It is vital that the education of the "new Canadians" is not confined to instruction in reading and speaking English, for within a very short time these newcomers from the ends of the earth can become naturalized. Canadians. Unless something is done to make them understand the meaning of their new citizenship, and to impress them with their new responsibilities as well as their new privileges, they may become in Canada, as they have become elsewhere, dangerous material for the propagandist and the crank. It is the easiest thing in the world for the emissary of some revolutionary doctrine to convince the ignorant peasant from eastern Europe that the government of the new country to which he has come is as much his oppressor and his enemy as was the government of the old country which he has left. The outburst in Winnipeg in 1919 gives one indication of what must be expected if the problem of educating the foreigner is not seriously faced by Canadians. Adult education, therefore, must be vigorously pursued among these people in order to evolve right thinking, responsible citizens in the young democracy.80

The same theme is obvious in the writings of J. T. M. Anderson, a Saskatchewan educator (and later Premier of the province), asserted that:

We must profit by the insight we are now getting into the "disruption and uneven growth" which is the result of a lack of national consciousness. Since the outbreak of the war it has come home to us very forcibly that Canada is a country full of unassimilated groups, with varying social ideals, varying languages, and varying ideas of Canadian citizenship and loyalty to the British Empire. Our ..governments should put forth every effort to encourage the establishment of night schools throughout the winter months in all rural non-English communities where illiteracy prevails .... The average of public intelligence, or especially in certain non-English districts, must be appreciably elevated if many of our New-Canadian fellow-citizens are not to remain the prey of certain unscrupulous manipulators in the guise of verbose political stump orators.81

Channeling Discontent

Some educators believed that immigrant radicalism stemmed in part from harsh economic conditions, and not just from the influence of agitators and "alien doctrines". For example, Bradwin observed that:

the One Big Union, which ... reared its head in the mines and logging camps of Western Canada, and hissed its venom in the streets of Winnipeg, in June, 1919, was a direct product in part of the neglect of the navy and other workers in the camps of Canada. It was an echo in the lives of men whose hearts were first made bitter by the slipshod methods of pay meted out to them for work in frontier places.82

However, even if this discontent was in part produced by material conditions, with the help of literacy education as conducted by camp educators it could be channeled into 'safer' pathways and need not result in radicalism. Fitzpatrick states: