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 CANADIAN MINES 
 
 AND 
 
 RECIPROCITY; 
 
 BKINa 
 
 A PAPBR 
 
 I READ BEFORE THE COMMERCIAL UNION CLUB 
 
 BY 
 
 T. D. LEDYARD, 
 
 OF TORONTJO. 
 
 TORONTO: 
 
 PRINTED BY HUNTER, ROSE ft CO. 
 
 1888. 
 
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\NDBOOK OF COMMERCIAL UNION. 
 
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CANADIAN MINES 
 
 AKD 
 
 BEING A PAPER READ BEFORE THE COMMERCIAL UNION 
 CLUB BY T. D. LED YARD, OF TORONTO. 
 
 In considering the mining interests of a country, and the 
 wealth which profitably worked mines bring to it, coal and iron 
 are by far the most important factors. These minerals are the 
 source of much of England's greatness, and nature favours any 
 country in which they are found in abundance. They do not 
 enrich any individual or any class of men so much as they 
 benefit the whole community. Coal, certainly, except in the 
 case of coke, undergoes no change until it passes into consump* 
 tion, requiring only mining and transporting before it reaches 
 the consumer ; but iron requires the labour of many hands at 
 every stage, and its value is multiplied many fold before it 
 reaches the consumer. Take steel rails, for instance, which is 
 only one case out of many ; one and a-half tons of high grade 
 iron ore are required to make a ton of steel rails. This ore 
 costs, say $3 to mine, but the ton of steel rails is worth at least 
 $30. That is, the value of the steel rails is ten times the value 
 of the ore which made them, showing that nine-tenths of their 
 cost is distributed in the labour of smelting the ore, the cost of 
 fuel and of transportation, and in the different processes they 
 undergo until the perfect steel rails are produced. By far the 
 greater proportion of this is expended in labour, and therefore 
 it is that iron and steel manufacture benefits a country more 
 than any other. For this reason the state of the iron trade 
 is the financial barometer of a country's prosperity; if the 
 iron trade is prosperous wages are good and freely distributed, 
 and other lines of business take their cue from it. My remarks 
 on the subject will be chiefly confined to our iron interests. 
 
 / 
 
Canadian Mines and Reciprocity, 
 
 THE SPANISH MINES NEARLY EXHAUSTED. 
 
 Here is one very important point in considering the Cana- 
 dian ore question. While our grain markets are being cut off 
 by Indian and Kussian wheat, our ores are likely to be re* 
 required at an early date. England derives most of her Besst- 
 mer ores from Spain, whence also the United States get the 
 greater part of their imported ores. For some time past re- 
 ports have appeared showing that the Spanish ore deposits 
 cannot last much longer. Recently a statement has been pub- 
 lished that the Campanil district, one of the most important, 
 has very much reduced its production, and that before long it 
 will cease altogether. The exhaustion of Spanish ores will 
 produce far-reaching consequences ; if England were deprived 
 of these ores she could no longer produce the cheap steel she 
 now manufactures, and a great and radical change must take 
 place. When the Spanish ores are exhausted (and a very few 
 years must see the end of them) no part of the world will offer 
 greater inducements for the manufacture of steel than our own 
 Canada, and if a sufficient market is opened to her, there is no 
 reason why this country should not become a large producer 
 of iron and steel, and obtain a share of that prosperity which 
 naturally follows. In that case it would not be at all surpris- 
 ing to see some of the large English iron manufacturers trans- 
 planting their works to Canada. Wo should then have an op- 
 portunity of seeing how far their loyalty goes ; the boot would 
 then be on the other leg. I am very much mistaken if these 
 same English manufacturers, having transplanted their busi- 
 ness to Canada, would not be the most enthusiastic Commer- 
 cial Unionists of us all. This is no visionary dream, for al- 
 ready Eiiglish manufacturers are looking towards Canada ; 
 within the last few months I have had several inquiries from 
 England regarding our ores and iron mines. 
 
 t 
 
 EFFECTS OF THE UNITED STATES DUTY. 
 
