Building the Canadian West - The Land and Colonization Policies of the Canadian Pacific Railway

BUILDING THE CANADIAN WEST- THE LAND AND COLONIZATION POLICIES OF THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY by IAMES B. HEDGES. Originally published in 1939. PREFACE: pages which follow are the outgrowth o the author’s earlier studies of the influence of the railway upon the settle ment of the Northwestern States of the United States. Those inves tigations aroused his interest in the role played by that same agency to the north of the 4gth parallel, where in the Prairie Provinces approximately one-fifth of the total land area alienated by the Dominion Government was granted to the Canadian Pacific and its subsidiaries. The scale of that company’s operations, combined with the completeness of its records, seemed to offer an unusual opportunity for a study of the railway as a colonizer. The term Canadian West is here used to denominate the Provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta in which the Dominion subsidy lands of the Canadian Pacific were located. Only incidental attention has been given to British Columbia, where the Company at various times owned subsidy lands obtained from the Province, but where its work of promoting agricultural settlement was much less notable than on the Prairies. The work has been projected against the background of the American frontier and American experience. Parallel and contrast ing developments on the two sides of the imaginary boundary line have been kept constantly in mind and it is believed that events in each area take on a new significance when viewed in the light of those in the other. Grateful acknowledgment is made to various officials of the Cana dian Pacific who facilitated the search for materials, and especially to Mr. Ashley Edwards, whose unflagging interest and indefatigable energy proved equal to every obstacle; to Mr. H. E. Hume, formerly Chairman of the Dominion Lands Board of the Department of the Interior, Ottawa, who placed his vast fund of information at the author’s disposal; to officials of the Parliamentary Library, Ottawa, for numerous courtesies; to the Harvard University Press for per mission to use in Chapters II and III material which appeared in the writer’s Federal Railway Land Subsidy Policy of Canada ( Cambridge, 1934); to the Social Science Research Council for grants-in aid which made possible the gathering o the material for the volume; to my colleague, Professor Robert H. George, for helpful suggestions with respect to the maps; and to Miss Louise Waitt who has repeatedly typed large portions of the manuscript. JAMES B. HEDGES PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND August, 1939. Contents include: CHAPTER PAGE I. THE BACKGROUND i II. THE ORIGIN OF THE LAND SUBSIDY 14 III. LOCATING THE LAND 32 IV. BEGINNINGS OF LAND POLICY 62 V. ADVERTISING THE WEST 94 VL THE LAND BOOM ON THE PRAIRIE 126 VII. LAUNCHING THE IRRIGATION PROJECT . . . . . . 169 VIII. A POLICY OF COLONIZATION 212 IX. THE DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES . . . . 255 X. LATER LAND POLICIES 294 XL PROMOTING BETFER AGRICULTURE 320 XII. THE DEPARTMENT OF COLONIZATION 346 XIII. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 387 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 411 INDEX 413 MAPS I. CANADIAN PACIFIC LANDS IN WESTERN SASKATCHEWAN AND NORTHERN ALBERTA facing 38 II. CANADIAN PACIFIC LANDS IN MANITOBA AND SOUTHEAST ERN SASKATCHEWAN facing 39 III. CANADIAN PACIFIC LANDS IN SOUTHERN ALBERTA . . . 170 IV. CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY LINES IN THE PRAIRIE PROV INCES . 246 vii.