The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1906-02-18
UNCLE SAM now 4
BUSY IN CANADA
How Our American Citizens Are
Bringing Up the British
Northwest.
WHAT THE INVASION MEANS
"A Progressive Movement Started
BY Yankees-Woman Selling
Land.
WHAT THE INVASION MEANS
By Prank G. Carpenter.

BY Prank G. Carpenter.
WINNIPEG. February 5,-Thcre are
not more than two hundred thousand
Americans In the Canadian northwest.
They number one-third of the population,
/ and some sections OF the wheat belt
ssarc settled almost entirely by them. a
few American syndicates have taken up
|, large tracts and some individuals have
bought thousands OF acres and are hold
ing them, but the majority of our peo-
pie haye settled on the homesteads al
lctted by the government and, having
bought lands adjoining. are waiting to
grow up with the country.
Americans are doing large share of
the business of the new towns A few
are merchants. others are investing in
elevators and mills, and there are a
number of Winnipeg, who have much to
say in the grain exchange and other
financial centers.
The American Invasion.
Indeed CANADA may be said to have
3 real invasion of Americans. In 1896 less
than fifty homesteads were allotted to
them. In 1897 the number jumped to
1000 and In 1880 ii was 5000. In 1900 II
rose to 5000: and last year more than
5000 Americans, an army ten times as
large as that which Xenophon led on his
march to the sea, came over into Canada
and are now here besieging the God of
Prosperity.
The government officials tell me they
expect to have 10000 more Americans this
year. and warn you that both they and
the American real estate syndicates. who
are making money out of buying lands
and selling them again, will do what they
& can to increase that number In the fu-
ture This is matter of vital interest
to the United States. 1t means the loss
of some of the best of our farming popu-
Iation, and in addition to the actual car
rying away into Canada of millions of
dollars of good American gold.
Uncle Sam Will Lose $50, 900, 900
The most Of the Americans who go to
h Canada are skilled farmers They are
q men of means, and nearly all of them
I carry some money along. 1 am told that
the average, so far, has been at least a
thousand dollars per head, which for the
2G0,oo0 immigrants who have SO far gone
there would mean an actual loss of some
thing like s2oo,onoOcp. If the average is
kept up 1t means that Uncle Sam will
+ lose $s0O01Oco from such emigration this
Z year. and that to say nothing of the en-
Z ergy. brains aud muscle of 5000 good
2 American citizens. 1t Is generally estl-
\ mated that q first-class man without i
= cent in his pocket is worth at least n
thousand dollars to the country in which
he settles, and our emigrants are GER
.ainly worth that to Canada. They arc
worth more n the building up of this
:ountry, for they know Just how TO
iandle IT, They are valued at something
ike q million dollars yenr by the rail-
ionds as traffic producers. James j. Fill
estimates that every new family which
settles along the Great Northern is
worth ut least a hundred dollars a year
IN additional freight. Now 5000 Ameri-
\ .ans ut even five to the family means
1000 families and, at Mr. Hills estimate
this equals an annual increase of at least
hcoo,opo 10 the receipts of the Canadian
railroads.
Do you wonder that the Canadians are
anxious to get US?
Movement Started BY Yankees.
This remarkable invasion originated in
the combined forces of the Dominion
government and Yankee spectators. and
! 81 has been carried OH by those forces
/ from the beginning until now. Indeed, ]
might say that our real estate men We're
the real discoverers of the new Canada
The Canucks have long known that they
have a vast area of good soil, but they
had no i9eI.. had at could be developed
until the strenuous American crossed the
boundary and planned out the way.
Z To begin with, the movement is the out
come of the filling up of the United
3 States. For years the American railways,
which are always figuring after possible
traffic, have known that they We're ear
rying about 100000 migrants to our great
west every twelve months. This army
{. has been scattered over our country and
IT has rapidly filled the vacant spaces. 1t
& has eaten up most of the homesteads
given free by our government and has
swallowed about all the cheap lands that
could he had in large Blocks About 1900
the fact that the most of such lands
were gone became well known, and the
s American pioneer farmer who had settled
q in Ohio and there made money by selling |
out and buying cheaper lands In Illinois,
and again made more by moving from
there on TO North Dakota. found himself
At the end Of such Speculation. Lands |
\ everywhere had risen, and in the far
+ west they We're worth from SIS and up
ward per acre.
At the same time the big land opera
tors. who had been buying large tracts
In Minnesota and the Dakotas from tho
Northern Pacific and other railroads and
selling them out TO the farmers. found
Z that there was no more land to buy;
End that they would have 10 have new