 There is at present a duty of 75c. per ton on all iron ore enter- 
 ing the United States ; this, of itself, is a handsome profit on 
 mining iron ore, and even 50c per ton is a good profit on the 
 whole output of a large iron mine. The duty of 75c. per ton 
 then prevents many iron deposits from being worked. There 
 
Canadian Mivrs and licciprocity. 3 
 
 are some large beds of very pure ore ho favourahly bituate<l that 
 they will pay in spite of the duty, but these are comparatively 
 few. The opponents of Commercial Union tell us that wo have 
 the Canadian market ; this is true, but the Canadian market 
 does not amount to much ; 300,000 tons of pig-iron is about 
 the annual consumption of Canada, rcipiiring about .')00,000 
 tons of ore ; half a dozen good mines would produce this ; in 
 fact two of the leading mines in Michigan would easily do 
 it. The Chapin mine on the Menominee Range last year pro- 
 duced over 330,000 tons, and the Cornwall mines in Lebanon 
 County, Penn., put out in 1887 the enormous quantity of 700,. 
 000 tons, or over 2,000 tons a day for every working day 
 throughout the year. One single furnace company in the 
 States, The North Chicago Rolling Mills Co., uses 1,700 tons, 
 of ore a day, as much as would supply the whole of Canada. 
 
 ^ 
 
 A LIMITED HOME MARKET. 
 
 Our market, besides being so small, is very much scattered, 
 and distance tells heavily in the transportation of iron. Jn 
 Nova Scotia iron and coal occur in close proximity and there 
 is every facility for cheap iron manufacture, but where is the 
 market 1 The freight to Montreal is high, still higher to To- 
 ronto, and prohibitory to Winnipeg. The natural market for 
 Nova Scotia coal and iron is, of course, in the Enstern States, 
 and the market for British Columbia coal and iron is in the 
 Pacific States ; and did not the tariff prevent it a great trade 
 would be done to the mutual benefit of both countries. 
 
 RICHNESS OF CANADIAN IRON ORE, 
 
 During the year 1887 the United States used 13,250,000 
 tons of iron ore, of which 12,000,000 was produced from their 
 own mines, and one million and a quarter imported, mostly 
 from Spain, but very little from Canada. The ores imported 
 from Spain are of Bessemer quality, and very free from im- 
 purities, but are not so rich in iron as some of our Canadian 
 ores, the average Spanish ore not yielding more than 50 to 55 
 per cent, of iron, while some of our ores run as high as G2 to 
 67 per cent, of metallic iron. Under reciprocity with the 
 States a great part of these Spanish ores would be replaced by 
 
Canadian Mines and Reciprocity. 
 
 Canadian, to the great advantage both of our neighbours and 
 ourselves. The advantage to the United States blast furnaces 
 importing Spanish aud other Bessemer ores from Europe is 
 that, at certain points on the Atlantic coast, or contiguous to 
 Atlantic ports, these ores can be laid down cheaper than Lake 
 ^upe:i.cr Bessemer ores. The advantage is simply in the cheap- 
 ness of these foreign ores ; they give employment to no one in 
 the United States, either in mining or transportation to the 
 Atlantic ports, as they are generally brought over as ballast in 
 foreign vessels. Whereas, if the duty were removed from 
 Canadian ores, these could be delivered from the Ontario iron 
 districts to good distributing points on the lakes, such as Char- 
 lotte, Fairhaven, Buffalo, Cleveland, Fairport or Ashtabula, 
 cheaper than Spanish ores can be imported, and American cars 
 and railways would have the carrying of them. Other things 
 being equal, American furnaces would, no doubt, for several 
 reasons prefer Canadian ores to those imported from Spain 
 of equal quality and at the same price ; but if it can be shown, 
 as it certainly can, that without the duty, richer Canadian 
 ores can be delivered to many American furnaces at far lower 
 prices, a great benefit would be conferred on the iron industry 
 of the United States. And this could be done without inter- 
 fering with domest'c ores, for it would be some time before 
 Canadian ore would more than replace that imported from 
 Europe, and then the increasing consumption would absorb all 
 that we could send them without diminishing the consumption 
 of their own ores. 
 
 CONVENIENT LOCATION OF ONTARIO'S MINES. 
 
