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o Divorce Problems i In Garden. of the Gulf

E51 i wrauarus. ovrrozv

(Reprinted through the courtesy of The American Magazine. Copyrighted by Crowell Publishing Company, 1929).

Take the latest oflicial table of divorce I statistics covering the nine- provinces of' Canada, and look for the name of Prince .. Edward Island, the Dominion’s smallest _,, province. _ ~

‘. , You won't find it.

Instead, appended. to the table you will iind this note by Dr. R. H. Coatcs, the Do- __ pinion Statistician: _ . "In Prince Edward Island only one di. . vorcc was granted’ from 1868 to I927‘; this was in 1913.” -

That one divorce of 1913, granted by the Canadian Parliament at Ottawa, is the. only divorcein the Island's recorded history 7 oi almost four hundred years. Its own di- vorce court, authorized by- the legislature ; in 1835, hasrnever held a session!

l’ Now dip deeper into Canadian records. Take crime. ' This same little province which has no divorce problem is also without a crime 1 problem. Its crime rate, as indicated by convictions for serious ofienses, i less than ' one-tenth the rate for Canada as a whole, and the Canadian rate is low. The Island ' hasn't had an execution in forty years! Unemployment? There isn't any on the - Island. Poverty? there. _ This island has. per square mile, twice as runny people, four times as many cattle, ‘and eight times as much poultry, as any other province of Canada. It has more rail- roads per square mile, more post "oiled", more telegraph lines, and more churches, and its people have more money in the sav- c ings banks, per cupita, than have those of ‘any other Canadian province. _ Turn to a map. Crescent-shaped, with rolling hills and fertile fields, Prince Ed- lvard Island lies in the mouth of the Gulf of Si. Lawrence, just ofi the eastern coast of New Brunswick and thenorthern coast of Nova Scotia. In area, it is only a little larger than the state of Delaware- so small that thousands of Americans possibly _ have never heard of» it.

mp1».

It‘ is almost non-existent

However, this little insular province of p

88,000 inhabitants has more than 100,000 of its natives in the United States. New England alone has more than 30,000 of its sons and daughters. There isn't another state in the world that has made, in propor- gtion to its size, such a contribution to the manhood of America. It is said that every

Populate American soil.

Some Noted Islanders _Franklin K.Lane, Secretary of the In- '. lerlol" in President Wilson's cabinet, was a

-. -¢-.-...-; a"

__; ent ambassador to Germany, Jacob G. Schurman, who was for thirty years the a llresident of Cornell University. was born -r and reared on Prince Edward Island. Basil sllllll. the novelist, is one of its famous Jhlonsfll‘ The Rev. Dr. Malcolm J. MacLeod, f taster of one of New York's finest Fifth grlvenuc Churches, and called by Dr. S. ‘. Parkes Cadman “one of the greatest preach- 1J1‘! in New York City,” was born and still ‘Wills his summers on Prince Edward Is- Jélsnd. Dr. John M. MacInnls, Dean of the " lemons Bible Institute of Los Angeles, is dylnothcr great preacher whom the province t; l" given to America. » c‘ _Bnt the list is long. Here, in this brief c‘ glltlli’. I can mention only a few. Through tyears this island has been exporting men men of brain and honor and accomplish- } l in the world. ‘gm _T0 Canada it gave a chief justice, Sir "l! Davies. MonsignorAlfred E. Burke, Fin“! "deem to Mexico in 1919-20 in con- g, ‘rfllfln with the religious dispute there, .1, chbishop Alfred A. Sinnott, of Winnipeg, . "ll thc late Archbishop O'Brien of Halifax, o was one of the continent's greatest phil- Tillers. were all natives of Prince Ed- "ll Island. . , i mill‘ Robert A. Falconer, president of To- ‘ M“ 0 University and known throughout the ponlcatlonal circles of North America, is - laliiéllle of several college presidents the jwnna l!" Produced in recent years. Sir hnmqnltl; MacDonald, of Montreal, whose ; on 1 "mics are known to all the Domin- _l m"? °llly one of its scores of distinguished ’ m ‘MP-Ill?! and business. _, 4 Prosperous Island . f‘_°""- flllllnosa we sum up the record: "v a little Island, about one hund-

"l" she-tin u

Prince Edward Island family has helped to '

E Prince Edward Island boy. America's pres- '-

5': »_ f-In The Golden Future-

less than a thousand miles from New York _City and only twenty-four hours by train from Boston. Telegraph and telephone fur- ther link it with the world of today. It! people read American magazines and news- papers, buy American automobiles, and radios, and ‘see American motion pictures. In summer they entertain American tour- ists. Virtually every family on the Island has relatives or friends in the United States as well as in other Canadian provinces- which means there i a constant going back and forth and interchange of views. It is a notably prosperous island.

