An Industrial Centre 



Industrially Calgary is important not only 

 locally but in its relationship to the Dominion, 

 in this respect ranking ninth amongst the 

 industrial centres of Canada. The latest figures 

 give it 230 industrial establishments with 8,685 

 employees receiving wages totalling $4,375,609. 

 The amount of capital invested in industry is 

 estimated at $29,580,639 and the last annual 

 production was valued at $31,804,133. Its 

 manufacturing activities cover a very wide 

 range and in the main adequately serve that 

 extensive territory of which it is the centre. 

 It has a great meat packing plant, three huge 

 flour mills, thirteen grain elevators, one operated 

 by the Dominion government having a capacity 

 of two and a half million bushels. There are 

 more than two hundred wholesale houses and 

 the city is the terminal of three railway lines. 

 It has twenty-three branches of Canadian char- 

 tered banks whose clearings rank sixth among 

 the cities of the Dominion. The export of its 

 meat packing industry amounts to nearly 

 $4,000,000 annually. 



The city is surrounded by deposits of various 

 valuable mineral deposits among which may be 

 mentioned iron, lead, coal, silicate, sandstone, 

 brick clay and shale, pottery clay and fire 

 clay. Oil of a high grade is also found and 

 there has been a substantial production since 

 1913. Several million dollars are invested in 

 oil wells about Calgary, and at the present time 

 twenty-three rigs are drilling in the area to 

 the south of the city. 



Calgary's rapidity of development in every 

 phase has been nothing less than phenomenal. 

 Less than fifty years ago bald, unoccupied prairie, 

 today a modern city in every particular, sur- 

 passing in national importance many cities of 

 greater extent on the continent. Since 1910 

 it has increased its population by half. As 

 the centre round which revolves all the affairs 

 of an extensive area which has already made 

 an international mark in agriculture and is 

 achieving the same in industry a great future 

 is assured for Calgary "The City of the Foot- 

 hills." 



Canada's Immigration Policy 



By John MacCormac in the Montreal Gazette 



Winnipeg, September. With a railway problem which 

 can be settled only by increased immigration, a financial 

 situation which will be eased only by the opening up of 

 new areas and the further development of ihe country's 

 natural resources, Canada is today as never before strin- 

 gently restricting the ingress of even experienced agricultur- 

 al workers from Great Britain. While this most desirable 

 class of new citizen is being shut out, the country is at 

 the same time receiving a constant addition to its ranks 

 of urban workers in the form of shiploads of European 

 immigrants, for the most part Poles and Slavs. This 

 is the anomaly produced by the well meant efforts of the 

 Government to cope with the present unemployment 

 problem in Canada, and by the creditable spirit of clan- 

 nishness exhibited by certain foreign-born Canadians. 



There is, of course, in this free country, nothing against 

 these people either because of creed or nationality, although 

 the preference, if any, might perhaps be given to the 

 British born immigrant. The real objection is an econo- 

 mic one. The class of newcomer who is being shut 

 out of the country for the first time in its history is the 

 very class which the Dominion needs if the West is to 

 continue to develop. It is more particularly the kind 

 of immigrant who must be encouraged if the Western 

 farmer, who is constantly being urged to stop "mining" 

 his land, is to be enabled to follow this advice and go in 

 for mixed farming. The foreigner now being admitted, 

 on the other hand, never goes on the land. He swarms 

 in the cities, where he generally becomes associated with 

 clothing manufacture and trade and makes a success of 

 it. At the best, since Canadian clothing manufacturers 

 have not yet gone in seriously for export trade, he rather 

 lives on the community than helps to develop the country. 

 Just at present, when the cities have a disturbing number 

 of workless men and more in prospect with the winter, he 

 is probably the last class of new citizen Canada is in a 

 position economically to absorb. 



Cause of the Anomaly 



The writer was in Belgium last year when the first 

 shipload of European immigrants of this type since the 

 war left Havre for Canada's shores. Some criticism of the 

 action of the authorities in allowing the resumption of 

 this traffic was expressed even then in Anglo-Canadian 

 circles. Last year, however, efforts were being made to 

 encourage British immigration, especially of people of 

 the farming class, and a large number of new citizens of 

 this type came over. This year, on the other hand, not 

 only has the Dominion Government absolutely discon- 

 tinued all its immigration propaganda in the British 

 Isles, but it has discouraged the coming of all but farmers 

 with capital and domestic servants. The unprecedented 

 step was taken of giving the cold shoulder to skilled farm 

 help, even when unmarried. This policy was carried out 

 by official discouragement in the first place and by the 

 enforcement of the $250 landing money requirement in 

 the second. 



It is quite true that the same regulation is being applied 

 in the case of European immigration of the kind referred 

 to. In this case, however, the immigrant manages to 

 put up the money or rather his compatriots in Canada 

 put it up for him. The writer has heard the suspicion 

 entertained that a species of revolving fund for this 

 purpose exists. However that may be, there is no doubt 

 this class, once they are established in Canada, is ready 

 to remember and prepared to assist financially, relatives 

 and friends to join them in Ihe land of opportunity. 



"Why won't the Britishers do this?" I asked Mr. 

 Bruce Walker, Director of Immigration Publicity in the 

 West. 



"It is because he doesn't like the moral responsibility 

 involved in inducing his compatriots to break home ties," 

 said Mr. Walker. "It is a question into which I have 

 looked, and, while I find our British citizens do not balk 

 at putting up the money necessary to help their friends 

 to come out, it is the moral factor which deters them." 



A Curious Situation 



The situation is one therefore which redounds credit 

 on Canada's Polish citizens and is in a sense a reflection 

 on her British born. From an economic point of view, 

 however, it is open to question whether Canada in this 

 matter can afford to let the devil take the hindmost. 

 If the country can absorb any newcomer in these days 

 of depression it is the skilled British farm worker. Our 

 policy in discouraging him has been subject to much 

 criticism in Great Britain, and the writer, in the course 

 of a trip through the west to the Pacific coast and back, 

 made its necessity a subject for enquiry. Farmers, 

 members of some of the provincial governments, and 

 even immigration officials who were interviewed expressed 

 some surprise that such action had been taken, and none 

 was prepared to assert that Canada has all the skilled 



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