Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1911-09-20


able geographical location. 1t was
called Bytown then, after a certain
Colonel BY, the builder of the Rideau
with the st. Lawrence.
This canal was suggested by the
experience of the British in the war
of 1912, when the lack of means of
communication between those two
great rivers was found to be a SER
ious embarrassment. The provincial
authorities, however, declined to
take any share in the work or the
expense of construction, and the cam
al was built entirely at the expense
of the British government. 1t is 1875
miles long and extends north and
south from Ottawa to Kingston, at
the head of the st. Lawrence. 1t was
commenced in 1926, was finished in
1882, and cost S4,038,S71, which
was an enormous sum to be expended
in public works.
1t was originally of a purely mill
tary character, but has since been
adapted to commercial purposes and
has proved to be very valuable aid
to commerce as cutoff between
ed by the Ottawa river.
Immense quantities of lumber are
hoated down on RATS; fleets of
barges loaded with coal and mer-
chandise are continually passing
northward, and several passenger
steamers are still in USE
The canal enters the Ottawa river
in the very center of that city under
the shadow of the parliament house.
From Ottawa it ascends 2S2 feet by
thirty locks in eighty-seven miles,
passes through Rideau lake and then
descends 164 feet by thirteen locks
in thirty-nine miles to Kingston. It
is 60 feet wide and Is feet deep.
While the situation of Ottawa up
on bluff at the junction of the Of
tawa and Chaudiere rivers is not so
picturesque as that of Quebec, and
those rivers do not approach the ma
jesty of the st. Lawrence, it is, new
ertheless, an admirable location for
manufacturing purposes. and the
water power furnished by the falls
of the Chaudiere is almost unsur-
passed. A dam has been built across
the rapids and the waters turn the
wheels of several important indus
tries employing $4,000 hands, who
were paid $7,9S7,00 in 1910, and
turned out merchandise valued at
$37 100000.
This merchandise consisted chief
ly of lumber, printing paper, card
board, paper bags, buckets, boxes,
matches, cement. mica, gas buoys,
marine signals, tents and canoes,
portable houses, sawmill machinery
and supplies, water wheels, engines
and large quantities of smaller ar
ticles.
The paper mills are among the
largest in America and ship most of
their products to the United States.
One of them has a contract to deliver
six carloads a day in New York 1t
is all made from wood pulp, and the
industry is permanent, because back
of Ottawa are forests of spruce tim
Der reaching to the Attic circle.
Mountains of white pulp may be seen
rising above the high fences that sur
round the paper mills and piles of
yellow sulphite are sheltered by
rough sheds.
If you go to the top of the tower
of the parliament house, which COM
mands a wide vista, including the
entire city and it's environs for sew
eral miles, you can get a fair idea of
the extent of the paper and lumber
interests, and If you can get chance
to examine the tax list you can see
the profits that both have brought to
the people of Ottawa.
ha oe
ing more millionaires than any place
in Canada. The richest resident is
Mr.. Booth, who came here in the
early days from Nora Scotia as an
ordinary lumber jack, rafting on the
river and filing saws in the mills.
He had no friends or education. but
possessed the natural gift that so
many people covet, of making and
saving money. He saved enough out
of his wages to buy a single ma
chine, which he worked himself while
his wife tied up the shingles in bum
dies. Then he got another machine,
and then another, hiring hands to
work them, and he laid the founda-
ton of fortune which is estimated
at $60,000,000.
He owns $4,000, 900 worth of pine
forests where the axe of the lumber
man has never been heard: he owns
paper mills, saw mills and various
other manufacturing industries, and
handles $20,000,000 worth of lum-
Der annually. He built with his own
money a railway from Ottawa to
Georgian bay to haul his logs and
lumber down to the former place and
sold it to the Grand Trunk company
a few years ago for $13.O00,000.
Mr. Booth is now 50 years old, and
although a great sufferer from rheu-
matism, still manages his enormous
business with the same sagacity he
has always shown. He has two sons,
who have been brought up in his
mills. One is cashier and the other
is superintendent of paper factory.
Neither he nor they have ever de-
veloped a sense of the real enjoyment
of life, but the boys" will have
about thirty million dollars each
when the old man goes to his &C
count.
The parliament house, which is
one of the finest buildings in Amer
lea, occupies a noble site overlooking
the Ottawa river and surrounded by
small but highly cultivated park.