RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 251 



and architects, and a thorough knowledge of the problems to the solu- 

 tion of which it will be our privilege to contribute in one way or another, 

 will be obtained by our own experts. The commission of the Red 

 Cross that sailed for France a week or two ago to study the problem 

 of aid for the inhabitants of devastated regions, included highly 

 trained men, among them George B. Ford, consultant in city plan- 

 ning, who already has visited the larger French towns and found work 

 under way in Paris, Limoges, Rheims, Marseilles, and Lyons. Such 

 men will be able to deal efficiently and thoroughly with the new and 

 important reconstruction plans that will call for the best energies to 

 be found in all interested countries.*" 



The work that is being done in France may seem somewhat re- 

 mote as an object lesson to Canada which, happily, has no areas 

 devastated by war ; but as a matter of fact the creative work that has 

 to be done in Canada requires the application of the same principles as 

 are required in connection with the re-creative work that is now forced 

 on the people of France ; only we have in Canada the advantage of start- 

 ing from the beginning. But the chief lesson we may derive from the 

 example of France in this matter is that, although that country is 

 more directly affected than ours by the war, its rulers are not showing 

 indifference to the work of social and economic reconstruction, on 

 the ground that their whole activities should be concentrated on war 

 operations. Indeed they recognize that the very sacrifices which are 

 being made in the war demand, in the interests of continued national 

 stability, that they prepare plans of development which will ensure 

 healthy living conditions and increased efficiency in production in the 

 future. In the degree in which our undeveloped resources in Canada 

 are greater than in France, and to the extent that our hands are at 

 present more free to deal with any necessary re-adjustment of our con- 

 ditions, we have, in that degree and to that extent, the greater re- 

 sponsibility to apply ourselves, unhesitatingly and at once, to the 

 work of planning for the future, of organizing and co-ordinating our 

 government machinery and of ascertaining the facts regarding our 

 social and industrial conditions in town and country. 



In this report an effort has been made to study the causes of 

 social evils from which we suffer in Canada as a result of imperfect 

 methods of land development and rural organization; and to indicate 

 some of our defects rather than our merits in comparison with 

 other countries. The object has not been to describe the extent 

 to which we have achieved comparative well-being in rural Canada 

 but rather to indicate respects wherein we may extend the well-being 

 we already enjoy. The defects of our social life, in any of its aspects, 



• Nev» Y«rk Times Magatine, July 1, 1917. 