 Ontario has large deposits of excellent Bessemer ore so situa- 
 ted that it can be delivered at Buffalo very cheaply. Go down 
 to the Esplanade and walk from the Don to the western boun- 
 dary of Toronto along the railway tracks, and any day you will 
 see hundreds of coal cars which come here from the coal regions 
 of the United States, laden with coal, some of which go east 
 to Belleville, perhaps further, and some north-east to Lindsay, 
 but after unloading their coal they mostly go back empty. 
 Now, when these cars are at Belleville or Lindsay they are not 
 far from our Bessemer iron ores, which they could take back as 
 a return freight, and deliver at furnaces in Pennsylvania, close 
 
 
i 
 
 Canadian Mines and Reciprocity. 6 
 
 to their destination. A large trade would be done in this way 
 if there was no duty ; our iron mines that are now lying idle 
 would be developed, benefiting our back country more than 
 anything else, giving employment to numbers of miners, a good 
 market to the farmers in the neighbourhood, as well as business 
 to the storekeepers. 
 
 COMMERCIAL UNION DISCUSSED. 
 
 This trade would also benefit the United States, for in the 
 consideration of the great question of Commercial Union we 
 should not look at it only from our own standpoint, but should 
 see how it will affect our neighbours. Buffalo is now becoming 
 an important distributing point for iron ores, and will be still 
 more so in the future ; ores are delivered there by vessels from 
 Lake Superior and distributed by rail to furnaces in Pennsylva- 
 nia. Lake Superior ores are taken from the mines to Mar- 
 quette, Ashland, or Two Harbours on Lake Superior, or to 
 Escanaba on Lake Michigan, and then shipped by boat a dis- 
 tance probably of over 1,000 miles to Buffalo, whence they are 
 again transhipped to railways which carry them to the furnaces, 
 thus necessitating three diii'erent handlings, and this route is 
 open only during the season of navigation. But our ore dis- 
 tricts in Central and North-East Ontario are within 250 miles 
 of Buffalo, from whence our ores can be delivered by rail all 
 the year round in returning coal cars, which can be run direct 
 to the mines without going much out of their way, and from 
 thence run through to the furnaces without transhipment and 
 with only one handling. The return freight of ore is so much 
 additional business to the American cars and railway compa- 
 nies, as well as to our own railways, and the furnaces can get 
 cheaper Bessemer ore much closer to them than- Lake Superior. 
 
 THE DUTY THE CHIEF DIFFICULTY. 
 
 I have been endeavoring for some time to find markets for 
 our ore in the United States, but it has been up-hill work, the 
 duty being the chief difficulty. There has also been in the past 
 considerable prejudice against Canadian ore ; for this, I will 
 freely admit there has been some ground. While we have ex- 
 cellent ores, we have also some poor ones containing objection- 
 able matter. Through ignorance partly, and perhaps some- 
 
^r 
 
 6 
 
 Canadian Mines and Reciprocity. 
 
 times through dishonesty, these bad ores have been sent to the 
 other side; there are places through some parts of our mineral 
 districts where the ore contains titanium, the worst enemy to 
 iron ore. These ores should never have been touched, but in 
 some instances they have been sent to American furnaces for 
 trial, only resulting in their condemnation and in giving the 
 furnace men the impression that our ores are titaniferous. 
 
 UNFAIR STATEMKNTS ABOUT OUR MINES. 
 
 Sulphur is also an objectionable element, and some of our 
 mines, as in nearly all iron districts, contain too much sulphur. 
 Injury has been done to our interests by ores too high in sul- 
 phur having been shipped. Some of the United States mine 
 owners have not been slow to circulate the statement that all 
 Canadian ores contain titanium and sulphur, but nothing is 
 more unfair than to condemn a whole country, and especially 
 such a mineral country as Canada, where the ore districts ex- 
 tend for hundreds of miles, because objectionable ore is found 
 in some parts. There is bad ore in almost every iron district. 
 Titaniferous ore is found in Minnesota, on the north shore of 
 Lake Superior, not far from the district where The Minnesota 
 Iron Co. produces the very best Bessemer ore, and similarly, 
 ores too high in phosphorus and sulphur are found in the Mar- 
 quette and Menominee districts, not far from the most cele- 
 brated mines of pure ore. It is most unfair therefore to give 
 our ores a bad name, because in some parts of our vast mineral 
 districts are to be found some objectionable matters. Not only 
 owners of American mines have spread these reports, but some 
 of our own people are much too quick to condemn the products 
 of their own country. People who know nothing about the 
 subject have told me that our ores are not good, but strangely 
 enough these are generally the opponents of Commercial Union, 
 who arrogate to themselves all the loyalty in the country. It 
 is a curious loyalty which refuses to recognize whatever is good 
 among our own productions. 
 
