Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 April 1900 — THE TEEMING WEST. [ARTICLE]

THE TEEMING WEST.

The Prairie Lauda of Western Canada ; Being Filled with Excellent Settler*. The salient fact that presents Itself to taking a birdseye view of the Canadian West is that of Intense activity in every department. Whether the glance be turned upon the district east of Winnipeg, the Red River valley south or north, the Dauphin and M. & N. W. district, the southwestern, or whether it take in the great central division along the main line of the C. P. R.* stretching away out to the Rockies and from there bending north and south to Prince. Alberta and Edmonton, McLeod and Lethbridge—whether the examination be made in any of these directions the same activity, growth and hopefulness is observable. The Canadian West is not only a good place to locate permanently, but it is also a good place to invite their relatives and friends to come to. This is the spirit that seems to animate the West at the present time, and its effects are to be seen on every hand. To enumerate the towns where handsome and substantial blocks and residences have gone up this year would be simply to give a list of the towns and villages along the railway lines. And this movement has not been confined to these centers of population, but in many cases it has been overshadowed by the improvement in farm buildings. So far as one can see, this is no passing phrase, no repetition of any temporary boom following a period of good crops and fair prices. It is a movement more spontaneous, more general, more marked than anything that has gone before, and seems to indicate that the great West, like Samson bursting >he encompassing bands, has awakened to a period of activity and development that will surpass anything we have known in the past and which will only be paralleled by the opening out of some of the most fertile of the Western States of the Union.

Look at some of the figures. Over a thousand schools in Manitoba, and the number going up by leaps and bounds. Something like five hundred schools in the territories, Winnipeg as representing the gateway of the West, the third city in the Dominion in regard .to bank clearings, postal business and probably In regard to customs, the customs returns at Winnipeg running about thirty to forty per cent greater month bv month than in the fiscal year of 1807-8, the largest previous year for actual business entries, when over $900,000 was paid through the Winnipeg office for duty. The C. P. R. and Canada Northwest land sales together run over >1,500,000 for the year. These, and a thousand more signs, show bow the West has leaped into new life. This is an inspiring and cheering spectacle, but it brings with it great responsibilities. The business men realize this, the banks realize it, and have spread their agencies through every bustling little town clear out to the coast, the churches realize it, and one denomination alone has opened an average of about thirty new stations in each of the past two years, and will increase this in the year now entered upon, the Government departments realise it, and there is talk of redistribution and additional members. The educational branches realize it aud new schools are springing op everywhere. Over 12,000 settlers came in from the United States alone last year, and these, with the people who came in from the East, prove the most vigorous Westerners. They lose no time in developing their farms, in filling their grazing lands with stock, and in every district are to be found evidences of thrift and prosperity.