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Commission of Conservation

CANADA

Conservation in 1918

BY

JAMES WHITE, F.R.G.S., M.E.I.C.

Assistant to Chairman, Deputy Head,
Commission of Conservation

Reprinted from the Tenth Annual Report of the
Commission of Conservation

OTTAWA—1919

Commission of Conservation

CANADA

Conservation in 1918

BY
JAMES WHITE, F.R.G.S., M.E.I.C.

Assistant to Chairman, Deputy Head,
Commission of Conservation

Reprinted from the Tenth Annual Report of the
Commission of Conservation

OTTAWA—1919

59875—L

MAY 15 (G78 \}
WO 4

\Gy,.

Constituted under ‘‘The Conservation Act," 8-9 Edward VII, Chap. 27, 1909, and
amending Acts 9-1 Edward VII, Chap. 42, 1910, and 3-4
George V, Chap. 12, 1913.

Chairman:
Str CLIFFORD SriFToN, K.C.M.G.

Members:
Dr. HowarD Murray, Dean, Dalhousie University, Halifax, N.S.

Dr. Ceci C. Jones, M.A., Ph.D., Chancellor, University of New Brunswick,
Fredericton, N.B.

Mr. W1LL1AM B. SNOWBALL, Chatham, N.B.
Hon. Henri S. BELAND, M.D., M.P., St. Joseph-de-Beauce, Que.

Dr. FRANK D. Apams, Dean, Faculty of Applied Science, McGill University,
Montreal, Que.

Mgr. CuarLes P. CnogueTte, M.A., St. Hyacinthe, Que., Professor, Seminary of
St. Hyacinthe, and Member of Faculty, Laval University.

Mr. EpwarD GO8IER, St. Laurent, Que.

Mr. W. F. Tye, Past-president, Engineering Institute of Canada, Montreal, gs
Dr. JAMES W. RosBertson, C.M.G., Ottawa, Ont.

Hon. Senator WILLIAM CAMERON owas Ottawa, Ont.

Mr. CHarLEs A. McCoo, Pembroke, Ont.

Sir EpMuND B. OsLer, M.P., Governor, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont.

Mr. Joun F. MacKay, Toronto, Ont.

Dr. B. E. Fernow, Dean, Faculty of Forestry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont.
Dr. GEorGE Bryce, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Man.

Dr. WiLt1AM J. RUTHERFORD, B.S.A., Dean, Faculty of Agriculture, University of
Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Sask.

Dr. Henry M. Tory, M.A., D.Se., President, University of Alberta, Edmonton,
Alta.

Mr. JoHN PEAsE Bascock, Assistant Commissioner of Fisheries, Victoria, B.C.

Members ex-officio:
Hon. T. A. CrRERAR, Minister of Agriculture, Ottawa.
Hon. ARTHUR MEIGHEN, Minister of the Interior, Ottawa.
Hon. MARTIN BuRRELL, Secretary of State and Minister of Mines, Ottawa.
Hon. AuBINn E. ARSENAULT, Premier, Prince Edward Island.
Hon. ORLANDO T. DANIELS, Attorney-General, Nova Scotia.
Hon. E. A. SmituH, Minister of Lands and Mines, New Brunswick.
Hon. JuLes ALLARD, Minister of Lands and Forests, Quebec.
Hon. G. H. FerGcuson, Minister of Lands, Forests and Mines, Ontario.
Hon. THomas H. Jonnson, Attorney-General, Manitoba.
Hon. CHARLES STEWART, Premier, Minister of Railways and Telephones, Alberta.
Hon. T. D. PAtruLLo, Minister of Lands, British Columbia.

Assistant to Chairman, Deputy Head:
Mr. JAMES WHITE.

Conservation in 1918

BY
JAMEs White, F.R.G.S., M.E.I.C.

Assistant to Chairman, Deputy Head, Commission of Conservation

ENTLEMEN: Before presenting the Annual Review of the
work of the Commission of Conservation during 1918, I

desire to read a letter from Mr. Babcock, our Commissioner
in British Columbia. We had hoped to have a paper by Mr. Bab-
cock with respect to fishery conditions in British Columbia, particu-
larly with reference to salmon. Mr. Babcock says:—

“T am just getting around after an attack of influenza, hence
my failure to reply to your notes. I shall be unable to attend the
Annual Meeting, and I take it it is now too late to supply you with
data as to fishery conditions in this province.”

“I may say that the pack of salmon is the largest on record,
due entirely to the increase from, and the utilization of, the autumn
grades of fish, which have only recently come into demand. The
run to the Fraser was very much the smallest ever known. The river
may be said to be fished out of sockeye, and the run of pink salmon,
which was not used previous to the war, is fast disappearing.’’*

Unfortunately, this is an exact fulfilment of the prediction that
Mr. Babcock made when he addressed us at our last annual meeting.

You will learn with much regret that, owing to ill health, your
confrére, Dr. Fernow, is unable to attend the meeting. He has writ-
ten expressing his regret, and has requested that his letter be read
to the meeting. It is as follows:

3 February, 1919

In answer to your announcement of the meeting of the Commis-
sion, I regret to say that my physical condition will forbid my
attending the meeting.

As I wrote you some months ago, I intended to discuss in a
summary way the difficulties, silvicultural, economic and political,
in developing forestry methods in Canada, and I would have taken
advantage of the opportunity to congratulate the Commission

*The formation of an International Commission consisting of two members each repre-
senting Canada and the United States is provided for in the draft of a proposed treaty between the
two countries, governing the sockeye fishing industry in the Fraser river in the Dominion, and the
lower portion of the strait of Georgia and Juan de Fuca strait, in the state of Washington. The
Commission it is proposed to establish would conduct an inquiry into the life history of the sockeye
salmon hatchery methods, spawning grounds and other matters affecting the industry. The Com-
mission will be empowered to recommend modifications of the existing regulations under the terms
of the draft treaty. The treaty is aimed to prevent the depletion of the sockeye fishing industry.
The limiting of the number of licenses is one of the measures suggested to prevent the extinction of
the sockeye salmon in these waters. It is proposed to limit the licenses to resident Canadians in
British Columbia or to companies licensed to do business in that Province. The same condition
would be imposed in Washington by limiting licenses to American citizens or authorized companies.

59875—1}

4

on the work it has so far done through its Forestry Committee and
through the Chief Forester of the Commission, who deserves unstinted
praise for his active push, persistency and efficiency.

The Commission has to its credit, first of all, the inauguration
of most thorough control over forest fires along railways, which was
brought about through co-operation with the Railway Commission
and with Provincial and Dominion authorities. In this connection,
it has to its credit the publication of some three volumes of discussion
on means of suppressing fires and has successfully stimulated private
endeavour in this direction.

In this connection, also, the Commission has made an extensive
study and demonstration of the result of cutting and subsequent
fires on cut-over lands with regard to reproduction. This study
was made on a 2,000 square mile sample, the Trent watershed,
and a similar investigation has been made in British Columbia,
showing that our optimistic anticipations of natural replacement
of the valuable timber without human assistance are largely doomed
to disappointment.

The Commission was very properly engaged early in ascertaining
the status of our forest resources and has completed and published
exhaustive forest surveys of two provinces, Nova Scotia and British
Columbia, and has surveyed part of a third, Saskatchewan. It has
been also instrumental in bringing about, encouraging and aiding
stock-taking in a fourth province, New Brunswick.

These are all legitimate and praiseworthy activities of the
Commission, whose functions are largely educative. But I would
have particularly applauded the latest development of the Commis-
sion’s forestry work, namely, the establishment of permanent sample
plots to study in detail the results in reproduction and growth and
different treatment and logging of our pulpwoods. This work has
been conducted by Dr. Howe, in co-operation with several paper
companies. The readiness with which this co-operation (financial
and otherwise) was secured is proof of the practical value of this
investigation. Indeed, this is the first systematic attempt to lay
a basis for silvicultural practice, without which the forester is helpless,
and the Commission is the best agency for securing this fundamental
knowledge, as could be readily argued.

That this work of the Commission is done largely in co-operation
with the staff and students of the Faculty of Forestry of Toronto
University is, of course, specially gratifying to me.

There is one more important political direction in which the
Commission, in my opinion, should exert itself, namely, the transfer
of the forest resources of the Middle Provinces to those provinces.
Such transfer would undoubtedly lead to the exploitation of these
resources. Forestry is provision for the future, and such provision
means present curtailment of revenue or present outlay for the sake
of future revenue. Will and can the provinces afford such a financial
policy?

Wishing you a successful meeting,
Sincerely yours,

B. E. FERNOW

5

Sir Clifford Since our last annual meeting, Sir Clifford Sifton has
Sifton’s _ resigned his position as Chairman of the Commission.
Resignation

Pending the appointment of his successor, the Acting
Chairman, Hon. Senator Edwards, has instructed me to prepare an
annual statement of the operations of the Commission along much
the same lines as Sir Clifford has done in the past.

First, I desire to refer to the great loss the Commission has
suffered by reason of Sir Clifford Sifton’s resignation. His untiring
energy, his broad outlook, his ability to grasp the factors of a
problem and arrive at its solution, and his master mind were well
summed up by Augustus Bridle in his Sons of Canada, when he
said that Sir Clifford is “‘ the greatest constructive statesman that
Canada has yet produced.”’

When we commenced our operations we were without any pre-

cedent to guide us, inasmuch as we were a unique organization. No
other body, governmental or private, had ever undertaken conserva-
tion work on a large or comprehensive scale. Theorganic Act estab-
lishing the Commission, draughted by Sir Clifford, provided
for the appointment of representatives of the Dominion Government,
of the Government of each province, and of at least one university
in each province. At the same time, it also provided for the appoint-
ment of representatives from each province and representatives who
were interested in our great natural resources.
Biicieticy und In commencing the work of organization, Sir
Economy of Clifford laid down some basic rules, which are
Operanon worthy of record. First, he gave _ instructions
that all materials, printing, binding, etc., were to be purchased
in the cheapest market, irrespective of politics, religion, nationality,
or other consideration. Second, that the staff should consist of a
limited staff of experts, so selected that, in a general way, we would
have one expert adviser respecting each of the great natural resources,
and that these advisers should, so far as possible, be assisted by clever
members of the weaker sex. Third, that when special investigations
which could be carried to completion in a limited space of time were
undertaken, special investigators would be employed only until the
investigation was completed, such action permitting the payment of
ample remuneration without, in the aggregate, incurring excessive
total cost. Fourth, he suggested that the work of the Commission
could be carried on with the maximum of advantage if the work
were apportioned to committees, one for each great natural resource
and one on publication.

As a result, the Commission can fairly claim that its achieve-
ments are out of all proportion greater than its expenditure. An

6

enormous mass of data has been collected, and much of it has been
incorporated in published reports. These publications have made
this information available to the public in such enduring form that
they will be standard works of reference for many years, particularly
as our efforts have been steadily directed to the production of
exhaustive reports rather than pamphlets of a superficial or transitory
nature.*
q Owing to our limited financial resources, we were,
ae from the very beginning, forced to adopt the plan
of temporarily spending more money upon one or two
investigations than upon any others. Thus, for a time, we expended a
maximum upon agriculture, particularly upon our illustration farms.

*The Atlantic Monthly for March, 1919, pp. 381-391, contains an article by
Mr. Arthur D. Little, intituled ‘ Developing the Estate.’ Mr. Little is the head
of the firm of Arthur D. Little Company, and has devoted special attention to the
subject of conservation. His firm has been employed by the Canadian Pacific
Serica to report on the possibilities of development in the territory traversed by
their lines.

In his article, Mr. Little refers only to the United States. He reviews con-
ditions created by the war, the best means of utilizing their natural resources, and
the betterment of conditions. He discusses methods of increasing agricultural
crops, drainage of swamps, irrigation, prevention of destruction of the forests,
better roads, increased use of water-power, more efficient utilization of coal and
many similar problems.

It is highly gratifying to find that Mr. Little, after a survey of these problems,
and after a comprehensive study of conditions in Canada, recommends for the United
States the establishment of an Economic Commission, Though Mr. Little dubs it
an ‘Economic’ Commission, its constitution and functions make it almost a replica
of our Conservation Commission.

The testimony of this skilled investigator is so lucid and compelling, that the
recommendations are quoted below. Mr. Little says:

“No Congressional Committee, no academic council, no ephemeral organ-
ization can cope with the stupendous problem. The mutually entangled
intricacies of its component elements can be gradually reduced to order and
woven into the majestic tapestry of an adequate general plan, only, it would
seem, by a permanent commission, as detached from partisan politics as the
Supreme Court, comprising in its membership the best executive, economic,
and technical brains in the country, and planning and operating over long years.
This commission should stand in close relationship to the Chief Executive and
to the Congress, its members being appointed by the President, subject to
confirmation by the Senate. It should be compact, with no more than fifteen
members, including the Secretaries of Agriculture, Labour, Commerce, and the
Interior, through whom the chiefs of the scientific bureaus of the government
would be brought into its deliberations. Above all, its members must be
drawn chiefly from the great constructive and productive agencies of the
country, and must be truly representative of the aspirations and interests of
our citizenship. Whether its individual components are members of House
or Senate, Republicans or Democrats, should, in this relationship, be of interest
only to their biographers.

“Such an Economic Commission would evolve from many economic
studies and proposals for specific betterments co-ordinated plans which would
bind together in a close articulation the attainable benefits of each. In the
exercise of an intrinsic function, it would submit to Congress recommendations
for the required legislation, and apprise the country of the need and reason
for its demands. To it should be assigned ultimate responsibility to Congress,
through the President, for the execution of its duly authorized proposals.”’

7

Having demonstrated the great value of such farms as forcible
educative agents, we transferred the farms to the Federal Dept. of
Agriculture. Through the results obtained, we thus demonstrated to
the farmers of the neighbourhood that one of themselves was obtaining
these results without any assistance other than the advice of our experts
and at no greater cost than their own farming operations. It was a
demonstration that, by following our advice, our illustration farmer
could obtain an increased yield, and that practically the whole of the
increase was profit.

At another period, we expended a maximum upon water-power
investigations, and we may fairly claim that, throughout Canada, we
excited interest in this great resource. We published a general work
on the Water-Powers of Canada in 1911, followed by the Water-
Powers of the Prairie Provinces in 1918, and the Water-Powers of
British Columbia will be issued this year.

For a time we devoted special attention to Town Planning and
Housing, and we now see the partial fruition of our efforts in the
appropriation of $25,000,000 for housing.

War Conditions ©Onditions created by the war have directed atten-
Emphasize tion to the necessity of adopting measures of con-
poe servation. It is not too much to say that the subject
of conservation is uppermost in the minds of the thinking men of
the world. The United States has been called the ‘ most wasteful
nation in the world,’ but a survey of conditions in Canada, and the
high cost of living indicate that Canada is pre-eminent in that respect
—a pre-eminence of which we have no reason to be proud. It is
axiomatic that the nation which can produce at lowest cost is the
nation that will obtain the trade of the world. Hitherto, Great
Britain has been the greatest exporting nation, and Germany’s
failure to oust Britain by a thoroughly unsound system of bounties,
special freight rates, subsidies, and special privileges which eventu-
ally became an almost unbearable domestic burden, was one of the
principal causes of the war.

We are now endeavouring to re-adjust ourselves to

ses Pag post-war conditions, but it must be borne in mind
Resources that, if we burden ourselves with extravagant and

wasteful methods of developing or of utilizing our

natural resources, if we destroy our created resources by fire, if we

lock up our floating capital in unremunerative works, we are fatally

handicapping ourselves in the great race for world trade or for any
considerable portion of it.

Since our last meeting, the great world war has practically

ended. Our Commissioner, Hon. Dr. Béland, has at last been released

8

by the Germans. We had hoped to have an opportunity to give
Dr. Béland a warm welcome, and to express our deep sympathy
with him for the hardships and injustice that he has suffered from
the Germans since our meeting in January, 1914. The Acting Chair-
man, Hon. Senator Edwards, endeavoured to have Dr. Béland address
you, but an engagement to give an address in the United States,
made several months ago, prevented his accepting.

I regret to have to record that in October last, Miss Norma
Johnston, my private secretary, succumbed to influenza. As a result
of overwork in the autumn of 1917, while picking fruit on a farm
in Dundas county, Ont., her resistant powers were so reduced that
she was unable to combat the disease. Able, full of zeal for her work,
and a charming personality, she gave her life as a result of patriotic-
ally trying to ‘do her bit.’

MILITARY SERVICE OF STAFF

Before dealing with the general work of the Commission, I
desire to record the military service of the staff during the war.

Pte. P. M. Baldwin, Canadian Army Medical Corps—Mr.
Baldwin is Assistant Editor. He twice endeavoured to enlist in
combatant corps but was rejected on account of defective eyesight.
Determined to do his bit, he enlisted as stretcher-bearer in the
Canadian Army Medical Corps in 1916. Later, he was transferred
to the 1st Canadian Field Ambulance Corps. After considerable
service in France, he obtained a transfer to the 1st Battalion, Cana-
dian Engineers, and is now in Germany.

Pte. James Carroll, 199th Battalion, Duchess of Connaught Irish
Rangers—Mr. Carroll was a messenger. He was reported missing
August 15th, 1917, and has since been reported ‘ officially dead.’
It is believed that he was either blown to pieces or was buried by a
shell.

Bom. Allan Donnell, 46th Queen’s Battery—Mr. Donnell is also
Assistant Editor. He was badly wounded by a gas shell at the battle
of Vimy Ridge. He was invalided to Ottawa, and on Dec. 31st,
1917, discharged as unfit for further service in the army.

Capt. G. H. Ferguson, M.C., Canadian Engineers—Capt.
Ferguson is one of our engineers. Commissioned Nov. 1st, 1914,
in the Canadian Hydrological Corps, with the rank of captain, he
reverted to the rank of lieutenant to go overseas with the Canadian
Engineers. He was promoted for duty in France and was decorated
with the Military Cross. He was continuously on duty in the for-
ward area until the end of June, 1918, when his leg was broken. Due

9

to continuous exposure, he suffered from complications. He returned
to Canada for a rest, and was convalescing when the armistice was
signed.

Col. C. A. Hodgetts, M.D—Col. Hodgetts is our Medical
Adviser. He went overseas in October, 1914, as Commissioner of
the Canadian Red Cross. It is sufficient to say that the Canadian
hospitals were better equipped, both as regards staff and material
equipment, than any other. Col. Hodgetts resigned his position as
Red Cross Commissioner in April, 1918. From that date till December
last he acted as Deputy Commissioner of the Medical Staff of the
Ministry of National Services, serving three months as Assistant to
the Commissioner in Ireland. He returned to Canada Dec. 25th,
1918.

Lieut. E. Carruthers Little, 3rd Canadian Ammunition Corps—
Lieut. Little was one of the engineers engaged on our civic survey of
Ottawa. He enlisted in Sept., 1916, and, later, was given a com-
mission. For his services he has been awarded the Belgian Cross
and has been mentioned in despatches. Lieut. Little advanced to
the Rhine with the Canadian Forces, and is now in Belgium.

Pte. Oliver Master—Mr. Master is Assistant Secretary. After
rejection by the infantry and artillery on account of defective eyesight,
he enlisted as a private in the Queen’s Ambulance Corps and went
overseas. Subsequent to his arrival in England, he obtained a trans-
fer to the infantry. In August, 1918, Mr. Master’s platoon was on
outpost duty and was surrounded by the Germans in a counter
attack. Only three men, including Mr. Master, were able to fight
their way back. Later, he was recommended for a commission and
was taking his officer’s training course when the armistice was signed.
You will regret to hear that he is now in Canterbury hospital,
England, suffering from the after-effects of injury to his knee from
a spent machine-gun bullet.

Pte. Frederick N. McKay, late 77th Battalion—Mr. McKay
is a messenger. He went overseas, but was invalided back to Canada
and discharged as unfit for further service in the army.

Frederick Corp, one of our messengers, and a married man, en-
deavoured to enlist, but was rejected by the combatant branches of
the service and, later, by the non-combatant branches.

HOUSING

Mr. Thomas Adams will address you on ‘Housing in Canada,’
and I will only refer briefly to the subject. The Dominion Govern-
ment has appropriated $25,000,000 for housing, to be expended

10

under the direction of the Housing Committee of the Cabinet, and,
on December 12, Mr. Adams was appointed to assist the committee
in carrying out this very important work.

In Great Britain, it has been found that the shortage of houses
exceeds 300,000, and the Government is going “ full steam ahead with
building,” to quote Dr. Addison, President of the Local Government
Board.

A general scheme for the Dominion, drawn up by the Housing
Committee, has been approved by the Provincial Governments and is
now being used as the basis of legislation for each province. This
scheme has received general approval both in Canada and in the

United States.

The Order in Council authorizing the loan of $25,000,000 pro-
vides: (a) Upon request, the Minister of Finance may make loans
to the Government of any province of Canada; (0) the maximum
amount loaned to any one province shall be the proportion of the
$25,000,000 which the population of said province bears to the
population of Canada; (c) maximum period of loan shall be 20
years, the provinces being permitted to repay whole or part of the
principal at an earlier date if they so desire; (d) interest shall be
charged at 5 per cent, payable half-yearly upon advances from the
dates thereof, respectively; (e) bonds, debentures or other forms of
security, if approved by the Minister of Finance, may be accepted
as evidencing the indebtedness of any Provincial Government; (f)
advances shall be made from the War Appropriation; (g) advances
may be made as soon as a general scheme of housing shall have been
agreed upon between the Dominion Government and the Government
of the province applying for a loan.

Loans will be granted to Provincial Governments on the following
four conditions:

1. Each province shall submit to the Federal Government,
for approval, a general housing scheme, setting out the standards
and conditions to be complied with in connection with local hous-
ing schemes.

2. As the object is to facilitate the erection of dwellings, at a
moderate cost, for workingmen, particularly returned soldiers, the
following maxima have been fixed:

(a) Detached or semi-detached dwellings, with walls constructed
wholly or partly of frame, stucco on frame, brick veneer,
inclusive of the capital value of the site and necessary local
improvements: with 4 or 5 rooms, exclusive of bath-
room and summer kitchen, $3,000. With 6 or 7 rooms,
exclusive of bathroom and summer kitchen, $3,500.

(b) Detached, semi-detached, groups of three or more or duplex
(cottage flat) dwellings, with walls of brick, hollow-tile,
stone or concrete, and roofing of fire-proof materials,
inclusive of the capital value of the site and necessary
local improvements: with 4 or 5 rooms, exclusive of

11

bathroom and summer kitchen, $4,000. With 6 or 7
rooms, exclusive of bathroom and summer kitchen,
$4,500.

3. Public money may be advanced for building houses on sites
owned by (a) The Provincial Government or municipality, (0)
housing societies or companies, comprising groups of citizens assoc-
iated to promote good housing, dividends payable by such societies
or companies being limited to 6 per cent, (c) or owners of lots for the
purpose of erecting houses for their own occupancy.

4. The Federal loan will be repayable by the province over a
period of 20 years, provided that it may be extended to 30 years in
respect of any portion of the loan which the Provincial Government
may decide to re-lend for thirty years for such purposes as purchasing
land or erecting buildings of a more durable class. Repayments by
the provinces on account of federal loans may be made quarterly,
if so desired, or otherwise as may be agreed upon.*

The Halifax disaster occurred shortly after our Ninth Annual
Meeting. Our Town Planning Adviser, Mr. Thomas Adams was
requested to visit the city and prepare a report respecting the recon-
struction and planning of the devastated area. The schemes recom-
mended by him were adopted by the Relief Commission and by the
City Council of Halifax. The latest information, however, indicates
that the plans are not being carried out in their entirety. The first
steps in connection with the preparation of a scheme for the whole
city have been taken, but it is regrettable that the Relief Commission
has no expert adviser.

The St. John town-planning scheme has reached the final stage
but still awaits the approval of the City Council and of the Provin-
cial Government. The results obtained are not, however, com-
pletely satisfactory, as no accurate topographical map of the area
was available, and the city was unable to find the money for the
surveys. We are endeavouring to induce one of the Federal Depart-
ments to undertake the work of making such surveys of the vicinity
of the principal cities of Canada.

