The Saint Paul globe., 1904-01-25
MONDAY, JAN. 25, 1904.
THE CANADIAN IMMIGRATION
SYSTEM.

Papers in various parts Of the coun-
try have been much stirred up of late
over announcements of the wonderful
progress of the Canadian government
in attracting immigrants from the
United States to it's unoccupied terri
tory in the Northwest. In almost ev-
cry state of the Union immigration
agents have been at work soliciting
people to go upon the wild and cheer
less plains of the Northwest provinces.
The population of that district has
been increased quite largely by this
systematic drumming up of business,
and some alarm has been felt in vari-
Gus quarters in this country lest Cam
ada's energy and persuasiyeness
should affect our growth unfavorably
as compared with her own.
We need not feel the least alarmed
about additions to population and in
crease in cultivation and settlement
brought about by the means now en-
ployed to populate the Canadian
Northwest. Not only have the Cam
adian railroads, existing and projected,
exerted themselves to build up this
immigration, but the Canadian govern
ment has paid regular bounty for
every immigrant procured. 1t is the
terrible abuses incident to this sys-
tenn that have brought the whole mat
ter to a head.
The agent Of the government re-
ceives a stated sum in cash for each
person whom he can bring into the
country. This can readily be made a
profitable business. There is no way
to keep check on such system, and
travellers visiting Canada on business
or pleasure are easily registered as
immigrants and the bounties for them
drawn down. There is every thinkable
inducement to fraud. The agents farm
out the business to sub-agents, and
these again to employees of their own
until pretty nearly the whole COM
munity is interested in swelling the
total of immigration, actual or fraud
ulent, and breaking into the Dominion
treasury. Of course it gets a certain
amount of population in this way, but
the cost per capita is something mon
strous.
According to reports, the condition of
these immigrants in the far West is
most unhappy. They are placed upon a
soil that is fertile enough, but all
the necessaries of life not Immediately
drawn from the ground command ex-
orbitant prices. The climate is one
of intense severity, and only by the
most strenuous labor can the in1rni-
grant be kept from actual suffering.
With thousands of miles between him
and the nearest centers of transpor-
tation, he is absolutely dependent upon
monopoly in every least detail of his
life. With this man so circumstanced
at one end OF the scheme and the
fraudulent immigration system and its
beneficiaries at the other, the policy
of Canada in trying to fill her unec-
cupied territory appears to be sadly
in need of revision.
Canada will fill it in time. The only
rational course for her, as for any
other country or community. il to
wait for the operation of natural bust
ness conditions. 1t is proper to en-
courage settlement in the newer parts
OF the country. just as it has been en-
couraged by the United States. 1t is
proper for railroad or other corpora
tlons that have their interests to serve
and that can make a business UNDER
taking out of it to promote inmigra-
ton into territories where they are in
terested. All these plans rest on a