acuteness of the situation, the country was plunged into 

 an economic maelstrom with an inability to find work for 

 even the normal population ; and where relief might have 

 been found, certain of the Dominions, undergoing their 

 own trials in the period, were disinclined to burden them- 

 selves with men to whom they could give no positive 

 assurance of regular employment. 



Many would Come to Canada 



Whilst Canada has looked upon her millions of acres 

 of virgin agricultural land that lacked the men to turn the 

 sod, England has been paying out an annual sum in excess 

 of $500,000,000 to unemployed without effecting any 

 material relief of a permanent nature. These unem- 

 ployed, it must be realized, are not in this condition through 

 any fault of their own; they are the sport of circumstances, 

 an excess of population in a period of serious economic 

 stress. Many, could they do so, and the Dominion were 

 willing to accept them, would come to Canada. Canada 

 has been eager to welcome them, but able to absorb only 

 those with sufficient funds to establish themselves and give 

 a guarantee against possible destitution. 



Keenly alive to the benefits of assisted and state-aided 

 immigration, Canada has been largely held back by 

 financial stringency, although after an expenditure of 

 $166,000,000 in re-establishing her own soldiers, she co- 

 operated up to a certain extent in settling on Canadian 

 lands numbers of Imperial veterans. In this existing 

 state of things the natural line to follow was that of using 

 a large part of the money spent in unemployment doles in 

 effecting a permanent redress of the situation by estab- 

 lishing men in places where they would work out their own 

 prosperity and were at the same time a national need. 



Scheme Opens Great Possibilities 



In the preliminary conference between the British and 

 overseas governments, it was the general understanding 

 that of the sum available about one-half should be devoted 

 to assisted passages and other forms of actual migration, 

 this to be by way of a loan and not a free grant, the cost to 

 be borne equally between the British government and the 

 Dominion concerned. The other half was to be devoted 

 to advances to settlers on the land, reckoned at a maximum 

 of $1,500 per settler, made by the overseas government. 

 In all probability it is on these bases that the various 

 Dominions will develop their settlement schemes. 



The scheme opens up great possibilities for Canadian 

 ' colonization provided that the Dominion goes energetically 

 into the matter of developing schemes to extract the great- 

 est benefit from the elaborate project. It is an understood 

 thing between the Imperial and overseas governments 

 that settlement on the land is the key to the whole problem 

 as well as meeting the sole and outstanding need of the 

 Empire outside the Motherland. The bill removes all the 

 objections Canada has had since the war to a large volume 

 of British immigration as not having the necessary funds 

 for immediate settlement and rapid producing. 



And Canada need have no fear in this scheme of losing 

 out to other Dominions of the Empire. Canada, in the 

 years before the war, received more immigrants from the 

 British Isles than all other Dominions combined, and in the 

 settlement of Imperial veterans Canada was found to be 

 overwhelmingly favorite in the matter of choice of new 

 homes. The big thing has been done in providing the 

 necessary funds for financing the schemes. It but remains 

 for Canada to arrange to extract a full measure of benefit 



Italians in Canada 



A new phase in Canadian immigration, which 

 may swell into important proportions, opened up 

 with the arrival in Quebec of the Canadian 

 Pacific steamship Caserta, operating on the new 

 run of the company between that port and 

 Genoa and Naples, which brought to Canada 



the season's first party of Italian immigrants, 

 725 new colonists in all, described as the finest 

 aggregate of the people of this race which has 

 come to settle in the Dominion. The larger 

 number were single men, though there were 

 some married couples and a few girls and children, 

 all uniformly healthy, of fine physique, and 

 of exceptional education. All were in possession 

 of funds in excess of the immigration require- 

 ments, many could speak English fluently, and 

 sixty per cent were conversant with French. 

 Whilst many of the men were bound for the 

 mining districts about North Bay and Timmins, 

 in Northern Manitoba, and British Columbia, 

 several families of the Italian farming class, with 

 substantial funds, were bound for the Prairie 

 Provinces, where it was their intention to pur- 

 chase farms. 



The operation of a steamship line between 

 Canada and Italy was arranged for shortly after 

 the coming into effect of the new United States 

 immigration regulations which restricted the 

 influx of the people of Italy in common with 

 that from other countries, no doubt under the 

 conviction that the tide turned away from the 

 United States, would, partially at least, find its 

 way to Canada. Events since that time have 

 transpired to encourage this belief. The dis- 

 turbed conditions in Europe and the dismal 

 prospects of complete readjustment for some 

 time have, according to report, turned the minds 

 of the better class of Italian farmer towards the 

 American continent, and the operation of a 

 direct line to Canada followed by an active 

 campaign of propaganda which has made Canada 

 and Canadian opportunity better known, is, in 

 all probability, going to send a considerable tide 

 to these shores. A valuable advertising agent 

 too has been the contented and prosperous 

 Italian in Canada, who, in many cases, returning 

 to his native country, has brought back his 

 family and induced others to follow his example. 



A Valuable Industrial Worker 



The Italian immigrant in Canada, as in the 

 United States, has been in the main an industrial 

 worker. He is to be found doing the heavy out- 

 door labor of the streets of the cities, in the 

 construction of railroads, in the rougher work 

 connected with the erection of great buildings. 

 He has proved, too, a valuable toiler in Canada's 

 many mining districts. In Nova Scotia large 

 numbers are employed by the British Empire 

 Steel Corporation and are said to be among the 

 most reliable of employees. As a rule ignorance 

 of English and a natural clannishness drive 

 Italians into bands; working gangs are often 

 solely composed of the men of that country, who 

 live together in the larger centres, and in farm 

 settlement form colonies of their countrymen. 



The great industrial expansion of Canada 

 within the past twenty years and the consequent 



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