Before quoting from that article, however, 

 let us just point out that this question of exces- 

 sive Arctic climate and unproductive Northern 

 areas is fast losing its foundation. Settlement 

 in the Peace River country, in Northern Ontario 

 and in Quebec is going on apace, and areas that, 

 like the Northwest, were once considered un- 

 inhabitable and uncultivable, are now proving 

 desirable and productive. Back in the early 

 nineties, wheat grown a thousand miles north 

 of the international boundary took first prize 

 at the Chicago International Exhibition, since 

 when settlement in that area has been steady 

 and expansive. When Canada is possessed of 

 a population of eighteen millions instead of 

 eight as at present, this question of uncultiv- 

 able Northern areas owing to excessive climate, 

 will have faded just in the same way as the 

 question of the fertility and livableness of the 

 Northwest faded with time and experimenta- 

 tion. But let Stefansson speak for himself: 



"We have pointed out that the growth of grass and 

 other plants is measured not by the length of the summer 

 in months, but by the number of hours of sunlight, and 

 that there are as many hours of sunlight in three months 

 of Arctic summer as in six months of tropic summer, 

 giving the plants, therefore, in reality, twice as long a 

 growing time as the careless reasoner assumes them to 

 have. This is one of the fundamental considerations 

 which explain the universality and luxuriance of vege- 

 tation in the North that is always so startling to the 

 traveller who goes North with a mind furnished with ideas 

 derived from school geographies." 



"It seems to be light rather than heat that makes a 

 plant grow fast. But if it were heat, the polar plants 

 would not be badly off. A fairly simple mathematical 

 calculation shows that from the first week of June to the 

 second week of July, the earth at sea level receives from 

 the sun more heat per square mile per day at the North 

 Pole than at the Equator. In mountainous regions, such 

 as Greenland, there is left over from winter, stored snow 

 to counterbalance locally this tremendous downpour of 

 heat; but on the far more extensive polar low-lands of 

 Siberia, Canada, Alaska and the Canadian Arctic islands, 

 there is no stored-up snow to temper the summer heat, 

 which explains the stories travellers from these regions tell 

 of the unbearable swelter of the Arctic summer and 

 explains such weather bureau records as 100 degrees in 

 the shade at Fort Yukon, Alaska." 



Examples of Unconscious Humor 



"The speeches in Parliament of Sir Edward Blake and 

 others are now classic in Canada and are there the best 

 known examples of unconscious humor. The English 

 language was taxed to its capacity in showing the absurdity 

 of the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The 

 argument said in substance that the expense of building 

 the road would be so great that, even were we to accept 

 the most optimistic view of what the resources of the 

 Prairie Provinces might develop into, even so a reasonable 

 freight tariff for carrying them to the Atlantic would 

 never pay for the axle grease of the freight cars. Oppon- 

 ents of the road were willing to concede that if anybody 

 had the incredible folly to squander that much money 

 the road could be built. They admitted further, that it 

 could undoubtedly be operated in summer, but submitted 

 that it was preposterous to suppose that it could be oper- 

 ated in winter, and there followed the self-evident con- 

 clusion that the railway could never be profitable, for ' no 

 enterprise can be profitable if it is operated only half the 

 year. ' " 



"It is hard now to realize that this argument was 

 applied in good faith to the district which is now, with 

 some justice, called 'The Bread Basket of the World," 

 and to a railway which is commonly conceded to be the 

 greatest of all railway systems. 



"Human energy, mental and physical, is developed to 

 the highest degree in the Northern climates. It may also, 

 in some cases, be developed to a high degree in Southern 

 countries, notably on plateaus and where the sea breezes 

 blow freshly. We need not go into any such elaborate 

 arguments as those of Ellsworth Huntington's book 

 'Climate and Civilization' to prove to any thoughtful 

 man that so long as we have a competitive civilization and 

 so long as public opinion continues to allow the energetic 

 and the powerful to take whatever they wish from the 

 lethargic and the weak, so long will the North continue to 

 dominate the South as it is doing to-day, for it produces 

 the one crop that matters men of unsleeping energy and 

 restless ambition. " 



Ontario Farm Cadets 



Juvenile immigration to Canada during the 

 past few years has slowly regained some of its pre- 

 war importance, and each steamer arriving 

 from the Old Country brings a number of 

 these sturdy, future citizens. At the present 

 time there are many hundreds of thousands of 

 'teen-age boys in England who are out of school 

 and unable to get work owing to the prevailing 

 industrial conditions, and the Ontario Govern- 

 ment has under consideration a scheme for the 

 bringing of some of these boys to Canada and 

 placing them with farmers throughout Ontario, 

 which, if put into operation, will not only 

 relieve the congestion in England, but bring to 

 this province a considerable number of children 

 who possess great possibilities of assimilation 

 and citizen-making. 



The scheme as proposed is that an organiz- 

 ation be formed to be known as the Ontario 

 Farm Cadets, which would recruit boys who 

 wanted to emigrate for a period of four years. 

 The lads would be divided into units of ten or 

 twenty, and would be sent to Canada in charge 

 of a "cadet master," who in turn would hand 

 them over to "headquarters," which would be 

 established at some convenient point in the 

 province. "Headquarters," in reality a clearing- 

 station, would distribute the boys for a term of 

 two years to farmers, who would undertake to 

 clothe and feed them, as well as give them a good, 

 sound training in Canadian farming methods. 

 At the end of that time, if the cadet so desired, 

 the Government would assist him in acquiring 

 a farm of his own. 



Valuable and Desirable Citizens 



For some years the Dr. Barnardo Homes 

 have been active in sending juvenile immigrants 

 of the highest type to Canada, and to date some 

 26,500 have entered the Dominion from the 

 Old Country under their auspices. Their plans 

 for the distribution ol the children upon arrival 

 in Canada are much the same as outlined above, 



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