The Province of Prince Edward Island has passed into law the
Town-Planning Act draughted by the Commission. When the De-
velopment Board, authorized by this Act, is appointed, Mr. Adams
will co-operate with them in the formulation of a town-planning
scheme for the new town of Port Borden.

At the request of Hon. Mr. Taschereau, Minister of Public
Works for Quebec, Mr. Adams is preparing a draft Town-Planning
Act for that province. If passed, British Columbia will be then
the only province without such legislation.

Mr. Adams has supervised the town-planning of the town of
Kipawa, Que., for the Kipawa Fibre Co. The present plan provides

*For further details respecting the loan for housing, see Appendix V.

12

for a population of 2,000 to 3,000, and provision will be made for the
anticipated growth. Sewers and water mains are being laid in the
sections in which the first buildings are being erected. Thus, the devel-
opment will proceed evenly and gradually, the conveniences and
utilities being constructed to serve built-up sections instead of the
usual method, namely, providing for a mixture of buildings and
vacant lots.

A Department of Municipal Affairs has been created in Quebec
and doubtless will effectively co-ordinate the work of the munici-
palities.

We are urging that Montreal build a model village, erecting,
say, 50 types of houses, thus illustrating in the most forcible and
practical way the best ideas in housing and town-planning.

An amended Planning and Development Act has been passed
in Ontario which, while an advance on previous Acts, does not go
as far as is desirable. We are urging that this act be further ex-
tended and widened.

Plans of Hawkesbury Garden Village, Ojibway and Hamilton
have been submitted to Mr. Adams for approval and comment. He
has also been yunsulted respecting town-planning and housing at
Renfrew, Oshawa, Belleville, London, Chatham, Windsor, etc.

The Ontario Government has appropriated $2,000,000 for
housing, to be loaned to municipalities, and a strong committee has
been appointed to prepare a report on housing.

During the war, the Manitoba Government has not taken action
under its Town-Planning Act, but there are promising indications
that the province will appoint a director of housing and town plan-
ning. If such official be appointed we may confidently anticipate
effective work.

Conferences have been had with the officials of Calgary and
Edmonton respecting the threat that certain subdivisions would be
taken out of those cities. Every endeavour is being made to assist
them to decrease their financial difficulties. To quote Mr. Adams:

“The idea is that the land will be planned in such a way that the
money now being wasted on local improvements will be saved in
the future by carrying out such improvements as will be required
to deal with the growth of the population and not with the extraordin-
ary pictures conceived by real estate owners with vivid imagina-
tions.”

PUBLIC HEALTH

As Colonel Hodgetts will address you on the general subject
of Public Health, particularly with reference to advances made
during the last five years, a brief reference will suffice.

13

With so much of evil resulting from the war, it is a
satisfaction to find some good results from it. The
Lancet states that, in Great Britain, functional
nervous diseases among the civil population practically disappeared.
In Vienna, it was found that all degrees of diabetes were favourably
influenced; in males almost without exception and in females,
frequently but not universally. Whereas not one of 39 slight diabetics
before the war could be regarded as cured, 33 out of 39 became
sugar-free under war conditions.

The Lancet does not speculate why these good effects were

produced. The starvation method of treating diabetes: may throw
some light on the matter, but it is also not improbable that the great
mental and nervous strain involved in the concentratiow of the mind
on outside circumstances may have reacted favourably upon the
whole economy.
Work of On the other hand, many nervous affections, that
British Medical it is customary to call ‘shell shock,’ have affected
Research Council (11, soldiers. As a result of the work of the British
Medical Research Committee, it is now possible to take a wider
and a more hopeful view of the nervous diseases of the war.
Incidentally, mental disease generally has passed from the region
of mere expectancy to a reasonable anticipation of beneficial results
under proper treatment. Here, again, the war has left a legacy
of benefit.

Benefits to Health
due to War

The London Times points out that, during the last
four years, a new medicine, which fundamentally
alters the whole attitude to disease, has arisen. A
few years ago disease was supposed to be either acute or chronic,
infectious or non-infectious, curable or incurable. The patient was
said to have dyspepsia or lumbago or Bright’s disease or any other
disease.

In so stating it, the doctor was, as a rule, only saying that a
certain organ had broken down and had become the seat of ‘fibrous
change,’ just as the feet become the seat of fibrous change when
corns grow on them. In that conception, the fibrous change consti-
tuted the whole disease and was not, as we now know, one of the
results of the disease. Doctors thought of the heart or liver or lungs
when they should have been thinking of great bodily changes due to
assaults upon the whole organism.

Bacteriology has demonstrated that infection with
‘certain germs will result in certain fibrous changes
which we call disease. Though it had been recognized
that such diseases as tuberculosis and syphilis were of bacterial

New Medical
Diagnosis

Advances in
Bacteriology

14

origin, till recently, the old conceptions respecting many affections,
such as heart disease, still prevailed.

The war revealed young men with all the symptoms and signs of
heart disease, kidney disease, etc., but the fibrous change was absent.
The majority of these men recovered, though suffering from what
we had hitherto called ‘incurable’ diseases.

. Dysentery, trench fever, scarlet fever and other
Germs the Basis ;
of much Disease diseases were found to be followed by heart and other
organic troubles, which showed that these diseases
were due to the invasion of the body by germs. It became evident,
therefore, that the so-called fibrous changes, are, in reality, signs of
Nature’s struggles against disease.

The new medicine does not shake its head over heart murmurs;
it seeks the infection, whether in the teeth or throat or alimentary
tract or elsewhere, and attempts to eradicate it. ‘‘The shining
truth, that, if we can prevent or stay infection, we can probably
prevent all the effects of infection—that is to say, the bulk of
disease—has not yet been seen by all. When it is seen, it will no
longer be necessary to conduct an Al Empire on a C3 population.’’*

Chronic Disease The new medicine has demonstrated that the public
Due to Teeth should concentrate their attention on one disease
almost above all others, namely, decay of the teeth. This disease
lowers the health of the child and predisposes it to tuberculosis
and disease generally. It is estimated that at least 20 per cent of
all chronic disease in Great Britain is due to the teeth.

The president of the Dental Association of New Zealand, in urging
the establishment of dental bursaries, stated that 95 per cent of the
school children of New Zealand had dental caries. He said that, if
cows were similarly affected, they would not be tolerated for one
month.

Dr. Sim Wallace, the dental surgeon, states that the chief cause
of dental disease is the “‘adhesive and easily fermentable nature of
the modern diet; also meals between meals, and especially the bread-
and-milk at bed-time. The last named leaves a poultice over the
crevices of, and between, the teeth during the night;’’ nascent lactic
acid forms, attacks the enamel and starts the disease.

*London Times, Jan. 6, 1919.

15
INFLUENZA

382 From a health standpoint, the most important
Deadlier than Z - - :
War occurrence during 1918 was the world-wide epidemic

of influenza and pneumonia. Had the same death rate
prevailed during the four-and-a-half-year period commencing July,
1914, it would have caused the deaths of 108,000,000 persons, or five
times deadlier than the war. The medical correspondent of the
London Times says that ‘‘never since the ‘ Black death’ has such a
plague swept over the world, illustrating, as never before, the need of
a new survey of health measures.”

It has been stated in the press that game in northern Saskatche-
wan is being ‘decimated’ by influenza, that moose are dying from it.
On the other hand, scientists have found it impossible to transfer
the disease to any of a long list of animals; monkeys alone showed a
toxic effect, but true influenza did not develop. These investigators
assert that the disease which attacks animals is what is commonly
known as epizootic, which, a quarter of a century ago, attacked horses,
and thus seriously affected transportation in Canada and the United
States.

GOITRE

als: Alarmed by statements respecting the prevalence of
Investigation : he - :
Undertaken goitre in Alberta and British Columbia, and its bane-
ful effects, the residents of these provinces requested
the Commission to investigate this question. Enquiry among some
of the best authorities indicated that there was no foundation for the
‘scare,’ and we were naturally averse to the expenditure of money and
time on an investigation which did not promise commensurate results.
Eventually, as we were requested by the Provincial Board of Health
of Alberta and, as the alarm, instead of decreasing, seemed to be
increasing, we agreed to investigate it. It would obviously have been
improper to request that the enquiry be undertaken by any one who
had taken part directly, or indirectly, in the discussion of the occur-
rence of goitre in Alberta. We, therefore, requested Dr. Shepherd, of
Montreal, Emeritus Professor and late Dean of the Faculty of Medi-
cine, McGill University, and one of the highest authorities in North
America, to undertake the investigation. Dr. Shepherd agreed to do
so, visited Alberta, and calmed the apprehensions of the people
respecting the prevalence and the effects of the common form of goitre.
Later, Dr. Shepherd contributed a pamphlet on Goitre, which is now
in the press and will be issued at an early date. It is proper, also
to acknowledge the indebtedness of the Commission and of the people

16

of Canada to Dr. Shepherd for his valuable services, which have been
rendered without remuneration, other than his travelling expenses,
and were rendered when his time was fully occupied with his work on

the Hospitals Commission.
FORESTS

At the present time we are expending more money upon the
investigation of our forests than upon any other resource. Bearing
in mind the important part that timber will play in the work of
reconstruction, it is peculiarly fitting that we plan to maintain and
to increase its economic importance.

The importance of forests in the war is well known,
Forests and : bye
the War but, only since the armistice, have we known that

cutting in France had reached such a stage that
continuance of the war would have necessitated commencing opera-
tions in mountainous regions, heretofore considered inaccessible. In
Great Britain the end of the reserves of firs and pines, the trees in
greatest demand for military requirements, was in sight. To repair
the cutting during the war the British Government has appointed
an authority with power to make arrangements for developing
afforestation in the United Kingdom. This authority has power to
obtain seed, raise nursery stocks, train foresters, make surveys, and
initiate schemes of afforestation and replanting and to expend up
to $500,000 for these purposes.

The operations of our Canadian Forestry corps in
Canadian ve.

Forestry Corps Great Britain and France are reported to have saved

ocean tonnage sufficient to carry food for 15,000,000
people. In addition, these men will return to Canada with a new
viewpoint. The destruction of the forest by fire will no longer be
regarded as unimportant. They will return with a tremendously
increased realization of the importance of our forests.

Statesmen and business men have repeatedly emphasized the
part that the further development of our natural resources must
play in reconstruction after the war. Any such programme must
take full account of the forest. Such increased development will
assist materially in providing against unemployment, through the
building up of new forest industries, in addition to the 5,000 wood-
using industries already in existence. It will be a large factor in
stabilizing economic conditions generally.

Sivcict rade A large export trade is particularly essential to
in Timber Canada, to redress her unfavourable trade balance.

In this direction, our forests hold a position of peculiar
strategic importance, both actual and potential. In British Columbia,
for example, it has been shown that the annual lumber cut can be

17

increased five-fold, under good management, without impairing the
forest capital stock. This means an enormous export trade,to which
the shortage of shipping is still the greatest obstacle.

The present and potential value of Canada’s export lumber
trade is indicated by the order recently placed by Great Britain for
lumber from Canada, aggregating around $40,000,000 in value. It
has been estimated that reconstruction in France and Belgium will
require 25,000,000,000 feet.

Ped Bane Mr FJ. Campbell, President, Canadian Pulp and
Industry Paper Association, estimates the value of the output

of Canadian pulp and paper mills during 1918 at
$110,000,000 to $115,000,000, as compared with about $85,000,000
in 1917. During the half-year ending September 30, 1918, Canada
exported pulp and paper to the value of $40,636,919, as compared
with $31,074,168 during the corresponding period of 1917 and
$20,040,745 in the same half-year of 1916. If our exports were
maintained at the same rate during the second half of the fiscal year
they would aggregate about $80,000,000, or, allowing for a decrease
since the armistice, say $70,000,000. During the six months ending
September 30, 1918, we exported 980,652 cords of pulpwood, valued
at $9,327,901, or at the rate of $18,750,000 per annum.

In 1917, the output of the 3,000 timber and woodpulp plants
in Canada aggregated 4,142,711,000 feet. The total cut of spruce
was 1,466,558,000 feet; white pine, 791,609,000; Douglas fir,
706,996,000, and hemlock, 332,722,000.

One-fourth of the newsprint used in the United States comes

from Canada, and fifteen per cent of the pulpwood consumed in
that country is the product of Canadian forests.
Forests must be AS repeatedly stated by Dr. Fernow and Mr. Leavitt,
Recognized as transmuting the wealth-producing possibilities of our
a ean forests into permanent actualities requires the gen-
eral acceptance of the fundamental principle that the forest is a crop
rather than a mine, and that cutting operations on non-agricultural
lands must be conducted always with a view to the perpetuation of
the forest as such.

The practice of silviculture is still in its veriest infancy in
Canada, as it is over most of North America. There is still far too
strong a tendency toward the practice of forestry anywhere except
in the woods. At the same time, it must always be realized that
forestry is essentially a business proposition, and that business con-
siderations place definite limitations upon what it is feasible to do
in the direction of intensive methods.

59875—2

18

On the other hand, the forest lands of Canada are predominantly
Crown lands, and are, therefore, for the most part, the property of
the people of the country. It follows that the public interest, from
a long-time viewpoint, should govern in determining the conditions
under which exploitation should take place. With the present incre ased
stumpage values many things in the direction of better management
are now becoming economically feasible which would have been out
of the question in years past.

Notwithstanding war conditions, remarkable progress toward
better forest conservation has been made during the past year.
Mention of these developments may serve to accentuate the respects
in which action is still most urgently required.

Nova SCOTIA

Pace A conference, under the auspices of the Canadian
Forester Forestry Association, was held at Halifax in Decem-
Required

ber last. The necessity of appointing a Provincial
Forester was emphasized by the severe fire losses in Nova Scotia in
1918. This appointment was authorized in 1913, and it is hoped
that, by a co-operative arrangement with the Agriculturai College
at Truro, and a small contribution by the lumber interests, it will
be made. Improvements in the administration of the fire laws were
suggested. ;

As nearly all the forest lands in the province are in private
ownership, it is highly desirable that an educative compaign be
carried on, urging forest fire prevention. In addition to this campaign,
the Provincial Forester, by co-operating with the Dominion Railway
Commission, could render very valuable assistance in preventing
fires along railway lines in the province.

NEw BRUNSWICK

The most important development has been the enactment
of legislation respecting forestry and forest fires. The Provincial
Forester is now charged with forest protection, forest surveys, land
classification, enforcement of cutting regulations, scaling timber
and enforcement of fish and game laws, thus giving him more compre-
hensive powers than any other forestry official in Canada.

The adoption of the merit system of appointment
Advancement ‘ os 2 Ee,
in Forest Service tO the Forest Service, under civil service restrictions,
ensures the high degree of efficiency that the Com-
mission of Conservation has steadily advocated since its inception.

The timber sales policy with reference to limited areas of timber

has been adopted. This system is also in operation in British

19

Columbia for timber areas of limited extent and for all areas in
Dominion forest reserves. The 400 square miles disposed of on the
timber sales basis last year yielded from $5.50 to $7.75 per M.,
as compared with an average of less than $3 for spruce, under the old
system.

In 1918, forest surveys and land classification of
— ee iad 465,000 acres were completed; the total area thus
Gieeeficatian examined to date is 1,665,000 acres, or 22-2 per

cent of the Crown lands. The cost last year was

slightly over 3 cents per acre.

QUEBEC

The field of operations of the Provincial Forest Service has
been much increased by the addition of the administration of fire
protection, including the railway fire protection work.

It is gratifying to note that approximately 80 per

Work of cent of the licensed timber lands of Quebec is
Fire Protection S :
Associations protected by the St. Maurice Valley, Ottawa River,

Laurentian and Southern St. Lawrence Forest
Protective Associations. The efficiency of their work has steadily
increased, through improved personnel, education of the local
public, increased use of modern equipment, and improved means of
transportation.

Legislation to compel fire patrol on unprotected licensed lands
is contemplated. Lack of adequate patrol on lands within association
territory but not held by members of an association, constitutes
a danger to surrounding territory.

The Provincial Forest Service has established a fire-ranging
system in the Abitibi district, along the Transcontinental railway,
west of Parent, and north of the territory of the Ottawa River Asso-
ciation. In this area, 18,500 acres of settlers’ slashings were burned
under permit, with no loss of green timber.

ONTARIO

During 1918, a maximum number of 1,044 fire rangers were
employed. They were directed by 32 district chiefs, assisted by
41 deputy chiefs. There are four inspection districts, with head-
quarters at Cochrane, Nipigon, Sudbury and Parry Sound, under
the general supervision of the general superintendent of fire protection
at Sudbury, the whole organization being directed by Mr. Zavitz,
Provincial Forester, Toronto.

59875—24

20

Of the 30,172 acres burned during 1918, 60-5 per cent was

logged-over land, containing hazardous slash, indicating the urgency
of the disposal of logging slash.
For settlers’ clearing fires, principally, 9,590 permits
were issued during 1918—an increase of 175 per
cent over 1917. The fire-fighting equipment was
materially strengthened, and 304 miles of trail was constructed.
One-fourth of the forest revenue from the Crown lands of the
province—$500,000—was appropriated for the work of the Forest
Branch.

A Civil Service Commissioner has been appointed in Ontario.
As, however, his authority only extends to employees receiving
$1,000 per annum and upwards, he has no control over fire-rangers
who are employed for the summer only. As the regulations in effect
in New Brunswick, British Columbia and in the Federal Forest
Service include fire rangers, it is hoped that the Ontario law will be
amended to cover such employees.

To perpetuate the forest through wise use, super-
Supervision over vision over cutting operations on all Crown lands
Cutting auhene

should be placed under the Provincial Forestry
Branch. Similar action has been taken in New Brunswick,
Quebec, British Columbia and in the Dominion forest reserves,
exclusive of licensed lands. In the United States the Forest Service
is in full charge of cutting operations on 160,000,000 acres of National
forests. Leaving technical work of this nature in non-technical
hands means, simply, that the forests are administered for im-
mediate revenue only, and that their perpetuation receives little,
if any, consideration.

Settlers’ Permits
for Burning

DOMINION LANDS

an The most important development has been the
pete abolition of the patronage system. Both field and
office staffs of the Dominion Forestry Branch are
now under the merit system of appointment, and governed by
Civil Service regulations. This very important reform has been
steadily advocated by the Commission of Conservation for years
past, and nothing but increased efficiency and economy can result
from it.
Improved forest fire legislation is now in effect
i ecdiatien a in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. It is hoped that
quires Revision Alberta will also revise its legislation to make it
more applicable to the northern portion of the
province. The introduction of the permit system of regulating
settlers’ clearing fires is necessary to prevent serious damage to

21

the forests. Revision of the Prairie Fires Ordinance along lines
advocated by this Commission is also anticipated.

Representations have been made to the Government of Alberta*
respecting its provincially-chartered railways, aggregating some 350
miles, which are not under the jurisdiction of the Dominion Railway
Commission, nor is there adequate provincial legislation respecting
railway fire prevention and protection.

We have again to deplore the anomaly whereby the Dominion
Forestry Branch, with its staff of trained foresters, has no control
over cutting of timber on licensed lands in the forest reserves.

*Since the annual meeting, the Legislative Assembly of Alberta has taken
action along the lines suggested. By the Statute Law Amendment Act (Bill No.
63 of 1919), effective May 17, 1919, Alberta has, partly as a result of representa-
tions made by the Commission of Conservation since the date of the annual meeting,
taken partial action with respect to the recommendations submitted by the Com-
mittee on Forests. Section 17 of said Act (amending the Railway Act) authorizes
the Board of Public Utility Commissioners of Alberta to make regulations with
respect to the use of fire-protective appliances on locomotives on provincially-
chartered railways. Section 19 (amending the Prairie Fires Ordinance) authorizes
the Chief Fire and Game Guardian of the province to make regulations with regard
to fireguards and the use thereof by railway companies, and as to the patrol of any
line of railway and neighbouring land. Action with respect to the permit system
of regulating settlers’ clearing fires still remains for the future.

The portions of Bill No. 63 of 1919, above referred to, are as follows:—

“An Act to amend The Factories Act, The Liquor Act, The Soldiers’ Home Tax
Exemption Act, and certain other Acts and Ordinances.”’
(Assented to April 17th, 1919.)

17. THe Rarway Act, being chapter 8 of the Statutes of Alberta, 1907, is
amended as follows:

3. Section 2: By adding thereto the following new clause:
“23. ‘ Board’ shall mean the Board of Public Utility Commissioners.”

7. Section 192: By adding to subsection 4 thereof the following;

“The Board may make regulations with respect to the use on any engine
of nettings, screens, grates, and other devices which may be deemed by the
Board necessary and most suitable to prevent, as far as possible, fires from
being started, or occurring upon, along, or near the right of way of any railway
subject to the provisions of this Act.”

19. THE PRAIRIE FIRES ORDINANCE, being chapter 87 of the Consolidated
Ordinances of the Territories, 1898, is hereby amended by adding as section lla
the following :—

“11a. The Chief Fire and Game Guardian may make regulations with
regard to fireguards and the use thereof by railway companies, and as to the
patrol of any line of railway and neighbouring land. Such regulations shall,
unless the Lieutenant Governor in Council shall otherwise direct, conform, as
nearly as the circumstances of the case permit, to the regulations issued by the
Railway Board of Canada with respect to the same subject matter.”

22

BRITISH COLUMBIA

Wood Products The timber-testing laboratory, recommended by us
Laboratory f Z
Established in 1916 and 1917, has been established under a
co-operative arrangement between the Dominion
Forestry Branch, the Imperial Munitions Board, and the University
of British Columbia. Attention has been devoted to war work,
principally timber for aeroplane manufacture. It is understood that
future work will be supplementary to that of the Forest Products
Laboratories at Montreal, particular attention being given to local
problems of wood utilization.

Last spring a forest-ranger course for returned soldiers was
inaugurated at Vancouver. This winter an extended course will be
given.

The Provincial Forest Branch secured a hydroplane for patrol
work in the Coast district, but, unfortunately, it was wrecked before
it was available for use in the field. The branch is using light auto-
mobiles and gasolene launches in patrol work, with excellent results.

AIRCRAFT FOR FORESTRY WoRK

The tremendous development of aircraft during the war, and the
impending disbandment of our very efficient air force, has directed
attention to the possible uses of air machines in times of peace.

Among other suggested uses are forest-fire patrol and photo-
graphy. It is anticipated that during the coming season, hydroplane
fire patrols will be established by the British Columbia Forest Branch,
by the St. Maurice,* and, possibly, by other forest protective asso-
ciations.

Aerial For aerial photography the maximum of result could
Photography probably be obtained in connection with work in
for Survey Work Sele: ;

our northern territories, where the canoe constitutes
practically the only means of transportation. Airmen, in conjunction
with a surveying party, operating along canoe-routes, could obtain
valuable information respecting the country on both side of the routes
traversed by the surveyors, particularly as such areas are often prac-
tically inaccessible by land except at a disproportionate cost of time,
money, and energy.

If such aerial work is to be carried out, the services of our dis-
banded airmen should be procured, and the value of such work deter-
mined by experiment. If not carried out on too large a scale, the cost
would not be excessive.

*The Toronto Globe, April 30, 1919, states that the St. Maurice Association “has made
on it ne whereby two hydroplanes will start on the task of patrol work of their forests by
une Ist.

23

RAILWAY FIRE PROTECTION

National Railway Though the Canadian Northern system has been
System under : s ;
Railway absorbed by the Canadian Government railways, its
Commission lines are still subject to the Railway Commission.
It is understood that, during next session of Parliament, legislation
will be had which will place the Transcontinental, Intercolonial and
Prince Edward Island railways under that Commission.* Such action
would increase the railway mileage under the jurisdiction of the
Railway Commission from 85 per cent, as at present, to 96 per cent.
Notwithstanding conditions created by the war, fire losses due to
railway agencies have remained satisfactorily low, with some local
exceptions.

