Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-10-30
WANT OF CONFIDENCE.
That Is Why the Iron Industry of
Canada Is Not Developed.
SHE HAS NATURAL RESOURCES
But Still Lacks Tariff efficiently High to
Exclude the
IMPORTATION OF FOREIGN GOODS.

rcoRRHsPoNDENcE OF THE DIspArcH.1
TORONTO, ONT, Oct 2S.-As salutary as
have been the effects of the adoption of a
policy for the protection of native Canadian
industries, there is occasion for the obser-
yation that of this policy it may be said,
s.If little is good, more is better" This
is singularly true of the development of the
iron industry in the Dominion, particularly
in the Province of Ontario. One condition
needful to bring about the establishment of
extensive iron producing plants is the
revision of existing tariffs to such an extent
and in the direction of affording an apportun-
tiles that will permit capitalists to establish
furnaces that can be operated under condi-
tions similar to those existing in the United
States 1t may be said, however, that even
with the protection which high tariff af-
fords, there must be reasonable assurances
as to the stability of the policy. There is
already feeling of uncertainty through
out the province with respect to the contin-
ance of the present schedules of protective
tariff To this feeling more possibly
than to the present moderate rates of pro-
tective duties, may be ascribed the absence
of any material progress in the develop
ment of the iron producing industry in the
Dominion.
The Tariff Not high Enough.
The capitalists of Canada, or for that mat
ter of anywhere else, are disinclined to
make the enormous investments necessary in
this business, knowing that there is every
assurance that change in government
would in all probability result in reduction
and, perhaps, even a total withdrawal of
protective duties. The markets OF Canada
would then become open and the furnaces
of the protected United States would ship
their products across the border at such
prices that would make competition out of
the question.
The extent of this feeling Of uncertainty,
or more properly speaking, dread, that the
protective duties will be removed by change
of governments is best illustrated in the fact
that notwithstanding the protective duty of
81 80 per ton to keep foreign pig IRON out
and bonus OF 50 per ton to encourage the
manufacture of domestic pig, there is to-day
not single iron furnace in the Province of
Ontario. Their absence is due to this sole
TACT and not to the lack of natural condi-
tions that would otherwise render their es-
poSeiulCs anu thcAS 10 every
reason to believe, proftably. The deposits
of minerals throughout the provinces are
rich even beyond estimation.
Wonderful Natural Resources.
In that part of the province of Ontario
lying west of Ottawa are found beds of ore
that are easy of access and practically in
e1haustible. Along Lake Nipissing are
found magnetic and hematite; in Rideau
county, Ontario, specular; in the Marmora
region bog ore, variety of hematite, while
distributed elsewhere in the provinces are
found iron sand, titamiferous and spattic
ores In the provinces of Nova Scotia,
British Columbia, New Brunswick and in
the Northwest are inexhaustible deposits
of coal. ranging in quality from Ignite to
bituminous, and including vast beds of
anthracite These sources of supply of
raw materials are already available, being
on the lines of the Trans Continental,
Canadian Pacific or the Grand Trunk Rail-
way, and are, in tact, awaiting the utiliza-
tion by man.
Under the protection of the national
policy there has been vast development in
msn nufacturing lines In the industries in
which iron and steel enter 70 largely tn