Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-08-19
The "Rush to Canada"

A whole lot of horse sense is con-
tanned in an article on The rush to
Canada by E. w. Thompson in the
Boston Transcript. He describes the
citizens VINO leave the United States
and how they are tempted across the
border. The speculative settler is an
interesting character. He is after
free land and when he has proved
up" he moves on. Perhaps these set
tiers who cross the line are as much
an advantage to us ever there as
here. They create an American senti-
ment in the neighboring land. Mr..
Thompson writes:
Some Americans distress themselves
unreasonabiy about the emigration OF
other Americans to Canada. The
hegira has been lately more numerous
than ever before. 1t is credibly esti-
mated that 125,OO0 United States souls
will have crossed the border before
this season ends; that most of them
will stay North; that 10000 OF them.
| being men over eighteen years, will
any families of whom they are the
main support No doubt some have
crossed with the same intent that has
long sent some eastern Canadians
westward-that of patching it, for
| three years on homestead land. prov
| ing up getting clear title. then
selling out, moving on. going back
home, or investing the received price
J of their land in business.
| This sort of speculative settler has
always been observable among the
multitudes seeking free land in the
| States, as in Canada. One often
comes across Western men who say:
took up my rights in Minnesota Cor
| Dakota or some other State); | proved
up, sold out, and now l am taking up
my rights here in Canada" These
men conceive of free land as prospec-
| tors conceive of mining claims, for
which they will go anywhere. They
| change allegiance as easily as shirts.
The oath is to them but formality
for gaining land gratis. They include
many Canadians who emigrated to the
| United States West for free land, and
who emigrate as United States citi-
zens to Canada, led by the same lure.
There are always, on any frontier,
a number of lf-deluded city and
townsfolk who did not realize the con-
ditions until they got to what they
imagined would prove Tom Tiddler's
ground, where the 'demnition gold and
silver could be picked up a la Mr..
| Mantalini Again. there are on every
| frontier a sprinkling of scalliwags. for
| ,>1a hnnnn,nc
hot or too cold. The bad man" is
especially apt to sorrow speedily if
| he goes into Canada, where the
mounted police are so unsympathetic.
In short, there is floating population
on every frontier of a new settlement.
II is absurd to label some of these
people returned Americans" to pub
| fish their yarns of woe. and to found
| on the backfoW and the blather a
notion that United Statesers have been
simultaneously deluded into Canada
and are hurrying out again with ulu-
| lation.
| Nine -tenths of the emigrants. from
either country to the other. stay
where they stop. planting a fixed fool
as tenaciously as the e.. 900 Canadians.
mostly maritime provincials, in and
around Boston. They take land or
Jobs: they get interested; they cease
to contemplate the world as a sphere
| for rolling round in few of them can
spare the money to go travelling far:
they can find immediate profitable en-
ployment for all the coin they can
muster: they see how to advance as
localized folk, they become part of the
environment; they attach themselves
as bees to hive: they prOcreate and
| multiply: they will throw off swarms
later, if any place remain to swarm
unto. Meantime. their departure from
any state or place has not really de-
! tracted from the strength of the com
munity or nation they leave. They
| merely step out; the gap is filled as
| fast as it is made. sometimes by an
| immigrant, sometimes by a United
| Stateser who is looking for an open
ing. The shifting of population is good
| for the district that gains Tom and
Dick after losing Bill and Harry 1t
causes new blood to circulate 1t
| keeps the older parts more alive than
they might otherwise have been.
How Waldo Fares.