The Aug. 16, 1923 edition of the Abbotsford Sumas & Matsqui News was jam-packed with interesting news that still has relevance today.
This was the year that the Sumas Lake was drained, and each week the newspaper included updates from the massive land-claim project. This week’s archive headline on the topic was “Synopsis of Sumas Dyking Agreement.”
This was alluded to last week with just two sentences announcing the agreement on the last page.
And on page 5, the editor chose to run a poem inspired by the draining of the lake, written by Bertha J. Cook:
Sumas Lake
Nestling in the Fraser Valley, along the Vedder Mountain side,
In the shadow of the wild-wood, where the hawthorn and willows are kissed by the ripples from its shore.
Long loved – the smiling lake – where mountain streams babble
Through moss-grown stones to slip away in its shallow depth.
Where wild ducks sought a resting place from hunters of the fields,
And lazy cat-fish met the trout from the laughing streams.
Both white and dusky races voice its poetic legends to the young
When the golden moon-paths make its water sparkle in the night.
‘Oh beautiful lake,’ – your idle waters are silently slipping away –
Sweet Nature you cannot stay.
For this is the day for vulgar profits – and our scientific men –
With field instruments and dredges are delving for a plan.
They labor hard and willing on a project we understand –
Through toil and through finance, they will change the water into land,
We have mental vision of home and fields and farms,
Of orchards full of blossoms, and dairy maids at their churns.
‘Oh beautiful lake,’ you are going; yet we hope you will never return;
You have had your day – and by going away
The slumbering soil will be brought to bear rich legacies of the earth,
And fields in lively culture green –
from happy homes will then be seen.
Racism on display
In the editorial section of the paper, the writer of the pieces continued on a path of anti-Asian racism. He asked readers for “loyalty to the white farmer” in a piece about “Oriental vegetable and truck peddlers.”
He scolded those who bought from non-white sellers, saying there was no excuse for buying from them.
“Intelligent dealers and consumers will not discriminate against their own people,” he continued, while mentioning a buy-at-home policy.
In one of the other editorial pieces, he wrote about making Abbotsford a nicer place to live “by disbanding the cliques and displaying a little community camaraderie,” as a way to join the neighbourhoods of the day for common good.
“Small town life can be made supremely agreeable for average Bill and Mary folks and it only needs the right amount of neighbourly toleration to make it so,” he surmised.