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Never a “Wild West” in Canada

CANADA never knew a “Wild West.” We are forced to turn elsewhere for “penny thriller” and “dime novel” material, based on frontier lawlessness and bloodshed.

Three agencies have been mainly responsible for the peaceful and prosperous peopling of the West. Two of them, the R.N.W.M.P. and the Hudson’s Bay Company, have long ago received recognition for their part in this marvel of empire-building. But there is another whose achievement is but little known or lightly heralded.

It is WOMAN. Wives and daughters of the bearded pioneers who conquered Canada’s plains trekked west with them; lived in lowly sod-houses; shared all hardships; made instant Home wherever the oxen were unyoked. These women helped tame a wilderness, and wherever they went was law and order.

Elsewhere in Western America, the hotbloods, the blacksheep and fortune hunters sloughed off from a rising civilization went into the West without the good influence of womenfolks–and straight-way became “bad men,” “killers” and “road-agents.”

Because nearly every early Canadian in the West had found good women nearby, there was no “Wild West.” And the influence of Canadian women is still alive–on the farms, in the factories, the stores and in the modern civic life of this oldtime buffalo kingdom of the Northwest.

Abroad at Home

WHAT has become of the old-fashioned winter? We would like to know the feelings of that self-exiled band who fled the wholesome prairies of Canada last fall, as they open up their home papers on some Californian strand and read of the ice famine in Iceland; of the hens laying and the dandelions sprouting in Canada, in December; of outdoor swimming at Vancouver; of spring-like mornings in Manitoba, with birds singing and school boys laying off overcoats at play.

Enthusiasm

ENTHUSIASM is the spark which fires the fuel of ability and personality to do its work. Without Enthusiasm, these qualities are dormant and ineffective–mere potentialities of power.

A man may overcome error; he may lack judgment and acquire it; he may make mistakes and remedy them; but he can do none of these things without enthusiasm.

To have enthusiasm is a matter of “morale”; if you believe in yourself and believe in the things you do, Enthusiasm is sure to ignite your dormant power and bring out your capacities to their utmost accomplishment. Conquer doubt, Enthusiasm’s greatest foe.

Be enthusiastic in the doing of even the smallest job!

Ideals

NO INSTITUTION ever amounted to anything until some man or group of men back of it established an Ideal and set out to attain it. The realization of any Ideal, or the success of any business which is struggling toward an Ideal, requires conviction. Skepticism, cynicism and pessimism never made a dollar for anyone.

H.B.C. has an Ideal and that is to serve. Too often, indeed, this is said by business firms in a trite, meaningless, parrot-fashion way; but not so with the Hudson’s Bay Company.

With the Company, to serve means to satisfy. Real satisfaction results only from high quality merchandise and high standards of business dealing. The honor of H.B.C. is bound up with these, because the Company established them as Ideals centuries ago.

The Wilderness Is Shrinking

“FLY TO FORT NORMAN” is the bold headline of a startling advertisement in Western newspapers, “. . . in absolute safety and comfort; flying time about eight hours each way,” continues this epochal announcement.

Commercial enterprise has brought the air-boat to its aid in penetrating the fastnesses of the Northland where, reports say, oil will soon be gushing. But yesterday, this thousand-mile journey from McMurray down toward the Arctic Ocean was achieved only by toilsome weeks of tedious travel. What must the astonishment of leather-hued rivermen be to view these winged canoes darting from civilization to Norman almost “between meals.” How that great wilderness shrinks and becomes smaller. The terror and loneliness of it, the hardships of it begin already to pass away.

There are men living who labored over Chillkoot and spent months on the ghastly Klondike trail, and they must marvel at the advantages given by science and invention to the prospectors of 1921.

The Key to Progress

TO the plumber, the bathroom is the most beautiful room in the house. To him, pipes and joints and taps are more interesting than Chippendales and Wedgwood.

Is your office, your desk, your work the most attractive and interesting in the whole institution–to YOU? Whatever your situation or task in the great H.B.C. organization, endeavor to find such beauty, charm and satisfaction in the business of your own little “work-shop” that the seduction of “greener fields” may not deceive you. The greatest symptom of individual progress is a sincere love for the work in hand; advancement follows naturally upon a faithful apprenticeship.

The Speed Game

HOCKEY, king of speed games, is Canada’s national sport. The pace of it, the skill and thrill of it appeal to the youth of Canada. No other boys in the world could ever play hockey quite as Canadian youngsters do. Hockey has developed to suit a temperament which expresses itself most completely in this game. It is the spirit of Vimy Ridge and Festubert that crops out strongest in a fast rush down the ice with the puck. The vigor, stamina, fearlessness and self reliant manliness demanded by the game are natural, because the Canadian came first and then hockey developed as his characteristic sport.

What Is Your Best?

IF one does his best every day, it is soon noticeable that what was his best at one time is not now his best by any means. Practice in hard work never fails to enlarge the capacity for hard work. It is a natural law that to be strong one must not only possess muscles but must use them constantly.

There is an immense “shake-up” and “shake-down” going on in commerce and industry all over the world. Today the time of trial for individual efficiency has arrived. The bricklayer who lays more bricks than the “average” bricklayer and the man who can raise his level best a little higher every day is the man who will weather the storm.

Covering a Wide Field

THE BEAVER goes to every H.B.C. employee at the retail stores from Winnipeg to the Coast; at all branches of the wholesale department, including the candy factory at Winnipeg; at every fur trade post and outpost in all provinces and the Northwest Territories; at the Land Department, Winnipeg, and its branches in Edmonton and Victoria; at the Executive, Accounting, Audit and Publicity offices in Winnipeg; at the Eastern Buying offices, Montreal and New York; at the London offices and fur warehouse; and to retired officers of the Company, members of the Canadian Advisory Committee, the London Board, the Governor and Committee.

The Beaver, by special request, exchange and subscription, also reaches a