thing that stands in the way of the development of a great and profitable trade with the United States is the American duty. The magnitude of the shipments of ore to lake Erie ports from Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota is suggestive as to the possibility of utilising our own great and hitherto nearly useless deposits. The shipments from lake Superior ports from 1884 to 1888 are shown in long tons by the following figures: IRON ORE SHIPMENTS FROM LAKE SUPERIOR MINES. A vast lake traffic. Suggestive comparisons. Canada's opportunities under the United States. The total shipments of iron ore by rail and lake from the mines of lake Superior since 1850, when the first shipment was made, amounted at the close of 1888 to 40,812,360 long tons. This enormous business has of late years given employment to a considerable part of the lake marine. The value of the output of 1888 at the point of shipment was over $16,000,000, and in its transportation to lake Erie ports American shipping on the lakes earned at least $6,000,000. When this immense volume of business is compared with the trifling export of 13,534 tons from the mines of Ontario in the last fiscal year, it is natural to enquire why the shipments from lake Superior ports should be 340 times greater than the entire shipment from our own province. The shipment of iron ore from the mines of the lake Champlain region to New York and eastern Pennsylvania furnaces amounted for 1887 to 768,852 long tons, or 60 times more than the entire export of ore from Ontario last year. Is it surprising that the owners of Ontario iron mines should eagerly desire the removal of restrictions which keep out American capital that would seek investment in our mines but for commercial belligerency, or should wish to be able to share upon equal terms in the distribution of the millions paid out in American iron centres near our borders for the article of which they have an unlimited supply? HOW UNRESTRICTED TRADE WOULD OPERATE. The advantages to be derived by our iron interests from the entire removal of trade restrictions between the two countries would not be confined to the increased sale of iron ore to the American furnaces. The free admisfree trade with sion of iron into the American market would in all probability greatly stimulate the production of coke pig iron in Nova Scotia. In Ontario extensive forests of excellent hardwood are contiguous to our beds of ore, and charcoal for the purpose of iron smelting could be cheaply produced in great quantities. With free trade, charcoal iron could be supplied from Ontario as cheaply as from Michigan, and with adequate capital and enterprise there is no good reason under these conditions why a considerable part of the *The total for 1889 was 7,292,754 tons. amount of charcoal iron required by the United States should not be supplied from this province. The product of charcoal pig iron in the state of Michigan for the years 1884 to 1887 shows a rapid expansion of the business and a large annual product at the close of the period, as appears by the following of labor in of charcoal iron. That the business of producing charcoal iron would, with free access to the American market, soon reach a stage of development in Ontario equal to what it has attained in the state of Michigan in four years, does not seem an extravagant prediction when we consider the great natural advantages for charcoal iron production possessed by our province. The production of the Employment charcoal required, amounting to from 90 to 100 bushels of the best per ton the production, of iron, would vastly benefit settlers on the new lands adjacent to iron fur naces, and the employment furnished in cutting and teaming wood, burning coal, mining ore, quarrying limestone for flux, transporting ore and other materials and operating furnaces, would on the basis of the production of Michigan for the year 1887 put over $2,000,000 in circulation as the price paid for labor alone. The erection of furnaces, construction of branch railway lines, transportation of iron and other items of contingent expense would require large additional amounts of labor outlay. The beneficial influence to be exerted upon the interests of the province by the stimulating effect certain to be the result of the breaking down of hostile tariffs between Canada and the United States would in the case of the export of iron ore, and probably of pig iron also, be certain to promote the prosperity of Ontario to an extent greater than any but the most sanguine would venture to predict. COPPER AND NICKEL. greatly stimulating effect of free. The ore trade in ore, metal and chinery. The vast deposits of copper and nickel recently discovered at Sudbury and other points in Ontario give promise of a rapid increase in the production of these metals. This branch of mineral industry would also be stimulated by free admission of the ore to American markets. from many of our mines could be profitably shipped to American smelting mining maworks but for the duty of five cents per pound on the copper contained in it. The cost of erecting smelting works is heavy, and ability to ship ore to the United States free of duty would lead to the working of many mines that