XV
THE YUKON AND NORTH-WEST TERRITORIES
NORTH of British Columbia lies the Yukon territory, which about sixteen years ago suddenly became interesting to the world on account of the discoveries of gold on two streams flowing into the Klondyke. This is itself a tributary of the Yukon river, which is navigable for over sixteen hundred miles in its course from White Horse, through the territory bearing its own name and through Alaska, to the Behring Sea. There is no need to write of the stampede to the Klondyke in the late nineties. The production of gold in the Yukon gradually declined after 1901, but mining is still its chief industry, and the introduction of more elaborate methods of mining are now again increasing the output. The territory is rich also in copper and coal, both of which are being mined with success. There is a good local market for coal at Dawson, which, founded in 1896, had at one time a population of twenty thousand. This had fallen by 1911 to four thousand, however.
The climate is very severe in winter, especially during January and February, and in the northern part of the district the ground never thaws for more than a foot in depth; but the surface thaws, and only a few miles south of the Arctic Circle the summer climate is said to be pleasant, and hardy vegetables such as turnips and cabbages can be grown.
Just beyond the borders of the Yukon district, on the banks of the Mackenzie river, stands the most northerly of the Hudson Bay Company’s posts—Fort McPherson. It has been described as “truly an Arctic village. The sun never sets for about six weeks in summer, and is constantly below the horizon for the same time in winter.” It is visited by the Eskimos of the shores of the Arctic Ocean and by the whalers, chiefly from San Francisco.
Several years ago the whole whaling fleet was entrapped by the ice, and its crews obliged to go into winter quarters at Herschel Island. Here there is a detachment of the Mounted Police, who have to face all kinds of difficulty and danger in keeping order and doing their duty—often of a humanitarian character—in the northern wildernesses. Usually they carry through their undertakings with marked success, but occasionally they are the victims, or the heroes of a tragedy.
In winter a small body of the police make a regular patrol from Dawson to Fort McPherson and back; but in 1911 the patrol did not return, when expected, and its four members, having “failed to make the pass over the mountains,” were found dead in the snow, but one day’s march from safety.
Amongst the resources of this wild north land, besides its mineral wealth, of which no doubt a very small proportion is yet discovered, is its excellent fish—white fish, Arctic trout, the “inconnu” (peculiar to the Mackenzie river, and so named by Mackenzie’s party), and salmon of numerous varieties. It is also likely to remain for generations to come the hunting ground of the fur trader, for wild animals, large and small, abound; and if the land proves of value for little else, its fur-bearing animals—especially if some measures should be taken to preserve and protect them—will be an increasing source of wealth to the Dominion.
As for the inhabitants of the land, there are several tribes of Indians and Eskimos speaking different tongues, whilst the white race—apart from the miners and business men of the Yukon—is represented chiefly by traders and missionaries. For several generations the Roman Catholic and Anglican missionaries have been doing brave work in the frozen north, and a large proportion of the Indians have embraced Christianity in one form or the other.
But we must pass on, for this portion of Canada cannot be said to offer large opportunity as a field for British immigration, though it has been a field where Britons, as explorers or heralds of the Cross, have again and again proved their kinship to the Norse heroes of older days.
XVI
THE MAN WHOM CANADA NEEDS
HITHERTO, in our progress through the Dominion and its provinces, I have been trying to show what Canada has to offer to the newcomer; and if I were asked to sum it up in one word—it would be that word which has been already used so frequently in the pages of this book—“opportunity!” But I wish to devote the remainder of this volume to the immigrant himself (or herself), first discussing the type Canada needs and desires; and secondly, making a few suggestions which, I hope (with vivid recollections of what it means even under favourable conditions to be a new arrival in a strange land), may be of real help to the immigrant.
To the self-respecting man or woman there is probably nothing more attractive about the Dominion as a field for immigration than the fact that this great promising young nation does need immigrants. What can be more depressing to anyone than the sense of being a superfluous member of the human family—a person whom no one really wants—a worker regarded chiefly in the light of an occupier of a position keenly desired by someone else?
But Canada absolutely needs more human beings, and, above all, she needs workers. Let no one mistake, however. She does not need, and if by the most careful sifting of the newcomers she can prevent it, she will not have drones in her hive—unless, indeed, they come well-provided with the honey prepared by the workers. In other words, of course, the man who has more or less capital finds it easy enough to gain admittance to the Dominion, and may even continue to live in idleness therein. This is a fact accomplished to the scorn of his neighbours, by many a “remittance-man” in east or west, who has had the ill-luck to be provided with just money enough to enable him to evade the Scriptural dictum: “If any man will not work, neither shall he eat;” but, of course, the overwhelmingly large number of Canada’s immigrants are not burdened with any superfluity of worldly gear.