And yet, there is no divorce problem on '

the Island, though its laws permit divorce and 49,000 of its population are Protestants. It has no crime problem as we know it, no poverty problem, and no employment problem! L '

There are no highwaymen on its roads, and no thugs and bandits on its streets.

_ There is no commercialized vice, if vice exists there at all as we recognize it today. The total regular police force of the Island numbers only thirteen men. There is no penitentiary in the province.

Progressive, prosperous, and up-to-datc, enjoying the newest comforts of modern life and familiar with its luxuries, the 88,000 folks of this island go nightly to their beds untroubled and unscathed by those dark problems which are keeping our own police, sociologists, and preachers‘ awake or tos- sing with bad dreams.

" Why?

It seemed to me that we in America,

with our rising crime and divorce rates,

ought to be interested in the answer.‘ My '

wife and I_ went up to Prince Edward Is- land to get it.

We went by motor-up the Atlantic Coast into Maine, on over the “line” into New Brunswick, and then eastward across New Brunswick to Cape Tormentine, on its east- ern coast. From this picturesque cape it is only nine miles ' across Northumberland Strait to the little village of Port Borden,

' on Prince Edward Island. Here a huge car ferry of the Canadian National Rail- ways links mainland and island, making hourly trips daily, except in winter.

“What happens in winter?” I asked the second mate of the boat.

“Ice,” he answered. “The whole gulf freezes up. The ice gets from ten to fifteen feet thick and we've got to smash our way through it. Our boat, the Prince Edward Island, is an ice-breaker, and a good one. We try to get her over and back at least once a day in winter; but it’s work.”

This evening, however, the strait was clear. Whipped by the wind into tossing white caps, it shimmered golden and blue under the glow of a glorious sunset. The last boat had gone for the night an_d so we Lwandered about the Cape village. Men were making ready lobster traps for the ‘next day, which opened the season. Wo- men chatted on front porches and over

garden fences. Presently we, too, settled down on a front porch for a chat with the village physician, Doctor Barnhill.

“Great Folks"

“So you're interested in the Island, ch?" he said. “Well, you'll like it. Great people, those folks over there. They always know how to get what they want."

I asked him what he meant by that.

‘They get what they want,” he repeat- ed with emphasls. “It wasn't so many years ago, maybe twelve or fifteen, when they had no car ferry. Winter came and shut ’em up tight. Then they decided to have a year-

round ferry service, went out after it, and it wasn't long. before they got it. The gov- ernment built it for them and gave them one boat, but they wanted two. Now they're getting a second one.”

Doctor Barnhlll blew a smoke cloud and

then went on:

‘They know how to work together, those Islanders. They don't divide themselves by squabbles when it's to their advsntagmto be united. They may be Conservatives or Liberals on election daypand Preebytcrians or Methodists or Catholics on Sundays, ‘Fat on other days of the year it's-each for all and all forjthe place inwhich they live.-

“Thcy’ve got telephone and telegraph

cables laid under the stint, and now they're

talking of bbllding a lttillhcl hinder it. Ajtun- nel between here and the Island would have to be twelve miles longfind it wouldcolt two million dollars a mile. rig-may not be in

sum 9s are lasts... more?

THE cuantmmsrowu GUARDIAN

day'll come when that tunnel will be built. If they want it, they'll get it. If the daddies don't get it, the sons will."

The doctor told me of the start of the lilver-fox-breeding industry on the Island, and of how, at the height of the demand that. followed for Prince Edward Island foxes, as much as $35,000 was paid for (mg I'll!‘ 0f "will. 8nd $15,000 a pair was a com- mon price. I

"I‘h‘ey’ve made millions out of foxes,” he said. “And lately they've gone in for seed potatoes. Through cooperation and study and by banding themselves together- for mutual benefit, their farmers are grow- ing some of the finest seed potatoes in the world. Almost every farmer on the island is a grower and making money from them.”

Crime?

"They don't go in for that. They earn their money,” said the doctor. '

Divorce?

Doctor Barnhill pondered. I-le had seen much of life. I wanted his opinion, that of a disinterested neighbor.

“I don't know,” he said presently. “May- be it's their persistence that holds ‘cm io- gether. They've a habit of finishing what they set out to do. They're not easily lick- ed—by anything.” ~ .

Later, I detected in the voice of others of the mainland village that same note of admiration which rang in the doctor's as he spoke of “the Island."

‘They're rich over there,” said on__e.

“They've fine farms,” said another.

“They can adord the best,” said a third.

On that crescent-shaped bit of land out there across the darkening Strait there seemed to be the secret for well-being, con- tentment, and power!

Arrival at Borden

Next morning, with a long line of oth- ers, our automobile was loaded onto rail- road flat cars, and a locomotive shifted the cars out over a long jetty onto the waiting ferry. Freight train are thus conveyed bodily to the Island, which has two hundred and seventy miles of railway. Within an hour we were unloaded at Port Borden and headed for Charlottetown, the Island's capital and only city, thirty-odd miles away.

