The Latter-day Saints in Canada

The Latter-day Saints in Canada BY FRANK C. STEELE "Oh would ye hear, and would ye hear, Of the windy, wide North-West? Faith! 'tis a land as green as the sea, That rolls as far, and rolls as free. With drifts of flowers, so many there be, Where the cattle roam and rest." So sang Moira O'Neil, the gifted contributor to Blacktvoods' Magazine, many years ago. Should this writer now return from her Irish home to the broad land of which she wrote, Southern Alberta, she would discover the beauty of the range — its drifts of flowers — rapidly disappearing, and in the smoke of the throbbing steam plow would discern the cause. The Latter-dav Saints are largely responsible for the mighty transformation of Southern Alberta from its wild, primitive state to the region of beauty and wealth which distinguishes it today. They plowed the first sod, raised the first grain, and sold the first butter. It was in 1887 that Charles Ora Card, of Logan, Utah, and his resolute associates of brave men and braver women, in the very southwest corner of what is now the province of Alberta, pitched their tents for the first time on British soil. The venerable leader tells us that he saw in prophetic vision the prosperous commonwealth that would eventually be established on those vast, undulating plains, stretching from the base of the Rocky Mountains eastward for hundreds of miles, even to the restless waters of Lake Superior. It was from this nucleus that the first Canadian colony sprang into existence. It is true that they suffered all of the hardships, privations and disappointments connected with such a work. The history of those early days would ofttimes soften the hardest heart. But they were men and women of character, and in the gradual conquest of the wilderness, that feeling of ultimate victory spurred them on to greater achievements. With the construction of the irrigation canal by the Alberta Railway and Irrigation Company, villages sprang into being along its course as if by magic. Then came the railroad, connecting the isolated communities with the road from Great Falls, Montana, to' Lethbridge, Alberta, one of the principal points on the Canadian Pacific's great transcontinental route. The towns that had their origin about this time were Cardston, Magrath and Sterling;

514 IMPROVEMENT ERA and later, when the Knight Sugar company constructed its halfmillion-dollar sugar factory midway between the two last named settlements, Raymond became a thriving center of population. For the past six years the immigration from Utah and Idaho has practically ceased, and the last census taken by the federal government gives the "Mormon" Church, strictly apart from the Reorganite branch, a membership in round figures of seven thousand souls. This is about correct. Taber, the coal city to the east, has a large, flourishing branch, and in the city of Lethbridge, Elder Brigham S. Young, grandson of the noble churchman and colonizer, is bishop over a ward of some eighty members. West of Cardston numerous hamlets dot the verdant foothills, the flocks and herds of the good villagers feeding on the luxurious grass growing everywhere in profusion. It was on this magnificent stretch of country that the famous Cochrane Ranch of 67,000 acres was located. This ranch several years ago was purchased by the Church. Today its broad acres are converted into fertile wheat fields, and on the site of the old dipping-vat, the town of Hillspring, with an excellent system of waterworks already in operation, is the social, educational and religious center of a rich and extensive territory. Agriculture is the chief industry in the colonies. Both irrigation and dry-farming have been signally successful in Southern Alberta, but now the system of exclusive wheat growing is giving place to a far superior and more profitable method, mixed farming. There is a ready market in the cities and in the mining towns of the Crow's Nest Pass for all the farmer can produce. It is here that he disposes of his mixed farm products, but not so his wheat crop. That is shipped to the head of the great lakes, to Fort William or Port Arthur, thence by boat through Canada's unsurpassed water route to the Motherland, where the Dominion is rightfully called the "Breadbasket of the Empire." So important has dry-farming become in Western Canada, that in 1912 the International Dry-Farming Congress was held in Lethbridge. At this inspiring meeting of world-wide agriculturists, the Latter-day Saints played no mean part. It needs only be said in proof of this that Dr. Widtsoe, head of the Utah Agricultural College, presided, the Cardston Choral Society, composed of the best singers in the Alberta stake, furnished the music, the Raymond second ward fed the hungry multitude as they had never been fed before, and, as a climax, Henry Holmes, a "Mormon" farmer of the Welling district, who in his youth worked and experimented on his father's farm in Weber county, Utah, won, in competition with the whole world, the Rumely gas tractor for the best bushel of hard wheat at the Congress. But the ideals of the "Mormon" colonists are not solely on the production of wealth. This is tangibly demonstrated in the

THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS IN CANADA 515 beautiful and substantial school buildings that have been erected in all of the settlements. It has been estimated, and correctly, too, that $250,000 are invested in public school buildings alone. This does not include the imposing Academy recently built by the Church at Raymond, and which represents an expenditure of another $50,000. This splendid institution is a source of pride to the people as it is recognized as one of the most efficient schools in the province. Religiously, the colonists in Canada are at peace with the other sects of the Dominion. True, the Presbyterian General Assembly passes its periodical resolution against "Mormonism," appealing to the government for co-operation in their ill-considered designs. But they receive no encouragement. The attitude of the Presbyterian church is most untenable, and the action of the assembly, writes a Canadian journalist of national repute, "is received in Western Canada with extreme disapprobation." The Rev. Dr. McLaren, of Vancouver, a bitter anti-"Mormon" leader, has confessed that the colonists as a rule are sober and industrious, their sobriety being attested to, in the fact that their settlements compose the only local option district in the province of Alberta. The Canadian Women's Home Missionary Society corroborates this view in the following tribute : "The 'Mormon' system of tithing has made them the most profitable settlers industrially that any country could have. Their towns grow up so rapidly ; their farms are admirably managed, and both alike are prosperous in a wondrous degree. In Alberta, they are profit" ably growing wheat and fruit, making beet sugar, and stock raising, and' such good farmers are thev that they once or twice secured the best prices ever known in Southern Alberta." As there is no stronger proof of the honorable status of the Latter-day Saints available than the testimony of our non-"Mormon" friends, the writer is constrained to add the written statement of no other person than Mrs. Martha Murphy, the illustrious "Janey Canuck", of Canadian current literature, who, in a recent article in the Canadian Courier, of Toronto, said : "I have not any recent statistics by me, but I find in the year 1878, there was not a saloon, a brewery, a gambling house, a brothel, or a beggar, and as a consequence, not a lawyer, in thirteen of their Utah counties. That the Alberta 'Mormons' are equally law-abiding is evidenced by the fact, that although they have been here thirteen years, not one member of their large community has been confined in our Provincial Penitentiary — a statement that cannot be made by any other religious body." The colonists have always received protection under the folds of the British flag. Practically all have become naturalized citizens of the Dominion, and sing with as much fervor, "God Save the King," and "O Canada, Dear Canada," as they formerly did

516 IMPROVEMENT ERA the national hymns of their native republic. Three young "Mormon" students have been admitted to the bar of the province. Mr. Martin Woolf, a staunch member of the Church, represents Cardston constituency in the Alberta legislature, and occupies a highly respected place in that body. Two squadrons of cavalry, composed of "Mormon" boys and commanded by "Mormon" officers, wear the uniform of the imperial army, and they have more than once received the congratulations of leading military men of both the Mother Country and the Dominion. The "Mormon" people have on various occasions entertained with marked ability and admirable grace, many distinguished visitors, including Lord Minto and Earl Grey, governor-generals of Canada, the Hon. Sir Wilfrid Laurier, ex-premier, the Hon. Dr. Roche, minister of the interior, the Hon. Arthur L. Sifton, premier of Alberta, the Hon. Duncan Marshall, minister of agriculture, and Dr. Tory, president of Alberta University. With such demonstrations of loyalty no one, save it be a few religious bigots in the east, doubts the sincerity of the "Mormon" people. They have found a home among congenial friends and in a good land. The future is full of promise. The building of the House of the Lord in the midst of these far-northern plains, is already exerting an influence for good. Its blessings will be manifold, and the Canadian stakes of Zion, separated so long by hundreds of miles from the nearest temple, no longer feel like foreigners from the great body of Christ. As a conclusion to this article I shall quote from the carefully and studiously written work, Canada's Grozvth, by Mr. Charles A. Magrath, ex-M. P., and now a member of the International Joint Waterways Commission, Ottawa and Washington. While it refers particularly to "Uncle" Jesse Knight, who has played so important a part in the development of this country, it reflects the character and work" of the colonists as a body. Says the distinguished commentator: "The 'Mormons' have done good work in Southern Alberta * * * and I see no reason to hold them up from time to time as a menace to our social life. One of the finest characters I have ever met is Jesse Knight, a very prominent mining operator in Utah, a modest gentleman, strong in his faith, who pays his tithes, no inconsiderable amount, to his Church. He came to Southern Alberta with his two sons and accomplished what few men would attempt. He established a beet sugar factory, at a cost of a half million dollars, out on the open prairie without any supporting settlement." MAGRATH, ALBERTA, CANADA