The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1910-07-28
Industrial Progress in Canada
IA paper by Mrs. A. NJ. Hatfield of Var
mouth, N. S.

IA paper by Mrs. A. NJ. Hatfield of Var
mouth. N. 81
This is big subject, and of course
with the limited time at my disposal this
evening can only glance at it very su-
perticially and imperfectly. Canada is
AZ years old, dating from Confederation,
and before that time there were practi-
cally no industries in Canada with the
exception of small grist and saw mills.
In fact, it is only about thirty years since
Canadian industries began to develop to
any extent The Northwest territories,
which it is prophesied will be the future
"Granaries of the World" had only re-
Gently become portion of Canada and
were still undeveloped. Thirty years is
not half of the three score years and ten
allotted to man and we call man of
thirty young man, but in he history of
nation it is even as day. | think we
may get some idea even from the little
can touch upon tonight of what a busy
day it has been in Canada. From 1907 to
1908 Canada exported 500, 900, 600 worth
of home manufactures, of which one
fourth went to England and nearly one
half to the United States, and one pleas
ing feature is the quality Of the goods
manufactured. Of course there are
some things that Canada can not make
as well as some other countries. but Can
ada is young yet, and will have to have
many millions of population before she
can make woolens and cutlery as well as
III England, or milling machinery and
sewing machinery as well as in the United
States or iron and steel manufactures
as well as in Germany. Nevertheless
there is no country Of seven millions of
people in the world who can make so
great variety of useful and needfl!i
things. and under better conditions for
employees. than Canada. 1t is interesting
to know that the number Of factories of
all sizes in Canada is III the neighborhood
of twenty-five thousand; that the aggre-
gate Of Canadian manufactures in a
singh year runs we'll up towards billion
of dollars, and that the capital employed
in manufacturing Industries from 1900 to
1905 increased 90 per cent The words
of Ear Grey at the Dominion day dinner
at London this year are APPLY eloquent
along this line. He said, Il am contin-
ually amazed as | 90 through Canada at
what a population the size of Greater
London has achieved on a continent the
size OF Europe " In fact, industry,
whether on the farm, or in the fisheries,
or the factories. is the keystone of Ca
madam progress. Ontario stands first in
manufactures. Toronto has produced
four hundred millions worth in year.
There are many reasons for this. They
are near railways and coal supplies, and
lately to the water power of Niagara.
Il will say word about this later
Almost every thing that one can think of
is manufactured here, except sugar,
needles and razors. Il do not find these
articles in the list) Toronto is also the
home Of the T. Eaton Co. of which we
all know something. We may not know,
however, that they employ nine thousand
hands and that their floor space is %
acres. | don't know how many stories
high their building is. Montreal is the
most important city in the Dominion for
trade and commerce.
One Of the oldest industries in Can
ada is the lumber trade. The Ca
madam tree used to be considered a
very undesirable article The chief aim
in life Of number of people was to
cut it IoWn. so that wheat and barley
might grow But the woodsman, the
saw mill the RATS, and the lumber piles,
have managed to get so many of the
trees down forever that it has been
thought worth while to call for confer
ences 70 discuss how they were going to
get trees again. The exports of lumber
have fallen off tremendously, but there
are still forests in Canada Prof. Fern
dow o. the University Of Toronto, esti-
mates that there are three hundred mill
ion acres Of forests still standing, and
there are still some saw mills in the coun-
try. Out on the Pacific coast, where the
Douglass fir grows and makes lumber.
there is one mill that cost three hundred
thousand dollars, and all the way towards
the east in Canada We find these mills
notably in Quebec, at Ottawa, the home
Of the lumber kings, and way down to
the other home of the wood worker-th
Maritime Provinces, where the saw mill
is still as important as the factory.
The progress of saw milling in Canada
is almost as interesting as that Of the
-four mills. The earliest mills were
whip-saws, run by hand in a pit. The
first machinery was run by water. In
one of the old water power mills there
was no hurry, One man ran the whole
outfit, which consisted of an upright saw,
and while the saw was plodding through
a log he sat down and had a smoke.
When the board was cut he put it on the
pile. But the modern saw mill is differ
ent affair; each mill employing hundreds
Of men. They are generally situated on