The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-11-07

with the power that comes unaided from the depths of the earth.
 If any skeptical reader should wish to verify these facts about the cil-
 maSez of Medicine Hat let him con
 suit the handbook given out by the
 Canadian Pacific Railway, which says i among other things regarding the | city, ''The snowfall here is lighter
 and the winter shorter than any
 where else in Canada east of the l Rocky Mountains"
 The sleepy little town which for l twenty years was offered no more ex-
 citing entertainment than that afford
 ed by the cow-punchers who came periodically to the Hat to buy their 1 provisions and have their spreess
 awoke with a start one day to find herself grown famous. The town, | that according to Rudyard Kip1ng
 was born lucky was finally coming | into her own, for the secret was out. Manufa cturers were hocking to Med icine Hat and building their factories. by the side of the gas wells and new wells were being bored. Men and lGwomen were talking about the won derful "'gas city, and every month brought it's hundreds of arrivals to the city. In one year the population
 grew from five thousand to twelve thousand. The hotels were crowded to overf1owing and people lived in
 tents and hastily constructed shacl1s.
 Builders came in by the hundred and
 the town spread out over the prairies
 with rows of houses marking out new
 streets in every direction.
 The amount of building permits in
 creased in one year from seven hum dred thousand dollars to more than three million dollars, and yet there
 was not enough houses for the com
 CTS. A score of new business blocks
 of
 modern fve-story and six-story struc-
 lures that transformed the prairie town into a modern city. Not since the days of the "Forty-niners' in California had there been such a. re- markabIe exhibition of city building
 It was Rudyard KfpIing, the in ventor of unique suggestions who
 christened Medicine Hat, FThe city that was born lucky and a more fit ting name could not have been found.
 Yet the luckiest thing about this lucky city, was not it's gas wells, nor it's surrounding rich prairies, but rather it's government. The guiding of the Medicine Hat to it's present position important manufac- turing city was by some good fortune placed in the hands of conscientious and capable men who have given to the city. a remarkably good adminis- tration- Their policy of giving free leases of land and free gas to man uEacturers has brought to Medicine Hat many of it's leading industries, while the adoption of the single tax system at the same time encouraged improvements instead of 1evying a tribute upon them, as the old system does The council have been respon- sib1e for providing the city with the 1 best systems of water and sewage | in Western Canada, and they have developed, by means of openness and 41s, 1ET7 T7r7f1 police force that has made Medicine l Hat one of the most orderly cities | upon the continent. What is of still | greater importance, they have en- couraged the building of schools, | churches and parks in order that the | city may have it's foundation and 1 strength in the better social condi- l tions among the people.
 It would be difficult to attempt a | forecast Of the future or Medicine Hat since her prospects must appear dull and coIorless in the reflected glamour of so many of her contemporaries. A | large number of Western Canadian cities have been the stock in trade of the boomsters who have fed to the | eager and creduIous investors the a1- | most romantic stories eff the fabu- lous wealth and the remarkable op- portunities for getting rich quick that these cities offered. In the face of these tales the record of Medicine Hat in 1911 and 1912 would appear like an l Englishnan's joke. The work of | Medicine Hat in these two years, re- markab1e as it is, would fade into in | significance, when ranged by the bril- liant deeds of the boomster's active | imagination. But in terms of actual | work, the development of resources and the building of a city, the perfect ing of good municipal government. 1 and the preparation of the future 1 needs of her people, Medicine Hat | has a record that is not surpassed by | any of her western neighbors-
 With her almost endless supplies Of | gas and coal and her already estab- | 1ished industries, Medicine Hat has a very substantial basis for develop | ment. But it should be clearly un- derstood that Medicine Hat is not now, '9The metropolis of the prai- ries,'' not the Pittsburgh of Canada.'' but just Medicine Hat, and the only | one in the world. It is a busy rap | idly growing town of fifteen thousand | people and with resources which if | utilized will support manufacturing city whose trade will radiate for at least thousands of miles in every di- rection, and whose population will not be limited by tens of thousands.
 ~~@NT