The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1921-01-21
Transformation of Raw Prairies Into
Domain of Plenty and Prosperity
Rivals Romance of Story Books.
By EDWARD JEROME DIES.

FNHE story really starts back in 1900. 1t
was late in the summer of that year that
a dapper young English author arrived
in Winnipeg, t~wirling his walking stick and eye
ing the struggling Indians suspiciously. He
had pictured life and its many emotions in
London. He had ridden to fame on the wings
of a best seller" with a music-hal setting. But
now his army of whimsical readers hungered for
new adventure. Something different. Some
thing of the big outdoors with a thrill in every
line.
After a protracted discussion his publisher
had ~thumped the table with his fist. The
Canadian Northwest was his sudden inspiration.
That's the setting" he had said. Indians.
Buffalo ~stampedes. Gold rushes. Scarlet
Riders, neutrality-suspicious. the mind can
suggest in the way of romance and adventure.
So the author, flushed with early success and
bristling with the enthusiasm of youth, had
turned his face westward
Along the twisting trails Of the almost c-
tinct buffalo he found the soul of his heroine.
Along the bewitching Saskatchewan and other
tabled streams he found the spirit of his hero.
Then bit by bit he wove the gripping tale that
mirrored life in the Canadian Northwest. And
his readers rejoiced.
Twenty Years Later.
The author returned to Western Canada.
1t was twenty years later. His hair was
s~prinkled with silver, but his eyes were a-kindle
with anticipation. He had learned of the
transformation of buffalo plots into pastures of
blooded mich cows; he had heard stories of
record wheat yields; he had learned that the
little town of L~1oydminster, which nestles on
the border of Saskatchewan and Alberta prov
inces, had captured premier honors of the
American continent for record oats production.
ct is more impressive than a best seller,
this birth of an agricultural nation" he told a
party of American bankers, farmers and bust
ness men as a train on the Canadian National
Railways, the government owned lines, rolled
out of Winnipeg late last August.
The transformation began when the lines
now comprising the Canadian National Rail-
ways pushed westward, mile by mile, through
the rich sections of the three prairie provinces
to the Rockies and thence to the coast. 1t
opened up to settlers an empire of fertile land
whose surface has hardly been scratched.
New Peaks of Production.
Yet with the number of people in Western
Canada only one-tenth Of what it should be for
the development Of the vast resources, that dis
trict scared to new peaks of production in 1920
and promises to shatter all existing records
again in 1921" said Dewitt Foster, Superin-
3endent of Industrial and Resources Depart
ment of the Canadian National Railways with
headquarters in Chicago. THE opportunities
which Western Canada offers the settler are
greater than in any other part of the world
Lands there are still low in price and in many
cases the products of a year or two have enabled
the settlers to pay for their farms"
The party of Americans, headed by V. w.
Johnston, president of the Illinois Trust and
Savings Bank, Champaign, H., and j. J.
Morris, banker, Emporia, Kansas, spent two
weeks among the farms that fringe the Canadian
National lines through Manitoba, Saskatchewan
and Alberta. They were sur~rised by the adj
vancement of diversified farming.
"As ! mixed farming country it cannot be
equalled anywhere" declared Mr.. Morris.
Bumper Wheat Crop of 1920.
The remarkable opportunities of Western
Canada are apparent to everyone, whether be
be farmer, banker or tradesman," said Mr..
Johnston. Il have backed my opinion by in