CANADIAN LUMBER COMPETITION 



137 



daily capacity of 43^ million feet. 

 In 1912 it was estimated that 

 $52,000,000 of American capital was 

 invested in mills and timber in the 

 Province. There are now about 365 

 saw mills and 61 shingle mills in British 

 Columbia and in 1913 thev cut 1,515,828 

 M feet of lumber and about 480,000,000 

 shingles, raising the Province to first 

 place in the Dominion as a lumber 

 producer. In 1909 it produced only 

 one-fifth o'" the total cut of Canada. 



So great was the consumption of 

 lumber in the prairie provinces that 

 besides four-fifths of British Cohunbia's 

 output that market absorbed 479, 169,300 

 feet of kmiber, 121,940,000 lath and 

 90,093,000 shingles imported from the 

 States during 1911 and 1912. It was 

 a dumping ground for low-grade lumber 

 from the Inland Einpire. No effort 

 was made to develop a foreign market. 

 When the slump came there was distress. 



Eastern Canada has an important 

 trade with foreign countries and its 

 relations with the eastern United States 

 are fixed. The problem of overshadow- 

 ing moment is what British Colrmibia 

 shall do with the products of its surplus 

 of mills. 



Through time beyond reckoning the 

 prairie provinces will be large constmiers. 

 Settlement and wheat growing will 

 reach northward to latitude 55 degrees 

 and the sparsely settled districts will 

 fill with farms, but the abnormal 

 demand of the years just past will 

 never develop again. Years may pass 

 before the capacity of today will be 

 reached. In the meantime the capital 

 invested cannot remain unproductive. 

 Impatient of returns from timber new 

 mills will be built. As in the United 

 States, government will look to its 

 forests for revenue, encourage waste 

 and aid in destroying the industry by 

 selling whenever and wherever it can 

 on terms which foster incompetence 

 and invite affliction. 



With capacity to supply ten millions 

 of people and one and one-half millions 

 to supply, the manufacturers are seeking 

 to know what thev shall do to survive. 



The answer must be found among ten 

 millions of people outside of Canada. 

 Lumber is a bulky product. Its best 

 market is that nearest the source of 

 supply; hence Canadian manufacturers 

 turn to the one hundred millions of people 

 across the line — the most prodigal users 

 of lumber in the world. The tariff bars 

 are down, international railroads have 

 reduced their rates to equal those of 

 all- American lines ; the way to a market 

 is open and buyers in the States may 

 now rejoice at the spectacle of a demoral- 

 ized industry struggling from both sides 

 of the boundary to increase consrmiption 

 by cutting prices to or below cost of 

 production. The day of Canada's retri- 

 bution dawned on October 3, 1913, 

 when the Underwood tariff took effect. 

 During the fiscal year ending June 30, 

 1914, 472,245 M feet of kunber worth 

 $11,481,431 was exported to Canada 

 from the United States and there was 

 received in return 892,833 M feet worth 

 $16,936,930." In the last nine months 

 under protective tariff British Columbia 

 sent into the United States 1,861,100 

 feet of lumber, while during the first 

 nine months of free trade the shipments 

 amounted to 12,030,799 feet,' an in- 

 crease of 546 per cent, but withal not an 

 alaiTning amount when compared with 

 shipments into the prairie provinces 

 from the States during 1911. During 

 the first eight months of 1913 importa- 

 tions of Canadian shingles amounted 

 to 288,047 M valued at $743,030; 

 while during a corresponding period in 

 1914 the importations amounted to 

 765,627 M worth $1,776,930, an increase 

 in vohrme of 139 per cent. Of the 

 765,627,000 shingles imported this year 

 201,842,000 were shipped from British 

 Columbia through the Puget Sound 

 gateway, as compared with 30,706,000 

 received through the same gateway 

 during the first nine months of 1913 

 under a protective tariff.'^ This indi- 

 cates the ascendancy of British Cohrm- 

 bia shingles over those made in Washing- 

 ton and Oregon. The total value of 

 all wood products imported into the 

 United States from Canada in the vear 



* Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce 



^ "The Timbennan" November, 1914. 



^ West Coast Lumberman, November 15, 1914. 



