Canadian Forestry journal, April, 1919 



183 



"The failure of our manufacturers to secure 

 justice in this respect, moreover, will mean the 

 ultimate elimmation of the competition of our 

 mills in the newsprint market and the transfer 

 of the entire newspnnt mdustry across the bor- 

 der, where corporations, existing under foreign 



laws, outside the jurisdiction of our courts and 

 not subject to the regulations of this government, 

 may charge such prices as conditions may jus- 

 tify and work their own sweet will with the 

 publishers of the United States." 



NEW LIGHT ON THE U.S. ARGUMENTS 



What are our American cousins complaining 

 of? 



They draw out of Canada for their news- 

 print mills in American centres more than 

 1 ,000,000 cords of pulpwood a year, valued at 

 $7,922,000. This comes, of course, from set- 

 tlers' lots and freehold lands, neither of which 

 are subject to the embargo conditions. 



Quebec Province which, according to the Am- 

 erican Pulp and Paper Association, is so nig- 

 gardly with its pulpwood as to condemn the 

 New England newsprint mills to a slow death, 

 sent across the United States border in 1915, 

 624,269 cords, valued at over $4,000,000; 

 786,872 cords, in 1916, valued at over $5,- 

 000,000; 608,830 cords, in 1917, valued at 

 over $5,600,000. 



Ontario in the same years sent to Uncle Sam 

 from 150,000 to 200,000 cords of raw wood 

 for his newsprint mills annually. New Bruns- 

 wick in 1917 sent 156,000 cords. 



What the United States Already Gets. 



But that is not all. 



The United States newsprint mills are fed not 

 only with Canadian logs, but with mechanical 

 and chemical pulp, the half-way station between 

 wood and the finished paper. 



Canada supplied Uncle Sam in 1918 (fiscal 

 year) with 269,250 tons of chemical pulp and 

 215,584 tons of m_echanical pulp, having an 

 aggregate value of $25,620,842. 



That is. Uncle Sam received from the Domin- 

 ion last year more than 1,000,000 cords of 

 pulpwood and 484,834 tons of chemical and 

 mechanical pulp, with a total value of over 

 $33,500,000. 



Another point, not mentioned in the American 

 memorandum, is that the Quebec Government 

 in its embargo restrictions is not in any sense 

 confiscating the earlier American investments. 

 Any of the areas purchased before or since 

 1910 can be sold to-day at a profit. American 

 companies are not fairly representing the situa- 

 tion when they insinuate that investments made 

 on good faith prior to 1910 have been depre- 

 ciated in market value by the embargo order. 



In all probability, the 32,000,000 cords, claimed 

 by the American newsprint mills, as the con- 

 tents of their Quebec limits, can be marketed 

 as standing timber to Canadian companies or 

 speculators at a handsome premium over cost. 



Canadians are Agreed. 



Canadian opinion appears to be well agreed 

 that in order to prolong the life of American 

 mills merely a few years at best, the limited 

 Canadian supply of spruce should not be re- 

 duced by doubling the present export of logs 

 over the border. President Dodge, of the In- 

 ternational Paper Company, says: "With the 

 exception of two companies, there is not a stand 

 of spruce east of the Rockies (in the United 

 States) that would justify the erection of a 

 50-ton mill". How can he expect Canadian 

 Governments, on the look-out for new avenues 

 of Canadian employment, to toss away a splen- 

 did national advantage just at the moment when 

 it promises to yield maximum results? Every 

 cord of wood sent to Uncle Sam from Canada 

 would quadruple in value if fully manufactured 

 on the Canadian side. 



TIMBER ORDERS PLUS— 



It is highly satisfactory to learn that Great 

 Britain is looking to Canada for the immediate 

 supply of vast quantities of timber, says the 

 Winnipeg Tribune. This we may well believe, 

 is only the forerunner of vast drafts upon the 

 virgin and almost unlimited general resources 

 of our newer land. But the warning comes to 

 us, in the commercial devastation of our forests, 

 that there must go hand in hand with timber 

 cutting, a timber replenishing policy. For the 

 results of thoughtlessness in timber harvesting, 

 we have only to look at the vast areas in other 

 lands now barren and waste, veritable deserts, 

 because there was an absence of any replenish- 

 ment policy. To sell billions of feet of our tim- 

 ber, without an accompanying policy of refor- 

 estation, mirrht prove, in the long run, to be a 

 disaster rather than a blessing. 



