RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 199 



tion needs to be directed to the removal of the evils of bad sanitation 

 and unhealthy housing in suburban and rural districts. 



Government Stimulus to Rural Manufactures and Mining 



If the conditions of land settlement are improved for purposes of 

 agriculture and to assist in lessening the cost of government, one of 

 the effects will be to promote rural manufactures and domestic indus- 

 tries. This should, however, be encouraged directly as well as indi- 

 rectly. The tendencies to build factories in small towns, and to develop 

 entirely new towns near to raw materials and sources of power supply, 

 have been shown in this report to be growing tendencies, and they 

 would be still further accelerated if land was laid out on more scien- 

 tific principles and better means of communication were provided. 

 Reasons have been given in previous pages as to the desirability of 

 this movement being encouraged. Its special value in enabling 

 Canada to utilize its water-powers and to develop its minerals is of 

 particular interest and importance to governments at this time. Sir 

 Clifford Sifton, in his annual address to the Commission of Conser- 

 vation, emphasized the importance of the position regarding electrical 

 energy. He quoted Dr. George Otis Smith, Director of the United 

 States Geological Survey, as follows: — 



"It is only through abundant and well-distributed power that 

 the other material resources of the country can be put to their highest 

 use and made to count most in the nation's development. The people's 

 interest in water-power is greatest in its promise of future social 

 progress and such an interest is well worth protecting." 



In view of the enormous potentialities of the water-powers of 

 the Dominion, government aid should be given in the future to help 

 in the creation of new industries in rural areas where these powers 

 are available. In some industrial processes the greatest factor is 

 cheap electric power. 



Were agriculture and some existing forms of industry to be 

 subsidized beyond a certain point, until over-production brought down 

 prices below a subsistence level for the producer, and were large 

 quantities of manufactured goods imported simultaneously, which 

 goods might have been produced at home at a profit, it would be 

 harmful to the country. Many new industries which can be made 

 profitable cannot be started without the research, initiative and 

 financial assistance being rendered by the government. Attention 

 needs to be given to the opportunities for producing gasolene, am- 

 monia, and other materials for which there is a growing demand, 

 and in respect of which we rely entirely, and without any real neces- 



