Industrial Progress in Canada.

Canada has made giant strides of late years. This fact has been apparent to the most casual observer; while to the student taking an interest in the economic development of a people, there is abundant evidence of material progress which augurs well for the immediate future of the country. Comparatively young business men in Canada have a recollection of geography lessons at school in which it was set forth that the two chief items of export in Canadian trade were fish and lumber. It is interesting now to note that in the list of exports for the first quarter of the present fiscal year fish stood sixth and lumber seventh; animals and their produce and the products of the mines took first and second places respectively, replacing fish and lumber, which were formerly the only two really important staple exports of the Dominion.

Although there has been a remarkable expansion in nearly all departments of Canadian trade in the past year or two, the greatest development has been in connection with the iron and steel industries and in agriculture. When the end of the current half year is reached, it will be found that the results of the operations in these branches of industry have caused very substantial additions to the domestic trade of the country. The manufacture of steel and iron on an extensive scale in Canada does not date back many months. The development of this industry has been rapid during the past year. Nature bountifully provided the Dominion with the material resources necessary to the successful prosecution of iron and steel manufacture, and to a considerable extent Canadians have provided the necessary capital for the operations along this line. But the working out of the experiment was left for the enterprise and skill of two Americans: Mr. H. M. Whitney assumed the task in Nova Scotia of proving that iron and steel could be profitably produced there on a large scale; while Mr. F. H.. Clergue, referred to as the Jason of Algoma who sought the Golden Fleece in the rich mineral fields of New Ontario, undertook, at the Canadian Sault, to show what could be done in the same way in the West. To these two American gentlemen, who inaugurated large,steel and iron industries in Eastern and Western Canada, the people of the Dominion owe a debt of gratitude. The results they have achieved in the past year make it clear that the experimental

stages have been passed, and indicate that Canada in the future will take an important place among the iron and steel-próducing countries.

The production of coal in Nova Scotia has shown a steady development this year both in connection with the smelting industry and for export; while the coal mines of British Columbia, the Crow's Nest mines in the Rocky Mountains, and the mines on Vancouver Island have shown usual activity.

In agriculture Canadians have been far from idle. There has been a large increase this year in the cereal production. In Manitoba and the Northwest, which are inclined to claim to be "the future granary of the Empire," the production of all grains this year exceeded for the first time the 100,000,000-bushels mark. Of this 60,000,000 bushels were spring wheat of a higher average grade than the country ever yielded before.

The large influx of settlers to the West during the last ten months has, with the increased production of grain this year, greatly stimulated the demands of the West for staple goods from Eastern Canadian centers of manufacture. Supply has in many cases failed to keep pace with the increased demand, and factories and mills are now being taxed to their fullest capacity in meeting the require ments of the mercantile trade. The settlers who went into the West during the past ten months did not break ground for crops this year, and they, with the many others now going into the country, will cause a still further increase in the grain production next year. It is believed that Western Canada, with favorable conditions, will in 1903 produce 100,000,000 bushels of spring wheat. There were in the West this year less than 3,000,000 acres of land under wheat. There are in that part of the country 40,000,000 to 50,000,000 acres of land as good for the production of wheat as those already under cultivation. This gives some idea of the possibilities offered by the West for the growing of wheat.

The future of the West is full of promise. Leading business houses in Canada are establishing branches in anticipation of the large business that will accrue there a year or two hence; manufacturers are raising capital to invest in industrial enterprises, and the chartered banks have been steadily increasing their capital to provide for the extension of business in that part of the Dominion by the opening of branches. Two years ago the total

paid-up capital of the Canadian chartered banks was $66,264,967; now it is $70,270,408, and arrangements are being made now for a still further expansion in the banking capital of the country.

In Ontario there has also been a marked expansion in industrial operations this year. The increase in agricultural operations of this province in the present crop year has been large. The total crops of wheat, barley, rye, buckwheat, oats, peas and corn, amount to 160,000,000 bushels, which is the largest production of grain in Ontario so far recorded for one harvest. This, with the increased activity in lumbering operations, mineral lands and manufactures, will cause a further expansion in mercantile trade and insure another year of prosperity. There never was a time in the history of Canada when labor was so fully employed and so well paid as at the present time. In a good many lines of manufacture the demand for skilled labor can not be supplied, and the output is limited only by this difficulty.

The export trade of Canada is steadily increasing, and this is giving Canadians large sums of money to invest in home enterprises. During the vear ended June 30, 1902, the aggregate trade of Canada, taken on a basis of goods entered for consumption and Canadian produce exported, was $398.811,000, or an increase over 1896 of $167,000,000, an increase per head of the population in six years of $30, which, it is claimed, exceeds any growth shown in a similar period by any other country.

