Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1916-06-08
WESTERN CANAOKS FUTURE
Schools to Teach "Canadianism"
One of the Tasks.
Women suffrage and Church Union
with Adjustment of Bi-ingUaI-
Ism Have Been Adopted
Largely Prohibition.


New York Post. All lines of railway
entering the western provinces from
the East pass through Winnipeg, like
several threads through the eye of
needle, and upon reaching the praries
branch out into a great network of
routes covering the plains of Manitoba,
saskatchewan, and Alberta. Standing
in the offices of the Canadian Pacific,
the Canadian Northern, and the Grand
Trunk Pacific railways in this city, at
ny time. it is possible to feel the pulse
and get a glimpse of the life, of the vast
territory which extends away westward
for 500 miles to the slopes of the Rocky
mountains
Until the outbreak Of hostilties in
Europe in August, 1914, the view which
was always taken from this gateway"
reached westward, never back. towards
the East I'm the spring of the year
especially the streets of Winnipeg would
be thronEed with crowds of immigrants
en- route to some pioneer settlement far
Their west. For. with the coming of
spring, the inflow of peoples from all
lands through "the gateway to the
West" invariably increased to the great
est volume of the year.
But since August. 1914, Winnpeg's po-
sition in relation to the country farther
West has been changed. This city has
become the gateway from the West"
| and the current of the human flood
passing through it now leads towards
the East and the hattlofelds of F.u-
rope Instead of the crowd of unkcmpt,
| rough-looking immigrants passing into
| Z bn bc e.,
of trim. khaki-clad soldiers are passing
out. And with this cessation of the in
ward flow, and the turning of the move
ment of men in the opposite direction,
Western Canada has been given an in
terval in which to consider the char
acter of its growth and development
during the past fifteen years.
! The West feels that it will receive
/ again many of the men who are leaving
the country now as soldiers, and in ad-
dition hosts of others from Britain and
! Europe But in the interval. the need
! for adjusting many social and economic
evils which have arisen out of the rapid
/ accumulation of peoples in the past is
pressing The present state of affairs
in Western Canada, as we'll as the flu
| ture possibilities following the conclu-
| sion of the war, have been appreciated
already by the provincial governments
on the prairies, and new lines are be-
/ ing laid by means of legislation and
measures Of administration, along which
this part of the Dominion must develop
in years to come.
GROWTH OF POPULATIONS
Fifteen years ago, when the Dominion
census Of 1901 was taken. the population
of the whole of Canada was 5,371 900. of
which number the province of Manitoba.
the northwest territories which In 1905
were formed into the present provinces
of Saskatchewan and Alberta. and the
province of British Columbia and the
Yukon territory. contained about CAS-, 500
/ people. To-day Canada's population is
/ estimated at S.'no0'n. Of which less than
/ 100000 people are living west of the
/ Great Lakes. The striking fact in con-
nection with these figures, however, is
| that according to national records of
immigration, the country's increase in
! population in that fifteen-year period
amounting to 3,o0ocH, is exactly ac-
counted for in the total number of i'm
migrants received into Canada between
1860 and 1913. In other words, there is
no evidence of growth by reason of
the natural hirth-rate of the country
The native sons and daughters of Cana
da, therefore, would seem to have been
leaving their Dominion, while people
from foreign lands We're entering here
And that outflow of native Canadians
chiefly to the United States. has de-
prived this country of the very material
which should have been useful at home
in helping to assimiate the hordes o!
foreigners who poured into the new
Western provinces. particularly after
their creation in 1905. That complete
loss of her native born. alone, consti.
tutes a problem which Canada has no,
yet met.
The increase in the population OF
| Western Canada since the beginning 81
the present century has been somethnl
like 115 per cent, as compared with /
per cent. in Eastern Canada during tn,
same period Between the years 1896 anc
1914 the rate of growth In the West wal
greatest. During that era of railroad
and municipal construction on tn,
prairies people and capital flowed int,
the country from all quarters of tn.
globe, and the real estate dealer anc
the politician Toasted themselves to the
hearts content on the healthy CROWNS
body of the nation, like parasitic plant:
| fastened to the trunk of flourishin,
tree a few patriots struggled agains
the incoming tide of immigration ant
sought to direct it into the proper chan
nels, but not until the so-called era o
prosperity had passed into one of de
preston did the country as Who'll,
awaken to the serious nature of tn,
social and economic problems which ha,
; been developing.
The majority of the Western cite
found that they had been building OF
false foundations and that agriculture
development had not kept pace with ur
ban expansion. 1t was also suddenl.
realized that in measure the Yves
had become a polyglot country, anC
that the host Of foreigners within on
, gates had not been assimlated Tallin,
the three prairie provinces together, /
was discovered that the total population
was composed of people of British
origin representing 80 per cent of tn
whole, and foreisn peoples, representa-,
the remaining Il per cent While fine
Npretentious looking school building
. were being constructed. the system o
education within the splendid walls o
those schools was being neglected, witt
! the result that, in Manitoba and Sas
} katchewan to-day, the departments o
education are confronted with the seri
GUS problem of preserving in its prope