APPENDIX A LIII 
fruit lands of British Columbia. They are successful farmers, have 
means, take large railway contracts, and are very reliable. The writer 
a few months ago, coming through Saskatchewan on the Canadian 
Northern Railway where the train crossed the North Saskatchewan 
River, was conversing with the western Superintendent of the railway. 
He remarked, “This division of the railway is entirely manned by Douk- 
hobors, and it is the best managed division on the line.” True, a group 
of these people, of one or two hundred, are enthusiasts, believe in going 
back to nature in dress, went ona pilgrimage eastward to convert the 
Canadian people, and are troublesome. to the Government and the 
police. But the vagaries of this band should not condemn seventy or 
eighty times their number who are industrious, law-abiding and well- 
«to-do people. 
The other and largest body of foreigners who have been settling in 
the three prairie provinces, for the past ten or fifteen years, are the 
Ruthenians, including the Galicians, Bukowinians and other relatives 
of the Poles. It is claimed that there are 100,000 of these in western 
Canada. They are scattered on many reserves and in almost every 
city and town where labor is required. They are Slavonian in race, are 
active, quick-tempered and industrious people. They are exceedingly 
economical and thrifty. They are largely of the Greek Church in 
religion, though some of them are Roman Catholics. They are excellent 
linguists, many of them speaking several languages. They far excel the 
English-speaking people in this faculty. They learn English very 
rapidly and are anxious to do so. 
The chief question with us is, Will they obey our laws, accept our 
customs and our political system? The vast majority of them are 
peaceful and industrious. They are essential to the development of 
the country. They dig the sewers, build the streets, labor on the rail- 
ways, do the heavy work in the towns and cities. Their young women 
go by thousands through the whole country as domestics and carry back 
to their homes ideas of the dress, manners, and views of the Canadian 
farmers whom they serve. The women are invaluable household 
workers in the cities and towns where domestics are scarce. Without 
doubt, judging from their desire to learn Canadian ways, and if they 
have schools, they will form a useful element in our nation-building. 
The same might be said of Hungarians, Scandinavians, and other 
European peoples. 
Take a historical parallel from our own Canadian life. Is Ontario 
the worse because hundreds and thousands of the Hessian and Swiss 
foreigners from central Europe settled in Prince Edward county and 
the Bay of Quinte district? Would we not have been poorer in different 
ways if the larger settlements of Germans, Mennonites and Tunkers 