As it is a reform the Commission has steadily advocated since
its very inception, members of the Commission will be pleased to
hear that this legislation is at last to be had.

WHITE PINE BLISTER RUST

This disease has a firm foothold in Ontario south of lake
Nipissing, and, in Quebec, it has been found on the currant and goose-
berry. Controlling the disease involves the eradication of wild and
cultivated currants and gooseberries in and near the region to be
protected.

ae To protect the white pine of British Columbia, an
Protection in : : Alone
British Columbia Order in council should be passed prohibiting the
transportation of currant or gooseberry plants or
other Ribes from infected districts into the Prairie Provinces or
British Columbia. Such shipments from the Eastern States to the
Western States have been embargoed by the United States Govern-
ment, and similar action by Canada is necessary, particularly as the
effect on the nursery business is negligible.
Pavcus The very serious injury to our forests from fungous
Diseases and other diseases urgently demands the appointment
of a forest pathologist to study such diseases in co-
operation with the Division of Forest Insects of the Dominion Ento-
mological Branch. Investigation has shown that logging slash con-
stitutes a breeding ground for destructive insects and. fungi, and that
the losses due to such insects and fungi are very much greater than
the losses by fire.

*Since the foregoing was written, Bill 70, ‘‘An Act to incorporate Canadian National
Railway Company and respecting Canadian National Railways"’, has been assented to. Section l4
of Bill 70 provides that:

“Notwithstanding anything in the Government Railways Act or any other Act, the provisions
of the Railway Act respecting the operation of a railway (as distinguished from the provisions of such
Act respecting the construction or maintenance of a railway) shall apply to such of the Canadian
Government Railways as would but for the passing of this Act be subject to the Government Railways
Act, during such time as the operation and management thereof is entrusted to the Company under
the provisions of this Act."

24

In this connection also we desire to acknowledge our indebtedness
for the assistance we have received through the able co-operation
ef Dr. C. Gordon Hewitt, Dominion Entomologist, and of Mr. J.M.
Swaine, Chief, Division of Forest Insects, Entomological Branch.

FOREST PLANTING

The large areas of non-agricultural lands that have been com-

pletely denuded of forests by unwise methods of cutting, or by fire,
can only be restored to productivity, in a reasonable length of time,
by planting.
Forest Planting 1 Quebec, the Laurentide Company and the Riordon
by Pulp Pulp and Paper Company have realized that Nature,
warty a WE if unaided, makes very slow progress toward restoring
the pulpwood species on cut-over lands. To date, the Laurentide
Company has planted 680,000 trees, mostly spruce, on 453 acres.
The company expects to plant 500,000 in 1919, 700,000 in 1920,
and 1,000,000 in 1921. The Riordon Company has planted 780
acres to spruce and pine. From 1920, the company expects to plant
1,000,000 spruce and 100,000 white and red pine per annum.

In 1918, the Quebec Government nursery at Berthierville supplied
2,000,000 trees to private land-owners, mostly farmers and pulp
companies. The capacity of this nursery is to be increased to
5,000,000 trees per annum.

REPORTS AND FIELD WORK

The report on the Forest Resources of British Columbia, by Dr.
Whitford and Mr. Craig, is now in the hands of the binder, and will be
ready for distribution at an early date. Like all other publications,
it has been much delayed by the labour shortage caused by the war.

The report on the Forest Resources of Saskatchewan has been
delayed by the illness of the author, Mr. J. C. Blumer. Though
Mr. Blumer has not been restored to complete health, he is making such
progress that we hope to receive the final instalments of manuscript
at an early date.
eaten The survey of the forest resources of Ontario has
Ontario Forests been suspended, owing to the transfer of Mr. Craig

to the Ministry of Munitions, to take charge of the
inspection of aeroplane spruce lumber in British Columbia. Mr. Craig °
will return to the Commission at an early date, and will take up the
collection and correlation of data respecting the forests of Ontario.

25
ForREST RESEARCH

As this question is to be discussed by Dr. Howe, my reference
to this investigation will be brief. Our research work in co-operation
with the Laurentide and Riordon companies, and with the Dominion
Entomological Branch, has been continued under the direction of
Dr. C. D. Howe.
eae Dr. Howe is making a careful study of the reproduc-
Valley tion and growth of the pulpwood species in the St.

Maurice valley, Quebec. As he finds that present
methods of cutting in Eastern Canada are destructive and that there
is no adequate provision for the future, he is endeavouring to ascertain
what modifications of cutting methods are necessary to secure adequate
reproduction and growth. Unless checked, the increasing predom-
inance of the hardwood in the mixed forests will, eventually, eliminate
the spruce and balsam as commercial species. Apparently, logging
the hardwoods as well as the conifers is the only solution of the
problem.

Dr. Howe’s investigations show that, under the cover of hard-
woods, the average 4-inch balsam in the St. Maurice valley is 55
years old, the average 8-inch tree is 70 years old, and it was 80 years
old at 10 inches in diameter, breast high. At 4 inches in diameter, the
average red spruce was found to be 80 years old; at 8 inches, 120
years old, and at 12 inches, 165 years old.

The crucial point is Dr. Howe’s statement that our
Lessons from :
Growth Studies growth studies, so far as they have been made,

indicate that, with the exception of the white birch-
balsam type, the trees of the smaller diameter classes grow so slowly
that they cannot be depended upon to reach commercial size during
a period within which the lumberman can afford to hold his limits.
More data must, of course, be obtained before we can say that this
conclusion has been carried to a demonstration.

It is not too much to say that this investigation of our pulpwood
resources—which we trust will determine the measures necessary to
ensure their perpetuation—is one of the most important questions
now in progress by the Commission or any other governmental
organisation, and we can congratulate ourselves upon being the
pioneers in this matter, inasmuch as we initiated it early in 1917.

Work of The value of our investigations has been recognized
Commission by the Pulp and Paper Association, as well as by
Endorsed

financial contributions from the Laurentide and Rior-
don companies. The Abitibi Power and Pulp Co. has also discussed
the possibility of a similar co-operative arrangement respecting inves-

26

tigation of conditions on its limits, and it is not improbable that
this work will also be undertaken. As the tree species on the Abitibi
Company’s limits differ materially from those on the Laurentide and
Riordon areas, such investigation would yield results of much value
with reference to that type of forest.*

That means that we shall be able to extend our investigations
into that portion of Ontario lying to the north of the height-of-land.

AEROPLANE LUMBER PRODUCTION

Prior to the entry of the United States into the war, large amounts
of Sitka spruce for aeroplane manufacture were purchased from
United States brokers, nearly all of which was obtained from the
forests of Washington and Oregon. In 1917, the requirements of the
aeroplane factories of the United States reduced the spruce avail-
able for export to an amount that jeopardized the air programme
of the Allies, and the Imperial Munitions Board in Canada was
requested to secure 24,000,000 feet of aeroplane lumber.

Su ties the In connection with our report on the Forest Resources
Sitka Spruce of British Columbia, we had procured data which

showed that there was, in that province, 14,165,345,000
board feet of Sitka spruce, of which approximately 34 per cent was
in the Queen Charlotte islands and 31 per cent on the Northern
Mainland coast. Most of this information was based upon confi-
dential data but, by loaning our Forest Engineer, Mr. R. W. Craig,
to the Munitions Board, these data were made available without
breach of confidence.f |

Owing to the rigid specifications, particularly as regards straight-
grained wood, only a small percentage of the lumber which could
be used for ordinary purposes was suitable for aircraft. In addition,
practically all the available timber had been alienated, the owners
were not prepared to operate their limits and the saw-mill capacity
in northern British Columbia—the area which contained 65 per cent
of the Sitka spruce—was inadequate.

*Since the above was written, the following telegram has been received from
the Abitibi Pulp and Paper Company:

“It is our intention to begin a reforestry programme this year along the lines
discussed with you here and desire co-operation of your department.”

tUnder date March 20, 1919, Brig. Gen. W. E. Edwards, Director of Inspec-
tion, Imperial Ministry of Munitions, wrote that, owing to the termination of the
war, Mr. Craig would shortly be able to return to the Commission. Gen. Edwards
added:

“T desire to express my obligation to your Commission for the loan of Mr.
Craig’s services. He has filled a difficult position, in which his expert knowledge
has been invaluable, with great credit”’

27

Cutting rights were granted by order in council, mills that had
been closed were re-opened, new mills were erected, and tugs, gasolene
launches, scows and barges were chartered to transport the lumber.

; The production of spruce increased from 116,000

eae board feet in January, 1918, to 6,850,000 feet in

December; the production of Douglas fir increased

from 209,000 feet in January to 1,382,000 feet in December.

Total production in 1918: Spruce, 26,124,000 feet; fir, 9,224,000
feet.

Owing to the shortage of spruce, Douglas fir was used for
wing-beam stock. It was selected from commercial stock at the
mills, the recovery averaging only two per cent.

Best Timber The supply of Sitka spruce for aeroplane manufacture
from the is so limited that it is estimated that cutting, on a
Old Trees

war basis, for another year, would have practically
exhausted all the wood that is procurable at a reasonable expendi-
ture of money and effort. Obviously, steps should be taken to
conserve the remaining supplies of this material. Cutting it for
pulp or commercial lumber should be prohibited. Only the large
trees contain the clear, fine-grained lumber required. Most of the
aeroplane material was obtained from trees 500 to 800 years old,
and such trees cannot be replaced for centuries, if ever.

LANDS

Our work in connection with the Committee on Lands has
included: (1) The continuation of the illustration work in Dundas
county, and (2) general publicity work.

ILLUSTRATION COUNTY WorRK

During 1918, the work on the 16 farms in Dundas county,
where better farming methods are being practised, included the
following:

1. System and methods of farming, embracing planning, crop
rotation, seed and variety selection, tests of different thicknesses
of clover seeding, tillage, live stock and manure.

2. Labour, machinery and equipment.

3. Business methods—selling, buying, co-operation.

4. Educational work—schools, clubs, school fairs.

At our First Annual Meeting the late Mr. C. C. James
said that the solution of the problem of better agricul-
ture was not the taking of the farmer to the experi-
mental farm but the taking of the experimental farm to the farmer.
The latter was the policy adopted by us in initiating illustration

Going to the
Farmer

28

farms in each province. Later, we transferred these farms to the
Dominion Department of Agriculture, that they might be extended
and carried on on a much larger scale than our limited financial
resources would permit. :

In Dundas county—which was selected as being
a typical area, and easily accessible from Ottawa—
we have 16 illustration farms in the four townships
which constitute the county. We can now see the results of
work done on our advice, such as the effect of adding lime to the
land prior to growing clover, results from thick seeding and from
thin seeding of clover seed, from the use of certain varieties of seed,
particularly of barley, oats, potatoes and corn. For instance, we
demonstrated that seeding with potatoes grown in Northern Ontario
or New Brunswick increased the yield by from 15 to 100 per cent
as compared with potatoes grown from southern Ontario seed.

Our Agriculturist, Mr. F. C. Nunnick, has held numerous
meetings on our illustration farms in Dundas county, all of which
have been well attended. The large numbers of farmers at these
meetings, and the imterest shown by the questions and discussions,
demonstrate, if demonstration were needed, the great value of our
work in this area.

Unfortunately, the excessively wet weather experienced in
Eastern Ontario last autumn prevented the harvesting of many
fields of corn and potatoes, the crops rotting in the ground.

Advice respecting greater use of agricultural
ait Ar machinery and of labour-saving devices has resulted
in much greater use of these highly efficient aids to
agriculture. During the year a Farmer’s Account Book was pub-’
lished. It is exceedingly simple and has been in great demand,
particularly in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Other farmers’
account books have been published from time to time, but have
failed because they were too complicated to secure adoption by the
average farmer.

Our Agriculturist has given addresses at numerous points
throughout Canada. At the fair at Winchester, Dundas county,
the Commission had a tent containing an educational exhibit of crops
grown on the illustration farms and an automatic projector showing
results obtained by improved agricultural practice.

Results already
Apparent

29
WATERS AND WATER-POWERS

During the year the shortage of electric energy for power pur-
poses in southwestern Ontario continued to affect production. It
curtailed natural growth; a number of new enterprises which desired
to obtain power were unable to do so, and municipalities receiving
energy from the Niagara system of the Hydro-«tectric Power Com-
mission were required to reduce their consumpiiwa by from 15 to 30
per cent of their maximum demands in December, #917. Though the
cessation of the manufacture of munitions will release some 30,000 to
40,000 h.p., this power will be absorbed by the municipalities and by
power-users whose demands have been curtailed.

Miia Bases All the water at Niagara Falls allotted to Canada
Developments and the United States under the Boundary Waters
Treaty—56,000 cub. ft. per sec.—has now been
apportioned to the various development companies. Certain inter-
ests are now urging that the treaty be amended to permit the diver-
sion of a larger quantity of water, one proposal being that each
country be permitted to divert 60,000 cubic feet, or 120,000 cubic
feet in all.
SENATOR EpWARDs: How much power would that be altogether?
Mr. Waite: It depends very much upon the head under which
it is utilized: at the present time, 56,000 second-feet is developing
about 650,000 horse-power; 120,000 cubic feet per second would
yield about 1,400,000 horse-power, if only the head at the falls were
utilized. If it were developed on the same plan as the Chippawa, and
operated under a head of 305 feet, the proposed total diversion of
120,000 second-feet would yield approximately 3,600,000 h.p. Of
course, these are calculations that I am making off-hand. However,
it is not necessary to divert any more water to double the power
output at Niagara Falls, because, if adequate power is not obtained
by means of the present diversion, it can practically be doubled by
utilizing the water in the same way as the Ontario Hydro-Electric in
their Chippawa-Queenston development, namely, by using the
descent in the rapids above and below the falls as well as the fall in
the cataract itself.
Hydio-Wlectric The Chippawa-Queenston development of the Hydro-
Wrtenmian Electric, referred to above, will consist of 6 units of
50,000 h.p. each, or 300,000 h.p. in all, operating
under a net effective head of 305 feet. In other words, the output of
the Chippawa plant will be equivalent to 80 per cent of the present
output of all the plants on the United States side of Niagara Falls.
It will use 10,000 cubic feet per second, conveyed through 44 miles of

30

canalized river and 83% miles of excavated canal. The estimated cost
is $25,000,000, and it is hoped that it will be completed in 1921.

On the United States side of the river the Hydraulic Power and

Manufacturing Co., Niagara Falls Power Co., and the Cliff Distribut-
ing Co. have been consolidated. The consolidated company has a
present capacity of 370,000 h.p., and an extension, to be completed
this year, will contain three units of 33,000 h.p. each, an additional
capacity of 100,000 h.p.
Big Eddy The most important water conservation work now
Conservation under construction in Ontario is the International
Dam Nickel Co.’s Big Eddy conservation dam on the
Spanish river, in Algoma district. This dam will raise the level
of the river 100 feet, and will create a lake with an area of 15
square miles. Combined with the storage in the upper third of the
Spanish River watershed, it will increase the minimum flow to over
1,800 cubic feet per second, or almost three times the natural low-
water flow, namely, 675 cubic feet per second. It will also create a
power site, where 15,000 h.p. can be continuously developed.

The engineer who designed this work, Mr. Henry Holgate,
states that:

‘‘When this work is complete, the waters of the Spanish river
above the township of Hyman will be conserved to their full extent,
and this will be one of the most complete systems of water conserva-
tion in Canada.

“Conserving water, and regulating flow on our streams, is one
of the most important subjects we have before us, and merits the
co-operation and assistance of the Government, as it should be a
cardinal principle in power development that the full efficiency
of the water in the watershed be made use of, and this cannot be
done unless carefully considered systems of storage are provided,

so as to equalize the flow as nearly as possible throughout all seasons
of the year.”’

St. LAWRENCE RIVER

Pivate Last year, the St. Lawrence River Power Co., a sub-
Development in sidiary of the Aluminum Company of America,
the St. Lawrence Constructed extensive works in the bed of the St.
Lawrence river, although such action was in defiance of the terms oi
the Ashburton Treaty. This action was taken under permit from the
United States War Department, but without obtaining the necessary
consent from the Government of Canada. Subsequently, the com-
pany applied to the International Joint Commission for authority
to erect—as an essential part of these structures—a submerged weir
in the South Sault channel of the St. Lawrence, a short distance
below the works above referred to, and asked for immediate con-
sideration of the application as a ‘ war measure.’

31

The St. Lawrence Power Co. contended that, during
Anchor Ice the winter of 1917-18, ice difficulties in the canal lead-
Reduces Output. if

ing to its plant at Massena, N.Y., had reduced the
output of aluminium by 7,000,000 Ibs.; that there was urgent need
of this metal for war purposes, and that the United States Gov-
ernment was pressing them to increase their production. At the
same time, the cross-examination elicited the information that the
construction of this dam would increase the available power at
their Massena plant from its present maximum of 73,000 h.p. to
200,000 h.p. As the company estimated the cost of the dam and
appurtenant works at only $350,000, this application, if granted,
would be an enormously valuable concession.

Hon. Hugh Guthrie,* Solicitor General, opposed the application
on behalf of Canada. He demonstrated that, under the terms of
Article VII of the Ashburton Treaty, which provides that all channels
on both sides of Croil, Long Sault, and Barnhart islands shall be
kept ‘‘ equally free and open,” the International Joint Commission
had no jurisdiction unless and until the consent of the Government
of Canada had been obtained. The Commission of Conservation,
Canadian shipping interests, and other organizations urged most
strongly that no proprietorial rights whatsoever be granted to the
applicant company, but that all works placed in the St. Lawrence
be constructed by Canada and the United States jointly. This
action was in conformity with the policy adopted by the Commission
of Conservation frcm its inception, namely, steady opposition to the
granting of control of the St. Lawrence to private interests.

Eventually, the International Joint Commission

ai ae gave decision,{ stating that, although they were un-
Consents certain respecting the question of their jurisdiction

as affected by the Ashburton Treaty, they were granting the right
to erect and maintain the dam for the duration of the war or tor
five years, whichever term should be longer.

For all practical purposes, the Aluminum Company of America
was the applicant for this highly valuable privilege, and, therefore, a
brief reference to this corporation may be of interest. This companyt
absolutely controls the manufacture of all aluminium** in North

__ *Hon. Mr. Guthrie’s address is such a complete and convincing statement on behalf of Canada’s

rights and claims that it has been printed in Appendix III. Seep. 65.

{The Decision is printed as Appendix IV, p. 81.

tThe Mineral Industry during 1917, pp. 12-13, states that, commencing with a capitalization
of $1,000,000 in 1889, it now has an authorized capitalization of $20,000,000, on which it paid a
dividend of 10 per cent in 1916; that “the company has invested about $70,000,000 of undivided
profits in its business; its present investment in plant is about $80,000,000. The market value
of its $20,000,000 stock is probably $150,000,000.""

**For further data respecting aluminium, see Appendix I, p. 51.

32

America. According to the statement of its president at Montreal in
August last, the company’s plants have the following capacities :—

Wiirigries Bas Ns. icp iy es Re ole ee ee 99 mt 35,000,000 Ibs.
joie ag pl (neg I CR ES ANS Sra ween oe 25,000,000 “
ETON SDE EO ree aed ae eee eS hy ney *20,000,000 “
PARSON AARNE te orate inet oh ieee leat 58,000,000 “
Total capacity of United States plants...... +138,000,000 *“
Shwumigan Pas OHS... 5. sce seve same e $20,000,000 “

Total capacity, Canada and United States.. 158,000,000 “

A table published in the New York Electrical World states that,
in April, 1914, there were 54 transmission systems in the world
operating at and above 70,000 volts. Of the 27 systems in the
United States, only 5 were using aluminium conductors, as compared
with 22 using copper. In Canada, 4 systems were using aluminium
and 1 using copper. Our report on Electric Generation in Canada
shows that the aluminium transmission lines of 10,000 volts and over, in
Canada, aggregate 13,000 wire-miles, as compared with 8,000 wire-
miles of copper.

; During 1918, the New York and Ontario Power Co.
Dam in z ; : ste
St. Lawrence applied to the International Joint Commission for

authority to erect a dam in the Little channel of the
St. Lawrence river, near Waddington, N.Y., and to make improve-
ments which would increase the present flow through said channel.
This application is still pending.

These and numerous other problems, such as the increased
diversion of water at Chicago, national saving of fuel by restrictions
and economies, saving of power and light in factories, the elimination *
of uneconomical plants and processes, standardization, the growth of
co-ordination of power production have been under consideration
during the past year and will be covered by the address of our Con-
sulting Engineer, Mr. Arthur V. White.

ro 2 ae The subject of water-power development is receiving
Steam Turbines much attention at the present time, particularly in

the United States, where 76 per cent of the total
power is generated by steam prime movers. Steam also generates
72-5 per cent of the power in electric generating stations. Data for
Canada respecting folal power generated are not available, but our

*Mineral Industry, p, 12. states that the plant at Badin ‘‘was largely increased in June, 1917
and has run at full capacity ever since. Its capacity has been stated to be 65,000 k.w., capable of
furnishing 23,000 [metric] tons [50,600,000 Ibs.] of metal annually.”

i tMineral Industry, p. 13, estimates the production in the United States in 1917 at 200,000,000
8.

tAccording to Mineral Industry, p. 14, the Canadian exports of aluminium in ingots and bars
were ‘'22,324,600 lbs., valued at $7,620,953, or 34-1 cts. perlb. The production was greater than
this by.... about 3,500,000 Ibs.,"" making the production at Shawinigan about 26,000,000 Ibs.
which is equal to 11,800 metric tons.

33

recent investigations show that, in the Dominion, only 13-7 per cent
of the power in central electric stations is generated by steam. That
steam has been able to hold its own in the United States, in spite of
the high efficiency of water-power, is largely due to the extraordinary
success of steam turbines.

On the other hand, owing to war conditions, the price of labour
has increased enormously. As pointed out by Mr. Julian C. Smith,
Vice President and Chief Engineer, Shawinigan Water and Power Co.,
‘“‘the effect on the cost of power from existing steam plants, as com-
pared with existing water-powers, has been to practically double the
cost of power from steam plants and to only slightly change the cost
of power from the water-power plant previously built.’’*

Mr. Smith also states that the capital cost of a water-power plant
is twice that of a steam plant and that, if this cost is high because of
high labour costs, the water-power plant is ‘“‘handicapped forever’’.
He concludes that, for many years, steam plants will beof primary
importance and water-power plants of secondary importance, but
excludes from this dictum the great powers of Niagara and the St.
Lawrence which have great inherent and special advantages.

Messrs. Gilbert and Pogue, Division of Mineral Technology, Uni-
ted States National Museum, point out that ‘‘ when a ton of material

passes through a manufacturing plant, it means, with due qualifica-
tions, that the railroads have hauled a ton of raw material from far
and wide and will move a similar weight of products away for distri-
bution.”’+ They urge that, during stress of industrial expansion, the
freight-hauled coal, to be used for the generation of power, may create an
impossible situation. If, however, electric energy be transmitted
to points where energy alone is required, transportation would be
relieved of a burden of coal haulage.

ede electric Whether a steam-electric plant be already established
versus on a steam-power basis, or whether it be desired to
ere Paceteie expand a service or to establish a new operation, the
first cost is low and the chief item of operative expenditure is for
fuel, which is unavoidable, but is spread over the years of operation.
The legitimate capitalization, therefore, is the cost of erection and
equipment of a steam-power plant.

In a hydro-electric development, however, conditions are re-
versed; the great burden falls on the initial cost of development.
The interest upon the capital invested in the plant is much the most
important item of gross operating expenses. An analysist by Mr. Gano

*The Canadian Engineer, Dec. 26, 1918, p. 551.
jPower: Its Significance and Needs. Bull. 102, Part 5, Smithsonian Institution,
p. 10
{Proceedings, American Institute of Electrical Engineers, May, 1916, p. 585.
59875—3

34

Dunn of the gross operating expenses of a typical steam-electric station
and hydro-electric station of 20,000 h.p. each, gave the following:
In the steam station, coal absorbed 48.9 per cent of the gross
operating expenses and bond interest 19.0 per cent, whereas, in the
hydro-electric station, bond interest constituted 77.4 per cent of the
gross.

