figures being hay for which the land does not need to be plowed. The acreage of all field crops in Canada in 1914 was 33.4 millions; in 1917, 42.6 millions, or an increase of 28 per cent. The value of these crops increased from 639 to 1145 million dollars during the same period or an increase of approximately 80 per cent. The increased value was of course in part due to the decrease in the value of money. It is interesting to note that while the 1914 crops were planted before the war, they were sold after war was declared. It is perhaps, therefore, not unfair to compare the value of 1913 crops with those of 1917; the former was valued at 553 millions or little less than half the value of the latter.

LIVE STOCK

Have these gratifying results been obtained at the expense of the livestock industry? One of the leading agricultural men in Canada stated emphatically that in an attempt to keep up or increase the grain crops, the livestock industry has suffered such a loss that it would require ten years to recover. Livestock men generally did not agree with this view and the official statistics seem to tell a different story. Horses have increased 15 per cent and cattle 31 per cent, while sheep and hogs have about held their own. Some may question why horses increased. The proper answer is that they were required for putting in the crops in the increased acreage. It may not, also, be out of place to state that Canada is a natural horse country.

It is difficult to get any consensus of opinion concerning the future of the livestock industry under prevailing conditions. Perfectly reliable data for a certain restricted area show a marked increase in wheat and beef cattle, a marked decrease in hogs and a slight decrease in dairy cattle. One of the most extensive stockmen in western Canada was asked what he intended to do:

"Are you going to increase or decrease your holdings of cattle?"

He smilingly replied, "I have never told this to anyone else, not even to my superintendent, but I plan to take care of my family. When the crash comes, I do not aim to have on hand a lot of unsalable cattle.'

There was, however, a general feeling, without any particular data to support it, that beef cattle would increase since they are produced principally upon grass which is still abundant. Grazing areas can be leased for ten-year periods at two cents per acre plus the cost of fencing. The present price of beef and the present price of labor tend to induce dairymen to turn their cattle on the range. Since in western Canada at least, they are chiefly shorthorn grades, this is wholly practicable.

DAIRY PRODUCTS

On the other hand, the leading dairy authority of Canada stated that women were meeting the dairy labor situation. He emphasized the importance of the new point of view. He did not believe there would be any reduction in dairying or that there was any grave danger of dairymen selling their cows for want of better prices. The most that might happen, he thought, was that the dairy industry might not increase as rapidly as it otherwise would.

THE LESSON FOR THE UNITED STATES

This then is the one great lesson for the United States. Here is a country lying on its northern border which has placed 5 per cent of its population under arms; has mobilized one-fourth its effective man power for the trenches or munitions; has kept up its civilian activities; and has prospered beyond anything it has known in recent times. This is not theory; it is fact. The United States may well be heartened for its great task. How did Canada do it?

OUR OBLIGATION

We know without any question whatsoever that except for the spirit that these Canadians displayed both at home and in the trenches the German troops would now be in Paris, that they probably would be in London and that it is not at all impossible that they would have been in both New York and Montreal. They will be there yet if the American people do not get over the idea that this is the government's war. The government can do very little to help you win this war. You can do everything to help the government win it. Unless you do it and do it immediately the war is lost. This statement is not made for oratorical effect. It is made only after very careful deliberation and counsel and is made because you ought to know it.

CANADA'S SACRIFICE

In the meantime has not Canada suffered? Indeed she has. But they are human sacrifices, not material sacrifices. Of the first 32,000 soldiers sent to France only 2000 effectives remain. Does it convey anything of the seriousness of the situation when you know that in response to a humane suggestion that this pitiful remnant was, after three years of fighting, entitled to furlough, the necessary reply was that it was inexpedient.

Figures alone can never tell the story. Only one who has been among her people can begin to realize the extent of those sacrifices. Even one who has been allowed glimpses beneath the surface must have a better command of words than I, to attempt any adequate expression. God forbid that these United States shall ever have to give to the extent that Canada has done.

LABOR IN CANADA

DISPENSABLE INDUSTRIES

Canada has been able to take a place in this war that has been the admiration of all the world by the very simple expedient-so simple that few grasp its significance of eliminating unnecessary activities and working harder at the essential ones. Nor was she compelled by law to do it. By common impulse dispensable industries ceased. Great buildings in process of construction stand today as they were when the Kaiser in August, 1914, ordered his troops to advance.

When a man enlisted in the army, the men that remained behind in the office did not complain—much less strike beecause they had to do their own work and that of the man in the trenches. They were only too glad they were able to do it. God knows it was little enough they could do.

AIDS TO RECRUITING

In order to understand fully the situation in Canada it is necessary to remember that panics or near-panics have occurred in 1893, 1900, 1907, and one was occurring when war was declared. In Vancouver in 1914, even during the period of recruiting, 2500 men were in the bread-line, according to Professor Klink of the University of British Columbia. In Canada the conditions were aggravated by the fact that two great railroad systems had finished their building operations and had thrown large numbers of men out of employment. The depression of 1914 aided recruiting because many men improved their economic condition and that of their families by enlisting.

Another factor that kept the labor situation from being more serious was the remittance man, located especially in British Columbia where he had a small orchard which he worked as a plaything by means of oriental labor while he

received his stipend from England. So far as he was a producer, he was an enterpriser, or profiteer. From one place in British Columbia alone, 1400 of these men enlisted, while their wives and children returned to England. My informant, who is well-known in Canada, said, "They were no loss to the industry of the country."

In 1915 many small fruit orchards were not harvested, not only for the reason above indicated but because there was no demand for the fruit. Since that time the increasing demand has led to the care of the orchards and the harvesting of the fruit. Women working in the fruit helped to keep down the demand of the orientals for higher wages. Other forms of farm labor, it is claimed, pay better wages. Hence when the white man enlisted, the orientals took his place at higher wages. It also enabled him to ask the same wages of the fruit men. In other words in British Columbia, according to this view, the fruit business especially is organized on a lower wage scale than other occupations. The oriental is now demanding and getting the white man's scale of wages.

LABOR AND COLONIZATION

Agriculturally, industrially and socially, Canada is divided into two distinct parts. Eastern Canada, the inhabited area of which is a relatively small portion of the total, contains about three-fourths of the population. The prairie provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, which raise the largest proportion of the wheat, oats and barley, are still essentially pioneer country. They have labor problems somewhat different from eastern Canada.

For years the governmental agencies have been dealing with farm labor for these prairie regions with two objects in view:

1. To furnish farmers with labor.

2. To promote colonization.

Labor agencies are established in the United States. which advertise for men and attend to furnishing them