The total exports of Canadian produce last year exceeded by $90,000,000 the total in 1896. The exports of Canadian produce to Great Britain in the six years mentioned rose from $62,000,000 to $109,000,000, and those to the United States increased in the same time from $34,000,000 to $66,000,000. While the Americans have been fairly 1.veral consumers of Canadian goods, Canadian trade with the United States shows a much larger expansion in imports than in exports since 1896. The imports from the United States of dutiable goods rose from $29,000,000 in 1896 to $60,000,000 in 1892. Free goods in the same time rose from $29,000,000 to $60,000,000. The imports of dutiable goods from Great Britain rose in the same time from $24,000,000 to $35,000,000, and of free goods from $8,000,000 to $14,000,000. These figures are especially interesting owing to the fact that they cover the period that the preferential duties on British goods have

been in force. In 1896, $17,000,000 duty was collected in connection with the importation of British goods, and, last year, $8,000,000. In 1896, $15,000,000 duty was collected on American goods, against $7,750,000 last year.-London Engineering.

The Railway Brotherhoods and
Undesirable Immigration.

It requires great effort on the part of the working people to secure Congressional legislation for their protection, or to defeat proposed legislation that will work a direct injury to the working people. Cheap labor is the thing most sought by the employers of labor in any country, and to secure cheap labor employers often adopt means that bring dishonor to the country they pretend to love. It was the Southern planters, greedy for gain, who imported the African slaves into the Southern States. The "sins" of these "fathers" have been "visited upon the sons," for the descendants of the African slaves have been a "curse" to the South.

The demand of employers now is for Chinese labor, or the most degraded of European labor. An effort is made by labor organizations to sift out the most degraded of the millions of immigrants that are now deluging the industrial centers of the United States by refusing admission to all adults that can not read and write their own language, and from the opposition to this "educational test" by American employers it would seem that they want this ignorant class of labor, in preference to educated labor.

The printed report of the Senate Committee on Immigration on House Bill 12199, "to regulate the immigration of aliens to the United States," has been made public. On pages 398-401 the following testimony of the representative of the railway labor organizations, Mr. H. R. Fuller, appears :

MR. FULLER: Mr. Chairman, I represent a large majority of the organized railroad employes of the country, and I ask leave to occupy only about five or ten minutes of your time.

THE CHAIRMAN: Proceed, Mr. Fuller. MR. FULLER: I appeared before the committee during the last session and have no desire to use up any more of its time than is really necessary. I merely wish to reply to some of the statements which have been made by those who oppose Section 3, the educational test qualification, which, in my mind, is the most vital part of the bill.

I wish first to speak in regard to the statement made by the gentleman who reprented the sugar growers of the Hawaiian Islands (Mr. Haywood). As I understand him he asks that this bill be so amended as to allow Chinese laborers to come into the islands, and he is opposed to this educational test because he thinks it would keep them out. I believe he acknowledged, however, that it would not keep out the Japanese.

I would simply say, in answer to that gentleman's statement, that the Hawaiian sugar planters enjoyed special privileges under our laws for some time before they became a part of our country, and they are here now asking for special privileges, something that is not in keeping with good American principles. They asked us to annex them and I think they should have been willing to adapt themselves to American principles. The American people through their Congress decided a good many years ago that it was not the proper thing to import Chinese laborers. Therefore I think it is a very poor plan to try to Americanize the Hawaiian Islands by importing Chinese. I think it is unfair to the workingmen of this country.

The gentleman says that the labor there is now performed for $17 a month, and that it is 50 per cent. higher, if I understood him aright, than what labor was performed for at the time of annexation. I think it is unfair to the industries of this country, and to the men who are employed in them, to allow Chinese labor, which is obtained for $17 a month, to compete with them, when every man knows that $17 a month to an American workman, a man who has ambition and likes to educate and rear his family in American ways, is a very small item. I think it would be unwise for Congress to grant the concessions the sugar planters of the Hawaiian Islands ask for.

Now, I want to say a word in regard to the statement made by Mr. Anderson yesterday. He said, if I understood him aright, and I think I did, that if you would pass this bill without the educational test, that the provisions which seek to tighten up the bars along the Canadian and Mexican frontiers would answer the cry of the people of this country for a further restriction upon immigration.

I do not propose to speak for the whole country. I am simply here as the representative of about 185,000 railroad men, who, through their lodges and divisions in every State and Territory, have asked specifically for an educational test.

