A Commendable Innovation 



If this new departure materializes into a sufficiently 

 perfect arrangement, it may tend to further revolutionize 

 the moving-picture business. " The movies " have been 

 suggested in some quarters as a new method of increasing 

 attendances at the church services. Some people might 

 regard " forced " church attendance as hypocritical and of 

 little moral use, but apart from that the fact is recognized 

 that churches cannot carry on with the equipment of two 

 or three generations ago. It will be a matter of consider- 

 ation, no doubt, whether Christ's Gospel can be presented 

 in the days to come by means of moving pictures. All 

 this by the way.. The Canadian Pacific Steamships have 

 brought into effect a commendable innovation that calls 

 for a warm expression of approval, by the installation 

 of " the movies " on their palatial hotels afloat. 



The Swiss in Canada 



The probable locating very shortly of a silk 

 plant in Toronto by Swiss capital as the nucleus 

 of an extensive industry to be built up around 

 this foundation, with the establishment at 

 various points in the Dominion of colonies of 

 Swiss workpeople, naturally raises the question 

 of the desirability of this mountain-loving race 

 as nation builders, their properties of assimi- 

 lation, qualities of citizenship and success 

 in lands in the making. Immigration from 

 Switzerland to the American continent has 

 never been relatively very substantial in num- 

 bers. The little republic has progressed gener- 

 ally in an enviable manner, a contented and 

 comfortable little cosmos where there were few 

 instances of great wealth, no appearance of 

 great ease or luxury, no rich or arrogant aris- 

 tocracy but with practically every head of a 

 family, however humble in circumstances, pos- 

 sessing a home of his own. An emigrating tide 

 does not spring from conditions such as these, 

 and so the Swiss people has never featured to 

 any large extent among the new entrants to the 

 countries of the American continent. The war 

 has brought Switzerland her share of unrest 

 and depression in which Europe has been plunged, 

 and emigration to new fields is in greater favor 

 than formerly. 



A High Type of Citizen 



Canada's experience of the Swiss people as 

 settlers has been comparatively limited, but 

 sufficiently gratifying for the Dominion to take 

 advantage of any economic trend of affairs which 

 will send to her shores more people of the little 

 mountain republic. They are universally con- 

 sidered as producing a high type of Canadian 

 citizen, ar.d class among the most desirable 



froups of immigrants Canada has drawn from, 

 n the period from 1901 to 1912 only 1717 of 

 these people came to Canada, a proportion 

 arriving via the United States. Canada's Swiss 

 population in 1911, the time of the last census, 

 was 6,625, or .09 per cent of the Dominion's 

 people. In the last fiscal year ending March 

 31st, 1921, the total Swiss immigration was 261, 

 215 entering by ocean ports and 46 from the 

 United States. 



The first Swiss settlers to arrive in Canada 

 were brought out under the auspices of the 

 Hudson's Bay Company by a Colonel May, a 

 native of Berne, who had spent a considerable 

 time in the company's service in Canada. They 

 arrived on ships of the company at York Factory 

 in August, 1821, and settled along the Red River 

 near Pembina. At a later period several left 

 for Minnesota, settling where St. Paul now 

 stands, and being the first settlers there. About 

 the year 1886, other Swiss colonies were estab- 

 lished in Eastern Assiniboia at Alsace, Bismark, 

 Hohen-Holme, and Esterha/y all now thriving 

 farming settlements, renowned for their rich 

 and extensive agricultural production. 



Stettler a Thriving Example 



A further example of Swiss success in agri- 

 culture is instanced in that rich farming terri- 

 tory surrounding the town of Stettler in Central 

 Alberta, where some years ago four Swiss 

 farmers settled, locating ninety miles from the 

 nearest railroad at that time. With a joint 

 capital of one hundred dollars they introduced 

 wheat growing into this section of the west 

 which is now one of Alberta's first producing 

 areas. They were the vanguard of many other 

 Swiss agriculturists, some of whom came from 

 the United States, who settled about them, 

 worked intelligently and manfully and have won 

 through to comfort and prosperity. A similar 

 history of successful Swiss agricultural colon- 

 izing is that of the settlement at Notre Dame de 

 Lourdes in Manitoba. 



The Swiss are uniformly good citizens at 

 home, and, bringing with them to a new country 

 a regard and respect for law and order, for 

 equitable government, and harmonious social 

 relations, are almost without exception good 

 citizens in Canada. Practically all the Swiss 

 in Canada are naturalized Canadians, assimi- 

 lating the national spirit rapidly, and working for 

 the development of the Dominion along the 

 soundest of economic lines. Canada can look 

 without disquiet upon the projected settlement 

 of industrial workers of the race which has so 

 successfully followed agriculture heje. 



Canada and Her Returned Men 



Warm tribute has been paid Canada by 

 many countries for her generous treatment of 

 her returned soldiers from the Great War, and 

 several have taken pattern from the methods 

 she devised for their re-establishment into 

 civil life and the means of reinstatement effected 

 towards overcoming the handicap of the years 

 lost whilst engaged in arms, apart f/om the 

 sufferings undergone and the wounds sustained. 

 Though actual hostilities are well put behind now, 

 Canada's annual expenditure in respect of her 

 returned soldiers still amounts to a tremendous 

 sum as the work of assimilation into civilian 

 pursuits continues. 



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