 ANALYSIS OF CANADIAN ORE. 
 
 Wiihin 110 miles of Toronto, close both to the Midland 
 oranch of the Grand Trunk, and also near to the Canadian 
 Pacific railway, are deposits of Bessemer ores of excellent 
 quality. An analysis of ore from a large bed in the Township 
 
-T- 
 
 CaTiadian Mines and Reciprocity. 7 
 
 of Belmont shows sulphur, only a slight trace ; phosphorus, 
 0,002, or one-thirtieth of the permitted limit for phosphorus in 
 Bessemer ore ; metallic iron, 65.36; the chemist remarking on 
 the exceptional purity of this ore. Another analysis of average 
 ore taken from all over this deposit gives metallic iron, 66.29 ; 
 manganese, 0.42; phosphoru*^, 0.024; silica, 3.19; titanium, 
 none ; sulphur, practically none. These analyses were made by 
 chemists of large blast furnaces in the States, and have fully 
 confirmed the first analysis made by Prof, Chapman, of the 
 Toronto School of Science, from surface samples of this ore. 
 The latter remarks : — " This is an exceedingly good ore, not too 
 close in texture, rich in metal, quite free from titanium and 
 practically free from phosphorus and sulphur, while the rock 
 matter would be almost self-fluxing. It is well adapted for 
 final treatment by the Bessemer process." Dr. Chapman's opin- 
 ion has been fully confirmed by practical iron men. Another 
 analysis gives iron, 68.88; silica, 3.18; phosphorus, 0.006; 
 titanium, none ; sulphur, none ; which is about as nearly a per- 
 fectly ideal Bessemer ore as can be conceived. One prominent 
 man in Cleveland writes, " I can sell all the ore of this quality 
 that I can get." Professor Thomas Heys, of this city, who ex- 
 amined this ore bed, makes a similar report regarding the 
 quality of the ore and estimates that there are at least a million 
 tons of ore within a hundred feet of the surface. The Snow- 
 don iron district, 40 miles northeast of Lindsay, contains good 
 Bessemer ore, very free from impurities. Analyses show 62 to 
 63 metallic iron ; phosphorus, trace ; sulphur, 0.02.5 ; titanium, 
 none. In order to be of Bessemer quality, the amount of phos- 
 phorus must be very small, the limit in a 60 per cent ore being 
 0.06. When the analysis shows a trace only, this means less 
 than 0.005 per cent, phosphorus, or less than one-tenth of the 
 allowance for Bessemer ore. These analyses, therefore, show 
 our ore to be more than usually free from impurities even for 
 Bessemer ore. 
 
 ADVANTAGES OF THE IRON INDUSTRY. 
 
 To be convinced of the benefit of working an iron mine, a 
 person should go to the neighbourhood of an active mine and 
 judge for himself. The Blairton mine, in Peterboro* County, 
 at one time employed between 300 and 400 men, at wages from 
 
8 
 
 Oanadiccn Mines and Reciprocity. 
 
 $1 to 1.25 per day, paying out from $1,800 to $2,500 weekly for 
 wages alcie. There was employment for every able-bodied 
 man and boy for miles around. The farmers from surrounding 
 townships found ready sale for produce at prices equal to the 
 Peterboro* market Think of the good this would do to the 
 country ! An iron mine, with a production of 400 tons a day, 
 would steadily employ 400 men ; the labour of these men would 
 be fully equal to that expended upon 100 farms in our back coun- 
 try, and the benefit would be fully as great as the cultivation 
 and production of 100 farms. Within a few months after 
 starting, several of our large ore deposits could give employ- 
 ment to this number of men in each mine. So that if ten 
 good-sized mines were working they would employ 4,000 men, 
 and do as much good to the country as 1,000 well cultivated 
 farms ; but unlike farms, which take several years to clear and 
 cultivate, the mines could be brought to a considerable state of 
 efficiency within a few months.* 
 
 The production of Lake Superior ores last year was about 
 4,000,000 tons, a third of the whole domestic production ot 
 the United States, while only about 70,000 tons of Canadian 
 ore were produced in 1886 and considerably less in 1887. 
 
