New-York tribune., 1906-08-15
cANADA,S SHORTAGE IN LABOR.

Following the cry from the harvest fields Of
Kansas, the Dakotas and the American North
west comes appeal from the Manitoba gov
ernment for twenty thousand labOrers to help
gather it's abundant grain harvest. This call
is not made as a result of a loose guess as to
the number of men required. The estimate for
help is based upon the reports of government
crop correspondents in each township Of six
miles square, and the estimate of twenty thou
sand men is therefore a simple matter Of addi-
tiOn of trustworthy figures
This year. owing to the fact that the harvest
is two weeks earlier than usual, Manitoba's de-
mand for harveSterS naturally clashes with
that of the Eastern provinces, and the result
is scarcity of help in both sections Under
ordinary circumstances Manitoba's harvest
does not begin until August and is finished in
about six weeks, but when labor is scarce it
sometimes takes two months This year. for the
first time since 1886. it began in July, and
hence will probably be finished about the mid
die of September. The Canadian Pacific Rail-
road. in order to secure harvesterS for the
Canadian Northwest, has not only organized
excursions from the Maritime Provinces, but Of
fers rate Of f6 from Liverpool to the harvest
fields and a similar return rate and still the
call is for more help. The idea OF crossing the
ocean on a harvest trip is a novel one, and
certainly ought to have appealed to the love Of
adventure said to be inherent in every British
breast. If even under such allurements the call
of the harvest fields remains only partly an
swered, it is evident that Canada will have in
future to rely chiefly upon her own labOrers.
This year and for several years to come
Canada's harvest labor problem will also con-
fict with the demand for labor by Canada's
new transcOntinental railway. Hundreds Of
laborers on the latter, knowing that they can
return and obtain work whenever they wish,
will annually leave the employ of the railway
for the greater temporary wages offered in the
harvest fields. In the Eastern provinces not
only is this want of labor felt at harvest time
but throughout the year. The greater OppOr-
tunities offered in the Canadian Northwest have
drained some parts of Ontario and Quebec Of
their strongest and most adventurous young men,
just as the West continues to drain the East in
this way in the United States, and with similar
results. The abandoned farms of the New Eng
land states are beginning, and for similar causes
to find their counterpart in certain sections Of
Eastern Canada. As result land values there
are decreasing, the young men having gone West
and left 1.-The old folks to struggle the farm
often covered with a mortgage.
Not only in this hut in many other respects
are Canadian exigencies shaping themselves
after the American fashion. In both Canada
and the United States for many years to come
! there is likely, Notwithstanding the great tide
of immigration, to be an annual shortage OF
! labor in the harvest season, and this too while
all the great cities are thronged with men who
| sit in the parks in the summer season and in
| cheap lodging houses in winter and complain
! that they cannot find work