The much-talked-of “opportunity,” moreover, is not (is it necessary to state the fact?) opportunity to pick up gold in the streets, or to win a fortune without labour. In isolated cases, men have gained wealth with surprising rapidity by some piece of luck, or special business astuteness, but opportunity for the ordinary man means a probability—amounting almost to a certainty—that good, honest, intelligent work in any one of a wide range of different lines will receive its due reward. It means also that for the man with a little more than the average energy and ability and insight there are in this new land, with its frequent changes of conditions, its constant opening out of new regions and of hitherto unused natural resources, many more chances of “making good” than under the more stereotyped conditions of older countries.
The man whom Canada needs is strong and healthy, preferably young enough to be readily adaptable to new conditions, sound in mind and well taught, trained and educated. The man she desires most of all is one of the good blood of the British Isles, imbued with love for the old flag of the Empire, and for the ancient traditions of his race; one who will help in the building up of Canada on the same lines as those on which the work has been begun—as a free British nation within the Empire; one, in short, who is adapted by heredity, education and previous history to understand this ideal of nationhood, and to take his place in the furtherance of it.
Good British immigrants are the more needed—to aid in leavening the whole lump—because to-day Canada is the goal for people of many races and languages, who, in most instances, have everything to learn of the institutions and the ideals of the nation, which (according to laws perhaps too speedily allowing to foreign men a voice in the affairs of the country) they will soon be helping to mould. That the problem is serious will be seen from the fact that, according to the figures of 1911-12, and apart from the English-speaking immigrants from the United States, more than one immigrant in each four that year was a foreigner in birth and speech, and in some years the proportion of foreigners has been higher. The immigration of the afore-mentioned year represented no less than sixty-five nationalities in all, including Ruthenians, Bulgarians, Chinese, Hebrews, Italians, Finns, Scandinavians—literally by the thousand.
There are whole districts in the West largely settled by groups of foreigners. For instance, in Saskatchewan, between Saskatoon and Prince Albert, the Canadian Northern Railway runs through a region which, though colonized in part by English-speaking people, is dotted with foreign settlements. Amongst these are the quaint community villages, built of mud, of that Quaker-like Russian sect, the Doukhobors. Some of their number gave at one time considerable trouble to the authorities, and endangered their own lives by going on strange pilgrimages in the depths of a Saskatchewan winter to seek for Christ, Whom they believed to have returned to earth; but in general they are a quiet, inoffensive, cleanly, honest people. In the same district are many Galicians, less remarkable for cleanliness and sobriety of demeanour than the Doukhobors, and often living in small mud huts thatched with straw, which, though of picturesque exterior, are often ill-ventilated and ill-kept within.
The schools, however, are rapidly making “Canadians” of the younger generation—in speech, and perhaps to a certain extent in ideas.
The prairies have also their Icelandic and Norwegian and Swedish settlers, who are generally credited with being of an excellent type. Then in the cities and in the railway construction camps are Italians, somewhat quarrelsome and ready to use their knives amongst themselves, but excellent workers in all the digging and delving necessary for the making of a railway line or preparing for the foundations of some great new building. It is said to be the ambition of many an Italian to become the owner of a fruit store, and to judge by the numbers of such little shops in every city—over whose treasures of apples and oranges and bananas a dark-eyed woman or child is keeping guard—it must be an ambition often fulfilled.
It is odd, indeed, how the different nationalities seem to have such strong predilections for particular trades. Every considerable centre of population in Canada must surely have its Chinese laundries, very numerous in the large towns. The Chinese, too, go into business as restaurant keepers, or keepers of tea and curiosity shops; and in the West they enter domestic service in private houses or hotels. But one never sees a Chinaman engaged in the rag-and-bottle-collecting business, for instance. Indeed, that occupation seems to be left wholly to the Jews; while the porters on the Pullman cars are nearly always negroes, with an occasional Jap on the western lines.