The foregoing does not appear to present an unassailable case in
favour of hydro-electric development in the United States, except
where an advantageous position with reference to markets and low
unit cost present economic advantage. The coal-less provinces of
Ontario and Quebec, however, do not present the same basic condi-
tions, and the substitution of hydro-electric energy for bituminous
coal imported from the United States for the generation of power
would justify an expenditure possibly not justifiable upon purely
economic grounds.

_ In many instances, the centralization of electric
Central Electric a
Pinnte plants presents economic advantages and economies.
In Great Britain the Ministry of Reconstruction has
reported on a plan of centralizing the production of electric power
in Great Britain. There are some 600 private and municipal central
plants for power production. The report emphasizes the wastefulness
of a ‘‘ system whereby a man at Hampstead cooks his breakfast by
electricity from one station, travels to his office by that from a second,
lights his office by that from a third, and takes lunch at a restaurant
supplied by a fourth.”

While it is doubtful whether the foregoing could be paralleled
in Canada, there are localities where centralization of electric plants
would result in substantial economies. :

MINES

In July last, Mr. W. J. Dick, our Mining Engineer, resigned, to
accept a more lucrative position in Winnipeg. Pending the appoint-
ment of a successor to Mr. Dick, your Assistant to Chairman has had
to carry on this branch of our work as best he could. In addition, it
it is quite evident that we cannot get a competent mining engineer
for the salary we were paying Mr. Dick.

With the exception of gold mining, the mining industry in
Canada has been stimulated by the war. The figures of mineral
production for the last seven years are as follows:—

1 EPs, IKE UR 1D Teh isis AAR ea 8 $137,109,171
LDU eet ain't, t's esi at OD eee eeO LOG hea ens shale swe es 177,201,534
DL Bespin s&s ese yoo 145,634,812 POTTY ia okgwiti ie 6 Vise 189,646,821
BOBS hives si aein's 50) AO OOA UTD DOU He stele theaters 211,301,897*

_ *Since the Tenth Annual Meeting, Mr. John McLeish, Chief, Division of
Mineral Resources and Statistics, Dept. of Mines, has courteously supplied corrected
statistics. The data respecting production have, therefore, been brought up to date.

35

It should be borne in mind that these great advances in values
during the last three years do not represent an equal increase in
tonnages, inasmuch as nearly every metal, except gold, has greatly
increased in price.

: The production of coal increased in all the provinces
Production : : :
of Coal except Nova Scotia. The greatest increase was in

the production of Alberta to meet the deficiency
caused by the war and the war measures of the United States Fuel
Administration. The amount of United States bituminous coal avail-
able was much less than usual. In addition, shipments of anthracite
to Canada were reduced to 77 per cent of the amount actually imported
in 1917, although that amount had proved to be inadequate during
the excessively cold winter of 1917-18. For Western Canada, the
United States Fuel Administration gave instructions that anthracite
shipments were to be reduced to 65 per cent of the tonnage usually
shipped to Winnipeg and to 50 per cent of the amount normally
shipped to the remainder of Manitoba; no anthracite being shipped
to points west of Manitoba. The deficiency thus caused by these
measures was met by the largely increased shipments of Alberta coal.

The total production of marketable coal in 1918 was 14,977,926
short tons, valued at $55,192,896—the largest tonnage except in
1913. The production included 115,405 tons of semi-anthracite,
11,636,190 tons of bituminous, and 3,226,331 tons of lignite.

Production in Alberta increased to 5,972,816 tons, as compared

with 4,736,368 tons in 1917, and 4,014,755 tons in 1913—an increase
of nearly 1} million tons as compared with 1917, and of nearly 2
million tons as compared with 1913.
Pecine in During the winter of 1917-18 statements were made
Nova Scotia in the press that it was possible to largely increase
Pres the production of coal in Nova Scotia. This optim-
istic view was not shared by us, and, in February, Mr. Dick was
instructed to report on the probable shortage. Mr. Dick, basing his
report on confidential information received from the principal mining
companies, estimated that Nova Scotia would produce only 5,259,000
long tons (5,890,000 short tons), as compared with 7,980,073 short
tons in the ‘ banner’ year, 1913, a decrease of two million tons, or
nearly 25 per cent. This estimate was communicated to the Do-
minion Government and to the Fuel Controller, Mr. C. A. Magrath.
The actual production was 5,195,144 long tons (5,818,562 short
tons)—practically as stated by Mr. Dick.

Mr. Hiram Donkin, Inspector of Mines for Nova Scotia, states
that the falling off in the production of coal in Nova Scotia was largely
due to the decrease in the number of men employed at the coal face;

59875—3}

36

many men of this class volunteered for overseas service, and their
places were filled by men whose rate of production was somewhat
less.
3 : The tonnage of nickel produced in 1918 was more
Omen than double that produced in 1914. In 1905 the yield
was 18,876,315 lIbs.; in 1910 it was 37,271,033 Ibs.;
in 1914 it was 45,517,937 lbs., and in 1918 it was 92,076,034 Ibs.,
valued at $36,830,414. Three-quarters of the world’s production of
nickel is mined in Ontario and, with an era of lower prices, the pro-
portion is likely to increase rather than decrease. The nickel refining
plant of the International Nickel Co., at Port Colborne, Ont., was
put into operation in July, 1918.
Copper | The production of copper was much stimulated by
Production
Largely Increased the enormous demand for war purposes, the greater
portion of this metal being obtained from the large
low-grade ores of British Columbia and the nickel-copper mines of
Sudbury, Ont. The production in Ontario amounted to 23,524 tons
(47,047,801 Ibs.), valued at $11,586,932. The International Nickel
Co. and the Mond Nickel Co., combined, produced 23,472 tons, or
99-8 per cent of the Ontario output. British Columbia produced
31,429 tons (62,858,628 lIbs.), valued at $15,480,823. In the latter
part of 1916, electrolytic refineries for copper and for zinc were put
into operation by the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Co. at
Trai eC; .
re The total production of gold in 1918 amounted to
Beaduced 710,526 ozs., valued at $14,687,875, as compared with
738,831 ozs., valued at $15,272,992 in 1917. The
gold production of Ontario was 411,270 ozs., valued at $8,501,705,
$247,876 less than in 1917, due to the severe handicap under which
producers of this metal are operating. The Hollinger, one of the
great gold mines of the world, yielded two-thirds of the Ontario pro-
duction, or $5,752,370.
eae ti The production of silver in 1918 is estimated at
Shows Decline 21,284,607 ozs., valued at $20,597,540, as against
22,221,274 ozs., valued at $18,091,895 in 1917, a
decrease of 4-2 per cent in quantity, but an increase of 13-8 per cent
in value. Ontario produced 17,109,389 ozs., valued at $16,557,098, or
80-4 per cent of the total silver production of Canada. As all but
0-3 per cent was produced in the Cobalt district, the dominant
position of this area is apparent.

37

. In 1900, during the development in East Kootenay,
Lead and Zinc G : ; :
Feel War Effect lead production in Canada reached its maximum,
63,169,821 Ibs. It declined to 18,139,283 Ibs. in
1903, increased to 56,864,915 Ibs. in 1905, and fell to 23,784,969 Ibs.
in 1911. Owing to demands for war purposes, production in 1915
increased to 46,316,450 Ibs. In 1918 it was 43,846,260 lIbs., valued
at $4,055,779.

The total production of zinc during 1918 was 16,832 tons
(33,663,690 Ibs.), valued at $2,746,620, as compared with 14,834 tons,
valued at $2,640,817, in 1917, and 4,551 tons (9,101,460 Ibs.), valued
at $474,459, in 1914.

The production of steel ingots and direct steel castings during
1918, was 1,893,000 short tons, as compared with 1,745,734 tons
in 1917, and 823,641 tons in 1914.

During 1918, magnesite from the Grenville district,
Que., became available for use for furnace linings,
thus replacing the mineral heretofore imported
from Austria and Greece. It had been assumed that, owing to the
high lime content of the Grenville mineral, it could not be used,
but the exigencies of war conditions induced experimental work,
which demonstrated that, when properly treated, it makes a rammed
or burnt-in lining comparable with the best Austrian. The total
shipments of magnesite in 1918 aggregated 39,365 tons, valued at
$1,016,765, as compared with 58,090 tons, valued at $728,275, in
1917, and 358 tons, valued at $2,240, in 1914.

One of the most important metallurgical advances
is the development of the manufacture of the ferro-
alloys, particularly ferro-silicon. The Electro Metals,
Ltd., of Welland, Ont., is the largest electric ferro-alloy industry in
the British Empire. This plant has a capacity cf 48,000 tons of 50
per cent ferro-silicon, and of 25,000 tons per annum of carbon-
electrodes. In addition to its use in steel manufacture, ferro-silicon,
with 85 per cent silicon content, was in demand for use in the manu-
facture of balloon gas.

The war has demonstrated the enormous value
of petroleum and its products, particularly gaso-
lene. In the pre-war period, large reserve stocks
of petroleum were carried in the United States, but the enor-
mously increased demand, coupled with declining production,
reduced the amount on hand January 1, 1918, to about 153,000,000
bbls., although a storage of about 50,000,000 bbls. is required to fill
the pipe lines and keep the industry in operation. At the same
time, if consumption of petroleum in the United States were to

Advances in Use
of Magnesite

Manufacture of
Ferro-Alloys

Petroleum and
its Products

38

continue to increase at the same rate as during 1902-16, the reserves
would be exhausted about 1932. Obviously, these reserves will
not be exhausted, because increased prices, growing imports and
other causes will prolong the life of the wells.

Gilbert and Pogue state* that from 90 to 30 per cent of the oil
is left underground and that, deducting losses by fire, seepage and
evaporation, probably less than 25 per cent of the petroleum under-
ground reaches the pipe-line. If we subtract from this proportion
the losses involved in improper and wasteful methods of utilization,
the recovery factor becomes perhaps as low as 10 per cent.

Of the world’s output of petroleum, 66,000,000 tons, the United
States contributes 66 per cent, Russia about 13 per cent, Mexico
about 11 per cent and the entire British Empire less than 3 per
cent (2-7).

The production of Canada is 25,100 tons, or -04 of 1 per cent,
of the world’s production of this raw material which is indispensable
to the processes of modern manufacture and transportation.

“To-day it enters into our daily life under the guise of at least
250 different and marketable commodities. It lights our lamps and
stoves; it cleans our clothes; it prepares our varnishes; it acts as a
substitute for turpentine in the printing, dyeing and painting indus-
tries; it invades our tables in the form of artificial butters, confec-
tionery and a number of other edibles; it supplies us with our wax,
our candles, our vaseline, our chewing gum, and a vast array of
ointments, salves and drugs; it furnishes the dressing-table with
perfumes and the smoking-room with matches; it imparts the final
lustre to collars and shirts, and the textile trades use enormous
quantities of it for finishing soft goods; it medicates our bodies and
gives to preserved fruits their peculiarly toothsome appearance;
it blends with animal and vegetable oils in a range of combinations
almost infinite; its residue can be burned as coke or used in the manu-
facture of electric arc-lights or employed in road-making as a rival
to asphalt; it lubricates our machinery and drives our motor-cars,
our ships, our aeroplanes, our locomotives, our ploughs and tractors.
By means of it every form of transportation on land, in the air, on the
sea and below the sea, has been immeasurably extended and in many
instances revolutionized. There must be at least a hundred trades
that now use oil for heat and power purposes where ten or fifteen
years ago they used nothing but coal.’’f

At the London Oil Congress in 1912, it was shown that the
Mauretania, for the round trip from Liverpool to New York, by
changing from coal to oil would save 5,000 tons of fuel, reduce the
stokehold force from 300 to 30 and would make available for cargo

*Petroleum—A Resource Interpretation, Bulletin 102, Part 6, p. 41, Smithsonian
Institution, 1918.

tlbid, p. 41.

39

and passengers a space of about 100,000 cubic feet, representing
an earning value of $50,000 on each round trip.

Although we have no oil-fields comparable with the Pennsylvania,
Texas, Oklahoma and other fields in the United States, the chances
of discovering oil in Alberta may properly be described as fair. The
production of the Petrolia oil-field, in southwestern Ontario, in 1918,
was 288,692 bbls., as compared with 528,959 bbls. in 1908.

Peiaeatc Since its organization in 1910 the Commission has given
Utilization special attention to the more efficient utilization of coal,
— the objects aimed at being the use of (1) lignite,
either as mined or with the expenditure of the minimum of cost and
effort in preparing it for use; (2) the more efficient utilization of
coking coal in plants near large markets, producing coke and gas as
primary products, and tar, ammonium sulphate, etc., as secondary
products; (3) manufacture of carbo-coal; (4) pulverized fuel; (5) car-
bonized lignite briquettes.

In Great Britain, the war has emphasized the
enormous value of certain coals. In the Durham
field, certain seams contain a coal peculiarly adapted to the manu-
facture of a fine hard coke, low in ash and sulphur. The Carbon-
ization Committee of Great Britain has recommended that export
of this particular quality of coal should be forbidden; that, if
there is a sufficiently large reserve of coking coal to meet the demand
of the British iron and steel industry, it should only be exported as
metallurgical coke that the valuable by-products may be retained
for use in the dye and many other valuable domestic industries.
Practical difficulties in connection with mining will almost certainly
prevent carrying the recommendations into effect, but it is note-
worthy as indicating the great value of such coals as a national asset.
Bea ia a Due to the shortage of fuel, attention has been
Furnace directed to the possibilities of economies in furnace
Seeaon operation. In large industrial establishments in the
United States, it has not been unusual for expert heating engineers
to effect a saving of 20 to 30 per cent of the fuel. account. About
24,500,000 tons of bituminous and lignite coal is consumed in Canada
each year. If our consumption were reduced by only 10 per cent,
it would represent an annual saving of at least $7,500,000, much of
which is expended for coal imported from the United States.

The Alliance Power Co. state that, by burning lignite slack, they
have succeeded in reducing the coal bill in the Edmonton, Alta., power
house from $165,000 a year, to $75,000; also, that, if an automatic
stoker were devised which would ‘‘respond and evaporate the neces-
sary water in the boilers to handle the overload at peak’’, much
better results could be obtained.

Pulverized Coal

40

Uniform Mr. H. A. Mackie, M.P., Edmonton, is urging that
Mining Act a Canadian Coal Mining Act be passed by the
ane Dominion, contingent upon the antecedent consent
of all provinces, the operation of the Act being left to the provinces.

Mr. Mackie has requested the Department of Labour to call

a conference of the Chief Inspectors of Mines of the various provinces.
Whether the provinces would consent or not, there can be no doubt
that, as pointed out by Mr. John T. Stirling, Chief Inspector of Mines
for Alberta, laws should be identical in, say, British Columbia,
Saskatchewan, and Alberta, with provision that the operation of all
coal mines in these provinces be under the supervision of persons hold-
ing certificates of competency, granted by the authorities of either
province. Similarly, this situation should obtain with reference to
Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
Mr. Stirling further states that there are nearly 300
mines in operation in Alberta, about 60 per cent of
which is operated in such a small way that it is
impossible to make them a commercial success. All the coal that is
easily accessible, chiefly along the river banks, is mined by driving
in a gangway for a few hundred feet from the outcrop, and, owing
to the operator’s inability, financially, to put in proper supports, these
gangways are allowed to cave in after two or three years’ operation,
with the result that the larger bodies of coal lying beyond these
worked areas will require to be obtained in years to come by expensive
shaft sinking.

In addition to this, the danger of driving into old workings which
are flooded with water is constantly increasing, so that the chances
of catastrophies are also very much increased. ‘
Relieien in The fact that the price of anthracite has steadily
Anthracite Prices increased during the past quarter of a century, and
aes the well established fact that, if consumption con-
tinued at the present rate, the anthracite of the United Sates would
be exhausted in less than a century, demonstrate that the theory of
lower prices after the war is utterly fallacious. Even prior to the war,
the production of anthracite was decreasing at the rate of approxi-
mately one per cent per annum. The problem in Canada, therefore,
is: What can be done in the way of producing a fuel that approximates
to anthracite or toward the utilization’ of lignite under more advan-
tageous conditions?

The Research Council has suggested that briquetting of car-
bonized lignite furnishes the solution, and the sum of $400,000 has
been appropriated for the erection of an experimental plant. Con-
struction of this plant has not yet been commenced.

Waste in Small
Mining Operations

41

In Great Britain, much attention has been devoted
to carbocoal, the process yielding a fuel that is denser,
dustless, clean, uniform in size and quality and stands
transportation without disintegration; its density is greater than
that of coke and more nearly approaches that of anthracite; the
yield of tar and ammonium sulphate is greater than in the by-product
coking process.

Development of
Carbocoal

Pulverized coal, for certain purposes, has achieved
remarkable success, particularly in cement plants,
copper smelting and other metallurgical processes,
and several United States railways have successfully operated loco-
motives with this class of fuel. With the exception of the Calgary
plant, which uses natural gas, all plants of the Cement Company of
Canada are using pulverized coal. It has recently been adopted by
the British Columbia sugar refinery, and the International Nickel Co.,
Copper Cliff, has installed it. Experimental runs in the blast furnaces
at Copper Cliff, Ont., showed that not only could pulverized coal
replace the more costly coke, but the tonnage of fuel consumed
was reduced 30 per cent.

Sometite for The striking economic advantage of central coking
Anthracite plants, producing retort coke for fuel, gas, coal tar,
Meany ammonium sulphate, etc., has been set forth in
earlier reports, and need not be recapitulated.

The steadily increasing price and the decrease n the reserves of
anthracite demonstrate that, in Ontario and Quebec, we must turn
to some form of coke that possesses most of the characteristics of this
valuable fuel, such, for instance, as carbocoal or retort coke.

The greatest obstacle to the introduction of retort coke is the
fact that, hitherto, practically all coke, except gashouse coke, has been
produced for metallurgical purposes and, for obvious reasons, such coke
could be most economically produced at or near the mine. The fact
that central coking plants, in the immediate vicinity of large cities,
can market not only coke but the gas, tar and all other products,
demonstrates their great economic advantage. In addition, the fuel
produced by a retort coke plant would be better adapted for domes-
tic heating, for raising steam and for similar purposes, than
metallurgical coke would.

For large individual consumers, locomotives and certain other
uses, pulverized fuel promises to revolutionize present practice. It is
almost axiomatic that the less labour and cost expended on the pre-
paration of coal fuel, the better, and, other things being equal, the
process that approaches most closely to this dictum is the most efficient
and the most economic.

Pulverized Coal
Successful

42

A pamphlet on Pulverized Fuel, by Mr. W. J. Dick, is now in the
press and will be issued at an early date. In August last, your Assist-
ant to Chairman addressed the Professional Meeting of the Engineer-
ing Institute of Canadaat Saskatoon on Fuels of Western Canada and
their more Efficient Utilization and, later, expanded it for publication.

FUEL SHORTAGE

Since our organization nine years ago, we have given special
attention to fuel problems, as we recognized that, sooner or later,
a combination of circumstances would cause a shortage of fuel.

In February, 1917, we issued a news letter, warning
consumers to lay in their supplies of coal imme-
diately, in view of the probability, almost a certainty,
that there would be a shortage. It was widely reproduced throughout
Canada and the fact that, during the next four months, the anthra-
cite imports were much above normal indicates that it had a very
material effect.

Our survey of the underlying conditions had convinced
Canada’s Supply : 4: .
Reduckl us that, unless conditions were unusually favourable,

the mines of the United States would not produce
sufficient anthracite for our needs in Canada. The great bulk of
the anthracite is consumed in the Northeastern and North Central
states and in Canada. Owing to the the enormous development of
industries connected with the war, there had been a great influx of
population into the Northeastern and Atlantic states north of the
Potomac, the addition to the population o Massachusetts, New
Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland, since 1911,
being estimated at 5,000,000, or 15 per cent. The tremendous con-
gestion of freight in this industrial area, the removal of millions of
men from the producing to the non-producing class, and the trans-
ference of increasingly large numbers of men to ship-building,
munitions, and other highly-paid war industries, and other factors
could have only one effect, namely, an insufficient supply of anthra-
cite in Canada.

In March, 1918, our conclusions were strikingly verified by the
announcement of the United States Fuel Administrator that we would
receive only 77 per cent of the anthracite imported by us in 1917-18,
which amount had been found insufficient. Commencing in Decem-
ber, 1917, we had urged a greatly increased cutting of wood fuel,
and the increased production materially assisted in tiding over the
shortage of anthracite last autumn. Had the war continued till
the spring of this year (1919) and had we even had a normal winter,
conditions in many parts of Canada would have been serious.

Commission
Gives Warning

43

About midsummer of 1917 conditions in the coal-mining industry

in the United States demonstrated that drastic action was necessary.
On July 12,1917, Mr. C. A. Magrath was appointed Fuel Controller,
with full powers over the mining, transportation, distribution, etc., of
coal. During the winter of 1917-18, the shortage of coal became acute;
‘heatless Mondays’ were ordered in Canada and the United States
to save fuel, the situation having been much aggravated by the
almost unprecedented cold weather.
Reduction of During the height of the influenza epidemic the pro-
Output due to duction of anthracite fell off from 2,000,000 tons per
tafinenze week to 1,500,000, or 25 per cent less than during
the same week in 1917. Fortunately, the unprecedentedly mild
weather and the termination of the war have averted what would
otherwise have been a serious situation.

Having happily escaped a fuel famine this winter, we should
endeavour to formulate a sane and wise policy respecting the develop-
ment of our great water-powers, particularly Niagara and the St.
Lawrence, and the more efficient utilization of our bituminous,
semi-bituminous and lignite coals, that future fuel shortages will not
find us unprepared.

SENATOR EpwarbDs: Do you mean for heating or for power
purposes?

Mr. Waite: Both; in order that we may obtain more efficient re-
sults from these coals than can be obtained under existing circum-
stances, particularly when they are consumed raw. Electric energy
generated from our water-powers, should be utilized for power pur-
poses, that our imports of bituminous coal from the United States
may be reduced. It cannot be too strongly emphasized that future
fuel shortages are not a possibility but are practically a certainty,
and they will recur whenever there is a sufficient combination of
adverse conditions. In addition, an educative campaign should be
carried on urging the adoption of economic methods of firing, the
replacement of ineffective boilers and similar measures that will
reduce the coal bill.

FIRE PREVENTION

Since our last meeting, our report on Fire Waste in Canada, by
Mr. J. Grove Smith, has been issued. It is the first report on the
subject ever issued in Canada and has aroused public interest in a
remarkable manner. That this interest might be crystallized into
definite action, the Commission has, during the past year, carried on
a campaign of publicity through the newspapers and by means of
public addresses. Municipal authorities have been advised respecting
the adequacy of their water-works systems for fire protection pur-

44

poses and equipment of fire departments, such advice necessitating
making complete surveys of several municipalities.
Mainly as the result of our efforts, fire prevention
leagues have been organized in Ontario and British
Columbia. In addition, an advisory committee has
been appointed by the Dominion Superintendent of Insurance to
inaugurate education of the public and to advise the government
respecting fire prevention legislation, movements have been started
to have fire marshal acts enacted in the provinces of Quebec, Nova
Scotia and New Brunswick, the fire insurance companies operating
in Canada are attempting to revise the present insurance agency
system in the interests of fire prevention, local authorities are increas-
ingly adopting the recommendation of the Commission with respect
to the periodical inspection of buildings, and there is every reason
to believe that, eventually, the entire programme outlined by the
Commission in its report will receive legislative endorsation.

The record of fire losses in Canada for 1918 emphasizes

Fire Prevention
Leagues
Established

ign the necessity of drastic steps being taken to bring
abou a change in the public attitude towards fire
waste. During the car the total value of property destroyed by

fire amounted to no less than $33,600,000, and exceeded by over 35
per cent the loss of the previous year. If the amount of money spent
on fire protection and insurance be added to the direct fire loss the
total reaches over $65,000,000. In other words, if the loss continued
at the same rate for nine years, it would aggregate an amount that
would equal the entire subscription to the last Victory Loan.
The record of fire losses for 1918, classified according to the amount |
of loss involved in each fire, is given herewith.

