The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1920-06-17

Eight thousand Mennonites are tt
leave western Canada this year and
move to Mississippi, taking all their
worldly possessions, estimated to be
worth more than $1O,0O0,000.
They are going because the Mani
toba and Saskatchewan governments
require them to conform to the edu-
cational standards of the two prov
inces, teaching their children in Eng
lish instead of German, and because
they feel that if Canada ever again
is drawn into war they will be forced
to render military service.
Assurance that they will be exempt
from military service and free to wor-
ship and educate their children as
they please has been obtained from
the federal authorities at Washing
ton and from Mississippi state Off
Gals, the Mennonite leaders claim.
Leave Homes of Half Century
About 1000 persons in Manitoba
and an equal number in Saskatche-
wan belonging to the orthodox Men
monte church colonies are to leave
homes they established in 1870 when
they came from Russia to make new
homes in the Mississippi valley. Four
teen prairie towns and villages will
be practically depopulated, temporar-
lily at least, and highly improved land
holdings, valued at more than $10,-
600, 900, will be sold by the emf
grants for what they will bring.
Some of the Mennonites, those living
in the towns, are preparing to de-
part now, but the great majority,
who are farmers, will wait until they
harvest this years crop and will move
in the late fall.
Next spring, probably, thousands
more in those two provinces and in
Alberta are expected to leave for
Alabama.
The Mennonites' dissatisfaction
with Canada dates from 1918, when
the Manitoba legislature enacted and
the provincial authorities began to
enforce new school laws, requiring
that English be taught for a specified
period every day in every school in
the province. The Mennonites resist
ed, refusing to allow any Interior
ence with their schools.
In the last two years the province
has asserted it's authority to the limit,
arresting a large number of the Men
MONTE leaders, either for failing to
obey the law about teaching English
or for keeping their children out of
The Mennonites fought the
case to the Canadian supreme court
and lost, that tribunal refusing to
hear their appeal on the ground that
the provinces have exclusive jurisdic-
ton in all school matters.
n,,r,1~ fhn rrro tho NTon-Anifoc !
were much censured because they re-
fused to serve the country, even in
noncombatant branches of the army.
Late in the war, when the nation was
h~ard-pressed to find recruits to fill
in the gaps at the front, soldiers who
had returned, wounded, mobbed the
Mennonites in several communities.
The question of abrogating the
agreement the Mennonites arranged
with the federal government when
they first came to the country, in
which exemption from military SER
vice was guaranteed, was even raised
in parliament and possibly would
have passed had the war not ended
suddenly. So the Mennonites feel
their chance of escaping service in
another war would be slim.
The loss of 5000 thrifty, hard
working citizens from this sparsely
populated west will be felt keenly,
but the provincial authorities, when
approached by the Mennonite leaders
before they finally decided to move,
told them they would put no obstacle
in their way, make no effort to induce
them to remain.