It is often said that much of the hardest and heaviest work in city and mine and railway making is done by foreigners. In that respect alone the country owes them a real debt; but there is no doubt that the bar of differing language and customs prevents Canada getting the best contributions to her total strength from the little-understood and often-misunderstood foreigners. As time goes on the Canadians may be more successful than hitherto in bridging the gulf that separates them from the newcomers of alien speech, but at present the tendency is for the foreigners to cluster together in certain districts in the country—certain quarters in the cities—where it is difficult to reach them with Canadianizing influences. In unskilled labour and in some more skilled trades they are formidable competitors to the newcomer from the British Isles. But in a measure—because of their coming in such numbers—the Briton is all the more the man Canada wants; and it is satisfactory that the proportion of British-born to the whole number of immigrants has of late tended to rise. During the decade ending March, 1912, the British immigrants outnumbered the foreign-born by nearly 300,000. This is leaving the newcomers from the United States out of account; but they also outnumbered the foreigners.
As has been stated already, the man wanted most of all is the man willing to go on the land. Every province, from Nova Scotia in the east to British Columbia in the west, has land waiting for the farmer, the market gardener and the fruit grower.
In this connection it may be mentioned, that it is not necessary for any one to pay a premium for a youth to “learn farming” in Canada. If he is willing to work and of at least ordinary intelligence, however inexperienced he may be, a lad can earn his board and lodging and at least a few dollars during the busy months; and the money spent on the premium had far better be laid by to help the boy in starting for himself later. Usually the promised instruction in farming is given in much the same fashion as when a big boy begins to teach a little one to swim, by pushing him somewhat violently into the water. The farm pupil is plunged into any work at which he can be made useful, the farmer trusting to his learning the business by practising it; and usually he does learn much in this way. If possible, however, it is well for a boy thinking of farming in Canada to learn how to milk, and to attend to a horse before coming out. Milking is an especially useful accomplishment, and may very much aid him in getting a good situation and fair wages.
If the newcomer is young, even though he may already be possessed of some capital, it is often a good plan for him to take a situation for a short time as “a hired man,” in the region where he proposes to settle, with a view to getting into the ways of the country; learning how best to adapt himself to prevalent conditions, including those of climate; and also how to estimate properly the values of land and stock in that particular district.
A man does not need to fear that he will lose socially by working for a farmer, for, in the country, little attention is paid to the arbitrary social distinctions of older lands, and in most farmhouses a willing, obliging, courteous, adaptable “hired man” is trusted much like one of the family. Sometimes, indeed, it is difficult for him to fit happily into his strange environment; and there are cases (the facts must be faced) where a mean master endeavours to take advantage of the newcomer’s ignorance. In general, however, a man who is willing to work, is of good manners and character, and is not ashamed to learn will be treated with respect and kindness. In fact, his value will be speedily recognized, for there are two sides to this question, and the ideal “hired man” is perhaps as rare as the ideal employer.
In the towns, especially in the older provinces, social conditions are more similar to those of England, and it is often asked what a man does and who his father was as well as what he is. Even in the centres of population, however, the way of a young man of character to a position of influence and comfort is more easily found than “at home.” No doubt the free educational system of Canada is a check on the snobbish spirit; for in their school days, at least, the children of the village magnate and of the most prosperous farmer of the neighbourhood meet on equal terms with those of the hired man, the mechanic, or the doer of odd jobs.
In after life this early lesson, that quality in muscle or brain or moral character does not depend upon class or length of purse, can never be quite forgotten; and it may often happen that the clever, industrious son of some poor man may climb to a position in the community to which his former school mates, though sons of the richest man in the village, can only look up. And, if the poor man’s son never climbs, he comforts himself with the reflection that “Jack is as good as his master,” which is an assertion sometimes open to question.
However, the practical application of all this to the immigrant, even though he may belong to the class which prides itself on good birth and good breeding, is that in Canada, especially in the country, no honest work will injure his position in the eyes of his neighbours. The point that counts for or against him is—will he work? or does he think it more “gentlemanly” to waste his time and strength and money with other idle young men of kindred spirit? The fact is, that while the Mother-isles have sent of their best to Canada, they have sent also many a useless scamp. It has been well suggested that the friends of such ne’er-do-wells ought not to imagine that transplanting “a poor stick” to “the colonies” will necessarily change its nature. If the young man’s misfortune is lack of ability or character, he stands more chance in Canada of disgracing the name of Englishman than of doing anything else; but if his lack is merely the wherewithal to start in farming, or business, or to obtain a college education in England, it is well worth while to try sending him to Canada.
I know men, some British, some Canadians, who have had the force to work their way through every difficulty to satisfactory positions; and what one has done another may do. For instance, the ranks of the ministry in all the churches, though in some cases they may obtain help from bursaries in the theological colleges, are largely recruited from those who have had their own way to make; and have been obliged to earn the money to pay for their college expenses. Sometimes, indeed, the student may have had to stop midway in his course to make money enough to finish it. It is the same with all the learned professions—many men “put themselves through” the university and are probably none the worse for the battle.