Fires over Fires from $10,000 Fires less than
$100,000 to $100,000 $10,000

No. Loss No. Loss No. Loss
Vantiary ts sosact s 8 |$ 1,057,000 | 34 |$ 873,000 1,499 |$ 535,000
Bebriary 277 e..4 + 7 1,467,000 | 15 319,000 1,423 602 ,000
arches the AS 3 575,000 | 15 668 ,000 1,264 537,000
fos Eee ae ee Oe 5 1,500,000 |} 21 1,120,000 1,802 723,000
Wawa. iris rss 10 1,652,000 | 19 906 , 000 1,528 1,177,000
a (0s ae Sates tetas 6 OT. O000n) 15 833,000 Lino 1,006,000
Thy TA Ae ea oa eee 7 960,000 | 19 841,000 1,246 1,395,000
August 3 812,000 | 22 1,183,000 1,638 971,000
September.......... 1 250,000 | 15 419,000 1,107 667 ,000
October 5 3,650,000 | 9 646 ,000 984 1,121,000
Wovembet. uh cere. 2 300,000 | 14 402 ,000 1,518 965,000
Declmpeta cece osu) LO 1,150,000 | 16 376,000 1,347 688 ,000
Total..........| 62 '$14,650,000 |214 I$ 8,586,000 | 17,079 ‘$ 10,387,000

45

For many years the people of Canada have felt that the tax
for fire insurance is unduly high, but, instead of blaming themselves
for creating and maintaining conditions that cause excessive fire
waste, have, in large part, devoted their attention to the insurance
companies. While not contending that the insurance companies are
altruists, it should be borne in mind that they are simply playing
the part of distributors. They collect a certain amount of money
from the insured, deduct certain amounts for commissions to insur-
ance brokers, for office and other expenses of mana: ement, for divi-
dends to their stockholders, and pay out the rema:ader to poticy-
holders who have sustained fire losses. Obviously, :f ‘fire losses in-
crease, rates must be raised to meet such losses. Or *e other hand,
if there were no fire losses, the insurance companies would have to
go out of business.

: The fire loss in Canada is increasing at an alarming
Sinai rate, the total for 1918 being $33,623,000, as compared
with $24,800,000 in 1917, $25,600,000 in 1916
and $19,022,000 in 1915. In 1918, there were 276 fires, causing a loss
of $10,000 or over, as compared with 238 in 1917, 218 in 1916 and
237 in 1915. The largest monthly total was that of October—
$5,119,145—which included the explosion in the munitions plant at
Trenton, Ont., resulting in a loss of $3,000,000.

Mr. J. Grove Smith’s investigations demonstrate that a few
fires cause two-thirds of our fire loss. In 1918, we had 17,355 fires in
Canada, entailing a loss of $33,623,000, but $23,236,000, or 69 per
cent, of that loss was caused by 276 fires. Again, only 62 fires were
responsible for a loss of $14,650,000, or 44 per cent of the total loss.
al Percentage Much eloquence has been devoted to the advocacy
of Loss due to of an educative campaign to instruct the children of
aeecliee Pees | Canada respecting greater precautions against fire,
the basic idea being that many fires would thereby be prevented.
While recognizing the great value of such education, it must be borne
in mind that, even if the 12,000 dwelling fires which occur every
year were prevented, it would only reduce our fire loss by 5 per cent,
whereas, if the less than 300 fires which annually damage large mer-
cantile establishments and manufacturing plants could be prevented, iwo-
thirds of our fire waste could be avoided.

Mr. Smith recommends that the following legislation be enacted:

(1) Requiring a signed application (on a standard form) for all
insurance, the statements in such application to form a condition
of the insurance contract and a continuing warranty during the
currency of the policy.

(2) Requiring the registration and licensing of all agents and
brokers placing insurance with companies operating under Dominion

46

license, license to be issued by the Superintendent of Insurance
after examination of the character and qualifications of the said
agents and brokers.

(3) Requiring the proper inspection by insurance agents of all
property whereon the total insurance exceeds $5,000, and making
compulsory the notification of defective or dangerous conditions
in buildings to the Provincial Fire Marshal's department.

(4) Empowering Provincial Fire Marshals to prevent the issuance
of insurance and to cancel all existing insurance upon property
reported as being in a dangerous condition until such conditions
have been remedied.

(5) Requiring the installation and proper maintenance of
automatic sprinkler systems in all buildings (fireproof buildings
excepted) which, together with their contents, have an insured
value exceeding $100,000.

To carry these recommendations into effect, legislation by both
the Dominion and the various Provincial Legislatures must be had,
though much can be accomplished by amendments to the present

Regulations of the Dominion and Provincial Insurance Branches.

CONSERVATION OF GAME AND WILD LIFE

During the year, we have co-operated with the Advisory Board

on Wild Life Protection. Your Assistant to Chairman is Chairman
of the Board and represents the Commission thereon.
The Regulations under the Migratory Birds Conven-
tion Act are now operative, and, with few exceptions,
the provinces have amended their legislation to con-
form with the terms of the treaty and are administering these laws,
the Dominion taking action only when requested to do so by a pro-
vince.

The Regulations under the new Northwest Game Act are now in
effect. They provide increased protection for the game and fur-
bearers of our northern regions which constitute so important an
economic asset. The licensing of the fur trade will give a control
that will ensure its adequate conservation. The musk-ox, wapiti
and wood bison are now permanently protected.

Point Pelee, Ont., the most southerly portion of Can-

ea ada, has been established as a National park, for the

protection of the birds which concentrate there

during migration or breed there. It is hoped that Bonaventure

island, Percé rock and the Bird rocks in the gulf of St. Lawrence will
be segregated as bird sanctuaries.*

Migratory Bird
Convention Act

*Since the above was written the Quebec Legislature has, on the recommendation
of Hon. Mr. Mercier, Minister of Colonization, Mines and Fisheries, passed an Act,
establishing bird sanctuaries on these islands.

47

The Advisory Board took a strong stand against any unwarranted

relaxation of our game laws for the purpose of increasing the food
supply. New Brunswick has now prohibited the sale of game, making,
in all, three provinces that have adopted this policy so essential to
game protection. Efforts are also being made to check the excessive
slaughter of moose in the Yukon for the market.
Killing Deer To increase the meat supply, the province of Ontario
to Increase killed a number of deer in Algonquin Park. In all,
Meat Supply 650 deer were killed and yielded 66,221 Ibs. of meat,
or one-half ounce of meat for each inhabitant of the province of
Ontario.

The wapiti is protected everywhere except in Saskatchewan.
A letter from the Premier, Hon. Mr. Martin, addressed to the Advisory
Board, indicates that the game laws of that province will be amended
during the current session to give this magnificent animal protection
there also.*

The North American Reindeer Co. proposes to import reindeer

from Alaska, and has applied for a grazing lease of a large area in
Manitoba and the Northwest Territories northwest of Churchill. If
the experiment be successful, this herd will supply animals for
transportation and will add to the meat supply.
Gonferenee Ga Our Committee on Fish, Game and _ Fur-bearing
Wild Life Animals and the Advisory Board on Wild Life Pro-
Ciieciineee tection, jointly, have called a conference of game offi-
cials of the Dominion and Provincial Governments and of others
interested in the conservation of game, fur-bearing animals and wild
life generally. This conference will be held here to-morrow and the
day following and valuable results are anticipated.

It is expected that the report on our Wild Life Resources and their
Conservation, which is being prepared by Dr. C. Gordon Hewitt, who
has continued to act as special adviser to the Commission in the pro-
tection of game and wild life, will be completed shortly and will be
published during the year.

COMMITTEE ON PRESS AND CO-OPERATING
ORGANIZATIONS

That conservation is receiving so much attention in Canada is
largely due to the work of the Commission of Conservation. The
Commission initiated the work of publicity respecting conserva-
tion of natural resources and to this body, a large measure of resultant
public interest is undoubtedly due.

*Since the foregoing was written, the Province of Saskatchewan has also
passed legislation protecting the wapiti, commonly called the elk.

48

Through the medium of Conservation and Conservation
of Life the public is kept in touch with what is of
interest in the conservation and protection of Canada’s
public domain.

Canada’s resources and their development receive far too little
attention in our schools. Conservation is distributed monthly to
2,600 school teachers, and, through them, many thousands of Canada’s
younger generation have the enormous importance of the efficient
utilization of Canada’s natural resources impressed upon them.

The Commission has supplied to the Khaki University in London

numerous copies of its reports. These publications are being used as
text books in the continuation courses. Their study by the soldiers
overseas will prove of great value to the men, personally, and also,
through the creating of added interest in their country, be a distinct
advantage to Canada.
Canadian Press Lhe newspapers of Canada have stood loyally back of
Supports — Conservation and have given largely of their space
bere re to reprinting its material. They have also very
generously made editorial reference to Canada’s natural resources and
their protection. Especially has this been the case recently regarding
the proper planning and preparation of land for soldiers homesteading.
The newspapers and periodicals of Quebec have given unlimited
space in the campaign for securing the passing of a Town Planning
Act by the Quebec Legislative Assembly.

Our editor was present at the annual meeting of the Canadian
Press Association, when the opportunity was taken advantage of to
impress upon the visiting editors the work of the Commission and its
value to Canada. F

Conservation and Conservation of Life have been issued regularly

as also special newspaper bulletins as occasion required.
The Annual Report was issued in English and French.
A departure was made this year from the usual
custom, in that the larger portion of the edition was
bound in paper covers. This has effected a considerable saving, as
the cost of cloth binding has very materially increased.

Fire Waste in Canada, by J. Grove Smith, our Fire Prevention
Engineer, was published, and has had a very heavy demand. This
report has been widely commented upon, and has aroused much
interest in fire prevention.

Forest Resources of British Columbia, by Dr. H. N. Whitford and
Roland D. Craig, has just been issued, as has also Electric Generation
and Distribution in Canada, by Leo. G. Denis.

Interests of
School Children

Reports
Published

49

A Farmer's Account Book, prepared by F. C. Nunnick, contain-
ing a simple method of book-keeping for farm use, has been printed.
The number of requests from active farmers has exhausted the
first edition, and a further edition is being prepared.

The following pamphlets have also been issued: Wood Fuel to
Relieve the Coal Shortage in Eastern Canada, by Clyde Leavitt; Fuels of
Western Canada, by James White; Handbook for Farmers, by F.
C. Nunnick and E. P. Bradt; Utilization of Fish Waste in Canada,
by J. B. Feilding; Fishways in the Inland Waters of British Columbia,
by A. V. White; Conservation of Man-power in Canada, by Dr. P.
H. Bryce; Garbage as Feed for Hogs, by F. C. Nunnick; Powdered
Fuel, by W. J. Dick, and Gottre, by Dr. F. J. Shepherd.

There is in press a report on Water-Powers of British Columbia,
by A. V. White, and in course of preparation Forests of Saskatchewan,
by J.C. Blumer, Urban Planning and Dvelopment, by Thomas Adams,
and Wild Life in Canada and its Conservation, by Dr. C. Gordon
Hewitt.

In June last, by order in council, the printing of the Commission
was brought under the Department of Printing and Stationery, and the
cost of its execution by the Printing Bureau will be charged to the
Commission. Previously, all the Commission work has been executed
by private printing plants, after competitive tenders had been secured.
This plan was found to be economic and efficient, the work being
executed at a minimum cost and good service being secured.

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51

APPENDIX I

Aluminium, with Special Reference to Use for Electrical
Energy Transmission

The aluminium industry began in a very modest
Historical manner in the early ‘eighties’ of the last century.

Several factories were operated on the St. Claire
Deville method, of which the one at Salindres, France, produced 23
tons of aluminium annually. The production increased only slowly
to begin with, as will appear from the appended table* showing
the world’s production in metric tonsf :—

MG faa Lute setsi S siao 2.4 BOOT 5 tere tales gate 19,800
Le RS ee eee 13 BOS 2,5 gale tense crass 18 ,600
(iho J) AP OU aa Aas Si 175 RIOD io Stage a ee 31,200
Bevo ie 3 ha Vel vinre's 1,426 19103 2) aah h ieeenls. 43,800
MMe a ste x 2s w 5:09 5,000 DOE eras onwards ielriats 45 ,000
Prete riley eee + os oe 6,900 DED oe saat Sere ag 61,100
DO Byles nid Slash alehors:e« 8,350 TONS 35 i Pertniedenis 78,790
LS a eee 8,200 hE SAS el a Be 84,857
‘ga oes A Saree 9 ,300 SOS Se cards pace 86 , 394
PA cls giciainvs's ‘ora = chelate 11,500 DED ain re eba ect a os 112,626
BOs cdhelsin cia ‘a.n' 6 ape. 14,500 Li nreh sins chaps nad sid 173,500

In a reviewt of the international aluminium industry, published
in 1917, it was stated that the demand for aluminium had increased
greatly during the last few years. While the German, Swiss, French,
and British works have had difficulty in extending greatly under
war conditions, the aluminium industry in the United States has
made enormous progress. The world’s production of aluminium
during 1917 is estimated at 173,500 metric tons, and, if the extensions
and new constructions now in process of execution are taken into con-
sideration, the capacity will increase to 200,000 tons in the near future.
Such a large production would prevent excessive prices of aluminium,
but it is questioned whether sufficient supply of alumina, bauxite,
cryolite, etc., will be on hand in time to produce 200,000 tons.

*Statistics for 1880-1902 from Engineering, Aug. 16, 1918, p. 163; for 1903-12,
from Metallgesellschaft, 1903-1912, p. 16; for 1912-17, from Mineral Industr
during 1917, p. 10.

tThe metric ton is 2,204 lbs, but, as these statistics are only close approxima-
tions or estimates, it is assumed to be 2,200 Ibs.

tElectrical Review, London, March 30, 1917.

59875—4}

52

Figures relating to the occurrence of aluminium
Occurrence show that it is the third in the list of elements of the

body of the earth (7-90 per cent, according to F. W.
Clarke) and as No.1 of all the metals iron comes next with 4-43
per cent).

Bauxite is the only available ore of aluminium. Its consumption
has been steadily increasing since the outbreak of war, not only as
a source of this valuable metal, but for abrasives, brick for metallur-
gical furnaces, etc.

Statistics of production in the United States, France, United
Kingdom, Italy and India, during 1913-17, are given on p. 53.

‘Bauxite has been discovered in considerable quantities in
British Guiana . . . Development work has now reached a stage
where a steady output isassured . . . The British Government is
now taking a firm stand with regard to the exploitation of these
deposits and is determined that the first call shall be reserved for the
British Empire.’’* In December, 1917, it was announced that no
further applications for bauxite lands would be granted till after the
war. The Government also ordered that a portion of the bauxite
won by holders licensed before this regulation came into force must
be placed at its disposal at a certain price and, also, reserved the right
to limit or to prohibit the export to countries other than British.
Following the promulgation of these regulations, a large export to a
foreign country of British Guiana bauxite, won by a company in
which foreign interests are partly represented, was held up.f

In view of the possibility that additional plants for the manufac-
ture of aluminium may be established in Canada, the foregoing state-
ment respecting British Guiana bauxite is of interest.

No commercial ores of aluminium have, as yet, been found in
Canada. Aluminium is, however, made in the Northern Aluminum
Co.’s extensive works at Shawinigan Falls, Que., from bauxite ores
imported from France, the United States, and also, formerly, from
Germany. The company also operates a wire mill for the manufac-
ture of aluminium wire and cables.

* The Mineral Industry During 1917, p. 28.

tWhile this was probably correct when printed, the Aluminum Company of
America is mining bauxite on its properties in British Guiana. Ocean-going vessels
ascend the river to the mines, and transport the ore to New Orleans ;_ thence, it is
shipped by rail to East St. Louis.

53
According to The Mineral Industry During 1917, the world’s

production of bauxite for 1913 to 1917 was as follows :—

1913 1914 1915 1916 E9LF

MEANCA ON, 304,314 (a) (a) (a) (a)
United States......./.: 210,241 219,318 | 297,041 425,100 568 , 690
Great beritaime. 4.4 8,282 8, 286 1'15°723 10,329 14,724
| EE ae ae 6,841 3,844 5,807 8,739 (a)
Prclia ese erat. Sans 1,184 514 876 750 (a)

(a) Statistics not available.

Some notes on the manufacture of aluminium, as
carried out by the British Aluminium Company in
1911, are of interest. The allocation of cost* is given as follows:

Production

Per Ib
BUMOG OG 85. sl oahin Aiaiciane sd <cpein ea atameiaie wait a gro eee aah ls LiL 2.e
RTE IVORD srt re frets ence t easratas srotep mee Ve ate areas Ae Caper one Ne 1-45
PONUSRINITEA SAE S aids ha 2 chee Wi aibhe Lwin a Skin a Wate gee 6-25
General. expenses and profits... 3.15 ,4.55,- o<jesiarainias bs - 6-25
15-07

The following table, which only claims to be approximate, and
which refers to the conditions prevailing before the war, is another
estimate as to the cost of production.

Sramuat Oi Gemtimesy so och Yalhied chic beh « eld uldla ck ua an 0-25 2-19
STON UUIEIRIALOPAL OD Fe ie kee oN als 0-50 4-38
DAS RR ECOLLONES AP OOS sles cases cea ee cer Sack cours 0-28 2-45
OT Ae Ont AE OA eae vias yo admaiely Alsreed Sieve buchen 0-05 0-44
OcOa mp aromicerat SOs iii Cy eee AN ee 0-03 0-26
eae working Ronse OvG0 ie. ick Noa Lie coiled ows 0-15 1-31
PASEO aa eae ar NER NORA pL Obs Ce Cn. iat Ret LEN a Lai 0-15 1-31

*See p. 59 for New York prices of aluminium, 1913-17.

} Engineering, August 30, 1918. The total as given in the original article is
as above, but the items of cost, as stated, total 1.41 francs, which is equivalent to
12.89 cents.

54

“With regard to the consumption of electric energy in the pro-
duction of aluminium, Faraday’s law requires 2,969 ampere-hours per
kilogramme [1.347 amp.-hours per pound] of aluminium, and this result
is very nearly (95 per cent to 90 per cent) reached in actual produc-
tion’’.* In practice, “‘in order to produce 1 kg. of aluminium as
little as ¢24 k.w-h. [11 k.w.h. per pound] has been employed, but 33
k.w.h. to £35 k.w.h. per kilogramme [15 k.w.h. per pound] is con-
sidered a satisfactory result ’’.

The Norwegian Héyang Falls Company is erecting an aluminium
factory in the Sognefjord of 20,000 h.p. for an annual production of
4.000 tons; their calculations are based on a cost of production of 1
kroner per kilogramme (11.7 cents per pound) of aluminium, a normal
selling price of 1.45 kroner (17 cents per pound) being reckoned upon,
which should provide a dividend on the share capital of some 15 per
cent, the various items in the way of expenses, etc., having been
provided for. The share capital is 15,000,000 kroner (about $3,900,-
000).

The transportation of raw materials very materially affects the
cost of production of aluminium. For instance, the factories in
Salindres, France, which have an annual production of some 12,000
tons of oxide of aluminium, require 30,000 tons of bauxite, 6,500 tons
of lime and 50,000 tons of coal.

Mr. J. T. Pattison, sometime in charge of the chemical laboratory
of the Aluminium Corporation, Ltd., Wallsend-on-Tyne, states in his
The Manufacture of Aluminium, p. 12, that the Aluminium Com-
pany’s furnaces yield 1-75 pounds of aluminium per horse-power day.

Although it is impossible, at the present moment, to forecast the
effect of the war upon many industries, it is clear that the shortage
of copper has greatly extended the use of aluminium, and that not
merely temporarily. The production has, in consequence, increased,
and a number of important aluminium works have been, and are
being, started in different countries.

The annual production, in metric tons, of aluminium was distri-
uted amongst the different countries as under:

*Engineering, p. 219, August 30, 1918.

+ This would be equivalent to about 600 Ib. of aluminium per horse-power year

t 33 k.w-h. per kg. is equivalent to 436 lbs. of aluminium per horse-power year,
or 35 k.w.h. per kg. is equivalent to 411 lbs. Mr. A. V. Davis, President of the
Aluminum Company of America, has stated that one horse-power year will produce
450 lbs., demonstrating that, in their practice, a slightly higher efficiency has been
obtained.

55

Canada| United | Great | France |Norway
Britain

States

Italy|Switzer-| Austria-

land |Hungary

| ee OO Oe OO eee

PES. Pere. = si yl se
aga ee ee
LS ll
USOC Te oe. = «
Lt ae ae
eer
1909 2,8008
1910 | 3,500
1911 2,3008
1912 8,3008
1913 5,916
1914 | 6,820
1915 8,490
1916 | 8,500
1917 | 11,800

63,000
90,700

20,000

904
16,000} 1,126
18,000} 7,000

Total

112,626
173,500

Note—Statistics for 1903-12 from Metallgesellschaft 1903-1912, p. 16; for 1913-17,
from Mineral Industry during 1917, p. 10.
1 Includes Canada.

2 Includes Austria-Hungary and Germany.

3 Exports.

The proportion of the world’s production of aluminium in 1913
Canada, 7-5 and 6-8 per cent; United
States, 37-5 and 52-3 per cent; Great Britain, 12-7 and 3-4 per
cent; Switzerland, 12-7 and 8-7 per cent; Austria-Hungary, 6-4 and
2-9 per cent; France 19-0 and 11-5 per cent;

and 1917, respectively, was:

per cent; Italy, 1-0 and 4-0 per cent.

ducing companies of the world had the following output:

Aluminum Co. of America
Northern Aluminum Co. of Canada

L’Aluminium Frangaise (France and Norway)..
British Aluminium Co. (Great Britain and Norwat y)-.
Aluminium Industrie Aktiengesellschaft (Gaiteeland

and Austria)

L’Aluminio Italiano (Italy)

Hoyang Falden Aluminium (Norway)................

Norway 3-2 and 10-4
In 1917, the aluminum pro-

Metric tons Pounds
90,700 | 200,000,000
11,800 26,000,000
30,000 66,000, 000
11,800 24, 200,000
20,000 44,000,000

7,000 15,400,000
3,000 6,600,000
173,500 | 382,200,000

Canada—The Mineral Industry During 1917 states that the
“Northern Aluminum Co., a subsidiary of the Aluminum Company

of America, with extensive works at Shawinigan Falls, Que.,

is the

56

only producer. It is said to use 42,000 kilowatts (56,000 h.p.). Its
output is not officially published, but, with the above cited power, it
should be about 14,000 metric tons per year. Statistics published
by the Canadian Government show the importation of bauxite and
alumina, together, as 87,154 short tons in 1917. The exports of
aluminium in ingots and bars are given as 22,324,600 lb., valued at
$7,620,953, or 34-1 cts. per lb. The production was greater than
this by the amount produced which was consumed in Canada;
estimating this as about 3,500,000 lb., we have placed the 1917
production at 26,000,000 Ib., which is equal to 14,300* metric tons.
This agrees with the 14,000 tons mentioned above as corresponding
to the power stated by Mr. H. E. Randall to be used at the Shawinigan
plant. The output of the Canadian plant is used chiefly for export
to Europe, Japan, etc. Its exports to the United States in 1917 were
1,879,859 Ib.”

