File:Canadian forest industries 1892-1893 (1893) (20334531738).jpg

Title: Canadian forest industries 1892-1893
Identifier: canadianforest189293donm (find matches)
Year: 1893 (1890s)
Authors:
Subjects: Lumbering; Forests and forestry; Forest products; Wood-pulp industry; Wood-using industries
Publisher: Don Mills, Ont. : Southam Business Publications
Contributing Library: Fisher - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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10 January, 1892
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NEWS of the latest wonderful "find" comes this time from the town of Meaford, Ont. When chop- ping down a large elm tree, one of the landmarks of the town, a few days ago, to make room for the erection of a woolen factory, the choppers found, within a few inches of the heart of the tree, an old axe cut and a wrought iron nail. The theory of the Meafordites is that the axe mark had been made in the tree over a century ago, as" the growth marks would prove. * * * * The commercial journals of the United States, and in some respects the lumber trade journals in particular, are discussing the question of American shipbuilding. Uncle Sam looks back with longing eyes to the time when vessels of his own building held important sway in the carrying trade of the world. We can understand that he would like to see a return of those days, for, as one contemporary puts it, " every farmer, lumberman, miner and mechanic is interested." I had a conversa- tion a few weeks ago with Isaac Warkup, of Oakville, a gentleman engaged in flour milling. He said: "It is all nonsense for the Americans to hope to regain the water carrying trade they once possessed. I know that our friends do not like to be told this, but with all their enterprise and energy the fates are against them. I came to this country in an American vessel in 1856. Then America was doing at least one-half of the carry- ing trade of the world. Shipbuilding in England was in a state of bankruptcy. Conditions were serious and in their desperation Englishmen set themselves thinking on this problem. The outcome was the happy thought, a thought at once put into action, to build iron vessels. It did not take long to prove the superiority of iron over wood for shipbuilding purposes. America quickly dropped out of sight in the competition and I do not think can ever regain her position. In England iron is at her very doors, all facilities are at the water's edge, coal is abundant and cheap, labor is cheap. Our good friend Uncle Sam may squeal as he may like he cannot square himself with these conditions." * * * * Is it necessary that Eli should say that he wishes the many readers of the Lumberman every compliment that goes with the present holiday season ? A Happy New Year to every one of you, and may business boom from start to finish of 1892. I cannot expect to meet in person very many, out of the large number of lumber- men, who read this journal each month, but I feel in any case that during the past year we have learned to know one another pretty well. I am anxious that this spirit should not only continue, but that the friendship should increase the longer we are acquainted. Realize that Eli is approachable under all conditions. Throw aside any diffidence that mayperchan.ee have taken possession of you. If you have something to say, say it. Never mind even if it hits Eli himself rather hard. He will take the blow good-naturedly ; and if he should hit back you will be just as good-natured—of course. My aim is to "get there," and in no way can this be more cer- tainly accomplished than in a full ventilation of any sub- ject under discussion. Did you ever know the real meaning of Eli? He is a hustler, a man who starts out to "get there," and does "get there" every time. Some one has said Newton would never have discovered the law of gravitation had he not been an Eli ; Franklin's discoveries in electricity, and Edison's inventions in the same line are attributed to their wonderful Eli qualities. If Fulton had not been an Eli he had never conceived and carried out the idea of a steamboat. Talmage and Spurgeon in the pulpit, Tennyson and Longfellow in the realm of poetry, and Dickens and Thackeray in the field of fiction, reached the topmost rung in the ladder of fame, simply because they were born En's. The ability to be an Eli is not confined to those who wear a crown or wield a sceptre, or those who can make the commerce of a country tremble with the scratch of a pen. The lumberman who conducts a successful business and "gets there" through twentieth century methods is as much of an Eli as he who controls a thousand miles of railway. To put it in a nutshell, the Eli is the man who succeeds in his chosen vocation, despite every discour- agement and obstacle. There are hosts of Eli's in the lumber trade. Many of them have talked to you in this page in the year just gone. That you may the better know them we are going to adorn this page each month with portraits of a number of these Eli lumbermen. We shall ask you to look at the faces of several in the February LUMBERMAN. * * * * Canada's timber wealth, particularly in this province, consists so largely of pine, that I sometimes think we forget, that there is no inconsiderable supply of hard- wood in the country. I was glad to have a chat the other day with Mr. John Inksetter, who hails from the county of Bruce, where a large trade is done in maple, birch and elm. His base of operations in lumber has been the town of Wiarton, where he has resided for many years, and where are located the well-known millmen, Jno. Ashcroft, R. Balstone, H. C. Biette, B. B. Miller, Jno. Kidd, Seamen and Newman, A. Jones and others. These firm's have done a satisfactory year's trade. A large portion of the hardwood cut of this section of coun- try is handled by Toronto dealers. Though hardwoods probably lead in Bruce county, Mr. Inksetter informs me that there is considerable pine in the northern part of the peninsular. A large trade had been done in the shipping of telegraph and telephone poles to the States, but the McKinley Bill, which, as LUMBERMAN readers know, increased the duty on railroad ties, telegraph poles, posts, etc., has seriously affected this class of lumber operations. A fair trade, however, is still done in towing poles from the shores of Lake Huron to Cleveland, which can be done at a cost sufficiently low to partly at least offset the increased duty. Besides it enables those interested in the industry on the other side to secure a class of pole for which they have a pre- ference. A very large consumer of the railway ties that are manufactured in Wiarton and