Homesteading 



hardly too much to say that many of the more 

 intelhgent of the tillers of the soil have a feeling 

 that there is a combination of interests to keep 

 them poor and exploit them for the benefit of 

 those interests. 



A discussion of Canadian politics is quite out- 

 side the design of these pages, and the Grain 

 Growers' Association is supposed to be non- 

 political ; but to understand the position of those 

 who by hard toil and endurance are turning great 

 stretches of country into productive farms, a few 

 words on their views seem needful, and may 

 be helpful. 



Such men may call themselves Liberals or Con- 

 servatives, followers of Sir Robert Borden or Sir 

 Wilfrid Laurier, but they are probably united in a 

 feeling that the Prairie Provinces are not getting 

 fair play from the Eastern Provinces. This is 

 perhaps natural, as so many of the manufactories 

 are in the East, also the banks and other financial 

 agencies (though much of the capital in the first 

 place is supphed from abroad). It is, of course, 

 an old story, and not unknown in the United 

 States, but, unlike the case of the latter, Canada 

 has an enormous tract of what may prove almost 

 unimprovable country separating her prairies 

 from her East. 



Through this desolate region run at present 



l86 



