to city, and in part to the flooding supplies of new gold. The
lessening of the supply of fertile free lands in the United States gave
new value to Canada's untouched acres. Yet these factors alone would
not have wrought the transformation. In the past, when Canada's West
called in vain, low prices had not prevented millions of settlers
swarming to the farms of the United States. Even of the Canadians who
had migrated to the Republic, half, contrary to the general impression,
had gone on the land. Nor was Canada now the only country which had
vacant spaces to fill. Australia and the Argentine and the limitless
plains of Siberia could absorb millions of settlers. In the United
States itself the 'Great American desert' was being redeemed, while
American railways still had millions of western acres to sell. Canada
had the goods, indeed, but they needed to be advertised.

The new ministers at Ottawa rose to the occasion. They were not
content to be 'merely flies on the wheel,' in Sir Richard {221}
Cartwright's unlucky phrase of 1876. They adopted a vigorous and
many-sided policy for the development of the West and of all Canada.
The preferential tariff and the prime minister's European tour
admirably prepared the way. The British people now regarded Canada
with lively interest, and for the first time the people of the
Continent began to realize the potentialities of this new northern
land. The general impression thus created was followed up by more
specific measures, aiming to bring in men and capital, to extend and
cheapen transportation, and to facilitate production.

The call for settlers came first. Never has there been so systematic,
thorough, and successful a campaign for immigrants as that which was
launched and directed by the minister of the Interior, Mr, now Sir
Clifford, Sifton. He knew the needs and the possibilities of the West
at first hand. He brought to his office a businesslike efficiency and
a constructive imagination only too rare at Ottawa. Through
Continental Europe, through the United States, through the United
Kingdom, with an enthusiasm unparalleled and an insistence which would
not be denied, he sent forth the summons for men and women and {222}
children to come and people the great plains of the Canadian West.

It was from Continental Europe that the first notable accessions came.
Western Europe, which in earlier decades had sent its swarms across the
sea, now had few emigrants to