The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1908-07-16
DISRUPTION OF CANADA.

The thrush of Americans into the
western part of Canada seems to some
serious British observers to dest1ne
that section of the dominion to ult1-
mate annexation to the United states,
undes something is speedily done to
prevent it. The London National Re-
view. which is often referred to as an
organ of the British court, publishes
an article by a writer who signs him
self "Ignotus,' in which it is declared
unlikely that the whole of Canada VIII
submit permanently to the throne be-
yond the sea unless the immigration
and land policy of the dominion gov
eminent receive serious consideration.
Alberta, "the pick of the basket among
Canadian provinces is already Ameri-
canized. Moreover:
1T needs no close study of immi-
grafton, or of the progress of the coun-
try, to detect the strong and lncreas-
ing influence of the American invasion
on the surface and in the heart Of
Western life. The press, for example.
is American in form and matter, from
it's leading political article, to its sport
ing paragraphs written in the curious
slang affected by the American sport
ing world. Even it's cable news is
chiefly supplied through New York by
the American Associated Press, while
it's domestic and comic supplements
are furnished, almost exclusively by a
Yankee press syndicate controlled by
that prominent Anglophobe William
Randolph Hearst. American books and
periodicals form the staple reading
matter American currency is in gen.
eral circulation. The hotels are but a
copy-as a rule a poor one-of the
hotels of the American west The
clothes worn and they way they are
put on slavishly reflect the fashions Of
the southern neighbor. The accepted
language and utterance twang of the
western states. The accepted humor
is what is called American humor.
Baseball and trotting races are prom1-
nent among popular sports; while
cricket and Rugby football, the ball
games of the empire, find little favor
even in schools and colleges. Billiards
in the west mean American billiards.
Drinks, from ice-water to the complex
cocktail, are American; so are the uni
versal domestic cigar and the inter-
minable chewing of peanuts. In gen
eral commerce the cloven hoof is
equally noticeable such as in the wild
speculation in real estate and produce,
by which the two great assets of west
ern Canada are made the medium of
al,
bling. This ubiquitous system may be
cheap way of advertising the coun-
try, but it is also one which threatens
the moral as we'll as the material well
fare of the people, for even the farm
ing community seem unable to resist
the Establishments of the real estate
broker, who may be found in every
railside village
The only salvation for Canada, we
imperialism, for "Canada's hope in the
future, as much as her strength today,
rests on her imperial birthright, and
on the maintenance and further re-
enforcement of her imperial connec-
ton. Break the ties, and her prospects
are at once threatened by internal diff
ferences; with her great neighbor on
the watch for the then inevitable OPP
portunity to seize the coveted wealth
of the western plains
The spirit and institution of imper-
ialism can only be strengthened and
kept alive in Canada by encouraging
the immigration of British subjects
and making it a transatlantic England
| Thus 'IgnOtus" observes:
ITO invite all and sundry, and offer
them uniformly attractions and az
vantages, may have been, in the first
instance, necessary to stimulate a
movement; but now, when its object
has been achieved, its virtue has ceas-
| ed. 1t is manifest that the time for
discrimination has arrived II must be
asked whether these hordes of Ameri-
can and cosmopolitan immigrants are
likely to produce sound factors in I'm
rial-Canadian growth, or add their
| measure to its menace. Is it better