The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1903-05-02
Great Rush of American Farmers to
Canada.

Railroad and immigration agents say that
nothing like it has been seen since the
days following the Civil War, when the
great West was peopled almost in a night
by the great wave of immigration from the
East.
Farmers and men of small capital in
great numbers have gone to Canada from
Iowa. Nebraska, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri
and even as far east as Illinois and Indi-
ana, while from the northern fringe of
states there has been a big rush for the
new country. From Texas and New Mex
leo great herds of cattle have been driven
across the border, to be turned loose on
the deep grassed plains that are free to
the invaders.
Land is cheap in Assiniboia, Alberta
and the Saskatchewan country. Up there
the government has more land than it
knows what to do with, and it has sown
broadcast through the West literature, IL
Illustrated and unillustrated, giving details
of the opportunity awaiting the settler.
These pamphlets come at time when
land in the great farming region of the
United States has reached such figures
that it is practically beyond the reach Of
the man of small means The lean years
in the West, the panicky times, cleaned
out many small farmer, who could not
fight both the drouth and the low prices.
Many holders of mortgages, both in the
East and West, were compelled to take up
lands that they did not want, but they are
now very glad they did so. The men who
lost their farms are among those now
headed for Canada Others there are,
imbued with the same spirit that induced
the pioneers of this region to turn their
backs upon civilization and their old homes
and invade the wastes Of the plains These
are all headed for the great northwest.
They are hardy. energetic fellows willing |
to undergo hardships, hopeful that their
time for fortune has come.
Alluring tales are told by the imnigra-
ton agents of the broad farms waiting for /
settlers, and at prices even less than Uncle /
Sam has fixed in years past Much OF /
this energy of colonization had Its initiative
in the Canadian government, which has
been spending large sums to induce lmmi-
grafton into the Northwest provinces, and
now promises a new railroad paralleling the
Canadian Pacific, as an indueement TO the
farmers of the West to come.
The average size of Nebraska and Kan
sas farms has been steadily increasing IN
the last two decades, and this movement
has had the effect of narrowing and limit
ing the sphere Of activity for farmers and
would-be farmers. They have received
the command from prosperity genera! OF
the West to move on, and they are head
ing for Canada.
This movement has great speculative III
terest, too. If one viii examine the map
of Canada be viii notice Lake Superior
forms sort Of hump, sticking up into the
middle of it. There are men in the West
who say that right there Is where the
British Empire in North America Is going
to break in two some day.
L. L. Klinefelter, of Mason City, who
has Just returned from an extensive tour
of the western half Of the Dominion, Is
strong in the belief that this invasion Of
Canada BY Americans is but the entering
wedge of the coming split He says that
il viii not be a generation before there viii
be more people in Canada west Of Ontano
furtherest border than there win be east
of it.
At present the proportion is { 600, 900 /
to the east to / 900, 00o TO the west u il /
This viii not last long in the face 81 the /
tide Of immigration now in progress.
With a majority of the people there 4
Americans il will be but few years before |
they will be seen in the Dominion Parlia
ment, and they win be wanting free trade /
with America and lot of other things /
Canada, says Mr. Klnefelter, who Is both /
an editor and farmer, viii not hold To- /
gether long after the American West gets /
a majority in the Parliament and that /
time is coming clearly into sight.
Canada owes her present colonization /
activity largely to the fact that the Had
son Bay Company blight has been removed. !
This company got its charter in 1919. /
This charter gave it complete monopoly
of all Canada that drained into the bay.
From various causes this great empire
was narrowed, bat the company never was
particular about It's boundaries, 80 long as
the entertainment was not on its territory.
The company did not want the country
settled up, and it took precautions to see
that it was not painted in attractive colors.
Biographies hunting for information Of
the country were told by the company
that it was great waste Of snow, glaciers,
ieebergs and Eskimo huts
When Canadians really discovered what
vast possibilities were in store they set
about getting hold of the region. A score
Of years ago the company was induced to
sell out for 81, 500 600 in cash and one
twentieth of the land 1t was a good
thing for the company, but better one
for Canada.
Ii has been slow work overcoming the
prejudices of centuries and getting people
to believe that here really was land OF
promise. But the leayen has been work
ing rapidly, as the string of prosperous
settlements all along the thousands of miles
of the Canadian Pacific prove The new
invasion is Of the region further north
Here what TINS eultOr-IaTmer- Traveller
says of the country:
Every 80 acres Of it will support
family. It's all good land, too. Tie only
part Of North America that ism t is little
of Alaska
''From Winnipeg northwest to Dawson
City there Ism anything but good agricul
tural land Away up in the Great Bear
Lake region, almost to the Alaskan boun-
Diary, there are colonies of people who raise
wheat, oats, barley, hay, stock and have
comfortable homes
1.-The average annual temperature at
Sitka and Omaha is the same Railroads
are certain to follow the flow of population,
and the great stretches of now unworked
prairie will be sending down immense
streams of wheat and pasturing millions Of
head of cattle within dozen years.
The Deadhead
Why should people ask for free news
papers, asks the Toronto Evening Tele-