The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn The Great Boom In Canada Toronto For the past 40 years, I have been crossing the border into Canada. During this time, I must have passed through almost every...
...It was when we crossed into Canada and started toward Sudbury through the Blind River country that we got a notion of some of the things which are happening to the north of us...
...The most interesting thing about a discovery of precious metal is that it divides the population into the daring and the doubtful...
...They can have their uranium...
...We sat in a beautiful barroom with wide windows affording a perfect view of the great lake steamers going up and down through the long locks of the Sault Ste...
...New houses and factories have covered the land...
...But this increased the air of mystery and made it easier to believe that this is, indeed, the longest bridge in the world...
...The Canadian dollar has kept steadily five or six cents above the U.S...
...Ignace to view this new wonder of the world, the fog was so dense that we could view only one end of it...
...dollar...
...The great vessels, 500 or 600 feet long, passed in steady procession...
...In the first place, this approach gave us an opportunity to see the great new bridge being flung across the Straits of Mackinac to unite at last the upper and lower peninsulas of the strangely cleft state of Michigan...
...Canadians are a bit worried—or some of them are— but they still believe that uranium, oil, gas, iron, copper, nickel and waterpower are good, solid things on which to build an economy...
...We saw fortune-seekers rushing toward the magic area in every sort of vehicle...
...It seemed to stretch from the Northern Peninsula away off into the clouds...
...Of all the gateways, it proved to be the most exciting and picturesque...
...This is a uranium rush...
...Production of oil, gas, copper, waterpower, nickel seemed consistent and reliable...
...Once our eyes were opened, we began to take in scenes which were not unlike what must have happened in California during the Gold Rush...
...Don't get me wrong: This is still a booming country...
...Prices on the Stock Exchange, perhaps partly because of lagging foreign trade, have been receding from their peaks...
...But not until this summer did I approach our northern neighbor by way of Sault Ste...
...There were literally hundreds of them wherever we looked...
...The Northern Miner, which gives enticing reports of mining developments, is sold on every newsstand...
...and England as well as in Canada were inclined to take it seriously...
...In most villages, there were more trailers than houses...
...Every intelligent Midwesterner, Canadian or United Statesian, is dreaming of the day when vessels will sail from Port Arthur or Duluth directly to the ports of Europe...
...Until recently, Canadian stocks and bonds have been going up...
...There is a growing sense of uncertainty...
...The filling-station boy, however, said firmly: "No, sir...
...And a good many Canadians have an uneasy feeling about the billions in United States capital which is rushing into their country...
...And then, before we took the ferry across the Sault, we saw a magnificent sight which I had been hearing about for a long time...
...To be sure, on the day on which we rolled into St...
...During the time I sat and watched, there was never a break...
...Our first hint was conveyed by the great number of trailers being used as dwellings...
...All four locks were continuously occupied...
...Magnificent highways have threaded the East and will soon connect East and West...
...During this time, I must have passed through almost every port of entry between Nova Scotia and British Columbia...
...Lawrence Seaway...
...Toronto's Golden Mile of commercial and industrial structures is something of which any metropolis might be proud...
...But in Toronto, the financial capital of this far-flung Canadian realm, one soon learns that not all Canadians enjoy the confidence which pervades mining circles...
...Once we were established among our old friends in Toronto, I began to realize that this classification has a good deal of relevance among all classes of the population...
...Some were even plodding down the long highway on foot with their bundles on their backs...
...Canadian exporters are said to be protesting to the new Conservative government that it gets harder and harder to dispose of goods abroad...
...The amount of traffic between Lake Huron and Lake Superior passes belief...
...When we asked questions, natives replied with amusement: "Haven't you heard about uranium...
...Not me...
...The population, which we had long thought of as 12 million, suddenly turned out to be about 16 million...
...Marie...
...A boy who filled our tank with gasoline explained that where there were 3,000 people a year or two ago there are now 30,000...
...I'll take my regular pay...
...One gets the feeling that this great region is just at the beginning of its development...
...When the great mining boom, which is not limited to uranium, began to take on solid character, businessmen in the U.S...
...Everyone I spoke to about Great Lakes transportation referred hopefully and enthusiastically to the St...
...Marie...
...Ever since the last time that I was here, some years ago, Canada has been having a boom...
Vol. 40 • September 1957 • No. 37
