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Tous les autres exemplaires originaux sont film6s en commengant par la premidre page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par la dernidre page qui comporte une telle empreinte. Un des symboles suivants apparaitra sur la dernidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbole — ^ signifie "A SUIVRE", le symbole V signifie "FIN ". Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre filmds d des taux de reduction diffdrents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour §tre reproduit en un seul clichd, il est filmd d partir de Tangle supdrieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images ndcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. irrata to pelure, n d □ 32X 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 A LETTER ON CAJ^ADIAJ^ AND UJ^ITED STATES LUMBER TARIFFS As affecting the interests of Canada and the United States, Written for the CANADIAN JOURNAL OF COMMERCE By WILLIAM LITTLE, of Montreal. PROPOSED U. S. TARIFF ON LUMBER. To the Editor of the Journal of Commrroe : Sir, Respecting the proposed changes in the United States tariff as regards lumber, you have no doubt observed that the majority of the House Committee of Ways and Means of the U.S. Congress have, in their Bill <' To Reduce the Revenue, and Equal- ize the Duties on Imports and for other Purposes " reported a tariff to practically exclude for a time Canadian pine and spruce lumber, by imposing the rate of $3 per Sf . on spruc^e and $3-50 per M. on pine luinber ; for although these are not the tenns used, yet tliese will be the rates of duty established if their re- commendation be adopted. Knovnng that no duties imposed on imports are so universally reprobated by the American people as those onlumber, now that their forests of white pine and spruce, this side of the Rocky Mountains, have been recklessly destroyed — no less than four bills having been introduced in the last session for putting all forest products on thofree list— it seemed strange that this committee should recommend increasing these duties to nearly double the existing rates. The mystery is, however, solved by the announcep^ent made by the American lumber journals that this change in the tariff was made at the instance of Messrs. Congressmen Bliss of Saginaw, and Wheeler of West Bay City, who nad succeeded in getting a provision inserted, " that sawed lumber imported from any country which imposes an export duty on logs shall pay a duty equivalent to such ex cess in addition to the duty provided by the proposed bill." This was certainly patriotic in Congressmen lumberman Bliss and Wheeler, and the American people will no doubt be iprateful to them for trying to double up the duties on lumber, m order that they and their friends in the Saginaw district who r^ > have run out of timber (which, hitherto, fearing the duty might be removed, they claimed was inexhaustible) may obtain Can- adian sawlogB at a nominal rate to keep their otherwise worth- less saw mills in operation and add still further to their enor mouB wealth. A very pretty little scheme it Ib, and one that might be successful, but for the fact that the people of the United States have yet to be consulted, and that the Canadian people may also have somethiug to say in the matter. That the gentlemen of this Committee have been trifled with, is evident, as the lumber paper states " the Congressmen of the Committee find it hard work to understand why this demand is made as they knov little about the lumber business in a prac- tical way," which remark is obviously correct, as they appear ignorant even of the effect of their own recommendation, for, after having proposed to nearly double the existing rates of duty, they talk of a reduction, and say : "We are satisfied any reduc- tion of the light duties on lumber proposed would tend to dis- courage the proper care of our timber lands, now so generally preserved hy the .judicious cutting of the trees of full growth at such intervals of time as will preserve the timber reserves, etc.'' The reasons here given, if not intended to be ironical, are so incongruous, when applied to the treatment of his timber land by the American lumberman, as to border on the sublime. Who, except the gentlemen of this Committee, ever knew of an American lumberman giving proper or any care whatever to his timber — of his not cutting every tree, from which he could real- ize a cent, down to 6 inches in diameter, aad leaving tho forest when he is thorough with it, looking like the abomination of deso- lation. Even to mention the word forest to the majority of American lumbermen is like flaunting a scarlet rag in the face of a mad bull, and American lumber journals never print the word but with fear and trembling, lest they m'ght seriously offend some of their constituents. Who ever heard of one of them contributing a dollar to the cause of the forests, out of the millions they have amassed from their destruction ? Their contributions don't go in that direction, but are rather employed in deriding any attempt to create an interest