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H. A. Innis

Report of the International Geographical Congress, Cambridge, 1928

The papers which have been read before this Section and those published in the Report of the Commission on Types of Rural Settlement 1928 have dealt chiefly with settlements in England and in Europe which had been thoroughly established at the beginning of the so-called Industrial Revolution. These settlements have been profoundly influenced by modern industrialism, but in most cases a continuity of life and organization is evident. This paper purposes dealing with a radically different type of settlement—such as is found especially in Western Canada and the new countries—which have had their raison d’être in modern industrialism. Although a study of these settlements must proceed from different premises, it is hoped that the final conclusions may prove suggestive to the study of the types of rural settlement which have been of chief interest to this Section. Moreover, a study of the influence of modern industrialism as confined to Western Canada should be of value to the study of settlements in new countries such as Argentina and Australia. This paper can only attempt a study of the background of the main movements and clear the ground for later more intensive work. It must be content with a survey of the factors peculiar to the spread of industrialism as they are shown in Western Canada.

In the first place an appreciation of the characteristics of modern industrialism is essential. The general trends are well known as to space and time. The conspicuous rise of industrialism in the latter half of the eighteenth century and in the nineteenth century in England, and the spread in the latter half of the nineteenth century, especially to the United States, Germany, and Japan, are matters of common observation. The spread has been of an uneven character and has been affected materially by wars and in turn by the development of the iron and steel industry. The United States became rapidly industrialized after the Civil War, Germany after the Franco-Prussian War, Japan after the Russo-Japanese War. The repercussions of the Great War on the industrial growth of the new countries have been evident on all sides. Important as these sudden spurts of industrialism have been to the new countries, they must not be permitted to obscure the significance of steady and persistent experimentation essential to the evolution in technique of machine industry. The technique involved in the countries which have had the longest experience, as in England, has been modified and improved and borrowed wholesale by the new countries^[1]. The painful experiences incidental to earlier inventions have been eliminated and the results of the experiments are taken over with little difficulty by the new countries. Industrialization of the new countries, given suitable political and social organizations, tends to become cumulative—the United States became industrialized more rapidly than Great Britain and Canada more rapidly than the United States. The more recently the country has been industrialized, the more rapid tends to become its industrialization.

On the other hand, the cumulative tendency is accompanied by a continuity. The early centres of industrial growth become more directly linked with the new centres. The experience, fixed capital, financial and social organization, and the advantages which facilitated the growth of industrialism are factors which enable the older centres to benefit from the industrial growth of the new centres. Abundant supplies of iron and coal and accessible, all the year round, water-transport permit continuous operation, the reduction of overhead costs, and the concentration of industry. The advantages of England as an industrial centre need no description.

The significance of the cumulative tendency of industrialism and of the continuity of industrialism to Canada and the new countries is obvious. Canada has been able to produce on an increasingly large scale, on account of the essential advantages of machine industry, the raw materials for the industrialized countries. She has in turn provided a market for the products of the industrial countries. Her limitations, of iron and coal, and of her seasonal navigation, have made her more dependent on the older industrial countries. The concentration on raw materials is immediately suggested by a reference to wheat, lumber, pulp and paper, minerals, and fish. The rapidity with which production in these commodities has increased since the opening of the present century has depended on extensive borrowing of technique from the United States which had been earlier engaged in providing these staples to Great Britain and Europe. It has depended also on the increasingly rapid industrialization of the older countries with the rapid growth of urban population and the increasing demand for supplies of raw material especially with the exhaustion of old sources.