 The greater part of the Lake Superior ores go to furnaces in 
 Pennsylvania and Chicago, and are of course subject to no. duty ; 
 it is because they have free entry to the whole of the li^nited 
 States that these ores can be profitably produced in such large 
 quantities. If they were subject to a duty of 75 cents per 
 ton, many of their mines could not work. It is the duty that 
 makes all the difference. Our ores are similar to those of Lake 
 Superior, many of them fully equal to the best ; our labour is 
 cheap and shipping facilities good, but there is the duty against 
 us. The manager of one of the Michigan mines, after visiting 
 the Snowdon iron district, writes : " You have good ores and a 
 good country, but the duty is the killing of Canada." But the 
 most remarkable instance of prosperity from access to the larger 
 markets is to be seen in the Southern States. Many timid Can- 
 adians fear that if we have free trade with the States, they 
 
 * Nowhere can be seen greater prosperity on the same scale than in the 
 iilagea which are called into existence by the working of a large mine ; good 
 wages are regularly paid and so much cash distributed through the district 
 where, but for the mine, there would be a barren waste.' 
 
 *•- 
 
\ 
 
 Canadian Mines and Reciprocity. 9 
 
 being so much wealthier and more populous, would wipe us out. 
 Have the Southern States been wiped out by free commercial 
 intercourse with the richer Northern States ? Let us look back 
 and see in what position the South was twenty years ago, after 
 the War ; the whole Southern States appeared to be com- 
 pletely crushed, so mucli so that it seemed doubtful if they 
 could ever revive. If Northern competition is so fatal, surely 
 the stricken South could never have made headway against it. 
 But what do we find in the South to day ? We find a most 
 
 ji^ surprising revival which is phenomenal in the rapidity of its 
 
 development and in the actual progress of the country. This 
 prosperity is owing in a great degree to the deposits of coal and 
 iron in the South, and to the enterprise which has developed 
 them, with the assistance of Northern capital. Northern com- 
 petition has not injured the Southern States, but on the con- 
 trary their free trade with the whole United States is the reason 
 of their prosperity, and has caused their rapid development. 
 Does any one suppose, that if the South was cut off from the 
 trade of the Northern States by a Customs line, it would benefit 
 them ? In that case, would they not still be sunk in depression 
 and despondency 1 Undoubtedly they would, and yet that is 
 just the position in which our restrictionists want to keep us. 
 1 Canadians are not cowards, far from it, but it certainly seems 
 
 i "*** a most cowardly doctrine to suppose that we, the vigorous young 
 
 ^\,,^ Canadian nation, should be crushed out by competition with the 
 
 United States when the crippled South has revived and pros- 
 pered under it. Our iron ores will compare favourably with 
 any in the world ; all we want is a market. What Michigan 
 and the Southern States have done and are doing, we can do, 
 if we are admitted to the market of our own continent on equal 
 terms. 
 
 WHY THE MINES ARE NOT DEVELOPED. 
 
 With many of our iron deposits the duty of 75 cents per ton, 
 simply prevents their being worked ; it makes all the difference 
 between a profit and a loss. It is a question of existence ; to 
 be or not to be. Yet some restrictionists have asked, " Cannot 
 you work your iron mines at a profit and pay the 75 cents per 
 ton duty?" After inspecting the Belmont mine, before re- 
 ferred to, an American expert stated that within a short time 
 
10 
 
 Canadian Mines and Reciprocity, 
 
 after commencing work on it he would be taking out 400 tons 
 of ore a day ; the duty on this would be $300 a day. Perhaps 
 the restrictionists will kindly tell us how they would like an 
 unnecessary tax of $300 a day on any one of their businesses. 
 
 SUMMARY OF THE VIEWS PRESENTED. 
 