Now here, I believe, is a chance for some of the lads who come out from the “Old Country” in early youth, either alone or with their parents. Amongst the men whom Canada needs are earnest, Christian ministers to work in her wide land amongst all the scattered peoples—foreigners, British immigrants and native Canadians; but perhaps it is scarcely necessary to say that this is not an avenue to wealth; and the man who adopts the ministry as a profession must be actuated by a higher motive than ambition. She needs, too, men who will make a life-work of teaching, a profession which in Canada is largely left to women, in spite of (or it may be partly because of) the fact that men are paid about twice as much as women of the same standing and for the same work.
Rates of wages are, of course, much higher in town than country; but rents and living are high in proportion. For example, take the case of a married man with a family. If willing to work on a farm, he may get an engagement by the year at from $20 (£4) to $30 (£6) the month (the wages varying considerably in different parts of the country), whilst the unskilled worker in the city will get probably from $1·50 (6s.) to $2·50 (10s.) for a ten-hour day; but the former may count on steady work and a free house with a garden, and also on some such extras as milk, vegetables or apples; while the townsman may frequently lose some days’ pay on account of bad weather and have to disburse a very high proportion of his earnings as rent. Moreover, if there are children to consider, the advantages of the country compared to the town are great both with regard to health of body and of mind.
There are other possibilities in the country besides work on the farms. For instance, there is a demand for skilled workers in cheese factories, creameries, and so forth; and it seems to me that there would be a good opening in many a village for a man who had in his fingers some such trade as that of a shoemaker or harness maker. Often the country people have to take articles that need repairing to a distant town because there is no capable workman in the village where they go for their “mail” or groceries. If such a man had a taste for country life, he could often get a small house and a good garden cheap; and in the farmer’s busy seasons could, if he chose, add to his income by doing outdoor work at good wages. In this way he might soon be able to own his own house, paying for it in instalments; but, indeed, in some of the cities—Toronto, for instance—a thrifty working man often speedily saves enough to make the small first payment necessary to buy a house, and then gradually works off the remainder of the debt. Others buy lots on the outskirts of the town and put up for themselves small “shacks,” which they transform bit by bit into comfortable little houses.
But there are numerous evidences that in other lines than farming the British immigrant is needed, and can, under ordinarily fortunate circumstances, with industry and thrift, prove himself to be of value to Canada. For instance, it is noticeable that the first of the Imperial Home Reunion Associations was founded in Winnipeg by business men who believed that it would be for the advantage of the Dominion if the numerous British workmen employed in the cities and towns could immediately have their wives and children with them, instead of having to send money over to the “Old Country” for their support. This step would not have been taken had not the workmen in question proved their value. Another evidence is that of one’s senses. Alike in the far West, and in centrally-situated Toronto, one cannot enter a store or a street car without hearing voices that one recognizes as those of comparatively recent arrivals from Britain. These have obtained situations in a great variety of occupations; and if one sends for a gardener, a plumber, or a paperhanger to work about one’s house, it seems that every other man in such trades is English.
The Dominion government confines its direct invitations to immigrants to “farmers, farm labourers and domestic servants,” all of whom belong to classes singularly little troubled by fear of competition; but the Provincial governments sometimes venture to give a broader invitation. For instance, in a letter recently received from Mr. Arthur S. Barnstead, Secretary of the Department of Industries and Immigration of the province of Nova Scotia, it is stated that “the industrial expansion upon which Nova Scotia has entered has created a strong demand for industrial workers. Many of our plants have been unable to secure the necessary number of native workers, and thus have been compelled to engage British and foreign labour. Miners have been imported for our coal mines, iron workers for our steel works, as well as textile and other tradespeople. Last year, in the occupations taken up by the English-speaking newcomers to Nova Scotia, mining came first (numerically), though farming followed closely; and the list of 2,736 persons includes, besides “housewives” and children, craftsmen, tradesmen, clerks, professional men, soldiers, and others.”
Rapid industrial expansion is proceeding in other provinces, with a consequent demand for workers of all classes, and altogether, I am sure that the British immigrant of the right stamp—used to work and not expecting to get “good money” without giving a due equivalent for it—may find many an opening in Canada—in the cultivation of the soil, or in some other of the numerous occupations which civilized man has devised for himself. But there comes from British Columbia the warning, which may apply to other provinces also, that “the man without a trade, the clerk, the accountant and the semi-professional” has not a good chance for employment, unless he will do manual work in an emergency, or has means of support “for six months in a year while seeking a situation.”