1890-91.] IRON AND STEEL PRODUCTION IN ONTARIO. 313- 



this ore could be melted into pig iron and further made into the 

 different mercantile articles of iron and steel, which are now imported, it 

 would also require about 3,000,000 tons of coal." 



Taking this amount, say 400,000 tons (which we must believe is 

 constantly increasing from year to year), we have tlie product of 2j to 28 

 blast furnaces being tised per annum in Canada, instead of what we often 

 hear — that one blast furnace would glut our market. I take the basis of 

 furnace output, the standard adopted by Mr. Bartlett, alluded to in his 

 evidence before the Mining Commission. 



If however, we take the wonderful yields of the latest Edgar Thompson 

 furnaces, the market would be supplied by a smaller number of furnaces,, 

 but even on the liberal standard of the Lucy furnace (No. 2), yielding 91 

 tons per diem, we should need some 20 blast furnaces to supply our 

 demand, when we make allowance for an average number being out of 

 blast. 



In 1S79, after I had been for some time at smelting works in North 

 Staffordshire, I wrote an article, "A Few Words About Iron," in the 

 Canadian Monthly. In it I pointed out that iron of the finest quality 

 was being produced at that time in North Staffordshire for $5 a ton,, 

 while it was costing $20 a ton at Pittsburg to smelt a bessemer grade, 

 prices in both cases not including management, interest, etc. I then 

 stated that I was at a loss to know how we in Canada were to build up 

 our iron and steel industries under a smaller protection than the United 

 States. 



I have yet to be enlightened on that point, and the existing state of 

 affairs s-£ems to indicate that no satisfactory basis has yet been arrived 

 at. It would surely be better to have no protection than a half-hearted 

 one, which is a tax on the consumer and yet one which will not build up 

 a national industry. 



The expenses in connection with the establishing of smelting works 

 are so enormous that without a policy which says " We ARE going to 

 smelt our ozvn iron and steel," little can be hoped for. 



But once that policy is adopted, whether by protection or by bonus, 

 and the gigantic industries can be launched and set running, we shall 

 have taken a greater step in the commercial development of our country, 

 even than by building the Canadian Pacific Railroad. 



A very practical, and I believe satisfactory solution, so far as Ontario 

 is concerned, would be for the Local Government to offer a bonus, similar 

 to that of the Dominion Government, on iron and steel smelted in the 