 The points that I have endeavoured to prove are that we 
 have first-class ores ; that in many cases the duty of 75 cents 
 per ton prevents these ores being mined ; that the removal of 
 the duty would benefit both Canadians and Americans alike. 
 
 SMELTING FURNACES. 
 
 I have so far only noticed the question of exporting ores 
 to the United States, but there are large quantities of poorer 
 ores which would not pay to export, but which could be very 
 profitably smelted on the spot if we had a market large enough 
 to induce capitalists to put up the necessary works. A blast 
 furnace takes a considerable capital both to erect and run it. 
 There are many suitable points for blast furnaces in our mineral 
 country where ore and charcoal can be had at the lowest cost 
 and where there is every fticility for making iron, the market 
 only being wanting. There are numerous deposits of bog ore 
 or brown hematite containing 35 to 45 per cent, of iron, which 
 are suitable for a local furnace but are of no value otherwise. 
 One ordinary-sized furnace would employ in its own work and 
 in the prejjjaration of charcoal a number of men, and would make 
 a good local market for the farm produce of the surrounding 
 country. 
 
 AN ERRONEOUS IMPRESSION CORRECTED. 
 
 The Canadian market is too small to induce capitalists to put 
 up the expensive works necessary to make iron and steel, but 
 if the whole North America market was open to us there are 
 many points where furnaces would be erected. And here let 
 me correct an erroneous impression with regard to the amount 
 of fuel necessary for smelting iron. It was stated recently in a 
 Kestrictionist paper that it required two tons of coal to smelt 
 one ton of ore. This is not the case, the fact being almost the 
 reverse of this. Mr. John Birkinbine, of Philadelphia, editor 
 of the American Journal of Charcoal Iron Workers^ a very high 
 authority, in a letter to the Iron Age, computes one ton of coke 
 
Canadian Mines and Reciprocity. 
 
 11 
 
 only to make one ton of pig iron. A correspondent of the 
 Buffalo Commercial Advertiser last fall stated that 1,900 lbs. of 
 Pennsylvania coke smelts IJ tons of Lake Superior G6§ per 
 cent, iron ore, which yields one ton of pig iron in the furnace. 
 An account appeared recently in the Iron Age of a run at the 
 Union Steel Works, Chicago, where only about half the weight 
 of fuel was used in smelting a quantity of ore, the proportion 
 being about 1,750 lbs. of fuel to 3,500 lbs. of ore. 
 
 FURNACES SHOULD BE CONVENIENTLY SITUATED. 
 
 This makes a vast difference in considering the favourable lo- 
 cality for a blast furna(fe. If we had free trade with our con- 
 tinent, why should not Toronto be an excellent point for a blast 
 furnace and a good distributing point for its products ] We 
 have the best of ores within 125 miles of us and are much nearer 
 to the fuel than many furnaces in the States. Connellsville coke 
 is carried GOO miles to the Chicago blast furnaces, and still they 
 do an immense and very increasing business. 
 
 A BENEFIT TO THE WHOLE COMMUNITY. 
 
 Although the manufacture of iron and steel benefits a com- 
 munity more than any other, one impressive fact may be stated 
 to show the apathy of Canadians in these matters. Take the 
 C. P. R. east from Toronto, and when you get a little over 100 
 miles down the line you will be in the mineral district and close 
 to deposits of Bessemer ore suitable for making steel rails. 
 This mineral district extends for hundreds of miles, the C. P. R. 
 traversing a great portion of it. Were the steel rails over 
 which you are travelling made from Canadian ore 1 Not at 
 all. These rails were bought in England, probably made 
 from Spanish ore, and in their manufacture did not contribute 
 one dollar's worth of beneOt to any Canadian, although simi- 
 lar ore from which the rails are made lie almost alongside the 
 railway track. Is this loyalty to ourselves to send money out 
 of the country for articles which we can manufacture ourselves, 
 four-fifths of the value of which would be distributed to pay for 
 the labour of our own miners and mechanics ? Instead of doing 
 this, our money has gone to pay Spanish miners and English 
 labourers, who care nothing for us and could not probably point 
 out our country on the map. 
 
12 
 
 Canadian Mines and Reciprocity, 
 
 CONSUMPTIOy OP IROX PYRITES AND OTHER MINERALS. 
 
