Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/836

 820 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

try of their adoption, and thus become something of a political force in a country which, though foreign, has yet many interests in common with their native land. In all, 135,899 Canadians are naturalized citizens of the United States, 72,534 of whom are English and 63,365 French. This, of course, is not a large pro- portion of the total number living in this country.

" Why do the Canadians migrate from their own prosperous land? v one asks. The answer seems simple. The primary cause is economic : they go in search of higher wages. " Do they find that which they seek?" Yes, in most cases. "But the living- expenses are higher," one urges. True, they are higher, but not enough so to render impossible a balance in favor of the States. Canadian workers do not tend to lower wages, as do some other foreigners, because their standard of living is practically the same as that of their American neighbors. But is this all? Is there, after all, an unacknowledged feeling that to remain a " colonial " is not to grow to the full stature of political manhood? This must remain a matter of pure speculation, but the suggestion is replete with interest. Is it that the nation which stands more than any other for free thought and free institutions is slowly and silently, with the magnetism of her principles of freedom, trying to bring about the union for which provision was made in the Articles of Confederation ?

The results of this migration were particularly interesting a few years ago, when imperial sentiment was at its height; they were interesting when a wave of wrath at the mother-country was passing over the great colony; and they are equally interesting now in the hour of Liberal triumph.

In seeking Canadian sentiment on the subject of absorption by the United States, one must recall at the outset the reply given by Sir John Bourinot to a learned American professor who asked for all the speeches and reports on the subject of annexation made in the Dominion Parliament. His answer, given in an article in the Forum several years ago, was : " There are none ; annexation never has been a question in Canadian politics." The learned publicist was right. Yet, while not entering into Dominion poli- it was a question in at least one provincial election some