credit to which they have no claim, by styling them the Makers of Canada, but no suppression of facts, no titles the crown is misled to confer, no Windsor uniforms, no strutting in swords and cocked hats, no declarations and resolutions of parliament, no blare of party conventions, no lies graven on marble, nor statues of bronze, can change the truth, that the True Makers of Canada were those who, in obscurity and poverty, made it with ax and spade, with plow and scythe, with sweat of face and strength of arm.

I would not imply that being first is necessarily a merit in itself.  There must be a beginning to everything and to magnify the man who felled the first tree or reared the first shanty is no honor if unaccompanied by moral worth.  I have seen many townships come into existence and have known the men who first went into them, and my sorrow is, that so few of them are worthy of remembrance.  Recognizing this, I pay no honor to a man who boasts he was the first to do this or that, and who, though first, threw away his opportunity to benefit himself and those who followed.  I am tired of men who posture as pioneers and founders and who have nothing else to claim.  Unless they also had moral worth, strove to give the right tone to the settlement of which, by accident, they started, they are not deserving of more than passing notice.  Scores of times I have been struck by the differences in settlements, how one is thrifty, and its neighbor shiftless; one sending into the world young men and women of intelligence and high aspiration; the other coarse people who gravitate downward.  If a first settler is of sterling character he moulds the community that gathers around him and he deserves honor, but the first settler of gross habits it is well to forget.  The government that tries to make a selection among those who seek its land acts wisely in the interest of coming generations.  To give land to all who ask it, regardless of what they are, will indeed till the country, but will be of no benefit in the long run.  I know of townships where laziness, ignorance, prejudice, and gross habits prevail to such a degree that it would have been better had the land remained in bush.  The bullet strikes as the rifle is pointed, and Canada has never aimed to secure the best people as settlers.  We need population, has been the cry, get it and never mind of what quality it is.  What is more blamable, our legislature does not even try to secure settlers who will assimilate.  Business called me to a township one summer where few of the settlers knew a word of English.  Is that the way to build up Canada as British?

Nature has designed Canada as an agricultural country and such it must remain.  It will prosper as its farmers prosper, and languish when they are not doing well.  It follows their welfare should be the first consideration, and a mistake will be made if the fact is not recognized when they work under unfavorable conditions.