Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-05
CANADIAN BUSINESS
RECESSION NOTED
But Dominion Has Establish.
ed Good Trade Record
for 1929.
BY JOHN F. SINCLAIR.

Special Dispatch to The Star
TORONTO, January 4.-Canada Is
having a business recession comparable
in degree to what is going on in the
I United States Still her business rec
ord in 1929 in most lines exceeded the
hgureS for the year previous.
Her construction figures set a new
high record with grand total of
S576,000,00O last year. as against
S412,000'000 for the preceding year
This is an increase of % Ito Fer cent
over 1926.
/ Last year in construction, Toronto
was considerably ahead of Montreal.
Torontos figures were 80,942, 900, as
against $69,257,000 in Montreal.
This is the record in the two most
active ccnters of the Dominion, with
Ontario leading in the provincial fields,
| followed by Quebec. British Columbia,
Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta Nova
Scotia, and New Brunswick, in the
order named
Smaller Crops Predicted.
Canadian papers are giving promi-
nent space to the prediction Of DR..
Ralph E. Delury of the Dominion OBJ
servatory, a distinguished Canadian
astronomer, who predicts smaller crops
for 1880, lighter rainfall. greater dan
ger from forest fires, fewer electric
! storms and increased fur production.
He declares the l1-year cycle for sun
spots reached its peak in 1928. Prof.
c. S. Chant of the University of To-
ronto agrees with the Delury prophecy.
| To Canada plenty of rainfall means
rainfall the reverse. In the year 1925
Canada produced 566,O00,000 bushels Of
wheat, as against 100000 last year.
| Also $4,000, 900 bushels of oats were
| produced in the moist year of 1928, as
! against 280, 900 900 in the dry year Of
1929. The year 1928 also gave Canada
100000 bushels of barley, as against
100000 last year.
Naturally Canada is very much in
terested in the problem of wheth-r 1880
is to be wet or dry.
Wheat figures.
Prof. w. T. Jackman, University Of
Toronto transportation expert. after a
close study of the present wheat stu
alton, declares that for the week end
ing December 6, 1929, there were a.
$4,000 bushels of wheat in store at the
head of the lake, while for the cor
responding week Of 1928 there were
only 24,438,000 bushels. Also - the
period August /, 1929, to Daoember 6,
1929, the total receipts of AL grains at
the head of the lakes were 95,653, 600
BUSINESS is quiet here. From August
to December IL, 1929, wheat ship
mentS sent down from the lake head
amounted to 81 100000 bushels as
against 2l7,000,o00 year ago. Not so
good
Naturally, the railroads have sur
fercd. The gross revenues of the
Canadian National in october and Mo-
vember were more than 20 per cent less
and for the Canadian Pacific more than
rs per cent less than for the corre-
spending period of 1923.
When the Argentine wheat is out OF
the way late this month, Canada be-
lieves Europe will call upon her great
supply at the rate of 10000, 900 q
months 1t is DR.. Jackman's bsli:f that
because OF the cheaper water haul from
Vancouver to Britain than by all rail to
st. Johns, that Vancouver will handle
a very much larger percentage of the
CROP OF 1929 than ever before -.
Vancouv:r and Fort Churchill are
destined for big things. if the Western
grain men have their way.
Influence Of West.
Is the West getting ready to rule
Canads in the future? The appoint
ment of Char:e- A. Dunning, acting
minister OF railways and canals. to the
most important post of minister of
finance in the Canadian government is
a step in this direction. Mr.. Dunning
has been a leader in the Western CO.
operative grain movement, as we'll as
premier of Saskatchewan. He was born
in England and went to Western Cam
ada to work as a farmland, so he
knows the Western farm problems in
timately. His sympathy is all in this
direction. He is recognized even by
Eastern business leaders as an unusu-
| oil akl aVNI Eel
! industrial leader. He is a champion of
the Hudson Bay route, by which a
large part OF the wheat grown in West
| ern Canada will be sent by way OF
Churchill, on Hudson Bay, to Europe
and thereby eliminate the long and
more expensive rail haul to Montreal
and st. Marys to Europe.
Distances between Churchill and
Liverpool and Montreal and Liverpool
are approximately the same, and the
port of Churchill should take the same
transportation rates from prairie points
as Port Arthur and Fort William" said
Mr. Dunning in discussing this prob
lem. That leaves with the Hudson Bay
route an advantage equal to the dis
lance between the head of the lakes
and Montreal, roughly, 1000 miles"
Western farmers are back of this and
the government has promised its COM
pletion by 1881.
New Railways Minister.
Another Western business leader who
for IS years has been active in the CO.
operative farm movement of the West
has resigned 10 join the government as
minister OF railways and canals. He
is T. A. Crearer of Winnipeg. He, too.
| is interested in the development of the
West and undoubtedly the emphasis in
| Canadian railroad construction while
he is in power will be in the direction
OF building branch lines in different
parts of the West.
Mr.. Crearer, like his associate, Mr.
Cumming, Is capable, strong business
executive with flair" for politics He
has a wide following, not only in the
rural section of the West but in the
industrial centers as we'll. 1t is UNDER
stood that the department of immi-
grafton will also be taken over by this
| Western leader as soon as ARRANGEMENTS
can be made.
With the shrewd Dunning at the head
OF the important finance department
and the experienced Crearer at the head
OF the railways and immigration, one
needs no imagination to propheSy that
| the west Is going to get its full share
OF government support while the King
regime is in power.
'PolltlcS Is much more intimately tied
] up with business in Canada than II Is in
the United States.
And in the present order of THINGS
the large farm organizations working
through their national leaders are not
to be denied.
Copyright 1929, North American Newspaper
| AllianceD
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