Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-04-07
MOUNTED POLICEMEN
How Nine Hundred of Them
Keep Order
IN THE WILDS OF CANADA
An Interview With the Chief at
Ottawa.
PROTECTING THE SETTLERS
Land Without Lynchings or Hold
Up-How the Hayward Muir
derer Was Detected.
Copyright, 1906. by Frank C. carpenter)


REGINA, Saskatchewan
For the past two months I have been
travelling along the Canadian frontier.
have been living in the baby towns of the
wild west. and have gone unarmed through
some of the least settled parts of the coun-
try. The conditions here are far different
from those which prevailed in our western
states when they We're first opened up to
immigrants. There are no cowboys dash
ing through the streets shooting up the
towns, there are no hold-ups on the rail-
roads and the bad man from Bitter
creek Is conspicuous by his absence. There
are plenty of bar rooms connected with
the little hotels, but the old settlers do not
make the tenderfoot dance by shooting
at his toes with q revolver, and murders
and lynehings are fewer still than in the
settled states of our west and south.
Canada's Mounted Police.
The secret of this good order comes from
Canada's mounted police and the fact that
the man who commits a crirae is bound to
be caught and punished. The mounted
police is one of the most remarkable mill
tary forces in existence. 1t comprises less
than 800 men, but 1t keeps order throughout
a country more than half as large as the
United States. A vast part of it's territory
iS wilderness. II runs from mere 10 the
Arctic ocean 1t has its stations about
Hudsons Bay on the Peoce river and in
the mining camps of the Yukon. Its mem
bers patrol every part of the new wheat
belt, where American and other immigrants
are taking up homesteads, and they gal
lop I'D and down the boundary between the
United States and Canada guarding against
smuggling and cattle-thievtng and setting
any minor troubles which arise between the
two peoples.
One of the largest stations of this terri
tory is here at Regina. The mounted po-
lice have barracks about two miles from
the city and most of the new men are
broken in at this point before they are
started out into the service. There are
other large stations at Prince Albert, Ca47
gary and Edmonton. They may De iouhu
near every Indian reservation and on every
spot where trouble is likely to come.
A Talk With the Chief.
During my stay at Ottawa l had an IN
tcrview with Col. Frederick White, the
head of this organization. and the man
who, more than any other, has had to do
with bringing 1t to its present efficient
state Col White has been connected with
the police for more than thirty-ive years.
He has seen 1t grow from two hundred
members to almost one thousand, and ne
has been associated with IT In various ca
pacities through all parts OF this great
British northwest.
asked Col White to tell me something
as to the extent of the territory under his
jurisdiction. Said he:
Our police precincts run from the boun-
dairy of the United States to the Arctic
ocean. We have altogether about a million
and a half square miles under our jurisdic-
ton. Take Edmonton That town lies over
three hundred miles north of the boundary
of the United States. We have policemen
on guard there and all along the line east
and west to the Pacific ocean and to Hud-
sons Bay. We have men hundreds of miles
to the northward, and we keep a large
force in the mining regions of the Klondike.
Indeed we have practically the whole OF
the sparsely settled and unsettled portions
of British North America.
Every Farmer a Police Reporter.
Give me some idea of how order is kept
In such a country said I.
'Our arrangements are such that we come
In contact with all the settlers. AS 1t Is
now our policemen ride on horseback
through every part of the lands which are
being opened up. Every man has his route,
and he gallops from farm to farm and town
to town. asking every colonist whether any
thing wrong has taken place since his last
visit. II the farmer has no complaints ne
is asked to sign a report to that effect, ana
II the contrary his troubles are at once