 The consumption of iron pyrites for making sulphuric acid 
 is rapidly increasing in the United States. In 188G 112,000 
 tons were consumed. The duty of 75c per ton is a heavy tax 
 on this article, as pyrites is only worth about $4.50 per ton in 
 New York, but if there were no duty a large trade would be 
 done, as we have many deposits of pyrites suitable for this pur* 
 pose. Large quantities of copper ore would be shipped to the 
 States were it not for the duty. In the Nipissing and Algoma 
 districts new and important discoveries of copper have lately 
 been made ; but here again the tariff bars the way. The Unittd 
 States duty on lead ore is prohibitory, and there is little en- 
 couragement to develop our galena veins, although, no tloubt, 
 we have abundance of this useful mineral, and the same remark 
 applies to several other minerals, notably to the salt industry, 
 which suffers greatly through restriction. 
 
 Few people are aware of the extent and importance of our 
 mining districts. There are at least sixteen constituencies in 
 Ontario which are emphatically mining districts. Commence at 
 Peterborough and go east through the counties of Hastings, 
 Addington, Frontenac, Kenfrew, Leeds, Grenville, Lanark and 
 Carleton, or commence with Victoria and go north through the 
 districts of Muskoka, Parry Sound and Nipissing, and for hun- 
 dreds of miles through the great district of Algoma you are still in 
 a mining country, while in the Province of Quebec many coun- 
 ties are fully as rich. No country in the world possesses such 
 mineral wealth as Ontario, where so little is done to develop it. 
 
 The mining districts of Michigan and Minnesota are much 
 smaller than ours, yet from those States the market value of iron 
 ore mined in 1887 was about $24,000,000, of which $10,000,- 
 000 was paid in freight and probably as much in labour, while 
 from a larger area of mining territory we in Canada produced 
 hardly anything. 
 
 I am a strong Protectionist, but I do not carry the idea of 
 Protection so far as to advocate a tariff wall between the Pro- 
 vinces of Ontario and Quebec or between the States of Ohio 
 and Pennsylvania. 
 
 If it is profitable for Ohio to trade freely with Pennsylvania or 
 New York, why should it not be just as profitable that Ontario 
 and Quebec should trade freely with those States 1 
 
Canadian Minps and Reciprocity. 
 
 18 
 
 
 Our commercial interests are identical, and the fact of our 
 having different political arrangements should not make trade 
 between us less profitable. 
 
 Now-a days when there is such keen competition in every 
 branch of the iron and steel business, — and whenever there is a 
 period of depression we hear complaints that there is so little 
 margin of profit, — the question of cheap ores becomes of vital 
 importance. 
 
 While every device is resorted to in modern furnaces to 
 cheapen the cost of production, the most important question of 
 cheap ores appears to have been somewhat overlooked. 
 
 Our Canadian Bessemer ores are so favourably situated that 
 they could be delivered to Pittsburgh and many furnaces in 
 Pennsylvania much cheaper than other ores of the same qual- 
 ity if there was no duty. 
 
 Under the present tariff our mines remain undeveloped, while 
 on the other hand the furnaces are anxiously seeking cheap ores. 
 
 If the duty was removed this trade would find its natural 
 channel, to the great benefit of the United States furnaces and 
 of our mines. 
 
 ABSURDITY OF OUR PRESENT TRADE RELATIONS. 
 
 Let any unprejudiced man of common sense, either Ameri- 
 can or Canadian, stand before a map of North America, and, 
 after carefully tracing the boundary line between us, say why 
 the inhabitants of this great continent, who are of the same race, 
 the same language, the same religion, and who have the same in- 
 terests, should interpose hostile tariffs against each other. Did 
 nature ever intend that artificial barriers should be placed 
 where only an imaginary line separates us 1 I would suggest 
 that the Commercial Union Club hang on its walls a map of 
 North America, on which there should be a black line, drawn 
 broad and deep along the boundary line between Canada and 
 the United States, so that the absurdity may clearly appear of 
 trying to keep apart two portions of the same continent which 
 nature intended to be commercially one. Then if you like, run 
 a red line round the outside boundary of both showing the vast- 
 ness of the country we should have to trade in were the barriers 
 thrown down, and on the heading of the map place this motto, 
 which should also be the motto of our Club, " Let us have free 
 trade with our own continent, our natural market ! " 
 
-T3IE- 
 
 COMMERCIAL UNION CLUB 
 
 O^^ TOI^035^TO. 
 