Although all the raw material has to be imported for the pro-
duction of aluminium in Canada, the industry is of some importance,
owing to the cheap hydro-electric power facilities offered by this
country, while a large portion of the United States production is
obtained with hydro-electric energy exported from Canada. The
following table shows the expansion of the industry in Canada since
1905:

ANNUAL IMPORTS OF ‘ALUMINA’ AND EXPORTS OF ALUMINIUM

Exports of aluminium

ue Imports of
Calendar alumina Manu-
year Ingots, bars, etc facumen
Pounds Value Pounds Value Value
19DS MeL ue 5,360,800 $ 138,765 2,535,386 $ 508,219 $ 1,588
1906 sce st 8,975,400 239,136 4,521,486 899 113 2,244
19OF see 12,705,300 268 , 502 5,478, 203 1,109,353 1,499
OST Ree: 1,485,500 29,752 1,713,800 399,785 ey 4
£900 es 11,794,100 234,544 6,134,500 918,195 3,453
810 a a 19 464,400 403 , 283 7,722,400 1,160,242 3,741
TS ba Reais ae 18,607, 200 372,009 4,990,100 747 ,587 1,555
i A Re 22,400,500 448,061} 18,285,700 2,002 , 363 10,898
MOISE et 352 30,704, 200 614,713) 13,015,000 1,762,214 8,203
WOT ye ee it 28,557,000 571,419} 14,510,800 2,364,907 5,571
NOMS Retake occ: 35,016, 200 892,634) 18,680,800 3,333,726 620,562
1916s es), 53,819,000 1,114,061) 18,425,300 5,201,066 26,780
1ON7 Re Ue 174,307 , 800 1,866,240) 22,324,600 7,620,953 17,165
AOS eat pees 186,442,200 2,071,060) 21,616,500 1;229,910 197 ,673

United States—There are aluminium plants at Niagara Falls,
N.Y., Massena, N.Y., Maryville, Tenn., and Badin, N.C., all owned

by the Aluminum Company of America, which monopolizes the

*An obvious error; 26,000,000 Ibs. is equal to 11,800 metric tons.

57

manufacture of aluminium in Canada and the United States. The
capacity of the Badin plant, since its enlargement “ has been stated
to be 65,000 k.w., capable of furnishing 23,000 (metric) tons of metal
annually.’’ In Tennessee, the Aluminum Co., through a subsidiary
company, has developed a water-power plant on the Little Tennessee
river. This is the first of a system of seven plants, which, ‘‘ when
completed and put into action, will just about double the aluminium-
producing capacity of North America.’’ Seven dams will store water
sufficient to produce a constant 450,000 h.p. Theinvestment in this
development may be estimated at $40,000,000.

The Boston News Bureau states that, commencing with $1,000-
000 authorized capital in 1889, the Aluminum Co. of America increased
its capitalization to $3,800,000 in 1905 and to $20,000,000 in 1909.
In 1916, it paid a dividend of 10 per cent. ‘‘ As a matter of fact, the
company has invested about $70,000,000 of undivided profits in its
business; its present investment in plant is over $80,000,000. The
market value of its $20,000,000 stock is probably $150,000,000.’’*

Great Britain—The British Aluminium Co. has two plants in
Great Britain and two subsidiary reduction plants in Norway. When
war broke out, it suspended work on the development of a water-
power and a reduction plant in Switzerland. Extensions of its British
plants are under construction and plans are on foot to increase its
Norwegian plants. Profits in 1917 were £347,474 ($1,737,000) out
of which 6 per cent dividend was paid on the preferred shares and
10 per cent on the common.

The Aluminium Corporation has one plant in Great Britain.

The price of aluminium in Great Britain in 1917 was fixed at
48 .8 cents per lb.

France—There are plants with an aggregate capacity of about
100,000 h.p., viz.: Société Electrometallurgique Frangaise, with
factories at La Praz and at Gardannes; and the Compagnie des
Produits Chimiques d’Alais, with factories at Calypso, St. Félix de
Maurienne, St. Jean de Maurienne, Auzat and Chedde.

The French Ministry of Munitions fixed the price of aluminium
in France for 1917 at 4 francs per kilo (32-7 cts. per Ib.), but, on
Oct. 1, increased it to 6 francs (50-9 cts.).

Switzerland—The Aluminium Industrie Aktiengesellschaft, Neu-
hausen, Switzerland, controls factories with an aggregate capacity of
100,000 h.p., viz., one at Neuhausen, Switzerland, one at Rheinfelden,
Germany, and one at Lend-Gastein, Austria, also at Crippis-Borgne.
Its net profits in 1917 were 19,810,000 frs. A dividend of 20 per
cent was paid on the 35,000,000 frs. capital stock, the 8,750,000

*The Mineral Industry During 1917, p. 13.

58

frs. of the capital stock unpaid was paid up and a bonus of 7,000,000
frs. in new shares was divided among the stockholders.

Norway—The capacity of the Norwegian aluminium plants is
as follows: Arendal, 5,000 tons; Tyssedal, 6,000 tons; Vigeland,
2,000 tons; Stangfjord, 600 tons; Héyang, 4,000 tons. Total, 17,600
tons. Mineral Industry states that “the present Norwegian pro-
duction is probably 18,000 to 20,000 tons per year,’’ but exact figures
are not available.

Italy—Three companies, the Villeneuve et Borgofranco, the
Tresfilieres du Havre and the Trafilierie et Lamanitoi di Metalli are
combined into the L’Aluminio Italiano, with a capital of 20,000,000
lire ($5,000,000).

The countries which have exported most aluminium are France
and Switzerland. Prior to the war, each exported 7,000 tons to 8,000
tons per annum. Germany has been the largest importer of alumin-
ium—16,000 tons in 1912 and 12,500 tons in 1913. It is very difficult
to obtain reliable information about the production of aluminium
during the war; prices have risen abnormally, and new factories have
been started which have secured contracts extending over several
years after the conclusion of peace.

Conditions of 1915 were favourable to the United States branch
of the aluminium industry. In 1914, the United States produced
about 48 per cent of the world’s production; in 1915, probably over
50 per cent; and, in 1917, 52.3 per cent. In 1917, Canada produced
6.8 per cent of the world’s production. Or, expressing it in another
way, Canada and the United States, combined, produced one and
one-half times as much aluminium as the rest of the world.

Provided the projected factories are built and operated, the
production of aluminium is soon likely to be largely increased. If the
alumina factories can increase their output, an annual production
of some 200,000 tons of aluminium may then be reckoned upon. .

It is estimated that, of this aggregate, 50 per cent is likely to be
produced in the United States and Canada, 8 per cent in Great Britain
(11 per cent before the war), 13 per cent in France (263 per cent
before the war), 11 per cent in Norway (2} per cent before the war),
44 per cent in Italy (1} per cent before the war), and 13 per cent in
Switzerland, Germany and Austria-Hungary.

This estimate has recently been made by a “ French expert,
from which fact it would appear that the French themselves are
prepared to lose their lead in the production of what has been called
the French metal. The French, however, have not been idle, but
propose to meet the increased foreign competition by starting branch.
factories in different parts of the world. France is therefore likely to
maintain its financial position in the world’s aluminium industry for

59

years tocome. The French obtained what may be called a privileged
position, apart from their bauxite deposits, chiefly through their early
developed chemical and electro-chemical aluminium industry, which
not only aimed at producing but at finding fresh uses for this new
and untried metal.’’*

As a result of the requirements for war purposes, up
Value and ae
Prices to the date of the armistice, the demand greatly

exceeded the supply. The principal use was in the
manufacture of a high explosive called ‘ammonal’, a mixture of
ammonium nitrate and powdered aluminium. Large quantities were
required for the frame-work of airships, aeroplanes, certain parts of
machine guns, the points of rifle bullets, etc. As a result of this
demand, the price of aluminium has been affected to a much greater
extent than most other metals. The rapid rise in prices occurred in
1915 as shown by the following:

AVERAGE PRICES OF CERTAIN METALS, 1895-1919, AT
NEW YORK:

Year Lead Tin
Cents Cents
per lb. per lb. :
LOO SME es ok ects 3-2 14-1 58-7 65-3
ASOD eis) er sale ven Set) dee 3-0 13-3 50-8 67-1
TASTE a Sie ee eee eae 3-6 13-7 39-0 59-8
TRS ere ee 3-8 15-7 30-6 58-3
ODA as sed yi 4-5 25-1 32-7 59-6
OTT Se a ie ee 4-4 29-9 32-7 61-3
1SOPe seek et we 4-3 26-7 33-0 59-0
O02 GE nao es : 4-1 26-8 33-0 52-2
COURS spent eae amma eee 4-2 28-1 33-0 53-6
OS seen. cet. Sey 4-3 28-0 35-0 57-2
1S)) ee ee ee 4-7 31-4 35-0 60-4
1 ETT ae Sale aE eae a 5-7 39-8 35-8 66-8
MO Toe, caste te ae 5-3 38-2 45-0 65-3
NOOB eos ey. i eet a 4-2 29-5 28-7 52-9
HOU Se el 4-3 29-7 22-0 51-5
01 ig PSOE Se OU ey 9 4-4 34-1 22-3 53-5
MSI Th OS PS ae ene re ee 4-4 42-3 20-1 53:3
I NA ol Sa LD PR a 4-5 46-1 22-0 60-8
ROA er es RWS ite. aie 4-4 44.3 23-6 59-8
OA SE TY Ss ee 3-9 34-3 18-6 54-8
10), US AS BD ie 4-7 38-6 34-0 49.7
AGE he eyes, coal icts: che 6-9 43-5 60-7 65:7
ON EA Nd 7 Dah RRR ca eee 8-8 61-8 51-6 81-4
ISTE tor ic ee ase 7-4 = 33-55 96-8
LOTR pe roe bee fata 5-2 7235 33-05 109-4

1 Engineering and Mining Journal, Feb. 22, 1919, p. 352.

2 Prices 1895 to 1898 are for Lake copper.

3 Average of 11 months, no quotations being made in December.
‘The prices quoted for 1919, are current prices for June 4, 1919.
6 Official price.

** No average computed.

* Engineering, August 30, 1918, p. 219. ;
+ Engineering and Mining Journal, quotations in annual review numbers,

60

In 1854, aluminium sold at £120,000 per ton; in 1856, at
£14,400 per ton; 1858-85, at £4,800; in 1886, at £3,400 per ton;
at the end of 1890, the price had declined to £720; at the end of 1891,
to £240; in 1900, it sold at £86; in 1910, at £62.

The great fall in price followed the decline in the price of sodium
from 2,000 francs to 15 francs per kilogramme. Prior to the war,
aluminium had dropped to £60 per ton and had become one of the
cheaper metals. Comparison of the foregoing with the prices of
metals quoted on page 59 shows that, owing to the protective tariff,
the price of aluminium in the United States is higher than in Great
Britain.

Used in Certain properties of aluminium tend to bring it
Transmission in keen competition with copper for the construction
Lines

of electric transmission lines; the economic question
based on the relative prices of the two metals is the principal deter-
mining factor in choosing between the two.

Aluminium is very light (2-7 against 8-9 for copper); it
has a very fair conducting capacity (34 against 57 for copper), and it
has relatively satisfactory strength (22 against 44 for copper). To
obtain the same total conducting capacity, only half the weight of
aluminium is required as compared with copper. Consequently,
compared by weight, aluminium may be said to have twice the
conducting capacity of copper. As, however, even the half weight
of aluminium has a larger volume than the corresponding quantity
of copper, the cooling of an open-air aluminium line is more effective
than that of a copper line. An aluminium line has also the advantage
as regards the stress caused by its own weight, but it is at a dis-
advantage as regards wind pressure and accumulation of snow.

One of the reasons why aluminium has not been more extensively
used on transmission lines in the United States, is given in the follow-
ing editorial in the Electrical World*:

‘“‘As is well known to our readers, the American price for alu-
minium is deliberately set by the powers that rule it at a figure which
just fails to encourage the very large use of the metal in preference
to copper. Under ordinary conditions an aluminium conductor at
American prices is just a few per cent cheaper than the equivalent
copper conductor, so little cheaper, in fact, that the extra cost of
supports and stringing the aluminium equals the saving. In Europe
and in Canada the ordinary quotations of aluminium are about the
same, pound for pound, as copper at the base price, and for hard-
drawn wire the saving in the use of aluminium figures out at from
35 to 40 per cent. This difference in condition is established by a
virtual monopoly of aluminium in this country, with the usual effect

* Electrical World, New York, July 6, 1912.

61

on the duty, which has been kept just high enough to block import-
ations. As a result of this, the transmission line outside of the
United States is more than likely to be constructed of aluminium,
while, inside our tariff wall, copper has to be the chief reliance.

‘One of the interesting minor advantages of aluminium for
the very high voltages as found on some of the Canadian lines is
that, owing to its larger cross-section for the same conductivity, the
tendency to coronal loss is somewhat reduced.”’

Another article in the same issue states:

‘“‘ For the last eight or ten months the average market quotations
in the United States for the two metals have been: aluminium 21
cents per pound, and copper 13 cents per pound. The expenses for
drawing into wire are, of course, larger per pound for aluminium
than for copper, and the average normal cost of hard-drawn wire
may be taken as 27 cents per pound for the former and 15 cents
per pound for the latter.’’ On the basis of these prices, the weight
of aluminium for the same line capacity being one-half that of copper,
“it will be found by simple arithmetic that any bare aluminium con-
ductor will cost 10 per cent less than the equivalent copper conductor.
Although several aluminium lines have been erected in the United
States, it is found, in general, that the comparatively small saving
is largely offset by the increased height and cost of the towers for
the aluminium line, and consequently there is little inducement for
the American engineer to adopt the new metal. Matters are some-
what different, however, in Europe and Canada.

“The United States, European, and Canadian quotations for
copper are practically identical, and may be taken at present at
12-5 cents per pound. The European and Canadian quotation for
aluminium, however, is only 13 cents per pound as against 21 cents
in the United States. In these countries, therefore, the prices for
hard-drawn wire are approximately 19 cents and 15 cents per pound
for aluminium and copper respectively, with the result that the
substitution of aluminium for copper effects a saving of over 36 per
cent.”

In 1913, during tariff hearings before the Committee on Ways
and Means, U.S. House of Representatives, Mr. J. P. Bartlett asked
that aluminium be placed on the free list. In his brief, the alumin-
ium industry was declared to be practically in the hands of one
concern, the Aluminum Company of America, which controls sub-
stantially all the sources of aluminium in the United States. The
company was also charged with oppressive commercial methods and
practices, as evidenced by the suit filed against it by the Federal
Government and the decree entered. He offered the following state-
ment in reference to the Aluminum Company of America’s capitaliza-
tion and profits :—

‘That company, starting with a capital of $20,000, increased
it to $1,000,000, of which, according to said petition, an additional
$10,000 was paid for in cash, $250,000 was to be paid as called for,

62

and $720,000 was the estimated value of certain patents, and that
its estimated assets were $27,000,000, representing (with a possible
exception of $1,000,000) earnings and including a stock dividend of
500 per cent, or $16,000,000, declared Dec. 15, 1909, besides cash
dividends often declared, those in 1910 admittedly being 17 per cent
on said $27,000,000.”

He further stated that “ the company, through its subsidiaries,
is . . . also the largest consumer of aluminium, discriminating in
favour of its own users against outside purchasers; large bauxite
deposits, the chief raw material in aluminium production, exist
abroad and large manufacturers of aluminium in bulk are also situated
there. By placing aluminium on the free list, a large stimulus will
be given to the manufacture of aluminium products at home.”

The Aluminum Company of America filed a somewhat extended
statement in defence of its operations and the duty of 7 cents per
pound. They said:—

‘The mineral bauxite is found in Arkansas, Georgia, Alabama,
and Tennessee. It requires 6 tons each of bauxite, coal, and lime-
stone to make 2 tons of alumina, from which 1 ton of aluminium is
made. Alumina is made at East St. Louis, IIl., the point of minimum
freight haul for the raw materials. Carbon made from petroleum
coke is another important raw material employed. Next to labour,
electrical energy is the chief requirement in making aluminium, and
the company has large electric smelting plants on the Niagara and
St. Lawrence rivers, and is commencing another plant on the Little
Tennessee river.

“The reduction process is slow and complicated and requires a
large investment. While bauxite is plentiful and has a market
value of $5 per ton, aluminum, in the form of ingot, sheet, or wire,
has a market value of $400 per ton, owing to labour requirements
and the large investment, which amounts to $1,500 per ton of product
turned out annually. Even the interest amounts to 43 cents per
pound. Petroleum coke is worth about $5 per ton, but the finished
carbons cost about $50 per ton. The smelting process is continuous,
requiring three daily shifts. Domestic labour is considerably more
expensive than the labour obtainable abroad. Freight hauls on raw
materials are also much longer in this country than abroad.

‘Outside of the United States there are fourteen companies
manufacturing aluminium, with a capacity of over 100,000,000 Ib.
per annum, although the foreign consumption in 1911 was but 55
per cent of capacity. Importations to this country (United States)
have been as follows, in round figures: 1909, 5,140,000 Ib.; 1910,
12,340,000 Ib.; 1911, 7,690,000 Ib.; 1912, at rate of 18,750,000 Ib.
There have been no exports of aluminium produced at home, but
there have been some exports of partly or completely fabricated
products made from imported ingots.”

The company asked that the present duty be retained. It
also stated that it is not a merger or combination, but has built up
up its own property and business.

War prices seem to have further discouraged the use of aluminium

in the United States for transmission line construction. A comparison

63

in prices of the two metals, copper and aluminium (see page 59)
explains why. Several United States transmission companies even
went so far as to replace already existing aluminium lines with copper
for economic reasons. The following are notable examples:

Rochester (N.Y.) Railway and Light Co. ‘‘ Arrangements have
been made by the Rochester (N.Y.) Railway and Light Company to
substitute No. 0 stranded copper wire for the 428,000-circ. mil.
stranded aluminium conductors of a duplicate three-phase trans-
mission line between Mortimer, N.Y., and the city of Rochester.”
The aluminium transmission line was built in 1907 and designed to
transmit 18,000 h.p. This capacity has been reduced by the change
in conductors to about 12,000 h.p., which is considered sufficient for
future service. With the price of aluminium at 56 cents per pound
and copper at 20 cents per pound—the basis on which the substitution
was made—a net amount of $8,400 has been realized from 63,000
pounds of aluminium through the change.*

Northern California Power Co.—‘‘ On account of the present
abnormally high price of aluminium, and also because it has deemed
it advisable to increase the capacity of certain of its transmission
lines, the Northern California Power Company, Consolidated, of San
Francisco, has taken down some of its aluminium wire and substituted
therefor copper wire. The proceeds from the aluminium wire taken
down have been sufficient to cover the cost of copper wire of greater
capacity together with the labour and other costs involved. The
company has made this change from aluminium to copper wire on its
high-tension lines between Hamilton City and Nord, a distance of
about 9 miles, and between Hamilton City and Chico, a distance of
about 13 miles. It is at present engaged in making a similar change
from Hamilton City toward Butte City, a distance of about 20 miles,
and, as soon as this is finished, it will change the line from Orland
northerly, a distance of about 30 miles.’’f

Montana Power Co.—‘“ Recently advantage has been taken of
the high price of aluminium by the Montana Power Company in the
reconstruction of transmission lines from its power stations on the
Madison river to Butte. Originally three 50,000-volt lines were
constructed between these points, two of them using aluminium
conductors on wood poles and one No. 0 copper on steel towers.
The steel tower copper line has been re-insulated for 100,000 volts
and the aluminium lines abandoned. General Manager F. M. Kerr
of the Montana Power Company gives the cost of re-insulating the

* Electrical World, Dec. 25, 1915.
} Electrical World, Feb. 19, 1916.

64

60 miles of tower line as approximately $17,000, with a salvage on.
aluminium from the other two lines at 52 cents a pound f.o b. Butte
railway station, of approximately $60,000.’’*

Respecting the proportion of aluminium and copper used in high
tension lines,—70,000 volts and over—data compiled from a tabular
statement in the Electrical World} show that, in 1914, North America
had some 7,000 wire-miles of aluminium against some 19,000 wire-
miles of copper in use on lines operating above this voltage. In other
parts of the world, the table shows no aluminium used on lines of over
70,000 volts. This is partly owing to the fact that there are compara-
tively few lines outside of America operating under these higher
voltages, but aluminium is also extensively used on the shorter lines
found there, notably in Norway, Sweden and New Zealand.

Canada probably has in use a greater proportion of aluminium
lines than any other country. A recent survey by the Commission of
Conservation shows that on all lines in the Dominion, operating at
10,000 volts and over, there are 13,000 wire-miles of aluminium and
8,000 wire-miles of copper.

* Electrical World, Feb. 24, 1917.
+ Electrical World, April 25, 1914.

65

APPENDIX II

Order in Council, 2nd September, 1918, re Application of St.
Lawrence River Power Co.

P. C. 2144—Certified copy of a Report of the Committee of
the Privy Council, approved by His Excellency the Governor General
on the 2nd September, 1918.

The Committee of the Privy Council have had before them a
report, dated 31st August, 1918, from the Right Honourable Sir
George E. Foster, Acting Secretary of State for External Affairs,
submitting that there has recently been before the International
Joint Commission an application of the St. Lawrence River Power
Company, a corporation of the state of New York, for the approval
of a project to construct certain works in the South Sault channel of
the St. Lawrence river, an international navigable boundary water;
that, as a result of this proceeding, a situation has arisen that may
seriously affect Canadian interests; and that, for the reasons set
out in the Memorandum hereto annexed, it is desirable that the whole
matter should be made the subject of direct discussion and settlement
with the Government of the United States.

The Minister, therefore, recommends that representatives of
this Government be delegated and empowered to approach the United
States Government, through the appropriate channel, and to enter
into negotiations upon the matter with representatives of that
Government upon the basis of the annexed memorandum.

The Committee concur in the foregoing recommendation and
submit the same for approval.

RODOLPHE BOUDREAU

Clerk of the Privy Council

MEMORANDUM

The St. Lawrence River Power Company, a corporation of the
state of New York, has made, under what is conceived to be the
authority of the Treaty of January 11, 1909, between the United
States and His Majesty the King, an application to the International
Joint Commission for the approval of a project to construct a sub-
merged weir in the South Sault channel of the St. Lawrence river.
The South Sault channel is an international boundary water, and
the Governments of Canada and the United States having appeared
by counsel in the proceeding and the hearing thereon, certain ques-
tions have arisen that affect not only the treaty relations between
Canada and the United States and the powers of the International
Joint Commission, but also the prosecution of the European war.
For the reasons hereinafter indicated, it appears desirable that the
matter should be made immediately the subject of direct consultation
and negotiation between the two Governments.

The position, as reported by counsel for the Canadian Govern-
ment, may be here summarized. In September, 1917, the St. Law-

59875—5

66

rence River Power Company applied for and secured permission from
the Secretary of War of the United States to undertake certain works
in the South Sault channel, namely, to dredge a channel through
what is known as Dodge shoal, to construct a moveable ice boom
and to extend to Long Sault island, by means of a submerged weir,
the jetty or deflecting dyke already existing in the South Sault
channel. It was stated that the object in view was, through the
effect of these works on the river ice formations, to secure during the
winter season an increased development of hydro-electric power
in the company’s power plant at Massena, New York, which is
dependent for its operation upon a diversion of the waters of the St.
Lawrence river. The construction of the submerged weir was only
permitted by the Secretary of War subject to the approval of the
International Joint Commission; the other works, however, were
approved, without the knowledge of the Canadian Government and
without any reference to the Commission, and have in whole or in
part been proceeded with.

Although the immediate completion of all these works has been
represented as being highly desirable and even urgently necessary,
almost a year was aliowed to elapse before the St. Lawrence River
Power Company took steps to fulfil the condition imposed by the
Secretary of War in respect of the proposed submerged weir; it was
not until August 9, 1918, that the company’s plans and application
for approval thereof were filed at the offices of the International Joint
Commission at Washington. Thereafter, on August 12, before any
notice of the application had been formally served upon the Canadian
Government, counsel for the United States Government presented
a motion before the International Joint Commission in the course of
a hearing upon another matter, praying that the hearing on the
application should proceed at that session, notwithstanding the
Commission’s rules of procedure, which require notice and publication
of the application and provide for a considerable period for the filing
of counter statements. In support of his motion, counsel represented
on behalf of the United States that the St. Lawrence River Power
Company was supplying the electrical power essential to its parent
corporation, the Aluminum Company of America, one of the world’s
chief producers of aluminium; that the proposed works would resuit
in an increased production of aluminium during the coming winter
months estimated at six milion pounds; and that this increased
production was urgently necessary for the purposes of the Government
of the United States and the Allies in the prosecution of the war.
Counsel, therefore, urged that it should be made possible to hold an
immediate hearing on the merits of the application.