in forestry — a subject of such paramount importance to the welfare of both the United States and Canada that it is trifl- ing to mention it in connection with such a petty subject as tim- ber duties. Unfortunately for the cause, it \^, this insignificant duty, of no moment by itself, that estranges those who should, and no doubt otherwise would, be among its most ardent advo- cates. Their forestry work is not now done in the woods, but in Washington. With the fiscal policy of the United States we, of course, have nothing to do j and if the American people choose to im|jose upon themselves a tariff of $1.50 or $3.50 or any other rate on imports ^ISl^S" have upon tports — « — of Canadian lumber it is a matter which conoems thenuelvea, and we will rest content; but to fancy that the Canadian government will change its policy because Messrs. Bliss and Wheeler's friends are short ot sawlogs is too ridiculous for any- thing and therefore the rate will probably be raised to $3 as originally intended, unless the U. S. lumbermen permit some material reduction to be made from existing tanfi rates on lumber. For 20 years up to 1886, the export duty on pine sawlogs remained at $1 per M, whilis the duty exacted on Canadian pine lumber entering the United States was $2 per M, a policy which completely destroyed the Canadian sawmill industry on the Lake Erie shore, and compelled its transfer to Buffalo and Tonawanda, at a time when thousands of American citizens were employed in New Brunswick sawing American sawlogs taken from the Slate of Maine, then to be shipped home free of duty when sawn, all to the prejudice of the Cana- dian lumberman. Our government neither remonstrated nor made any change in the rate of duty ; but at this time rumblings began to be heard from the west; we were to be invaded in the rear, and finally the American lumber Journals announced that a raid was to be made on the Georgian Bay dis- trict of Canada, and that General Alger, Col. Jeffers, Col. Bliss, in fact a small army of superior of&cers, were then organizing with that intent. Our government thus forewarned, and having also learnt from the same reliable sources of the havoc and de- solation which followed wherever these warriors appeared — of the mighty monarchs they had overthrown, of the hundreds of millions they had slaughtered, and of the vast territories they had laid waste — thought it prudent to put a couple of extra rails on its fence, which was then only one rail high or just high enough that they might know there was a fence there. When these gentlemen heard of this, they said " that they didn't mean harm in anyway, that they didn't intend any devastation of our country, but just wanted a few saw logs; that though they had plenty of logs at home, they were a little off color, and they just wanted a few of our good logs for "sweetning," — and pro- mising to be good fellows for the future, our government took one rail down, so that they don't find any difficulty in get- ting over it. Still they are not happy because we don't take down the fence altogether^ and because some of them invested a few dollars in Canadian timber limits (worth ten times any sum paid for them) and our government won't legislate especially for their interest, and because we don't all go into extacies to have these gentlemen, who have devastated their own forests, rush in and destroy ours in like manner, we hear a constant whine about the ungenerous conduct of the Canadians, and the existing condi- tions are misrepresented and distorted. There are, however, ■^ -.4- Amerioan lumbermen of character such as the Hon. S. O. Fisher, of West Bay City, who, holding to some old-fashioned notions of honesty, and probably annoyed at hearing so much of this delu- sive cant, had the fairness to say : " As soon as we undertake auything of that sort (referring to towing over logs to Michigan) up will go the export duty to $3 or |4 a thousand feet. They (the Canadians) would not let us rob them any more than we would not let them rob us." These candid words, however, caused his banishment from the capitol— as to be '' unsound on the sawlog question " is rank treason in the eyes of Michigan lumber men — and his place in the council of the nation is now filled by the Lord High Admiral, who, with our friend the mighty warrior C!olonel Bliss, appear to have defied their warpaint to pursue the peaceful avocation of logrolling in Washington, and are now, as our western friends say, " Working this log racket for all it is worth." " But more true joy the exiled Fisher feels Than Wheeler with a senate at his heels." The Canadian government has always expressed its willing- ness to reduce or entirely remove the sawlog duty, whenever the United States lumbermen permit Congress to reduce or remove the duties from Canadian lumber, even though, at the present moment— when the log and lumber duty are alike — all Saginaw lumbermen (Messrs. Bliss and Wheeler included) know that they have an advantage of more than $2 per M. over the Canadian manufacturer, owing to the cheaper rate at which logs can be towed as compared with freighting the