Almost at once, on this island, there comes upon you a feeling of utter peace. There is no noise, no bustle, no hurry. The patchwork of tilled fields, with their variety of waving grains and dark-green splashes

' of thriving potatoes, seems to snooze in the

sunshine. Farmers jog leisurely “l”! ll“? red dirt roads in old-fashioned farm car- riages. Even the motors seem to loaf on their way, and thousands of tiny Yell"! wild flowers nod drowslly by the roadside-

In Charlottetown, next day, I called fil- several oifices at eight o'clock in the morn- ing--to find them still deserted. Not until nine o'clock does the town gel» 1° W011i. though in the country farmers are up at daybreak, as farmers are everywhere-

Yet the work gets done. Stores are prosperous, houses are painted, lawns are cropped, streets are clean. There is a com- plete absence of the "Tourists Accommodat- ed” signs that one sees everywhere in New England.

And everywhere, in town, village or country, two facts quickly impress them- selves upon the visitor: First, these Island- ers have a deep-rooted and active pride in their homes; second, they have no less an interest and pride in their churches. Char- lottetown, which has less than 13,000 inhabi- tants, boasts churches which would grace the streets of a great city. Every country- side church is immaculate. A shabby home is so rare as to cause comment. _

' Homes and Churches

One of the first men with whom Italked in Charlottetown was Frederick J. Nash, the president of the Patriot Publishing Company. A newspaper man of long ex- perience, he is also a lecturer of note on the Island. and a former member of the local Legislature.

“Have you noticed the homes here, and the churches?" he asked. “There is your first reason for the absence of divorce. Few young men marry here until they can pro- vide homes for their brides, and maintain them Our young married folks don't live in r. but in houses, and they're proud of the . . ."

Every leader with whom I talked brought up this subject of home and church-such men as Frank R. Heartz, the Lieutenant Governor of the Province; John A. Mathieson, the Chief 5 Justice and Dr. Cyrus Macmillan, Wlltfl! head of the English department of llicGill’ University. at Montreal, and rated as one of the most brilliant of the younger men of Canada.

These men, all Island-born andreared,

spoke of the home as “shi-ine” and as link- ed with the church. he custom is not so commonly practiced today as it was, but rnornlngand evening religious services are still conducted in hundreds of Island homes daily. _

"This island is isolated," r:id Chief Jus-

"tlcsriviathiezcn. “Wears not disturbed by

McDonald.‘ "

metropolitan influences, nor bothered by W"? new ‘ism’ and cult and creed. Our peo- ple have been left free to maintain their ideals and traditions."

Looking Backward

It is worth while to look back to the day and men whence these ideals and traditions IP11!!!» f0!‘ the I8land’s present state grew from its past.

The basic stock was Scotch, English, Irish, and Acadian French, and this was augmented in the period of the Revolution- ary War by immigrants from New England who remained loyal to Britain. Later im- migration changed the _stock but little. On every hand-you hear tales of daring men, of devout men.

There were churchmen who left deep footprints in the Island’s_soil of memory_ Such as Angus McEachern, a Catholic be- loved by Protestants and his own alike; Samuel McCully, the Baptist; the doughty Donald McDonald; MacLean Sinclair, who became one of the world's great Gaelic scholars; and other fighting preachers.

The most remarkable of these was Don- ald McDonald, a powerful, rugged-Pligh- lander of. fiery zeal and eloquence. He made Presbyterianism the dominant Protestant ' creed of the Island and swayed people as did no Island preacher before his day, or since. -

Donald McDonald would stride into the pulpit, throw ofl’ his coat, roll up his sleeves, and tear open his collar. Poising the big pulpit Bible upright, he would strike a hand downward into the pages. Wherever the Book opened he would find his text and blaze forth into a sermon that held his aud- itors spellbound for two hours.

For forty years he stormed up and down the Island in periodic sorties from his stronghold at Belfast. His was a re- ligion of old-fashioned intensity, with the fires of Hell lashing. in the foreground to consume the sinner and to spur the right- eous. At times, in the midst of his exhor- tation, he would stop abruptly, plunk his silver watch down upon the pulpit, and command five minutes of silent communion with God. A minute would pass, without the stir of a muscle, without a sound other than the labored breathing of the worshippers; and. suddenly, from out of the silence, Don- ald McDonald’s great voice would boom‘ with terrible portent:

“It is now one minute past eleven o'clock. Every man, woman, and child is one minute nearer to eternity!”

And then, later: “Two minutes have passed!”

Then. “You are three minutes nearer" to your God!" A

He held them in the hollow of his hand. The Island still talks of him—of the sinners who fell prostrate upon the floor, moaning and crying out for forgivenes, of the con- versions he made, of the good done by him.

