The Peopling of Saskatchewan.
THE EUROPEAN IMMIGRANT. (con't)
the change that had come over the status of women in this settlement of
Russian Germans in a few years. We trust we have made our meaning
clear on the point that although the mature European settler will remain
European from the point of view of national feeling, and largely of custom,
yet he does improve a great deal from the backward condition which the
customs of his forefathers have imposed upon him.
One feature of the lower grade of the foreign invasion may be men-
tioned. Many of these before their arrival have never owned as much as
a dog, much less a farm with stock and implements. To these the mere
ownership of land is a kind of a paradise; their self-respect is immensely
raised; and they often work unremittingly under conditions which would
be intolerable to the English-speaking settler, in order to convert this un-
tilled paradise of their imagination into a reality. Many of the settlers of
this class, are positively wealthy today, and the bulk of them will compare
favorably in their possessions with English-speaking settlers, who, like
themselves, had no means or experience and who commenced at the bot-
tom of the ladder. And in this connection this question arises: Would
it have been a humane or Christian thing for Canada to have shut her
doors against these people, and denied them the hospitality of her vacant
lands, which were lying year after year unoccupied and unproductive,
while these landless men were willing and able to turn the wilderness into
a garden, and add to the wealth and population of their adopted country?
We trow[sic] not. Many will not agree with us in some of our remarks and
conclusions; we are frankly pro-foreigner after a long experience; but
after all our opinion is only that of an individual and we do not express it
in any dogmatic sense. If these lands could have been settled by British
or Americans we should all have been better pleased; but if these good
people had not been placed on the lands, the lands would not have been
settled at all; and Saskatchewan's output, her trade and production would
be millions less today. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. The
evil of segregation has largely cured itself in the older instances and will
in time do so in the newer settlements. We have not attempted to deal
exhaustively with the subject; the immensity of the field and the variety
of the experiences to be dealt with in these volumes will not permit us
to deal exhaustively with anything; but in the foregoing we have en-
deavored to place the foreign settler, especially from Central Europe and
Russia, before our readers in as favorable a light as is consistent with the
facts, and to state those facts with moderation.
Bibliography follows:
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