From the standpoint of this paper we can limit our attention to the study of wheat^[2] as produced in Western Canada. The Civil War in the United States gave a direct impetus to the iron and steel industry and rapidly hastened the spread of industrialism. In the succeeding decade railroad construction proceeded rapidly and the wheat-producing areas were rapidly extended. In the new areas the technique of production was improved materially, especially in the decade from 1872 to 1882. Immediately after the Civil War the self-rake reaper was in general use. The harvester displaced the self-rake reaper between 1872 and 1875, and the wire binder came in between 1874 and 1878, to be quickly displaced by the twine binder in 1879. The effect of these improvements was shown in a reduction of the number of men required in the peak harvesting season, the saving of grain and the rapid occupation of the north-western states. The self-rake reaper required for 1 day, cutting 11 acres, 2 horses and a driver, 4 or 5 men to bind and 1 man to shock. The harvester required 2 men to bind and 1 man to drive 2 horses. The twine binder with a 6-ft. cut required for 12 acres a day 3 horses and 1 man to drive and 1 or 2 men to shock. With the introduction of steam-power and especially of the straw-burning engine in 1875 to 1880, harvesting was speeded up materially. With these technical advances, the Homestead Act of 1862 and the uniform system of surveying of quarter-sections of 160 acres and townships of 6 square miles, the territory was rapidly settled and brought under cultivation. Transport improvements accompanied the improvements of agricultural implements. Steel rails were substituted for iron, canals were enlarged, and larger grain vessels introduced on the Great Lakes, especially from Chicago to Buffalo. Rail competition forced down lake and canal charges; and reduced costs of handling at terminal points, at Chicago, New York, and Liverpool, accompanied lower freight rates. Grain elevators were in use in Liverpool towards the end of the decade and were rapidly installed in other centres. Improved marketing accompanied improved transport. After 1874 grain was graded and shipped in bulk, whereas formerly it had been handled chiefly in special lots on consignment. Through these reduced charges it was estimated that the cost of hauling one bushel of wheat from Chicago to New York declined from 1876 to 1881 from 32¼ cents to 17-4/10 cents. Ocean shipping was subject to marked improvement. In 1867-8 the iron steamship was beginning to replace the sailing vessel. Ocean freight rates declined steadily from 1873 to 1891. Indirectly improved ocean-transport favoured the position of hard spring wheat. Fresh meat shipments to Great Britain began about 1875, and the winter wheat sections became more concerned with mixed farming. Hard spring wheat occupied a stronger position, however, through the introduction of new milling processes after 1880-1—the roller process and the gradual reduction method. After 1875 winter wheat tended to remain stationary and spring wheat to increase rapidly. The higher price of winter wheat gradually disappeared and by 1889 had vanished entirely.

In the decade from 1872 to 1882 wheat production had increased materially in the United States. England as a consuming country through increasing industrialization became adjusted to this situation. It has been shown that from 1852 to 1872 the price of wheat in England varied inversely with British crops. After 1872 the world crop became a determining factor, and price became the relation between the crop of industrial countries and the world market. The American price of wheat was governed neither by the American volume of wheat nor by the British volume. Wheat had shifted to a world market, and England became more definitely dependent on outside areas for her food supply.

The technical developments in the United States responsible for a rapid increase in the production of wheat and the increasing industrialization of Great Britain were significant factors in the opening up of Western Canada. The experience of the United States was taken over and adapted to Canadian territory. In railroad construction Van Horne, Shaughnessy, and others brought to Canada the ripe experience of the United States. Lower costs of production for dynamite facilitated construction through the difficult Pre-Cambrian area north of Lake Superior. Railroad cars, rails, and general equipment were produced at lower costs through the advantages of American experience and large-scale production. The Canadian Pacific Railway^[3] was completed from Winnipeg to Vancouver on the West and to Montreal in the East in a remarkably short period of time—almost one-half of the time provided for in the charter. The country was rapidly surveyed and the territory opened for new settlers, who were brought into the country by extensive advertising on the part of the railway and the government. The industrial equipment of the United States, of Great Britain, and latterly of Canada hastened the production of agricultural implements, of lumber for farm buildings, of fuel, and of food and clothing. In the wave of industrialism of the past century and a half, Canada was in the crest and received the full impetus of the momentum.

The geographical background tended to accentuate the rapid development of industrialism and the rapid borrowing from the United States. In the first place the continental background of the United States was an important factor in the development of large-scale production, mass output, and low costs. The level prairies of Western Canada facilitated rapid railway construction^[4] and rapid occupation by settlers. The relative absence of large trees made possible the rapid breaking up of virgin soil and hastened the production of wheat. The Great Lakes offered a convenient waterway for the shipment of great quantities of wheat to the Atlantic seaboard. Geographical handicaps^[5] occasioned by the location of the mountain-passes which determined the projection of the main line were of relatively slight importance.

The political background had a similar tendency to accentuate rapid development. The prairie provinces and British Columbia were transferred at practically one stroke from the control of the large centralized organization of the Hudson’s Bay Company^[6] to the government of Canada. It was imperative that Western Canada should be developed in the shortest possible time from the standpoint of the prosperity of Eastern Canada and from the fear of annexation to the United States. The importance of the unified control of Eastern Canada was shown in the substantial subsidies in money, in land, and in other forms to hasten the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway and the settlement of the west.

