RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 269 



able-bodied men and their families from starvation, and within 20 

 miles of the office enough land lay idle, much of it subdivided into 25- 

 foot lots, to have kept all those families self-supporting, and more. 



The question was discussed with such authorities as J. Bruce 

 Walker, Commissioner of Immigration ; Louis Kon, now Superintendent 

 of Immigration and Colonization for the Provincial Government; 

 J. S. Woodsworth, late of the Bureau of Social Research, and W. J. 

 Black, late principal of the Manitoba Agricultural College. Bruce 

 Walker gave it as his opinion that at that time a Slav immigrant 

 needed §750 to SI, 000 in cash to have a fair start on a homestead. 



Savings Tied Up in City Real Estate 



A more detailed questionnaire was prepared which covered age 

 of the applicant, length of time in Canada and other necessary details. 

 From the very start it was seen that a large number of Slavs in the 

 city had equities, based on the assessment value, of $700 and over, 

 though then without means of bare subsistence or the money to pay 

 their taxes. To conduct the investigation intelligently, it was necessary 

 to tell the applicants something of the idea, that they might enter 

 into the spirit of it. The detailed investigation started on a Saturday 

 morning. On the Sunday, for news spreads quickly amongst the Slavs 

 in the North End of Winnipeg, no less than 20 men found the inter- 

 preter at his house and said that they had heard that farm lands were 

 being exchanged for city property and wanted to know if they could 

 get in on it. On the Monday, and for the following days, they came 

 not in twos and threes but in tens and twenties. Fifty question- 

 naires were filled out and a report based on those fifty cases showed 

 that 31 had equities of over SI, 000 each in city property, 12 had 

 equities of S700 to SI, 000 and only 7 had less than $700. 



Comparatively few of these families had sufficient land in the 

 old country to allow of its being the sole support of the family. One 

 or more members of the family worked part of the year for wages 

 for adjoining landowners or at trades in nearby towns. While they 

 understood the production of all the staple crops and the care of stock, 

 only one had any experience with farm machinery beyond the plough 

 and the harrow. 



Intended to Take up Homesteads 



Almost all these immigrants learned while still in the old country 

 that they could "buy 160 acres for $10," and almost all before they 

 left had intended to farm as soon as they saved a little from working 

 in the city. The gist of the answer to the question, "Why, when you 

 had enough to make a first payment on a house, did you not use this 

 money to start on a homestead?" was invariably, "I was told thai if 

 I bought a house it would increase in value, and then I could sell and 

 would have more money to start on." Some openly admitted that 

 times were too good in the city and that the farm had ceased to appeal 

 to them. Many of them had tried to get loans on tln-ir property but 



