The Peopling of Saskatchewan.
Immigration. (con't)
ary was prepared in London and they toured the portion of the country
allotted to them, addressing meetings, attending markets and fairs show-
ing lantern slides, and receiving callers at stated hours in the hotels where
they stayed. The amount of ignorance met with was sometimes amaz-
ing. We will vouch for the following for it happened to ourselves. A
party of four came to the head office in London. One was the spokesman,
and he had a list of questions. He was apparently through with his list
when he took another look at it and said "I see by the pamphlet we are
told to beware of land sharks; I suppose we shall have to carry
firearms."
To Mr. (now Sir) Clifford Sifton belongs the credit of adopting a
strong immigration policy, but the credit of working that policy out in de-
tail and successfully operating it belongs to that able, aggressive, untiring,
truly patriotic and much abused man, Mr. W. T. R. Preston. Saskatche-
wan and the prairie country generally, owe him a great debt; and another
great immigration official whose services cannot be too much lauded is the
genial, eloquent and indefatigable Bruce Walker; while if we omit Mr.
Wes. Speers from mention we should certainly do him a great injustice.
The C. P. R. always with a keen and enlightened eye to the settlement of
its land and the increase of its business has from the first carried out an
independent immigration work of its own in Great Britain, Europe and
the United States; and of this comparatively little is known in Canada.
It has maintained a permanent staff of workers; and the witty, and versa-
tile veteran George Ham immediately comes to my mind in this connection.
The C. P. R. has not confined itself to representatives of the sterner sex.
For a number of years Mrs. Kate Simpson Hayes (known in literary
circles as Mary Markwell) did splendid work for Canada among the
women of England. It should be borne in mind that there is a great com-
petition for immigration in Britain and Europe, and that propaganda will
turn wavering men from one country to another. The United States
has always been the principal Mecca for the adventurous and we see of
late that its energies are directed not to attract immigrants but to keep
them out. We are convinced that the great obstacle in the way of immi-
gration is the idea that it is a land of snow and ice-the idea expressed in
Kipling's gilded abomination "Our Lady of the Snows." If we could re-
place this picture with the butter, the cheese, the apples and grapes and
tobacco of the east; the sun-drenched wheat fields of the west, and the
orchards, the peaches, the strawberries, and the fish and mines of British
Columbia, the initial difficulty of the immigrant, the difficulty which meets
him on the threshold, would be overcome.
Bibliography follows:
Next Page
