
thropic motives. How far those miners
who accepted their offers were satisfied
or disappointed we have no means of
ascertaining. These engagements were
temporary. and We're meant to be So
II Is altogether another matter to strike