2 Transactions of the Canadian Institute. [vol. x 



acquaintance with the foreign districts enables one to distinguish a speci- 

 fically Jewish area; another mainly but not entirely Italian; a third 

 largely Russian; a fourth Macedonian; and a fifth considerably peopled 

 by Chinese. It is these that give the lie to the statement that there are 

 no slums in Toronto. Their most marked feature is this: that they 

 stand apart from the native Canadian life, and to some extent apart 

 from one another. Probably about one-fifth of the population of this 

 city is of alien blood ; and it is not assimilating with the rest, or, if assimi- 

 lation does occur, it goes on very slowly. Toronto does not appear more 

 cosmopolitan than many an English seaport; but here it has a problem 

 such as none of the seaports of England has had to face. 



Such a picture as Ward 4 presents suggests two questions. Are 

 these people attracted only by city life, and does the country make no 

 appeal to them? And again, if they were scattered in the country, 

 would they assimilate with us more easily than they do at present in 

 Ward 4? The answer to the second question * is complicated by the 

 fact that the railways may by their choice of policy produce quite un- 

 foreseen results. The Canadian Pacific Railway seems as a rule to have 

 settled foreign immigrants in groups together, so as to make whole areas 

 alike, Finnish or Scandinavian, Russian or Icelandic. Whatever would 

 otherwise have happened, it is therefore quite certain that under present 

 conditions the countryside can have no special powers of assimilation. 

 The answer to the first question is less easy. The cities of Canada have 

 grown phenomenally, and into them have flowed foreign immigrants 

 by the hundred thousand. If, instead of this, the cities had remained 

 comparatively small, and Canada mainly an agricultural country, these 

 people might or might not have thought it worth their while to come. 

 To decide this question we must have recourse to the Census. If under 

 present conditions we find the percentage of certain races in the towns 

 markedly difi'erent from the percentage of the same race in the country, 

 then may we not legitimately conclude that one or other exercises a 

 superior attraction, and that on the predominance of town over country, 

 or vice versa, depends to some extent the continued immigration of these 

 races? 



In this connection the Canadian Census is of very little use. Cana- 

 dians do not need to be reminded that this is a very immature country. 

 Its youth is at the same time a source of pride in and fear for its future. 



_ * "One must emphasise the difference between immigrants settling in large cities 

 or in mining regions, and those who are scattered out into smaller cities and in the 

 country districts. In the latter they soon tend to mingle with the other residents, and 

 the children grow up under similar and fairly wholesome conditions. But in such places 

 as New York or Chicago they keep to themselves, often in streets inhabited entirely by 

 those of the same race." — Bryce, "American Commonwealth", Vol. II., p. 478 (edition 

 of 1910). 



