Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-17

pay in the increased value of the lands
and In the traffic which will come to the
railroad through the settling of the coun-
try.
After Our Farmers.
l understand that the Canadians expect
to populate this country with Americans
The railroad has given over the first ITO OoO
acres, now ready for settlement, to an
American syndicate, which has already
made big money in selling tracts of spring
wheat lands to immigrants from Minnesota.
Dakota Iowa, Illinois and other states
These American agents have colonization
offices at Calgary. and they are formulating
schemes by which they expect to canvass
the irrigated sections of the United States
to induce our good farmers to come
here and buy these lands as fast as they
are opened up. Said one of the syndicate
to me the other day:
I'VE will work those parts of the Union
just as book publishing house works its
territory. Our selling agents will go from
farm to farm like the canvasser does SELL
Ing books. and will induce such as have
money to buy this land on installments II
they are interested, we will food them with
literature. and viii probably bring them
to Canada at reduced rates of transporta-
ton to show them what We have to SELL
In the meantime the lands are offered at
several times the price asked for the spring
wheat lands farther north and east; but
the Canadians claim that they are cheap on
account of the water. which insures steady
crops year after year, regardless of sea-
sons.
Introduced by the Mormons.
The practical possibility of an irrigated
Canada was suggested by the Mormons
There ara about 10,GG0 of them now
living on irrigated lands near Lethbrfdge
between here and the United States boun-
dairy They have established towns. have
built up a beet-sugar factory, with a capt.
tai of a million dollars have one -four mill
which is now turning out a carload of
flour daily, and they are. altogether one OF
the most thriving peoples of the new Can
ada.
These Mormons produced more than a
million bushels of wheat last year and
they are now shipping -four direct to Japan
and China. They come from the irrigated
states of Utah and Idaho. They farm on
tracts of about eighty acres each. and /
am told that they raise two or three times
as much on such farms as can be raised
in the non-irrigated sections.
During my stay In Canada l have visited
this Mormon country. 1t is reached by
the line OF the Alberta Railway and Irri-
cation Company, which is used largely TO
carry coal from Lethbridge down to Mon
tana. The lands are almost dead fat and
are cut up by canals fed by the st. AIary's
river.
Seventy-fve thousand acres are already
under cultivation and the railway and irri-
cation company above referred to has alto
gether almost million acres yet 10 re-
deem. The company received concession
for part of these lands for opening up the
coal mines and building the railroad and
looked upon them as fitted only for grazing
until the Mormons came in and proposed 10
irrigate them. AS 1t is, the Irrigation works
are only five years old and they have the
town of Raymond. which has a population
of 1900, situated in the heart OF them and
smaller settlements along the line of the
railroad.
The Canadian Railroads.
l talked with Peter l.. Naismith, the man
aPeT OF the company, and {. A. Magra IN,
the land commissioner. about its character
and possibilities. They tell me the lands
are excellent and that they are being rap
Idly settled. Mr.. Magrath. while not a
Mormon himself. has represented these
people in the territorial legislature and has
known them from the time they cana TO
Canada. He says they make excellent cit1-
zcns and are conforming to the Canadian
laws in every respect. / asked him how
they acted in regard to plural marriages.
He replied
No Polygamy in Canada.
THE Canadian Mormons are monoga-
msts We have some citizens who were
poIygamists in Utah, but they brought but
one family each to this country. Shortly
after their arrival they sent delegates 70
Ottawa TO ask If they might bring their
plural wives provided no further plural
marriages were made. Sir John Macdon-
AID who was then premier, replied in the
negative. saying that, while he was glad
TO have the Mormons come to Canada. they
could not live there unless they obeyed
the laws. AS result, the extra wives re-
manned where they were"
Il do not believe there is any polygamy
in Canada" continued Mr.. Magrath "rha
mounted police keep close tab on the
Mormons. and IL there were plural mar
riages we should surely know. Now and
then some person In eastern Canada de-
nounces the existence of Mormonism IN
Utah and alleges that polygamy exists. It,
may be SO In the United States, but 1t is not
so here. As for me, / can get certificate
from my church that am a staunch Epis-
copalian, but find the Mormons good
enough for me to live among. They are
interested in politics, although they have
no union Of church and state rhey are