must otherwise remain undeveloped. In the case of mines where smelting works have been erected the removal of the American duty on the metal would give a wider market and better prices. The ability to import improved machinery from the United States free of duty would also contribute largely to reduction of cost, and consequently to increase of production. Ontario and Michigan-a #riking contrast. Market for In the large cities near the lakes. SALT. The production of salt has been previously referred to. Ontario in 1887 produced 428,000 barrels. The production of the United States for the same year was 7,831,000 barrels, or 50 per cent. greater in proportion to population than that of Ontario. The production of salt in Michigan has risen from 561,288 barrels in 1869 to 3,944,309 barrels in 1887, or somewhat more than one-half the entire product of the United States for the latter year. Michigan salt was sold in 1887 at an average price of 65 cents per barrel, which was lower than in any previous year except 1886, when it sold for an average of 61 cents per barrel. The opening up of the American market to our salt producers would be a great advantage, not so much from the increased price that would be received as from a vastly extended market that would permit a great increase of production. Our salt field is an extensive one, embracing an area of about 1,200 square miles in the province of Ontario, the brine is the strongest and the purest known, and the quality of salt produced is excellent. The gradual failure of the lumber industry, and the closing of sawmills in Michigan consequent upon rapid diminution of timber supply, will soon remove the exceptional advantages on cost of production hitherto enjoyed by the salt producer in that state, and the free admission of salt to the American market with free coal for fuel might speedily double our salt product, and secure continued and rapid increase beyond that point. STRUCTURAL MATERIALS. The value of building stones of various kinds quarried in the United States in 1887, amounting to $25,000,000 as against $552,000 for Canada building stones during the same period, suggests the possibility of a greatly extended trade in that direction. It would be difficult to determine how large a proportion of this $25,000,000 of material was used in the cities upon the great lakes, along the Erie canal and Hudson river, and in New York, Brooklyn and Philadelphia, but the quantity unquestionably amounts to many millions. With free trade in structural materials it seems hardly to admit of doubt that we might secure a large percentage of the trade in building stone with the cities and towns in the lake region, and also with New York and adjacent towns. Lake and canal navigation would give to the marbles, granites and other building stones of Ontario easy access and cheap transportation to all these points, and great excellence of material would enable our quarrymen largely to command the market, cost of laying the material down being equal to that from other points of supply. The duty alone has prevented the growth of trade in this direction, and with the removal of the duty rapid development of the trade would speedily follow.* Granite, marble and sandstone. At Garden River, near Sault Ste. Marie, the Commission visited the quarries of the Warmington Stone and Marble Co. Here was found a mountain * How great the obstacles to trade in marble, grindstones and building stones are will be clearly seen by the quotations here given from the United States tariff now in force. 438. Grindstones, finished or unfinished, $1.75 per ton. 467 (a). Marble of all kinds, rough or square, 65 cents per cubic foot. 467 (b). Ve nel marble, sawed, dressed, or otherwise, including slabs and marble paving tiles, $1.10 per cubic foot. 463. Manufactures of marble not specified, 50 per cent. ad valorem. 487 (a). Stones un manufactured or undressed, freestone, granite, sandstone and all building and monumental stone, except marble, not specially enumerated or provided for, $1 per ton. 487 (b). And upon stone as above, hewn, dressed or polished, 20 per cent. ad valorem. River marble of marble stated by the owners to be 5,000 feet wide, 8,000 feet long, 600 feet high and of unknown depth, while the band upon which these quarries The Garden are situated is supposed to extend inland for about thirty miles. The superintendent of the quarries said: "If the duties were removed we would put up a large marble mill and give employment to some 300 men; but that would not pay as long as the duty is imposed." For the reason assigned by this gentleman, and for other reasons arising out of the operation of the United States tariff, the export of building stone from Canada only amounted to $65,601 in 1887, of which $20,947 was from Ontario, and a trade which might be made to reach millions of dollars annually can hardly be said to be in its infancy. and cement The product of brick and tile in the United States for 1887 amounted to $47,000,000, of lime to $23,375,000, and of cement to $5,186,000. The Brick, tile export of these materials from Canada is not given separately. In common with some other products they all come under the general head of "other articles," of which the export