210 THEISLAND ACADIANS

I invite our young men who are not afraid of using their arms to come here and get good land which can be had at very advantageous terms, rather than ruining their health and becoming slaves on the other side of the border.

Since we are condemned to earning our living by the sweat of our brow, it is not harder to work in Rogersville than elsewhere... (TR)*

The idea of leaving the Island to resettle elsewhere disturbed many people at the time. The issue was discussed at debating clubs. The question was asked in Duvar in 1896: “Is it wise to advise our young people to emigrate to Matapedia?” (TR)® The following year people in St. Louis also broached the topic and asked: “Under the present circumstances, is it more advantageous for our Acadians from the Island to emigrate to neighbouring provinces rather than staying at home?” (TR)

Whereas many families went to settle in the new parishes, young men preferred the industrial cities of New England to the virgin forests of New Brunswick and Quebec. They emigrated to the United States in great numbers up until the Depression in the 1930s which slowed down the migration considerably.

The arguments in favour of colonization and of farming went hand in hand. The leaders of the time sought to keep Acadians in farming which they felt offered greater economic stability and a more promising future than fishing. The editorial staff of L’Impartial fre- quently repeated remarks such as:

If one were to compare those who entrust their future to cultivating the land with those who stick to income from fishing, one would quickly reach the conclusion that the sooner they leave the coastline and follow the plough, the better off they will be. Let us work the land, it is our future. (TR)*

As we have already seen, ultramontanism, still the dominant ideology of the Church, made a connection between farming and the preservation of both the French-Canadian culture and the Catholic religion. Jean-Francois Arsenault, praising agriculture during a speech in 1932 at the first National Convention for Island Acadians, reiterated familiar phrases: “Farming is the basis and mainstay of our religious and educational institutions. It is farming that supports the country and that will preserve our language, our religion and our traditions”°”. During the same gathering, Judge Aubin-Edmond Arsenault declared

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