Mr. Nash, of the “Patriot,” told me: "Donald McDonald's influence is still felt. For more than thirty years after his death he was a living power here. You could pick up any Island newspaper years after he had gone and still find his name in the paid death notices of his followers. The item would announce the death of a person in the usual way, but at the bottom would be this line: , -

“ ‘Converted by the ministry of Donald

Years of Progress

Outside of the church, there are other stories of these old-timers, likewise signifi- cant. The Island has not always been so prosperous as it is today, nor so inviting and easy to live upon. It has been made so, by work and by courage, within com- paratively recent years.

Today, the big government ice-breaker, the Prince Edward Island, maintains daily communication with the mainland in winter, but twenty years ago there was no ice-break- er. Winter trapped the Islanders behind an icy barrier, nine miles wide at its narrow- est point and broken by treacherous “lol- lles"-the channels of soft ice formed by the grinding together of the fioes. It de- manded skill and boldness to cross this barrier.

The accepted way of crossing was by the use of a boat so constructed that it could be dragged over the firm ice like a sled until a lolly was reached, when it was launched in the lolly and rowed to firm ice again. The women rode in the boat: the men “worked" their passage by pulling it afoot, harnessed together in single file. The harness had a double purpose, the sec- ond being safety, for the lead man's discov- ery of a lolly often was made only after he had plunged bodily into it.’

‘Then what?" I asked a native.

“They'd pull him out, launch the boat, and row on,” he answered in matter-of-iact fashion. “What else could they do?”

lie added that each man wore high rub- ber boots to protect him as much as possible from the water, and thcy would all take turns in the lead position.

Those winter: cgasrrd thousamf; -.Z

people to lexve tip islzzui. FIIYIIIEIS who Wei".- s-" ..l and happy ilrere but for that drav/bzrcrr nbzzntlozrzrzl their farms. In 1891, at its prulr, the population of the Island was 109,078. 'l‘l1i_~; number bad dropped to 93,728 in liJll. nnzl to 844,615 in 1921. Lately thc Island bars been lrolzling' its own and perhaps gaining a trifle. The abandoned farms are being taken up zigain in spots. The presence of the lC0-l)l'CIIl(0I' in the strait. of telephone and lfilCfjlTlllll cables under the ice-jammed waters oi‘ winter, and of regular railroad service uniting: the province with the world, 11:; we as the building of roads, has cbccriczl on nrrzztiun and encouraged llllmiifhlflnill. ef‘(evt-rthclc.~t:-:. the island owes

n debt to its iv r1 icr and to its winters.

The ice . lrpi out the faint of heart, but it v. ' no l.£‘.l'l‘:t‘l‘ to thc courag- eous. TlltlSi‘ vulm rumo- rd stayed were the

strorw; .'tnri not the v Ht-mcn and women who felt no quaint-z at. incomcnielrce, isola- tion. (lI!.'l_",'t‘l'. zt-sttl (v01 llliikikllll). It was a sturdy manhood that the lwlnnd attracted and rczrrcd.

Captain Alex. T n". now a farmer in

thc Belfast d? via-t o ti": island, but who in his rseafzrrlnjn; dirj." . Jicrl with Jack Lon- don's famous churzrcior. ‘Wolf Larsen, told me z: story of one of the tllfl-tlil)’ mull car- rier's whose route took him across tile ice. The story." simian»: tlzc type of men that Prinz".- Eclnnrzl lszlztnrl lacgr-st in those clays when the ice in the strait vans unbroken.

Alone and on font. with the heavy pouch 0f mail slung: over his back. this mail car- rier set out one winter (lay for Pictou, Nova Scotin. twenty miles- rlisinnl across the ice. At Piston he was to deliver the mail to the stage (lriver. who was to convey it to Hali- fax. wire-re it mus to be placed on a boat sail- ing for England.

Ziovxcvel‘, n storm delayed the carrier and lie arrived lntc at Pictou. The stage lltlil left. for it hurl })1‘.r-':40.'l;1'€l'S for the boat, and thc boat was s. H1112; on the next day. It “'12s ninety miles from Pictou to Halifax over the stage road, and that road was deep in snow. Without a word of complaint, thc carrier from Prince Edward Island re- shnuldc-rcrl his: mail and walker! on t0 Hali- fax! He caught the bout!

“Not llasilj/ Lie/red”

After hearing such stories as this ‘one, I readily’ believed a Prince Edward Island farmer when he said: “When it comes to getting v/ork done our Island boys are worth four Old Cortniuv immigrants.”

And I better understood what the main- land folks harl meant in saying that “when those Islanders start stimcthing, they us- ually finish it"—.'rucl the doctor's statement, ‘ “They're not cnsrily licked-by anything.”