Counsel for the Canadian Government, having had no oppor-
tunity to secure instructions, opposed the motion, declaring at the
same time the readiness of his Government to co-operate in all
necessary war measures and urging that the ma'tter was more properly
one for direct consultation between the Governments.

After consideration, the International Joint Commission ordered
the suspension of the rules and fixed the hearing of the application
for August 29 at Montreal.

67

At the hearing at Montreal counsel for the United States, for the
first time, came forward with a definite request that the application
should be granted forthwith as an urgent war measure, and presented
in support thereof a letter from the Secretary of War of the United
States. Counsel for Canada submitted, and argued in support of,
a statement presented to the Commission, copy of which is attached
hereto. It was contended that, under existing treaties, the Commission
was without power to grant the approval sought; and the suggestion
was repeated that, in any case, the proper and more expeditious pro-
cedure was that of direct negotiation between the two Governments,
and the Government of Canada was prepared to enter upon such nego-
tiation immediately.

The International Joint Commission has taken the application
under advisement until September 12, when it is possible, though,
of course, not certain, that a decision may be announced. It was
urged at the hearing that, unless the proposed work was commenced
before September 15, there would be a risk that it could not be
finished before the winter.

Having regard both for the necessity of securing the most effective
prosecution of the war and for the great desirability of a wise regu-
lation of the boundary water system between Canada and the United
States, it is believed that the procedure pursued in this matter is not
calculated to result in a mutually satisfactory solution. The Gov-
ernment of Canada is strongly convinced that some other and more
direct means of settlement should be sought; and in this conviction
it submits the following considerations and suggestions :—

1. Article VII of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842 declares
“that the channels of the river St. Lawrence on both sides of Long
Sault islands and of Barnhart island 5 + shall be
equally free and open to the ships, vessels and boats of both parties.”’
This declaration, relating as it does specifically to the South Sault
channel, clearly prohibits the construction of the proposed submerged
weir, which admittedly would prevent all navigation through this
channel. So far as the Treaty of January 11, 1909, goes to the
question, it is equally conclusive against the project. Article VIII
lays down an order of precedence to be observed among the various
uses for boundary Waters enumerated therein, and declares that ‘‘no
use shall be permitted which tends materially to conflict with or
restrain any other use which is given in preference over it in this
order of precedence.’’ In the order of precedence that follows ‘‘uses
for navigation’’ are given preference over ‘‘uses for power and for
irrigation purposes.’’ The construction of the proposed submerged
weir is sought purely for power purposes, and, as such, it must be held
to be prohibited by Article VIII, since it would not only “tend
materially to conflict with or restrain’’ but it would wholly prevent
the use of this channel of the St. Lawrence river for navigation.
Clearly, therefore, the International Joint Commission is without
power to approve the proposed structure, and it is apparent that the
application, if pressed as at present, must fail.

2. It is true that the project in question might have been put
forward in such a manner that it could properly have become the

59875—5}

68

subject of inquiry and recommendation by the International Joint
Commission. In the turn which the proceeding actually took, the
United States Government became in effect the real party; the case
became in substance a United States Government matter. Such a
case might properly have been referred to the International Joint
Commission for inquiry and report under Article IX of the Treaty
of January 11, 1909; for it is under this Article that governmental
matters or projects should be submitted to and considered by the
Commission. It need only be added here that the Government of
Canada was prepared from the beginning to entertain such a course
and to assist in every possible way in carrying it out.

3. As already intimated, the Canadian Government is not
unmindful of the considerations of urgency advanced in this matter
on behalf of the Government of the United States; it is not only
ready, but is very anxious to do everything in its power to promote
in every sphere of endeavour the most effective and harmonious
co-operation in the prosecution of the war, in which the two Govern-
ments are associated under common ideals against a common foe.

4. For this great purpose the Canadian Government recognizes
that, in view of the near approach of the winter season, it is highly
desirable that a speedy conclusion should be reached upon the
question of the necessity for the construction of the proposed works
in the South Sault channel. To this end the Canadian Government
would suggest that the whole matter should be withdrawn from the
purview of the International Joint Commission and be made imme-
diately the subject of diplomatic negotiation between the two Govern-
ments. This suggestion is advanced in the belief not only that it
will, if accepted, conduce to a speedy conclusion of the matter, but
that it is more appropriate that all proposed measures of co-operation
in respect of the war should be discussed in this manner rather than
through the medium of the International Joint Commission. In the
view of the Canadian Government it was never contemplated that the
machinery of this Commission should be used for the settlement of
such unusual executive measures as present themselves to the two
Governments in the extraordinary emergency that confronts them
to-day; rather the Commission was designed to promote, for perman-
ent and comprehensive application, the establishment of a system
of principles under which a great natural highway, common to the
two countries, might be wisely and deliberately developed for the
common benefit. The circumstances in which the present matter
has been brought forward and heard need only be recalled to show
how little calculated they are to afford to the Commission the oppor-
tunity for careful and fully informed consideration that is so essential
to the fulfilment of the Commission’s real purpose.

5. If, therefore, the United States Government still considers
that the proposed works ought to be constructed as a war measure,
the Government of Canada is prepared to enter into immediate
discussion upon the matter, and to that end it would propose the
following as a basis:—

(a) If the Government of the United States is satisfied
that, unless the proposed works are constructed in the South

69

Sault channel, there must necessarily be a substantial shortage
in the supply of aluminium for the purposes of the United States
and the Allies in the prosecution of the war, the Government of
Canada will assent to the proposed construction as a war
measure. In pursuance of this undertaking, the present appli-
cation of the St. Lawrence River Power Company to the Inter-
national Joint Commission should be withdrawn.

(6) The terms upon which the proposed works shall be
constructed shall be agreed upon at a conference between repre-
sentatives of the two Governments delegated and empowered
for this purpose.

(c) In order that the South Sault channel may be restored
to its present status, the terms should include a provision to the
effect that the submerged weir, if constructed, shall be removed
within twelve months after the conclusion of the European war.

(d) There shall not be diverted from the St. Lawrence
river by the St. Lawrence River Power Company a greater
quantity of water daily than is at present being so diverted.
This paragraph is not to be construed as admitting any right
on the part of the St. Lawrence River Power Company, or of any
other person or corporation, to divert water from the St. Lawrence
river.

(e) The Canadian Government, being advised that it
would be possible to develop some seven hundred thousand
horse-power from the waters of the St. Lawrence river in the
vicinity of the Long Sault rapids, and recognizing that any such
development could only proceed under agreement between the
two countries, proposes for consideration that the two Govern-
ments should take immediate steps jointly to prepare a scheme
looking to such power development in the interests of the two
countries. In the light of this possibility the Canadian Govern-
ment is strongly of the opinion that no permanent project by
private interest should be permitted at this time that would
prevent or interfere with the carrying out of such a joint pro-
gramme by the two countries.

6. In conclusion, the Government of Canada earnestly trusts
that, by means of such a conference between the two Governments as
is here proposed, some mutually satisfactory solution of the matter
may be reached; for it would look with grave concern upon any
casual or hastily considered project that might have serious results
upon the navigability of the great highway that constitutes Canada’s
main artery of communication and commerce. In this connection
the Canadian Government would welcome further information con-
cerning the circumstances and authority under which the dredging
of Dodge shoal in the South Sault channel, hereinbefore referred to,
was undertaken; for, even although it should appear, as alleged,
that this change in the river bed will have no effect upon the naviga-
bility of the St. Lawrence river, yet, in the view of this Government,
it is highly desirable, in the interest of the establishment of sound
principles and rules for the development of the common boundary
waters, that such projects of private companies should be submitted

70

in advance to the International Joint Commission. The Canadian
Government, which is advised that this dredging has already had
the serious effect of lowering by at least five inches the water at the
head of the Cornwall canal, reserves for further attention any rights
in respect thereof under existing Treaties.

A similar reservation is made in respect of the proposed ice-boom
—the construction of which is apparently contemplated without any
consultation with the Canadian Government or reference to the
International Joint Commission.

Ottawa, August 31, 1918,

71

APPENDIX III

Argument of Hon. Hugh Guthrie,* Solicitor General for the
Dominion of Canada

Hon. Mr. GuTHRIE: Representing the Government of Canada
in this matter, there is not, in my opinion, very much between us
upon the facts, and my submission is that, upon the admitted facts,
upon the statement of the case which has been put in by the applicant
company, there is no power in the International Joint Commission
to approve this order; and, if there were such power, I do not think
in their discretion they should approve it.

We rely, of course, in that position, in the first place, upon what
we consider our absolute treaty rights. The Treaty of 1842, com-
monly known as the Ashburton Treaty, is still a treaty in full force
and effect. It is the treaty which delimits the boundary lines
between Canada and the United States. Of its very nature it is a
permanent and binding arrangement, and was reached after a long
discussion by the two countries. It is an arrangement which was
come to upon consideration—valuable consideration. The preamble
of the treaty itself recites that it is an arrangement made with such
equivalents and compensations as are deemed just and reasonable.
Where Canada yields a point in a particular instance, the United
States yields a point in another instance. It is founded, therefore,
upon equivalents and compensation. A treaty of that nature must
be looked on as a very sacred international bargain which cannot
lightly be broken, varied or altered.

Now, Article VII of the Treaty is very explicit in regard to the
channel of the St. Lawrence at Long Sault island. Those terms
which apply to the Long Sault channels read as follows:

“It is further agreed, that the channels in the river St. Lawrence,
on both sides of the Long Sault islands, * * * shall be equally
free and open to the ships, vessels, and boats of both parties.”

There are three requirements of that section with regard to both
of those channels. The first is that they shall be equal, that is, the
usage of them. Next, they shall be free, and, next, they shall be open.
It is interesting to note just a point in regard to the use of that word
“equally.’’ There has been some comment on the use of the word.
If I understand rightly the contention of my learned friend, Mr.
Koonce, when the matter was before this Commission at Atlantic
City, he sought to argue that ‘‘equally’’ meant merely that there
shall be no discrimination; that the South branch of the Long Sault
might be closed so long as it was closed against all parties, because
then there would be an equality of non-user which would satisfy the
language of the treaty. I am unable to agree with any such view of
plain language, and I am satisfied it would be nothing short of a

*Argument of Hon. H. Guthrie on behalf of the Dominion of Canada at the Hearing before the
{International Joint Commission of the application of the St. Lawrence River Power Company, Mon-
treal, August 29, 1918,

72

distortion of words to put such a construction upon it. But the word
“‘equally’’ has a history. In the original draft of the treaty the word
‘“‘equaliy”’ did not appear, and in other sections of the treaty the
word ‘‘equally’’ does not appear with regard to the New Brunswick
waters.

Mr. MIGNAULT: Can you suggest, Mr. Guthrie, why it was put in?

Mr GurTHRIE: Yes, I am going to suggest why it was put in.
Would you permit me to proceed, because that is the point I am
making. The word ‘‘equally’’ did not appear in the first draft.
Now, this is a matter, perhaps, of some slight importance. It is an
historical point anyway. In The Works of Daniel Webster, published
by the well known house of Little, Brown & Company, of Boston, in
1856, we get some light upon the question as to how the word
“equally’’ came to be inserted.

Mr. MIGNAULT: Will you give me the reference, please?

Mr. GuTHRIE: The reference is to Volume VI of The Works of
Daniel Webster, published by Little, Brown & Company, of Boston,
in 1856, at page 282. The first reference is to a letter written by Lord
Ashburton and addressed to the Honourable Daniel Webster on July
16, 1842. In this letter, Lord Ashburton enters a mild protest or
suggestion that, under certain circumstances, the passage of a British
vessel through the Long Sault channels might be refused, and he
suggests:

‘‘We want a clause in our present treaty to say that, for a short
distance, namely from the upper end of Upper Long Sault island to
the lower end of Barnhart’s island, the several channels of the river
shall be used in common by the boatmen of the two countries.”

Mr. Webster replied to that letter in a communication dated
July 27, 1842. From his letter I read the following, at page 284:

‘“‘ Besides agreeing upon the line of division through which these
controverted portions of the boundary pass, you have suggested also
as the proposed settlement proceeds upon the ground of compromise
and equivalents, that boats belonging to Her Majesty’s subjects may“
pass the falls of the Long Sault, in the St. Lawrence, on either side
of the Long Sault islands, and that the passages between the islands
lying at or near the junction of the river St. Clair with the lake of
that name shall be severally free and open to the vessels of both
countries.”’

Mr. Webster’s interest was in the Detroit river. It happened
that, near Detroit, the channel passes through Canadian waters. He
saw that, if the clause were [not] made plain and the treatment for both
countries made equal, it might afterwards be contended that the
important channel at Detroit was wholly in Canadian waters, and
that might not accord equal treatment to the ships of the United
States. He agreed that the matter shall be straightened out, and,
toward the end of his letter, he says:

“Tt being understood that all the water communications and all
the usual portages, along the line from lake Superior to the lake of
the Woods, and also Grand portage from the shore of lake Superior
to the Pigeon river, as now actually used, shall be free and open to the
use of the subjects and citizens of both countries.”’

At the close of Lord Ashburton’s letter of July 29, 1842, he says:

73

“‘T should remark, also, that the free use of the navigation of the
Long Sault passage on the St. Lawrence must be extended to below
Barnhart’s island, for the purpose of clearing those rapids.”’

At page 352 of the same volume, in President Tyler’s Message
transmitting the Ashburton Treaty to the Senate, it is said:

“So, again, there are several channels or passages, of different
degrees of facility and usefulness, between several islands in the river
St. Clair, at or near its entry into the lake of that name. In these
three cases, the treaty provides that all the several passages and
channels shall be free and open to the use of the citizens and subjects
‘i both parties.”

After the draft treaty, which is said in this work to be in the
handwriting of Mr. Webster, and it had been transmitted by Presi-
dent Tyler to Congress, the word “ equally ’’ was inserted, and it is
said here in the handwriting of Mr. Webster:* To make plain and
clear that the usage and rights of those waters specifically mentioned
in Article VII of the treaty should be equally free and equally open
to the ships, vessels, and boats of both parties. Mr. Webster’s in-
terest being at Detroit rather than in the St. Lawrence, and the
interest of Lord Ashburton, according to his original letter, being
more particularly in regard to the St. Lawrence and St. Clair rivers.

That is so plain a declaration, in so prominent a document as an
international treaty, that I do not see how any tribunal or any court
could vary it or set it aside in any way; but, on the contrary, it must
be bound by it and give it due effect.

Now, it was suggested in the argument of my learned friend, Mr.
Koonce, that perhaps it had been superseded.

Mr. Tawney: Before you leave that, may I ask you a question?
Do you contend that the word ‘“‘equally’’ applies to any right other
than that of the right of navigation?

Mr. GuTHRIE: It shall be “equally free and open.”’

Mr. PowELL: To the ships, vessels and boats?

Mr. GUTHRIE: Yes; to the ships, vessels and boats.

Mr. PowELL: That is a limitation.

Mr. GuTHRIE: For the moment I would think that navigation
would be the only thing in their minds. At that time, the develop-
ment of power would hardly have been present in their minds.

Mr. PowELL: The limitation to navigation means exclusion of
everything else.

Mr. GuTHRIE: “Ships, vessels and boats’’ is as broad a term
applying to navigation as I think it could well frame. It would
include all the craft that were known at that time.

Mr. MIGNEAULT: It might include the right to fish in these
waters?

Mr. GuturiE: No; I do not think the free rights to boats would
include a fishing right.

*Owing to the defective accoustics of the room in which the hearing was held,
this sentence was mis-reported. Mr. Guthrie’s statement was about as follows:—

“Before the draft treaty, with the accompanying message—which is stated in
this work to have been written by Mr. Webster—had been transmitted by Presi-
dent Tyler to Congress, the word ‘equally’ was inserted and it is stated here in
plain and clear language that the usage and rights of those waters’’ ete, (Ed.)

74

Now, it has been suggested that that treaty has, in some way,
been superseded by the subsequent treaty under which the Inter-
national Joint Commission has been established.

Mr. MIGNEAULT: There was a treaty of Washington in, I think,
1871, which refers to the right of navigation.

Mr. GuTHRIE: There is some reference to it but not as affecting
this portion of the river.

Mr. PowEL_: What section of the treaty of 1871 applies to the
navigation of the St. Lawrence river?

Mr. Koonce: Article X XVI.

Mr. GuTHRIE: That applies to navigation below Cornwall. It does
not affect this matter at all. Now, the treaty of 1909 was a treaty,
as stated in the preamble, made between the United States of America
and the King of Great Britain—‘‘ to prevent disputes regarding the
use of boundary waters and to settle all questions which are now
pending between the United States and the Dominion of Canada
involving the rights, obligations, or interests of either in relation to
the other or to the inhabitants of the other, along their common
frontier, and to make provision for the adjustment and settlement
of all such questions as may hereafter arise.”’

Under that treaty this Commission, under Article VII, was
established, and, by Article VIII, the jurisdiction of this Commission
was also established. There is nothing in the treaty of 1909 to confer
jurisdiction upon this body save what is set out in Article VIII. It
is the only article which confers jurisdiction, Article VII being the
article which constitutes the body. Article VIII says:

“This International Joint Commission shall have jurisdiction
over and shall pass upon all cases involving the use or obstruction or
diversion of the waters with respect to which under Articles III and
IV of this treaty the approval of this Commission is required, and in
passing upon such cases the Commission. shall be governed by the
following rules and principles * * *

Now, there are only two classes of cases which would come before
this Commission brought here by private parties. I do not refer to
those cases which may be referred to by the Governments. It is clear
that this case does not come under Article IV or have any bearing
upon Article IV, because that applies only to waters flowing out of
national waters. So it must come under Article III if it comes at all.
Article III reads as follows:

“It is agreed that, in addition to the uses, obstructions, and
diversions heretofore permitted or hereafter provided for by special
agreement between the Parties hereto, no further or other uses or
obstructions or diversions, whether temporary or permanent, of
boundary waters on either side of the line, affecting the natural level
or flow of boundary waters on the other side of the line, shall be made
except by authority of the United States or the Dominion of Canada
within their respective jurisdictions and with the approval, as here-
inafter provided, of a a joint commission, to be known as the Interna-
tional Joint Commission.”

That, I take it, means—and I submit that this is a correct
meaning of the sentence—that if, in any case, the United States or
the Dominion of Canada seeks to make any change in its own water

75

or waters under its own jurisdiction, they may do so provided they
obtain the approval of this Commission; but, in doing so, they must
not transgress Article I. Article I says:

“The High Contracting Parties agree that the navigation of all
navigable boundary waters shall for ever continue free and open for
the purposes of commerce to the inhabitants and to the ships, vessels
and boats of both countries equally, subject, however, to any laws
and regulations of either country, within its own territory, not
inconsistent with such privilege of free navigation, and applying
equally and without discrimination to the inhabitants, ships, vessels
and boats of both countries.”

The moment there is interference with what the article calls
“privilege of free navigation,’ then neither country has any juris-
diction in its own international waters, or its own territorial waters,
to do any act. Both countries might, if they saw fit, refer such a
matter to this Commission under other sections of this treaty. But,
until that is done—and it would have to be done by both countries—
neither one nor the other can do any act which will be inconsistent
with such “privilege of free navigation.’”” That, I submit, makes the
old treaty power rights stronger than they were in the original. It
does not supersede it in any way. It does not destroy or annul or
alter it. But, by Article VIII, it is expressly provided that the fore-
going provisions shall not apply to or disturb any existing uses of
boundary waters. One of the uses of boundary waters is the use of
navigation. That is a use, and it is so described in Article VIII. The
three uses that are there permitted, and the priority in which they are
permitted, are stated to be, first, ‘‘ for domestic and sanitary pur-
poses ’’; second, “ uses for navigation, including the service of canals
for the purposes of navigation ’’; and, third, ‘‘ uses for power and for
irrigation ’’. Navigation is a use and there is an express limitation
in Article VIII that the foregoing provision—that is the provision
which confers jurisdiction on this Board—shall not apply to or disturb
any existing uses; and the existing use that we rely upon in this case
is the use of navigation which was conferred on us by the Ashburton
Treaty, Article VII of which provides that this particular branch of
this particular river shall be kept “‘ free and open to the ships, vessels,
and boats ’’, of both countries.

Mr. TawNeEy: Do you observe in Article I that the limitation
there is to navigable boundary waters?

Mr. GUTHRIE: Yes.

Mr. TAWNEY: Do you make any distinction between navigable
and non-navigable boundary waters?

Mr. Guturie: I do not make the distinction, but notice that
the words “navigable boundary waters” are there, and [ submit that
any water that is capable of navigation is navigable water. The
fact that ships do not ply does not affect the question of whether the
water is navigable or not. We have in Canada many rivers and
lakes upon which ships never ply. But there is deep water and some
day they might be used. Certainly it is abundantly proved by my
learned friends themselves that this stream, the South Sault, was
used for commercial purposes. It was used for pleasure boat pur-
poses. It was used for excursion boat purposes. which is a combina-

76

tion of business and pleasure. Until the railway came in there, it
was more or less common. It was navigable and it is navigable
to-day. But the evidence seems pretty clear that there was very
little traffic on it; perhaps none except the motor boats and launches.
There were the docks. One of the witnesses said, ‘‘There is a wharf
at my place; there is another at Dodge shoal, and there is another
a little higher up.’’ He also said, ‘Freight used to come down, but
the railways changed all that.”

Mr. MaGratH: Do you think it would be necessary to go both
ways to cause it to be navigable?

Mr. GUTHRIE: We can go both ways.

We have in the South Sault an alternate route. I do not say it
is the best route. Let us have an ice jam in the North Sault; let us
have a gate on one of our locks thrown out of commission; we have
the alternative channel, and we do not want it blocked. But there
is a larger view of it even than that and the larger view is this: Some
day—and I trust soon—there will be a power development and a dam
across the North Sault. It has to be an international work, I assume.
Then it becomes all the more important to have the South Sault as
a navigable channel.

Mr. Powe: That is an argument addressed to our discretion.

Mr. GuTHRIE: Yes; I am only pointing out the importance of
itin this. I am not yielding a point in regard to our rights under the
treaty. _Now, my information is that the Government has in con-
templation the construction of a dam across that North Branch.
It will have to be undertaken internationally, I assume, with the
concurrence of the United States. Probably it may be referred to
your Commission for settlement. But, if such a work is undertaken,
and the North channel is closed, the South channel becomes all the
more important. You may say that the Richelieu and Ontario boats
are too large to come down it now, but all that is required there is a
lock to make navigation good. My point, however, is that the water
is navigable, and that is so abundantly proved that I do not think I
need labour the question.

Mr. Powe: There is one thing that bothers me, and I think
the case is stronger in your favour than you are putting it, because
the two High Contracting Parties in their language in the Ashburton
Treaty have recognized this very division of the water as navigable
and provided for it.

Mr. GuTurRiE: I would not expect for a moment that I could
put it in language as strong as the treaty. I am relying on the treaty
but I am trying to point out some of the reasons for the great import-
ance of this question to the Government of Canada. The thing that
is also important and should not be lost sight of is this: That this
very concern, this Aluminum Company of America, with one of its
subsidiary companies, known as the Long Sault Development Com-
pany, attempted the very thing that the Government wants to do.
They tried to get the right to build a dam across there and they did
get the right from the State of New York, but, subsequently, that
right was taken away by the State of New York and the matter got
to the courts and to the Supreme Court of the United States.

77

When the Long Sault Development Company got its charter
to construct that dam it was a very broad one. They set out that
“the rights hereby granted shall never be so used as to impair or
obstruct the navigation of the St. Lawrence river, but, on the contrary,
that such navigation shall be preserved in as good condition as, if not
better than, the same is at present, regard being always had to the
amount of the natural flow of water in said river as affecting its
navigability from time to time.”’