from Ontario for 1887 amounted to $21,217; showing that the export of these materials, for the production of all of which we have superior advantages, was of the most paltry character in quantity and value. Heretofore all the pressed brick used in this province has been imported from the United States at prices ranging from $25 to $30 per thousand, and until recently it was believed that we had no material in Ontario suitable for its production. But the discovery of beds in the vicinity. of Milton and Campbellville, at the foot of the Niagara escarpment, proves that we have an abundant supply of a clay from which brick of an excellent quality is manufactured; and it is now known that extensive deposits of the same kind of clay exist at various points along the base of the escarpment. northward through the counties of Halton, Peel, Dufferin, and probably Simcoe and Grey. The manufacture of pressed brick ought soon to become a valuable industry in those districts, which are well served by the Grand Trunk and Canadian Pacific railways, if free access were gained to the United States markets. SCOPE AND RESULTS OF INTER-CONTINENTAL FREE TRADE. on internations The favorable results that would follow the adoption of unrestricted Repressing trade between the United States and Canada as regards the development of effect of duties the mineral resources of Ontario can scarcely be estimated, and would beyond trade. doubt far exceed popular anticipation. It is easily understood that with the removal of duties would come greatly enlarged transactions in the export of ores of iron, copper, etc., of structural materials and various other articles. It is not so easily understood that the trade repressing effects of duties are not correctly measured by the mere burden that the amount of duty exacted imposes. Every shipment requires a consular certificate. In every entry made at a custom house in either country the shipper must run the risk of trouble about valuation, and the shipment is liable to seizure. He is at the mercy of officials who need care little for public opinion; who, owing to the delay, expense and uncertainty of litigation, are practically superior to the law, and can exercise their own opinion and will, subject to the approval of the head of a department, in a practically irresponsible manner. This feature of the Mining industries of the United States and Canada Contrasted. case deters men from engaging in business who might not be kept back by the mere duties levied, and leaves the few who do engage in business practically without competition. The vast increase in mineral production in the United States has been pointed out. A state of great activity is the characteristic of the development of mineral resources in that country. In Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Arkansas and other states, scores of millions have been recently invested, cities are springing into existence, railway lines are being constructed furnaces erected and great strides in development made. Why should Canada lag behind in this career of development? Why should the great tide of enterprise and business activity sweep by and leave us untouched? The tariff wall serves like a wing-dam to direct the current from us. Remove the dam and the current will reach us in full force. To the wealth and the restless activity of the United States we must look to a large degree for the capital and the skill to develop our resources of gold and silver, nickel, copper and iron. Now we are looked upon somewhat as Siberia is ; a land possessed of minerals, perhaps, but foreign and far away. More than one-half of our mining capital is now American, but it represents only a small fraction of the amount that would speedily seek investment in Ontario if the two countries were commercially one. The influence this change would exert would probably be felt in a more marked degree in the development of the silver and gold mines of north-western Ontario than even in the more seriously tariff burdened industries of iron, copper, salt and structural material production. Examination into the character and extent of the mineral resources of Ontario shows even now, when we are only at the threshold of discovery, that they are practically without limit in extent and value. As to the best means of development, we must pick up the courage to make that considerable degree of progress which present conditions will permit, and we must work and hope for the coming of the day when the war of tariffs shall be a thing of the past and we shall be able truthfully to say— No pent up Utica contracts ou powers, EVIDENCE AND STATISTICS. Appended are given: (1) Extracts of evidence bearing upon the question of the probable influence upon mineral development in Ontario of free commercial relations between Canada and the United States. (2) Extracts of evidence relating to the public advantages likely to be derived from the construction of a railway line from Port Arthur to the promising silver mines in the Whitefish valley. (3) Tables showing the imports by quantities and values from Great Britain, the United States and all other countries into Canada of articles of manufacture of iron and steel for the seven fiscal years 1881-7. |