Policing the Plains | Page 9

unceasingly from Europe to America. Far off as lie the
regions of the Saskatchewan from the Atlantic seaboard, on which that
wave is thrown, remote as are the fertile glades which fringe the eastern
slopes of the Rocky Mountains, still that wave of human life is destined
to reach those beautiful solitudes, and to convert the wild luxuriance of
their now useless vegetation into all the requirements of civilized
existence. And if it be matter of desire that across this immense
continent, resting on the two greatest oceans of the world, a powerful
nation should arise with the strength and the manhood which race and
climate and tradition would assign to it--a nation which would look
with no evil eye upon the old motherland from whence it sprung; a
nation which, having no bitter memories to recall, would have no idle
prejudices to perpetuate--then surely it is worthy of all toil of hand and
brain, on the part of those who to-day rule, that this great link in the
chain of such a future nationality should no longer remain undeveloped,
a prey to the conflict of savage races, at once the garden and the
wilderness of the central continent."
These great words were written nearly half a century ago. What has
taken place in Western History within that time shows how this

remarkable man "had his ear to the ground," as the Indians used to
express it and that he was in effect saying, with Whittier:
"I hear the tread of nations, Of Empires yet to be; The dull low wash of
waves where yet Shall roll a human sea."
CHAPTER II
ENTER THE MOUNTED POLICE
Great bodies are proverbially slow in their movements, and in this
regard all governments seem to be great bodies. It may be that a healthy
difference of opinion within a cabinet tends to cautious procedure, but
that type of caution is rather trying on people whose nerves tingle for
action.
The first Government of Canada under that astute and tactful statesman,
John A. Macdonald, was a sort of composite organization which
needed careful handling to prevent explosions, and some vast new
problems such as the construction of a transcontinental railway were in
that day swinging into politics. So, despite Butler's urgent report in
1871 and the rumours more or less exaggerated of intertribal Indian
fights with the accompaniments of massacre and scalping-knife torture,
the Government took another year to think over it, and in 1872 sent
Adjutant-General P. Robertson-Ross to make a general reconnaissance
and bring back further expert opinion. And Colonel Ross, after many
many months of travelling, brought in a quite pronounced series of
suggestions pointing out the great need for such a force as Butler had
suggested, and definitely advised the placing of detachments of
"mounted riflemen" all the way from Manitoba to the Rockies, and for
that matter from the boundary line to the Pole.
It is interesting to note in this report of Colonel Robertson-Ross a
reference to the matter of the uniform of the proposed force in the
following paragraph:
"During my inspection in the North-West, I ascertained that some
prejudice existed amongst the Indians against the colour of the uniform

worn by the men of the Rifles, for many of the Indians said, 'Who are
these soldiers at Red River wearing dark clothes? Our old brothers who
formerly lived there (meaning H.M.S. 6th Regiment) wore red coats,'
adding, 'we know that the soldiers of our great mother wear red coats
and are our friends.'"
The Indians like the bright colour, but they also in this case connected
it with the regular regiment that had come to the Red River to keep the
peace. Referring to this same subject of uniform, Mr. Charles Mair,
noted author and frontiersman, recently said: "There is a moral in
colour as in other things, and the blind man who compared scarlet to
the sound of a trumpet was instinctively right. It does carry with it the
loud voice of law and authority so much needed in this disjointed time.
It disconcerts the ill-affected and has no small bearing in other ways."
The Hon. Frank Oliver, of Edmonton, who has known the West from
the early days, wrote not long ago on this point:
"For nearly half a century throughout Canada's great plains, the red
coat of the Mounted Policeman was the visible and definite assurance
that right was might. A red speck on the horizon was notice to both
weak and strong, honest and dishonest, that the rule of law prevailed;
while experience taught white men and red that 'Law' meant
even-handed justice as between man and man without fear or favour."
"The red coat was evidence that wherever the wearer was, he was there
with authority. In any other colour he might have