Misdirected and unsupervised immigration has been for the Church in the past a great source of leakage.  Here and there noble and zealous efforts have been made to prevent these losses; but they were local and spasmodic.  It was only a few years previous to the outbreak of the war that a Catholic Immigration Society for the Dominion was formed.  The Reverend Abbe Casgrain was its Founder and Director.  Homes and agencies were opened in every large city.  Let us hope that this Dominion-wide organization will once more soon become a reality.  A priest in full charge of its organization and responsible for its efficiency is, we believe, the main condition of success.  And indeed immigration is in Canada one of those problems that over-lap the boundaries of dioceses and provinces and call for the co-operation and co-ordination of all forces.  A leader, with the sanction and backing of the Hierarchy, will be the binding link between the various helping factors and will prevent immigration becoming “nobody’s business” just because “it is everybody’s business.”  This method of an organized and responsible unity will alone straighten out our line of defence from Halifax to Vancouver, and pinch out the various salients of enemy forces that are always and everywhere at work.

But who will carry out this leader’s policy, once thought out and approved of?  As our Catholic Immigration Society is about to reorganize its forces to meet new conditions, may we be allowed to offer a suggestion?  The Knights of Columbus have just finished the great work of their “Army Huts.”  During the war and particularly during the demobilization, they had trained secretaries, hotels, recreation rooms, for the welfare of our soldiers.  This work has placed them in the field of “Social Service” and given them a standing in the community at large.  Now why could not that organization be maintained and serve the purpose of Catholic Immigration?

The Knights of Columbus are indeed ready for the task.  Their chain of huts from coast to coast link together our main centres; their trained secretaries who have enlisted the sympathetic co-operation of devoted ladies; the very nature of the Order, Dominion-wide in its organization and spreading beyond the boundaries of any particular Province, everything seems now to invite them to turn their efforts to the great Cause of Immigration.  During the war they worked side-by-side with the Red Triangle (Y.M.C.A.) and the Red Shield (S.A.).  As these organizations are now intensely taking up what they call “Canadianization” work in its various aspects, is it befitting, would you think, for our Knights to drop out of the field?  Should they not, on the contrary, prepare to “carry on”—­as their brother Knights are doing across the border?  The example they are giving there to the Catholic laity is simply wonderful.  It is an object lesson that has awakened the tremendous energies that lie dormant in the ranks of the Catholic