Regina Leader
January 13, 1891. p.4
It is now going on nine years since we started The Leader, and looking back on the progress made by the country and the towns scattered over it, though not meeting booming anticipations, it may be pronounced satisfactory. Our farmers, our merchants, our lawyers, our builders have in many cases done exceedingly well. Meanwhile a pleasant social intercourse has been kept up; culture has not been neglected and looking at the churches which have been built it is clear we take a vivid practical interest in the ordinances of religion. The pessimist sneers at this religious activity and the sceptical despise it. Like the gold of Autumn woods, it is to them the splendour of decay.
Men build churches, we are sometimes told, who have as much faith as the bricks and mortar which embody their calculated self interest or pious self glorification. It is idle to suppose people would generally contribute money for church building if they did not believe in the faith that will there be preached, and though there may be men who do not feel profoundly on religious matters and who yet attend church, can any man doubt that the average of goodness will be higher among persons regularly attending places of worship than among the same number who disregard these opportunities? To have ideas connected with God and eternity brought weekly before the mind is to have it brought thus regularly in contact with the highest stimulants to human excellence. In some places Y.M.C.A.’s have been established; in others reading rooms have sprung up and it is a common-place to speak of the excellence of our school system. Some of the school houses which have been built would do credit to large cities of the east. It is impossible, especially in this connection, to forget the active fruitful policy of the government and how much we are indebted thereto.
We have ourselves sought to give the North-West a first-class newspaper, and its success in the way of circulation and the authority it has acquired in and outside of the Territories, shows the opinion of the public. It will be remembered that in the early days we gave a paper which astonished the visitors from the east and this could not at that time be done without loss. But we turned the corner, and since then our course has been one of progress. During the eight years we have advocated several reforms, most of which have been carried, and the settler and squatter have found their wants and opinions voiced in no uncertain way. The advertisement of such a paper alone was a great and striking service to the country. From the beginning our opinions have been discussed in Toronto, Montreal, all over the East -- nay, in England, showing that the paper took at once a metropolitan position, and there is every sign that its utility and power are on the increase.
In the earlier years in Regina there was a feature which, we regret to say, time does not seem to emphasize; we mean there was more of universal concord. The whirl-a-gig of time brings changes, and a certain spirit was introduced with the years, which tended to mar the concord and take away from the “family circle” character of those pioneer days. But still the good feeling, the good temper, the humanity of our societies in the North-West, are remarkable, and this statement is true not only of Regina, but of every town and settlement in the country. This speaks well for the people, and for the healthy and wholesome incidents of their lives.
