RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 37 



Mining, Lumbering and Fishing Industries 

 While the greatest volume of production in Canada comes from 

 agriculture and rural manufacturing, and while these industries employ 

 the great majority of workers, there are other important industries 

 which may be classified as rural. These include mining, lumbering 

 and fishing. The workers engaged in agriculture, according to the 

 census of 1911, number 933,735,* and in fishing, hunting, forestry 

 and mining 217,097. Those engaged in manufacture, trade and 

 merchandising amount to 708,886. Of the workers in the building 

 trades (246,201), civil and municipal government (76,604), profes- 

 sions (120,616), and transportation (217,544), a considerable pro- 

 portion belong to the rural population. (Figure 3). It may, 

 therefore, be computed that more than half the workers in Canada 

 in 1911 were directly engaged in rural production and, of the other 

 half, a large proportion were employed as middlemen and distribu- 

 tors for the farmers, the miners, the woodmen and the fishermen. 

 The manufacturers and distributors are better organized than those 

 engaged in producing food and raw materials and no doubt this ac- 

 counts, in a considerable measure, for the relatively large share which 

 the two former receive in the profits of production. The remedy for 

 this is not to be found in lessening the efficiency and weakening the 

 organization of those engaged in manufacture and distribution, but 

 in improving the efficiency and organization of those engaged in sup- 

 plying the raw materials. 



In so far as the cost of living has been increased as a 

 result of the falling off in production it can only be reduced 

 by increasing production. But increased production can only 

 be obtained as a permanent condition if the profits of the pro- 

 ducer provide the stimuli necessary to encourage him to produce. 

 These profits will only be obtained if he is better organized and enjoys 

 the benefit of co-operation and greater convenience for distribution 

 to enable him to lessen the cost of production on the one hand and 

 to secure a larger share of the price paid by the consumer on the 

 other hand.f This applies more to agriculture than to the other 

 rural industries. The industries of mining and lumbering are, for 

 the most part, in the hands of large corporations who can obtain 

 cheap transportation and cheap capital, and organize their own dis- 

 tribution. 



* Table 26, page 91, Canada Year Book, 1915. 



t It is usually assumed that excessive profits are made by middlemen, but 

 lack of co-operative organization and defective methods of distribution probably 

 absorb most of the difference between the price received by the producer and that 

 paid by the consumer. 