 ©fficcrft of the ®lub» 
 
 GOLDWIN SMITH, D.C.L,, President, 
 
 H. W. DARLING, 
 
 A. H. CAMPBELL, 
 
 S. H. JANES, 
 
 W. H. LOCKHAKT GORDON, i Vice-Presidents. 
 
 CAPT. WM. HALL, 
 
 WILLIAM CLUXTON, ' 
 
 GEORGE KERR, Jr., Secretart/ and Treasurer, 
 
 02 Wellington Street West, Toronto, 
 
 G. Mercer Adam, 
 J. N. Blake, 
 C. W. Buntinff, 
 W. H. P. Clement, 
 H. H. Dewart, 
 W. G. Douglas, 
 E. E. A. Du Vernet, 
 H. P. Dwight, 
 W. D. Gregory, 
 
 M. H. Irish, 
 A. F. Jury, 
 Robert Jatfray, 
 T. D, liedyard, 
 Geo. S. Macdonald, 
 A. MacdougaH, 
 W. D. Matthews, Jr., 
 Hugh Miller, 
 Thos. Muivey, 
 
 Samuel D. Mills, 
 Peter Mclntyre, 
 Wm. McCabe, 
 W. B. McMurrich, 
 James Pearson, 
 G. B. Smith, M.P.P 
 R. C. Steele, 
 W. J. Thomas, 
 Fred. W. Walker. 
 
CONSTITUTION AND l!Y-LA\VS 
 
 OK THE 
 
 Commercial elnion €lub 
 
 oip ^^OT^OIiTTO. 
 
 CONSTIXLJTION. 
 
 1. This Association shall be designated The Commercial I^nion 
 Club op Toronto. 
 
 2. The objects of the Club are to improve the trade relations and 
 develop the industries of Canada by securing unrestricted recipro- 
 city of trade between this country and the United States. 
 
 3. The Club is not connected with any political party ; it invites 
 the co-operation of persons of whatever political party, who are 
 favourable to Commercial Union. 
 
 4. The Club will welcome to its membership, and regard as eligible 
 to its Executive Committee and otticars, any who may be favourable 
 to its object, in whatever part of the Province or Dominion they 
 may reside, 
 
 5. The agencies which the Club employs are public meetings, the 
 diffusion of literature, and co- operation with local associations which 
 may be formed with the same objects in view. 
 
 6. The administration of the Club shall be vested in an Execu- 
 tive Committee [not exceeding forty in number (irrespective of ex- 
 officio members), to be elected by the Club. 
 
 7. The OflScers of the Club shall be a President, Vice-Presidents, 
 Treasurer and Secretary, all of whom shall be members of the Exe- 
 cutive Committee. 
 
 8. The Constitution of the Club may be amended by a two-thirds* 
 vote of the members present, provided that notice of said amend- 
 ment shall have been given by motion at the previous meeting, that 
 a week, at least, shall elapse between the two meetings, and that 
 the proposed amendments shall be set forth in the circular conven- 
 ing the meeting. 
 
 9. Any person may become a member of the Club by assentisg 
 to the Constitution, and paying an annual membership fee of One 
 
16 
 
 Const ihition <tnd Ihj-Laius. 
 
 Dollar, nr any larger sum he may see fit to contribute tu the funds 
 of the Club, the first payment to be made at the tiiue of his admis- 
 •ion. 
 
 10. The Pi'esidents of Local Associations shall be exojficio mem- 
 bers of the Club. 
 
 1. There shall be meetings of the Club on the Lat and 3rd Thurs- 
 days in each month, at 8 p.m. The Club may also be convened at 
 any time at the call of the President and Secretary. 
 
 2. The Executive Committee shall meet at the call of the Presi- 
 dent and Secretary. 
 
 '3. Five members of the Executive Committee shall be a quorum, 
 provided that the President or one of the Vice-Presidents shall be 
 present. 
 
,t 
 
 ^