product in vessels — the better condition in which the stock is delivered in market, free from splits, checks and weather stains — and the additional value, delivered without cost, of the rough products for pickets, lath, shingles and fuel for their saltblocks, which the Canadian operator, owing to his iso!::;ted position and the cost of frei/^t, finds in many instances a nuisance. Without taking into consideration the very great advantage of being in a large market, where buyers go to purchase stock which can be supplied at any time by rail or water, instead of having to send forward their lumber at the convenience of vessel owners, and accept such prices as they can get from buyers who at the time of arrival may neither want the lumber nor have any convenient place to receive it, — the writer knows from personal experience that the advantages possessed by those towing logs from Canadian points on Lake Erie to Buffalo and Tonawanda, over th know enough about it to enquire on what grounds the existing duty on lumber, which should have been abolished years ago, should now, for the sole benefit of a few Michigan lumbermen who have speculated in Canadian timber limits, be raised to nearly double the present rates, while ninety-nine out of every hundred Americans outside of Congreds consider, in the interest of the country, these duties ought at once to be removed ; not reduced but absolutely and completely removed ; since whatever duties are imposed on pine and spruce lumber must hereafter be paid by the consumers — the merchantable white pine and spruce timber of the United States, east of the Rocky Mountains, being about gone. Taking, as an illustration, the pine of the State of Michigan ; we find that the 29,000,000,()00 feet, reported by the census of 1880, as standing in the lower peninsula, have dwindled to less than one- tenth that amoimt. The editor of the Chicago Timberman, after investigation, could only discover 3,000,000,- 000 there last year, a portion of which was cut the past winter, so that of good merchantable white pine there is not to-day a supply ia the whole of the State that would satisfy the sawing capacity of the Michigan sawmills for more than six months. There is still some little to be had of gleanings from third or fourth cut burnt-over stump lands, the product from which goes entirely into the different grades of ctdls. This, / < ■^ — « — together with some red pine (Norway) and inferior hemlock may keep the mills running for a short time, but, as is said above, the good merchantable white pine timber is about gone, and the mill owners, not one in ten of whom owns a stick of good white pine standing, find that the tew individuals, who hold what patches of good timber are left, will not dispose of it to them at such a rate as to leave them a profit in converting it into lumber, and being forced to get stock somewhere, are be- coming desperate ; so that while some are going south and west others appear to be retiring gracefully from the field as expedi tiously as the insurance companies can conveniently pay for cremated saw mills ; while others again, like our friends. Bliss and Wheeler, seem inclined to raid Canada for supplies, and although we are always happy to have our American friends amongst us, and are willing that they shall enjoy every privilege possessed by ourselves (outside of voting away our property) we must draw the line there. Assuming, as we have a right to do, that the cenans estimates of 1880 of standing pine timber in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the upper peninsula of Michigan, are as accurate as the pre- sent condition of the forests in lower Michigan has proved them to be, we have from the total of 55,170,000,0{X) feet then stand- ing, to deduct 37,451,342,338 feet, being the amount cut during the past 10 years, according to the admirable comparative statement annually prepared by the Northwestern Lumberman, which leaves only 17,708,657,662 feet remaining, and adding say 2,000,000,000 for lower Michigan, we have a total of 19,718,657,662 feet remaining on hand, as compared with 84,170,000,000, as re- turned by the census 10 years ago. Since the cut last year amounted to 8,305,833,277 feet, there would appear to be just a little over two years supply in the whole North- West. It is not, of course, contended that this is the exact condi- tion, for no doubt timber has been cut in the past few years that was not included in the estimates when they were made, but to offset this there must be taken into account the amount of timber made into shingles, during that time, the same au- thority giving a return of 41,303,373,085 shingles, requiring pro bably equal to 8,000,000,000 feet of timber. So that it becomes evident, that the great white pine forests of the United States have vanished. The spruce forests of the east, which are confined chiefly to the State of New York, and Maine, New Hampshire, and Ver- mount, have now but " a few scattered remnants " of their once great wealth of timber, and bear hardly a relative value to the great white pine forests of the West. The three last mentioned (no estimates having been made by the census of the forests in New York) contained according to the census of 1880, 7,265,- 000,000 feet of spruce timber, with an annual cut of 653,281,000 — 7 — feet, which would amcuat in ten years to 6,5312,8 10,0(K) feet, and leare but 732,190,000 feet on hand, or a little more than one year's supply. The larger portion of it lies on the head waters of the river St. .lohn in the State of Maine— that part of Canada so generously presented by lx>rd Ashburton to the Maine lum berzuen, together with the right of using the St. John river through Canada to get these logs, otherwise valueless, home again, with all the privileges enjoyed by Canadians for bawing them and shipping the product to market. These Maine saw- logs, owned by American citizens, amount to about 100,000,(XK) feet annually, and are sawn into lumber in Canada, but by American citizens only — for they would be "taboo" if a Cana- dian laborer was to saw u board — and are a continuous nuisance to the Canadipn lumberman from the time they enter the country to and after they leave it. But they have free entry into the U. S. markets— equal to an annual bonus of $200,000 to the Maine lumberman atid are the eawlogs, ao frequently referred to and miscalled " free American log exports," by American lumber joumals, when misstating the condition of sawlog exports between the two countries. When Canadian saw- logs, taken from adjoining territory, driven down the bame river through Canada, 8ometim'»8 sawn at the same Canadian sawmill, and shipped on the same Canadian vessels, havoailuty imposed upon their product?, of $2 per M. upon reaching the same market in the United States, how can they be expected to compete with this class of free " American saw logs ''? So that the Cana- dian lumberman is handicapped in the east to the extent of $2 per M. on his spruce lumber, and in the west |2 per M. on his pine lumber, and still the greed of the American lumberman is not sated. We have right to suspect that this whole aflair is a piece of political bunkum, to be used at Ottawa as a lever to get some reduction in the duties on sawlogs, without removing the duty from Canadian lumber, for it is well known that etTorts are now being made in that direction, and that an oflFer has been made of reducing the lumber duty to $1 per M., if the sawlog duty is removed. But such an arrangement would be disastrous, as we have no more timber than we require for our own milling industry, and should oflfer no inducements whatever for getting rid of it. It would be against our interest to agree to remove the sa^vlog duty in exchange for free lumber and logs all round, yet for the sake of getting rid of all diflftculties, and to relieve our American lumber friends from the intolerable worry these duties appear to give them, it might be advisable to consent to such an arrangement, although the matter is purely one for the people of the United States to deal with, and except on their account we should feel no c^>ncern about it. If this Bill was intended to Jncrease the Revenue, one might have some patience under the ^ — 8 — neoeMities of the oane, but even then one has a ri^t to enquire why the whole oommunitv on both udes of the hne should be BAorified to further enrich a few lumbermen, who are already too powerful for their country's good. But since the ostensible object is to reduce it, the solution is quite simple. " Free logs for free lumber," "Only this and nothing more." Our people are beginning to learn that their true interest* lie in conserying their forests, and are not so desirous of sacri- ficing their remaiuing stock of timber as to force it on unwilling purchasers. Nine out of ten Canadian manufacturers would be better o£f if yiey had not cut a stick of pine for the American market in the past five years, as the enhanced value of the timber, if standing to-day, would more than compensate for any profits realized during that time; and now that the United States forests, of white pine and spruce, east of the Mississippi, are so near their end — a fact which the census will clearly establish, unless the lumbermen prevent the investigation — we may soon expect the entire removal of duties from lumber. Consequently Canadians are not the least nervous over the out- look, and if the American people wish to impose upon them- selves the excessive rates of duty proposed, it will be their own loss and not that of the Canadian lumberman. The writer does not wish it to be inferred that he is in favor of escport duties, or of a restrictive policy of any nature in our intercourse with the American people, for he has always advo- cated the freest trade relations between the two countries ; be- lieving, as he does, that the general conditions are so nearly alike, that any advantages possessed by one would be fully counterbalanced by other advantages gained by the other, and that the general result be beneficial to both. But, until we have freer trade, let us have that which is measurably fair, not that which is all crow on one side and all pigeon on the other. William Littlh. Montreal, 2nd May, 1890.