The political background affected in turn the financial background and hastened the spread of industrialism. Control of the railway was placed in the hands of a single company in order that construction should be carried out more rapidly and that the country should be settled more effectively. The energies responsible for rapid settlement could be directed with great effectiveness toward the single task of encouraging immigration and developing traffic. Moreover, the impact of the tremendous overhead charges involved in railway construction, especially through the Pre-Cambrian area in the east and the Rocky Mountains in the west, and in the heavy peakload traffic incidental to the export of wheat in the season of open navigation necessitated the immediate and rapid settlement of the west.

Another important factor in hastening the spread of industrialism in Western Canada was the growing efficiency of the price-mechanism. Wheat produced in Canada was sold on a world market in return for a direct cash payment. The numerous transactions involved in the transfer of wheat from the Canadian producer to the English consumer necessitated a high stage of efficiency in the marketing of wheat and in foreign exchange and internal exchange. Canadian banks^[7] were rapidly extended from headquarters in the east, and adjustments were made by which wheat could be sent directly from the frontier to the centres of industrialism with the least possible friction. This efficiency assumed improvements of communication, elaboration of banking skill, and a comparatively effective educational system.

The cumulative effects of these factors were shown in the marked and rapid increase in the production and export of wheat^[8]. The effects on settlement of this concentration on wheat production may be suggested. Settlers were scattered along the railway lines in a belt generally not exceeding 20 miles^[9] on each side of the right of way or of a total width of 40 miles. Land was occupied which could be broken into cultivation with the least possible difficulty and from which grain could be hauled to the elevators for shipment with the lowest possible costs. Land areas near the railways not suitable to wheat production have been devoted to other products, with the aid of the railway companies, for example in financing irrigation projects. Rapid production of wheat involved the immigration of virile young men. Farm buildings were rapidly constructed on the quarter-sections with reference to accessibility to field work. Family life and social life were temporarily broken up. Wheat production involved periods of great activity in the sowing and harvesting and periods of relative inactivity in the winter months and the growing seasons. Long-run fluctuations followed periods of prosperity and depression, depending on prices but chiefly on the weather and on seasonal changes of a long-run character. As a result of these factors, social and community life was seriously handicapped. Village communities transplanted especially from Russia, as with the Dukhobors and the Mennonites, faced obvious difficulties. Schools, churches, and the centres of community life generally grew up very slowly. Urban centres were created in direct relation to the railroads and the convenience of elevators for grain shipment, e.g. approximately 8 miles apart with loading platforms 4 miles. These centres became distributing points for supplies, e.g. agricultural implements, lumber, coal, and general merchandise. Larger centres flourished at divisional points located approximately 110 to 130 miles apart, depending on accessibility of water and the efficiency of engines, at which engines and train crews were changed. The largest centres were dependent on the location of branch lines and junction points, of terminal points, and the stimulus to population afforded by government buildings^[10], educational facilities, and wholesale houses. The importance of railroads and government subsidies to the growth of towns has been largely responsible for periods of feverish real-estate speculation and the heavy charges for long street-car lines, electric light lines, gas pipes, telephone lines, and sewerage systems characteristic of the urban centres of Western Canada.

With increasing population industrialism has been partly responsible for an alleviation of the difficulties of slow community growth. Branch lines have been built giving greater accessibility. The automobile, the telephone, and the radio have contributed to a solution of the problems. Better living conditions have followed the improvements of transport and communication. The wheat pool has developed as an evidence of a new solidarity.

It is not the intention of this paper to discuss in detail the effects of industrialism. It is hoped rather that an appreciation may be gained of the necessity of a different point of view for the study of settlement in new areas. Important as has been the work of Prof. Gras^[11] and his students in the study of metropolitan economy, it is doubtful whether the conclusions can be applied satisfactorily to Western Canada. Certainly settlement in Western Canada differs fundamentally from settlement in Eastern Canada and in the old world.

TRANSCRIBER NOTES

Misspelled words and printer errors have been corrected. Where multiple spellings occur, majority use has been employed.

Punctuation has been maintained except where obvious printer errors occur.

A cover which is placed in the public domain was created for this ebook.

[The end of Industrialism and Settlement in Western Canada by Harold A. Innis]