178 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



But the Federal Government, as owner of large areas of land in the 

 western provinces; as the authority which has the greatest respon- 

 sibility in connection with immigration and with the settlement of a 

 great part of the new population, and as the body which deals with 

 the principal means of distribution by waterway, by railway and by 

 mail, has the greatest power in the Dominion and, therefore, the 

 largest responsibility, in connection with questions of land settlement. 



We have seen that when land is not properly planned social evils 

 arise in connection with its development which are costly to remedy. 

 Governments have to apply remedies to secure the removal of these 

 evils at immensely greater expenditure than would have been neces- 

 sary to prevent them in the early stages of development, with the 

 result that they simply lessen effects without removing the causes 

 which are responsible. In a country like Canada, where civiliza- 

 tion is only in the formative period and where we are only at the 

 beginning of development, it is absurd to argue that it is too late to 

 start to remodel our system of land settlement in the light of the experi- 

 ence we have gained. Nor need our efforts to correct the mistakes 

 of the past be diminished because we use the lessons they teach us 

 to prevent the recurrence of similar mistakes in the future, in respect 

 to the areas that are still undeveloped or are in course of develop- 

 ment. 



To diagnose social evils and interpret causes with any degree of 

 accuracy we must first take the trouble to ascertain such facts as 

 are available, and we must get out of the ruts of the theoretical extrem- 

 ists who have persuaded themselves that any one solution will meet 

 the needs of our complex social problems, 



Governments may do more harm than good by tampering with 

 the natural tendencies of social development after the first stages are 

 past, and by attempting to influence its later stages in the direction 

 of what is called socialism or individualism. Some good may come 

 from efforts to subsidize development of resources or any particular 

 form of industry, but it is just as easy for these efforts to produce 

 harm, for industry may suffer deterioration as a result of coddling, 

 as well as individuals; and social life may be stimulated at too great 

 an expense to individual life. When we have to deal with human 

 society there must be compromise between social and individual 

 ideals. If we would only apply sound social principles to the early 

 stages of our individualistic system of developing land, we would be less 

 in need of applying socialistic remedies of doubtful value in the later 

 stages. 



