Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 133, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 December 1904 — CANADA’S EXPANSION. [ARTICLE]

CANADA’S EXPANSION.

Has Experienced a Wonderful Development in Recent Years. Within the past live years, Canada’s total trade has increased by 05 per cent; that of the United States, 33 per cent.; that, of Britain, 19 per cent. Canada’s foreign trade is SB3 per capita; that of the United States only $35. Her revenue is $12.49 per capita, and her expenditure $9.50; the United Stales’ revenue being $7.70 and expenditure $7.04. The public debt of Canada is but SOO per capita, while that of her sister commonwealth— Australia —is $230. Canada’s over sea trade last year was $451,000,000 —move than double that of Japan, almost equal to Russia's. Her merchant shipping tonnage exceeds Japan’s; her railway mileage is half that of Russia. It is now thirty-seven years since the federation of Canada was accomplished. and about half that space of time since what was then thought the visionary prospect of spanning the continent with the Canadian Pacific Railway was conceived. The Northwest was considered a wilderness of snow and ice—a vast, lone land, tenantless save by the bison and the red man. Phenomenal hns been the change since then. Along the International boundary, twenty years ago, was an acreage of 250,000 under crop, yielding 1.200,009 bushels of wheat. Now the acreage Is over 4.000.000, and the annual yield 110,000.000 bushels, while population, acreage, and output are augmenting at a rate no other country can approach. To-day, so amazing has been the development of the Northwest, the Canadian Pacific Railway is unable to serve Its commercial needs. The grain production of the territory Is too enormous for Its rond, practically doubletracked though it Is with sidings and sentineled with elevators. Every fall there is an absolute congestion, with grata coming out and lumber, coal and

other commodities going In. Conse* quently, much of this traffic has to b« handled by American transportation agencies. The United States has 2,000 cargo boats on the Great Lakes, while Canada had only thirty; and all the principal American railways have working alliances with those of Canada. Therefore, two other transcontinental railway systems are now being projected for Canada, that the wheat belt may be properly served. These are the Grand Trunk Pacific and the Canadian Northern lines, bisecting the prairies at distances apart which will enable the as yet untilled areas to be brought into speedy cultivation, and affording facilities for peopling the tenantless wilds at a rate undreamed of ten years ago. Nothing so eloquently attests the altered attitude of the world to Canada as her increased immigration and especially that from across the American border. In 1893 only 10,000 Immigrants entered Canada, whereas In 1908 the total had grown to 124,653. In 1896 only 44 Americans applied for homesteads, while In 1902 the number had grown to 21,672 and last year this total more than doubled, rising to 47,780, which figure is expected to duplicate itself during the present season.