vicinity is the Grand Trunk Railway. Mr. Inksetter tells me there is yet abundance ofhardwood to cut >n Bruce county. * * * * An interview with a " local lumber dealer," that has been somewhat largely copied, in whole or part, by United States lumber journals and other commercial newspapers, was published in the Toronto World about a fortnight ago. " Lumber dealer," whose name is not made known in the interview, is reported to have said that he had just returned from a business tour of the mills in the north, and that little or no lumber was being shipped from the mills. "This," says he, "is the best evidence you can get as to the state of the lumber trade ; when there ic no stuff leaving the mills you may be sure there is little or no demand." Then follows what has struck me as a qualification of the first statement : "In all the lumber points I visited, however, there was only one at which I found any really good lumber. The mill men had no trouble getting rid of that. In fact they could not turn out enough to supply the demand. The Americans will take every foot they can get. But the trouble is they have little need for the common lumber. Why, I know of mill men holding a good deal of last year's common cut and nearly all of this year's. Fact is, the American's don't want our coarse lumber." These conditions are attributed to the removal of the export duty on logs, something we are told that the lumbermen are sorry they asked for. One thousand men, it is alleged as a result of this policy, have gone to the States. Americans who had established mills on this side have removed the whole or part of their plant across to their own side. "What is more, the mill men at Midland, Penetang, Waubashene and other places now find it better to sell the logs to the Americans than manufac- ture them into lumber and run the risk of holding the stock for some time, and perhaps even then only being able to sell them the dressing and uppers. I know of some mill men who will not now fell good lumber to an American unless he also agrees to take the common." These are strong statements. The ink, however, had only twenty-four hours to dry when a reply appeared in the same journal from another lumberman, who makes this distinct statement: " It is a hard fact that since the United States duty on pine lumber Las been reduced to $1 per thousand feet a steady shipment of common and cull lumber has been going on to eastern and south- eastern United States points. The mill men who are holding a "good deal of last year's common cut and nearly all of this year's" must exist only in the imagina- tion of your informant. They are not known to the trade. There has been a tremendous shrinkage in busi- ness in this city and in western Ontario, and it is the United States trade, fostered by the reduction in the duty, that has saved the lumber business from entire collapse. An examination of the lumber journals of the United States will show that Tonawanda dealers are complain- ing of the injury to their business from the car trade now going on from Canada;" and this statement is supple- mented with the expression of opinion, in which the writer is not alone, that if our Government reimpose the export duty on logs, the United States import duty will then be advanced to $3 per thousand feet, which it is averred would mean ruination to the lumber trade. I am going to leave it to Lumberman readers to draw their own conclusions as to the weight of the two different po- sitions that are taken by these two lumbermen. I cannot omit saying this, however, that it is news to me to be told that millmen at any point are loaded up with lum- ber, either coarse or select. My work brings me con- stantly in contact with leading lumbermen of this city and other parts, who ought to know the lay of the land, and they all tell the one story, that our piling docks everywhere are singularly free of stocks of any kind. * * * * "One of the largest operators in the Ottawa district " remarked to me some time ago, said Mr. A. H. Camp- bell, the president of the Muskoka Mill and Lumber Company, " that previous to the reduction of duty on lumber going into the United States to one dollar a thousand, that be did not receive cost for 65 per cent, of his shipments of lumber across the border. This illus- trates as clearly as one could wish the advantage that has come to Canadian lumbermen by a reduction in the duty. My regret is that we have not entire free trade in lumber, which I believe would be for the general benefit of the people of both countries. In no case can I imagine that any agitation will lead to a re-imposition of the old duty ; and to accomplish this our own Gov- ernment has only got to re-impose the export duty on logs. It is not improbable that should the log duty be re-imposed, that the United States would retaliate by increasing the duty on lumber to $3 or even $4. We cannot close our eyes to this one fact that the home con- sumption of lumber is so limited, that if we are to have a market for the products of our forests, we must go out- side for it ; and a natural market is that of the States. I have read lately a letter in one of the daily papers from some one who presumes to speak for the mill-owners of the Georgian Bay territories, telling a doleful tale of the havoc the export of logs is making in closing up large numbers of mills, depopulating villages and so on. This is all moonshine. We are sawmill men ourselves, and can speak from personal knowledge. There is no such distress existing as has been chronicled by these peo- ple. Another matter, the sawing of the logs, is after all a small part of the labor that has a place between the standing tree and the manufactured lumber, and in all the work of the woods and every step necessary to the getting of the logs actually to the mill it is the working- man that receives the benefit. Yes, I have read a num- ber of the letters that have been published in American lumber journals urging that Canadian lumber be excluded from American markets. I have no idea that the United States legislators will move in this direction any more than Ottawa would take a step to re-impose the log duty. United States writers on this question say that the introduction of Canadian lumber on their mar- kets has been the means of causing a reduction in the price of their own product. I have good reason to know that this is not the case. At the most the quantity of Canadian lumber that crosses the border is so small— the veriest drop in the bucket—that it is laughable to hear these, men talk of Canadian lumber affecting the conditions of the American market."

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