ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED | JULY 31, 1920 | CANADIAN COUNTRYMAN
Although present indications are that our agricultural production will be well maintained this year compared with former years, there is no doubt that if sufficient labor had been available we could have easily doubled production without turning a single furrow of virgin soil.
In spite of strikes, high passenger rates, shortage of vessels, and other difficulties connected with transportation, many immigrants have come out to this country since the war and are now engaged in farming. The class of immigrants that has arrived and is arriving is a good deal better than it was some years ago, and farmers who have made use of this kind of more or less “green” help are, on the whole, well satisfied. Many of the immigrants have a fair amount of money, and after they have worked as hired men for a few years to get experience intend to buy farms of their own. It is predicted that as soon as transportation improves and as soon as ocean fares become more reasonable there will be a wave of immigration from the Old Country which will be greater than ever we have before experienced. Conditions in Great Britain even now (about two years after the end of the war) are still none too good for the man with a limited income, and what is more natural than that he should embrace the first chance to come to this Land of Opportunity? The war itself, no doubt, will also be a considerable factor in increasing immigration. Millions of young men, Englishmen, Scotchmen, Welshmen and Irishmen, who fought in France and Belgium, were city boys, and never had a chance to rough it until they enlisted. Once having got a real taste of country air in France, and having their muscles hardened by military training, what is more natural than that they should prefer the freedom of farm life in Canada to being shut up in a stuffy office in the Old Land? These young men, we venture, if given a fair chance will, with a little patient training, make first-class hired men. Unfortunately in bygone years - and not so long ago either - there was a good deal of prejudice in this country against Old Countrymen - especially Englishmen. While we confess there were good grounds for this prejudice, and while we admit that there is nothing that irritates us personally more than to hear some whipper-snapper of an Englishman tell us how it is done in England, still it is reasonable to suppose that the average Canadian in England would probably make the same mistakes as the average Englishman in Canada. Although there is a good deal of sense in the cry “Canada for the Canadians” it should be remembered that if this was carried to its logical conclusion we would have to hand this country back to the Red Indians. The Almighty did not make Canada for Canadians any more than he made England for Englishmen. He made the world for us all. It must be admitted, however, that if one people are to be considered more than another, the people who already live in a country should be given first consideration. From one point of view it is well that a large number of the immigrants now coming in should have sufficient capital to farm on their own account, but we really need farm laborers more than we want farmers. In considering our immigration policy, therefore, we believe preference should be given to the former class of immigrant.