Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

1901 TO 1914 S07Railway, was in embryo. The following figures will givesome idea of the rapid increase in western production duringthe first decade of this century. In 1899 the spring wheatcrop of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta amounted to35,000,000 bushels. In 1900 (a year of crop failure) it hadfallen to 17,000,000 bushels. Nine years later it amounted to140,000,000 bushels, and in spite of some set-backs it has beenincreasing steadily ever since. The population west of theGreat Lakes, including British Columbia, increased by1,100,000 between the census of 1901 and that of 1911, orapproximately 200 per cent. In the prairie cities, where theearlier western branches of The Canadian Bank of Commercewere established, the growth of population was on the samephenomenal scale, for the rapid settlement of agriculturalland brought great numbers of firms and individuals from theeast in search of business opportunities, and to such newcomersbanking facilities were indispensable. During theperiod between the two censuses just referred to, the populationof Winnipeg grew from 42,340 to 136,035; of Calgary,from 4,392 to 43,704; of Regina, from 2,249 to 30,213; ofEdmonton, from 2,626 to 24,900; of Brandon, from 5,620 to13,839; of Moose Jaw, from 1,558 to 13,823; of Saskatoon, from113 to 12,004; of Lethbridge, from 2,072 to 8,050; and ofMedicine Hat, from 1,570 to 5,608. In British Columbia theincreases were not quite so phenomenal (save in the case ofVancouver, which during the same period grew from 27,010 to100,401), but they were very considerable. In 1900 therewere only three clearing-houses in the western half of theDominion, namely at Winnipeg, Vancouver and Victoria, andtheir combined clearings were, in round figures, $200,000,000.In 1910 the number had been increased to six by the additionof Calgary, Edmonton and Regina to the list, and theircombined clearings reached $1,760,000,000. The growth inrailroad mileage had been from 3,716 miles in 1900 to 8,650in 1910, and until checked by the war railway constructioncontinued on an ever-increasing scale.