It does not seem to me that the gentle

man's statement is borne out by past history. This is a question which has been before the people for a good many years. It has come before our political conventions, and they have passed upon it

I do not desire to enter into any partisan discussion. Far from it. As a representative of the railroad men of this country I have no party. Neither have the organizations which I represent. Their members are organized for the purpose of protecting their trade, and not for partisan purposes. However, since the question of party was mentioned by Mr. Anderson, it will not be inappropriate for me to refer to his argument.

He quoted from a speech made by a Cabinet officer, in which it was said that the Republican party protected the Ameri can workman, as I understood it, by protecting the employer. It is true when, through a high tariff, the price of goods is raised it gives the employer the opportunity to pay his employes more wages, but they do not get a fair proportion. If they are well enough organized, they may get an advance in wages, but even then they do not get a fair share of the profits, and I do not think the representatives of that party really believe they do.

SENATOR FAIRBANKS: Of what party? MR. FULLER: Of the party he spoke of. SENATOR FAIRBANKS: What party did he speak of?

MR. FULLER: I believe he referred to the Republican party.

The same party in its national conventions has passed resolutions to the effect that there still ought to be some further protection to labor. I think in passing those resolutions they did not do it blindly.

The Democratic platform of 1896 had this to say:

"We hold that the most effective way of protecting American labor is to prevent the importation of foreign pauper labor to compete with it in the home market."

The Republican platform of 1896 said this:

"For the protection of the equality of our American citizenship and of the wages of our workingmen against the fatal competition of low-priced labor we. demand that the immigration laws be thoroughly enforced and so extended as to exclude from entrance to the United States those who can neither read nor write."

This is a specific indorsement of Section 3 of this bill. The following will be found in the Republican platform of 1900:

I do not think the Administration agrees with the contention made by Mr. Anderson that the protection now afford ed is adequate. President Roosevelt in his message to the first session of the Fifty-seventh Congress said this:

"The second object of a proper immigration law ought to be to secure, by a careful and not merely perfunctory educational test, some intelligent capacity to appreciate American institutions and act sanely as American citizens."

The President would go further than we have asked you to go in Section 3. I think the test provided for is merely perfunctory. It does not restrict enough to suit the working class of the country, but it is a step in the right direction.

The President in his last message to Congress calls attention to what he said in his former message. He calls attention to the fact that this bill passed the House at the last session, and practically asks the Senate to pass it at this session.

Now, I hope the members of this committee, after considering this bill and having already reported it to the Senate with the educational test provision in it, will

not be influenced by the statements of gentlemen who have said or who may say to you that the bill without the educational test is fully adequate, and that it will meet the prayers of the working class of people for the further restriction of immigration, because it will not.

I thank you, gentlemen, for your time and attention.

THE CHAIRMAN: Still you consider that the bill contains many valuable provisions outside of the educational section?

MR. FULLER: I do. We indorse the whole bill. As I said, we are in favor of the further restriction of immigration.

SENATOR MCLAURIN, of Mississippi: Mr. Fuller, if Section 3 was stricken out, would not that be calculated to take away some of the protection to labor which you are seeking to obtain?

MR. FULLER: Undoubtedly it would.

SENATOR MCLAURIN, of Mississippi: That, then, would be to withdraw from the bill one of the provisions which you think is a good provision, not only for the country, but for protection to labor?

MR. FULLER: Yes, sir; as I have already stated, it is the most vital provision of the bill, and I hope it will not be stricken out.

THE CHAIRMAN: We have here the principal officers of the Bureau of Immigration. We would be glad to hear from them, if they will arrange among themselves in what order and at what length they shall desire to be heard..

Labor

Wm. R. Hearst. The official count shows that W. R. Hearst, editor of the New York American Journal, has been elected to Congress by the astonishing plurality of 15,800. This may rightly be regarded as a sweeping victory for organized labor. More than 500 trade union leaders endorsed and aided in rolling up this tremendous vote for William R. Hearst.

. Organized labor in New York and all over the country regard Mr. Hearst as the best friend they ever had. His three great papers in New York City, Chicago and San Francisco, have at all times given organized labor the most hearty, honest and valuable support. The election returns show that organized labor has appreciated a true friend. Shoe Workers' Journal.

Notes

Hard Times in England.-A press dispatch from London, with date of January 14, 1903, says that "the marches of the unemployed which have now become a daily feature are causing uneasiness. About 2,000 persons traversed the metropolis in procession today, escorted by the police. While these demonstrations have thus far been orderly the shopkeepers recall the experiences of some years ago when similar parades ended in the breaking of store windows, and some of them are already taking the precaution of putting up their shutters while the parades are passing."

Purpose of a Good Law Defeated.-The irrigation act of the last term of Congress was for the purpose of reclaiming arid lands in the West, which lands were to