Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 January 1907 — THE PROGRESS OF THE CANADIAN WEST. [ARTICLE]

THE PROGRESS OF THE CANADIAN WEST.

Nrarlr 200,000 of «n IsereUM 1* Canadian Immigration In 1006. The progress of a new country cannot be better ascertained than by noting the increase of railroad mileage in its transportation system, and judged by this standard, the Canadian West leads all the countries in the world during the current year. Thirty years ago there was not one hundred, miles of railroad west of the Great Lakes, and very little prospect of a transcontinental route for many years to come, but by the end of 1885 the Canadian Pacific Railway was within measurable distance of completion, and last year, twenty years later, fully 6,000 miles of railroad traversed the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. In the past year the work of railroad construction has been vigorously prosecuted, and by the end of 1906, some 5,000 miles of completed railroad has been added, making a total of fully 11,000 miles In the three great grain producing provinces of Canada. Such an increase in the transportation facilities of the country is bound to make good times not only in the districts where the railroads are being built, but throughout the entire west. Allowing $20,000 a mile for construction, the sum of $100,000,000 will be put in circulation, and this in itself should cause good times to prevail in a land where' work is plentiful, wages are high, and the cost of living is moderate. But the building of new railroads through Western Canada means a greater benefit to the country than merely the money put In circulation by the cost of construction. Additional railway building means the opening of new agricultural districts and an additional area under crop, a largely increased output of grain to foreign markets with consequent financial returns; the erection of elevators and the growth of villages, towns and cities ; and everything else that makes for the progress of national life and the opening up of additional thousands of free homesteads so extensively advertised by the Canadian government agent, whose address appears elsewhere. It was stated on the floor of the Canadian Parliament recently by a prominent representative that ten years from now would see the bulk of the population of Canada residing west of the Great Lakes, and if the work of railway building during the present year is any criterion, the prophecy made by the Canadian statesman may be easily fulfilled inside of the time stated. £)uring the present year no less than 189,064 persons have found homes In the Canadian West, of whom 57,796 were Americans who have seen the great possibilities of this new West, and have decided to cast in their lot with it. Certainly, our neighbor north of the 49th parallel is making a great record, and deserves the success that appears to be coming its way.