Now, New York State undertook to grant lands under the South
Sault to this company. It was held by the United States Supreme
Court that they could not do so, but, all through, the Development
Company took the position that it was navigable water and they were
going to actually improve it. Their charter certainly forbade them
injuring the navigation, and I point out also to the Commission that
in every permit issued at Washington the navigation of the river has
been recognized because the clause has been put in that they must
not injure navigation. The three permits contain the clause. The
charter the St. Lawrence Power Company obtained from the State
of New York has the same clause—they must not injure navigation.
The navigation has been recognized. As I said before, though, the
matter has been so clearly proven and demonstrated here that I
need not argue the question any further.

Now, I go back to the treaty, and, as one of the Commissioners
remarked, that is certainly our strongest ground. That is the ground
that we rely on as a bar to any action by this Commission in regard
to this application. I stated in the beginning that, in the opinion of
the Government of Canada, the Commission had no jurisdiction.
Whether I used the word “‘jurisdiction”’ correctly or not may be open
to question, but certainly I am putting it on fair grounds when I say
that the Commission has no right to do it. We claim a treaty right.
If that Article VII of the Ashburton Treaty does not give the people
of this country free and open right to those channels for the ships,
vessels and boats of this country, if this Commission has power to
close that channel by this dam, it can close the Detroit river; it can
close the St. Lawrence river. Where is it going to stop? This Govy-
ernment relies on that treaty. It looks on it as sacred, and it claims
its rights under it. Treaties must be respected. The whole world
is convulsed with a war now because a nation in a moment of madness
undertook to deny treaty rights. We want every right that is given
to us under that treaty. For that reason we ask this high tribunal
not to seek to vary it, not to deny our right in a single particular,
but to keep open and free that channel specifically mentioned in
Article VII.

Now, as I said yesterday, the Government of Canada is not
disposed to play dog in the manger in this matter. We have no such
desire and no such wish. I think it would perhaps have been better
if my learned friend, Mr. Koonce, yesterday, had obtained a letter
from the Secretary of War directed to the Government at Ottawa
instead of to this Commission, asking that this matter be taken up.
I can assure him it would have been taken up and would be yet, and
the shortest cut to obtain the relief in this matter is for the Govern-

78

ment of the United States—it being the party who should negotiate
proceedings—to communicate at the earliest possible moment with the
Government of Canada, in order not only that the whole of the greater
question may be discussed but that this particular difficulty may be
discussed with a view of making it operative and satisfactory for
purposes of the present war and at the earliest moment of time. My
learned friend suggests that that means delay. They do not want it.
The president of their company does not want it. It takes time and
can never be done. If the United States wants it done I have
authority to say: Let them apply to Canada and the question of delay
in adjusting these matters will not be the fault of Canada.

Mr. Koonce: Will you please state how that can be brought
about?

Mr. GUTHRIE: Let the Secretary of War send a telegraphic
communication to Sir Robert Borden, and two men can settle this
matter in an hour. We are dealing with the Government of the
United States and not with a very weighty private corporation, and
that is a very grave distinction. I submit to you that, if this dam
were to go in and become the property of this private company, it
will never come out and that the river will be blocked. I heard it
suggested by counsel, ‘‘Suppose it were put in and we rip it out at
the end of the war.” If it goes in it will never come out. The
company is too strong. Three or four years from now they will say,
‘“‘Look at the money we have spent. Leave it there.” We want to
be in a position of dealing fairly and squarely with the Government
of the United States, because we apprehend that this is an interna-
tional matter. If the two Governments should refer it to this Com-
mission—and I think probably they would refer the greater question
to this Commission—all well and good. Your jurisdiction would then
be complete, but, in the meantime, my suggestion—I can only make
it as a suggestion—is that my learned friend Mr. Koonce should use
the telegraph wires and ask his Government to make an intimation—
and I am sure that in a few hours it will receive a reply—and, if a
commission will come to Canada, or we go to Washington, this particu-
lar matter will be dealt with satisfactorily to both Governments, and
the lack of production needed for the war will not lie at the door of
Canada. My submission, to be very brief, is that, under the language
of the Ashburton treaty, Canada has treaty rights which must not be
interfered with.

Mr. TAWNEY: Pardon me for asking you one question with
reference to the construction of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty. It
may have some bearing upon this matter. Was there any protest
by Canada or by Great Britain to the diversion from the South
channel of the Long Sault of the water of that channel, or any part
of it, through the power canal of the St. Lawrence River Power
Company at the time that diversion was authorized by the United
States Government?

Mr. GuTurie: I am not in a position to answer that question,
but I was in the House of Commons, as was also a member of your
Commission, at the time this question occupied the attention of the

79

House of Commons. That was in the year 1910, after the construc-
tion of the canal, and I can tell you that there was a very loud and
long protest on that occasion.

Mr. Tawney: That had relation, however, primarily, to the
development of power in the Long Sault, that is the North channel
of the Long Sault.

Mr. GUTHRIE: Yes, sir, it was charged that one led to the other.

Mr. TAwNneEy: I wanted to know whether there was any protest,
either through diplomatic channels or otherwise, by either Canada
or the British Government with regard to the diversion which the
Government of the United States authorized from the South channel
at the time that diversion was authorized?

Mr. GuTuRIE: I am not in a position to answer the question
more than to say this, that I do not think the matter was ever brought
to the attention of the Dominion of Canada. That was before the
treaty of 1910. It may be that we did not consider that we had any
rights at that time.

Mr. TAWNEY: Well, you certainly had your rights under the
Webster-Ashburton Treaty, if this was a navigable water.

Mr. GuTHRIE: But the charter of the company says that they
were not to interfere with navigation. I suppose that, seeing that
before us, if we did see it, we could rely on it, but the fact that they
have taken half the water out of that South channel in breach of the
terms of that treaty surely does not give them the right to stop it
altogether.

Mr. TAwNEyY: Not unless the other party acquiesces.

Mr. GUTHRIE: Well, we do not acquiesce; we protest and we
protest against the original construction on the ground that they
had no proper authority to make that construction. And as vigor-
ously as I can protest I do protest against that and against any
further construction.

Mr. PowELL: That word “‘free’’ is a technical term.

Mr. GuTuHRIE: I find that the word ‘‘free”’ is about the broadest—

Mr. PowWELL: It is at once the broadest and the most constricted.

Mr. GuTHRIE: It has such meaning as unfettered, uncontrolled,
unhampered, uninterrupted, without let or hindrance. It is as
broad a word as you can use.

Mr. PoweELv: Are those dictionary meanings?

Mr. GUTHRIE: Yes, but not all of them by any means.

Mr. PowEL_: But what about this legal use? By a process of
evolution the original meaning of the word ‘‘free’’ has been departed
from until it can be more fairly described by saying that it was very
restricted. Take the law in respect to the use of the highway. Every
individual in the United States or Canada has a right to the free and
uninterrupted use of the highway. They have the free and uninter-
rupted use of a river. At the same time, a man using the highway
can back his cart in against the sidewalk as long as he does not
unreasonably interfere with the driving of others. A vessel can
anchor in a stream where another vessel may be beating against the
wind and have to get out of his way, and that other man has not a
free and uninterrupted use.

80

Mr. GuTHRIE: Yes, he has.

Mr. PoweEtL: Not in the language of the dictionary. It is a
highly technical use of the word ‘‘free.”’

Mr. Gururie: I certainly think that ‘‘free’
the building of a dam across the water.

Mr. Powe Lt: Is not this the case, that the free and uninterrupted
navigation of a river would not prevent the owner, if the owner had
such a right of soil in the bed of the river, from erecting therein the
pier stretching out, so long as it did not unreasonably interfere with
navigation, and that question of unreasonable right to navigation
will be tried out in a suit for what? For a nuisance. And the thing
would be whether it was reasonable or not.

Mr. Gururte: I grant you that all things must be reasonable;
otherwise they would be a farce.

Mr. PowE..: If you go back to the Ashburton Treaty, you may
restrict the word ‘‘free’’ and adopt it as a highly technical term which
does not mean free as given by lexicographers; yet you cannot
restrict it to the point of absolute prohibition.

Mr. GuTurie: It has been argued that that word “‘free’’ means
untaxed or without charge, but the word ‘‘open”’ was put in to extend
it, and you have both words to deal with. So, if one foot is not on
strong ground the other foot is.

Mr. MIGNEAULT: The word ‘‘open”’ with the word “‘free’’ shows
that navigation should not be restricted.

Mr. Powe.t: In the United States there was an island in the
centre, and the railway company was building two bridges—the
right of free and uninterrupted navigation was invoked, and it came
before the Supreme Court of the United States in the way of getting
an injunction against the railway company for putting the bridge
over one branch of the stream and absolutely closing it. The
Supreme Court of the United States held that, inasmuch as there was
an ample and sufficiently capacious alternate route, the injunction
would not lie.

Mr. Gururie: They did not have a treaty with another nation
that said both routes shall be open.

Mr. Powe: If you had not the Ashburton Treaty the other
principle might come in.

Mr. Guturie: I am making no suggestion of that kind at all.
We are relying upon the Ashburton Treaty.

would not permit

81

APPENDIX IV
INTERNATIONAL JOINT COMMISSION

In the matter of the Application of the St. Lawrence River
Power Company for the approval of the construction
and maintenance of a submerged weir in the South
Channel of the St. Lawrence River near the mouth of its
Power Canal at Massena, New York.

INTERIM ORDER

(September 14, 1918)

Whereas, by its application dated July 25, 1918, as subsequently
amended with the permission of the Commission, the St. Lawrence
River Power Company, a corporation organized under the laws of
the state of New York, having its principal office at Massena, New
York, applied to this Commission for its approval of the construction
and maintenance of a submerged weir in the St. Lawrence river
extending from the existing jetty of the said company below the intake
of its power canal to Long Sault island in said river and being wholly
within the territory of the United States, which construction has been
authorized by the United States and approved by a permit of the
Secretary of War bearing number 38786/64, dated September 10,
1917, and attached to said application, which said permit contains,
among others, the following provisions :—

“That, if future operations by the United States require
an alteration in the position of the structure or work herein
authorized, or if, in the opinion of the Secretary of War, it shall
cause unreasonable obstruction to the free navigation of said
water, the permittee will be required, upon due notice from the
Secretary of War, to remove or alter the structural work or
obstructions caused thereby without expense to the United
States so as to render navigation reasonably free, easy and
unobstructed; and if, upon the expiration or revocation of this
permit, the structure, fill, excavation or other modification of
the watercourse hereby authorized shall not be completed, the
permittee, at his own expense, and to such extent and in such
time and manner as the Secretary of War may require, shall
remove all or any portion of the uncompleted structure or fill
and restore to its former condition the navigable capacity of the
watercourse. No claim shall be made against the United States
on account of any such removal or alteration;’’ and
Whereas, said application was first presented to the Commission

at its session at Atlantic City, New Jersey, on August 12, 1918,

59875—6

82

whereupon counsel appearing for and on behalf of the United States
applied for an immediate hearing on said application, representing,
as was also alleged by the applicant, that the said St. Lawrence River
Power Company is a subsidiary of the Aluminum Company of
America; that the applicant company had for many years developed
hydro-electric power in its power house at Massena, N.Y., using
water for that purpose taken from the South channel of the St.
Lawrence river immediately below Dodge shoal via its power canal
and Grasse river near Cornwall island; that the hydro-electric power
thus produced is used mainly in the production of aluminium by the
said Aluminum Company of America; that the demand on this
company to supply aluminium is most urgent and insistent, and
practically their entire output is being taken by the United States
and Allied Governments for military purposes in the prosecution
of the present war; that, during the months of January, February,
March and part of April in each year, huge ice jams in the said South
channel cause practically a shutdown of the said plant and an annual
reduction in the output amounting to over six million pounds, and
that these serious ice difficulties can be remedied by the construction
of the said submerged weir, and counsel for the United States Gov-
ernment therefore applied to the Commission for an order for the
suspension of its Rules of Procedure so as to permit of the immediate
hearing of the said application and in support of said motion sub-
mitted letters from the Chairman of the War Industries Board of
the United States and the Acting Director of Aircraft Production
urgently praying for favourable consideration and approval of the
application herein, and

Whereas, by its order dated at Atlantic City, August 13, 1918, the
Commission suspended rules 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 of its Rules of
Procedure and ordered that a hearing on said application be fixed for
the 29th day of August, 1918, at 10 a.m. of that day in the city of
Montreal, Que., and

Whereas, at the time and place agreed upon, the hearing having
taken place, the commission at the conclusion of the evidence of the
applicant, heard counsel on its behalf, as well as counsel on behalf of
the United States, the Dominion of Canada, the province of Ontario
and the state of New York, and also on behalf of several private and ©
corporate interests, no testimony having been presented by either
Government or by any interest in opposition to said application, and

Whereas, at the said hearing at Montreal, counsel for the United
States presented to the Commission a letter from the Secretary of War
of the United States to the Commission, requesting in order to meet
the urgent necessity for the increased production of aluminium for
the prosecution of the present war, that the permit he had granted
to the applicant receive the approval of the Commission, and

Whereas, the Dominion of Canada by its Statement in Response
and also at the said hearing denied the jurisdiction of the Commission
to entertain and grant the said application, alleging that, under Article
VII of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of August 9, 1842, it is stipu-
lated that the channels in the river St. Lawrence on both sides of
Long Sault island and Barnhart island shall be equally free and open

83

to ships, vessels and boats of both parties, and also that, by the Treaty
of January 11, 1909, between Great Britain and the United States,
it was agreed that the navigation of all navigable boundary waters
shall for ever continue free and open for the purposes of commerce
to the inhabitants and to the ships, vessels and boats of both countries,
and

Whereas, the Commission at Montreal, on the 31st August,
having duly considered the said application and the evidence offered
in support thereof, and the said exception to its jurisdiction, adjourned
its sitting to the 12th day of September at the city of New York,
when it continued the consideration thereof on the said and following
days, and

Whereas, the Commission is of opinion that the said submerged
weir would be an obstruction in a boundary water on the United
States side of the boundary line which would alter the level on the
Canadian side thereof, and therefore the Commission has, under
Articles III and VIII of the Treaty of 1909, full jurisdiction and
authority to pass upon the said application, and

Whereas, the Commission is of the opinion that, in order to arrive
at a final decision further evidence should be taken and further argu-
ment submitted, especially with regard to the effect of Article VII
of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty in so far as it may or may not
constitute a bar to the construction of the said weir, and with regard
to the question of whether said article has been superseded by the
Treaty of January 11, 1909, and

Whereas, the war necessities of the Allied Governments impera-
tively demand that the production of aluminium at the applicant’s
plant at Massena be increased as much as possible during the winter
months, and

Whereas, it further appears that the construction of the said
submerged weir must be immediately commenced and be completed
by the 15th day of December next in order that the production of
aluminium for the present year may be increased;

Therefore, without at the present time finally deciding the
question whether the Commission should approve the construction
and permanent maintenance of the said weir, and without prejudice
in any way to its right to decide such question hereafter, and in view
of the pressing necessity for the immediate increase for war purposes
of the available supply of aluminium, and at the urgent request of the
United States,

It is hereby ordered, as an interim measure, that the construction
of the said weir and its maintenance until the expiration of the
term of five years from the date hereof, or until the termination of
the present war, is hereby approved upon the following conditions :—

(1) That, at the expiration of said period of five years, or upon
the termination of the present war, whichever shall last occur, said
weir shall be removed by the applicant; reserving, however, to the
applicant or any other interested party the right to apply to the
Commission at least one year before the expiration of the said period
for a further continuance of the said weir, and on such application
the Commission may approve of such continuance on such terms and

84

conditions as it may deem appropriate and equitable for the protection
of the rights and interests of the people on either side of the line in
accordance with Article VIII of the Treaty of 1909.

(2) That the said weir shall be constructed and maintained in
accordance with the plans mentioned and under all the terms and
conditions set forth in the paragraphs numbered from 1 to 11, both
inclusive, in the permit therefor granted by the Secretary of War,
dated September 10, 1917, so far as same are applicable.

(3) That for the purpose of protecting the rights, property and
interests on either side of the boundary from any injurious effect
resulting from the construction and maintenance of said weir the
Commission will, during the term of its approval herein, retain juris-
diction over the subject matter of said application, and may make
such further order or orders in the premises as may be necessary.

Provided, that in making the foregoing order the Commission
shall not be deemed to have considered nor passed upon any question
pertaining to the right of the applicant to divert water from the St.
Lawrence river.

Dated at New York, N.Y., September 14, 1918.

C. A. MAGRATH
O. GARDNER
Henry A. POWELL
JAMEs A. TAWNEY
P. B. MIGNEAULT
R. B. GLENN

85

APPENDIX V

Order in Council, October 12, 1918, re St. Lawrence River
Power Company

P. C. 2509—Certified copy of a Report of the Committee of the
Privy Council, approved by His Excellency the Governor General on
the 12th October, 1918.

The Committee of the Privy Council have had before them a
Report, dated 19th September, 1918, from the Acting Secretary of
State for External Affairs, submitting as follows:—

As the result of an application recently made to the International
Joint Commission by the St. Lawrence River Power Company, a
corporation of the State of New York, for the approval of a project
to construct certain works in the South Sault channel of the St.
Lawrence river, an International navigable boundary water, a
situation arose which gravely concerned Canadian interests; for in
the view of this Government, already expressed at length in the order
in council of the 2nd September, 1918, (P. C. 2144),* not only was it
clear that, since the proposed works would wholly prevent navigation
through the South Sault channel, the International Joint Commission
was, by reason of existing treaties between His Majesty the King and
the United States, without power to sanction the project, but it was
further apparent that the project itself was inconsistent with and
would seriously impede the best development of the St. Lawrence
river for navigation and power purposes in the interest of both
countries. It was also the view of this Government that the con-
struction of such works was in no wise necessary for the attainment
of the end desired by the St. Lawrence River Power Company, as
expressed in their application, but that other effective and wholly
unobjectionable means were available for that purpose. Accordingly,
it became the duty of the Government to appear formally before the
International Joint Commission and to enter its strong objection to
any consideration of the application by that tribunal. At the same
time it appeared that the Government of the United States has come
forward in support of the application and was urging its immediate
approval as an urgent war measure.

In those circumstances this Government, with every desire to
promote the most effective co-operation in the prosecution of the
war, proposed, as will appear from the said order in council of the
2nd September, 1918, that the matter should be withdrawn from the
International Joint Commission and discussed directly between the
two Governments with a view to securing the immediate accomplish-
ment of the desire and purpose of the United States Government and,
at the same time, preserving the position of this country in respect of
its treaty rights and its interest in the sound development of the
St. Lawrence river for navigation and power purposes. The proposal
was indeed calculated to secure this purpose of the United States
Government more expeditiously than was possible through the
medium of the Commission, even if the Commission had had power to
entertain the case.

*See Appendix II, p. 65.

86

In pursuance of this proposal two members of the Government
proceeded to Washington and presented the position in greater detail
to the Secretary of State of the United States. It may be added here
that the proposal was not at that time accepted, nor has it since been
accepted; in fact, no reply thereto has yet been received from the
United States Government.

Subsequently, on the 14th September, 1918, the International
‘Joint Commission reached a decision on the application and delivered
an order, copy of which is appended hereto, [Appendix IV], approving
the construction of the proposed works on certain conditions therein
set forth. At the same time, the order reserves for further considera-
tion the question whether under the terms of existing treaties, the
Commission has power to approve the proposed structure. It should
be added that the Canadian Government, through its counsel, had
already, before the issuance of the order, acquainted the Commission
with the terms of the order in council of the 2nd September, 1918,
setting forth its view that the Commission was without power to
make such an order.

It is worthy of note that the Commission, in issuing the order,
expressly declines to decide whether it actually has power to do so.
In exercising authority it leaves for future determination the con-
trolling question as to whether it possesses any such authority. How-
ever, it cannot be doubted that the issuance of the order is in itself an
assumption of such authority.

Thus confronted with an assumption of power on the part of the
International Joint Commission, which, in the opinion of the law
officers of the Crown, was entirely unwarranted, it is necessary to
determine at once the course of the Government. A conclusion as
to the course to be pursued under such conditions is not without diffi-
culty. It is pertinent, however, to recall that, in a former case,
presenting a similar situation, the Government of the United States
refused to recognize the jurisdiction of the International Joint Com-
mission. In the matter of the division of the waters of the St. Mary
and Milk rivers, then pending before the Commission, it appears,
from a despatch from His Majesty’s Ambassador at Washington,
dated November 13th, 1917, that the United States Secretary of
State, by letter dated November 8th, 1917, informed the Ambassador
that, since the Commission had under consideration the question of
its authority to interpret or construe Article VI of the Treaty of
January 11th, 1909, and since, in the view of his Government, the
Commission had no such authority in the then state of the case, he
had deemed it proper to inform the Commission that whatever
conclusion was reached by the Commission could not be regarded as
binding upon his Government in so far as it undertook to construe
the Article in question.

In view of the foregoing, the Minister recommends that the
Government of the United States be informed that this Government
feels bound to repeat its view that, for the reasons already indicated,
the International Joint Commission was without authority to approve
the application of the St. Lawrence River Power Company, and that

87

the order of the Commission assuming to grant such approval cannot
be regarded by the Government of Canada as binding upon this
Dominion.

The Government of the United States will readily understand
that, in taking this course, the Canadian Government is actuated only
by its concern for those treaties and conventions that have so happily
promoted the friendly relations between the two countries, and by
the belief that it is through a jealous regard for the integrity of such
understandings that these fortunate relations may best be maintained.

It is with this purpose also that the Canadian Government
deems it appropriate to refer here to the proposal made in the order
in council of the 2nd September, 1918, that the two Governments
should take immediate steps jointly to prepare and carry out a scheme
looking to the most economical and comprehensive development of
the waters of the St. Lawrence river in the interests of the people of
both countries. Even though the utilization of only a portion of the
whole capacity of the rtver can be immediately contemplated, yet the
endeavour should be to design at the outset a complete scheme into
which successive developments might be fitted from time to time as
and when the occasion might demand. Without some such scheme
there is always present the great danger that the ultimate possibilities
of St. Lawrence navigation may be neglected or even irreparably
injured; for it must be borne in mind, not only that navigation is the
paramount national and international use of this great highway of
commerce, but that the possibilities of the stream in this respect have
been as yet by no means fully developed. On the other hand, it is
certain that the subordinate and incidental but important use of these
international boundary waters for power purposes can never be
rendered as efficient and productive through a policy of simply
permitting a haphazard series of unrelated private enterprises as
through a carefully considered and comprehensive scheme of develop-
ment carried out under public auspices by the two countries; and
obviously it is only by agreement and concerted action between the
two countries that such a development can be undertaken.

But, as already intimated, this is not all; there is, in addition to
the economic advantages, the much more important consideration
affecting the status of the treaties and conventions between the two
countries. For the adoption of the proposed joint project as an inter-
national policy would, it is conceived, be calculated to obviate many
occasions for public dissatisfaction and misunderstandings that on the
one side or the other might otherwise arise from time to time in respect
of private exploitations of the uses of these waters. Unquestionably,
these uses are becoming more and more regarded as public uses, and
it follows that the responsibility for their development should be
undertaken, and the benefits of such development enjoyed, by the
public. Indeed, for this reason and in view of the other considerations
here adduced the Canadian Government is strongly convinced that
nothing should be allowed to prejudice the chance of such a compre-
hensive power development of the St. Lawrence waters, and, so far as
its consent may be necessary, it will, therefore, be unable to sanction
further private enterprise of this nature.

88

The Committee concur in the foregoing report and the recom-
mendations therein made, and recommend that Your Excellency may
be pleased to transmit a copy hereof immediately to His Majesty’s
Ambassador at Washington for communication to the Government
of the United States, and also that a copy be transmitted to the
International Joint Commission.

All which is respectfully submitted for Your Excellency’s
approval.

RODOLPHE BOUDREAU

Clerk of the Privy Council

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