Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 8, 1925, Winnipeg, Manitoba Shortage of rubber prob de an published on the second saturday of every month Woollen Industry of world faces Grove crisis due to Large increase in size of physical Plant Simi Lar increase in supplies of raw material. Demand also fluctuates strangely. Winnipeg saturday at gust 8, 1925 rubber restriction scheme has served its purpose Well by Portage scare due to bad policy of us buyers Price will stabilize about fifty cents a Pound Stevenson plan May cease operation next year by e h. Banks s in Malaya of the per of a crop equal to that of 1920 the Basic year under the scheme to Supply their present needs this naturally created an artificial shortage and made prices soar to peaks undreamed of Short ninth ago by the rubber planters american buyers at fault everyone who has studied subject realizes thai had the Tunit m states rubber buyer purchased his supplies sanely Export from tils British colonies would at present be equal to about 90 per cent of the crop of 1mo, which would mean that the Supply would new about balance demand with a steady Price in the Vicinity 40 to 50 cents a Pound As Stevenson plan As newspapers predicting rubber Short Ages. Those who know the facts Are aware that such a condition is impossible. If however the motor Industry goes ahead with the same rapidity As heretofore there May however be a shortage in 1931 and 1932, but certainly not before 1930. After 1933, there can of course be no shortage. Only 17 per cent. Of the forests of the Malayan Penin Sula Are at present cleared and planted with rubber and As it Only takes six years for a rubber tree to come to average maturity it stands to reason that a fresh Supply is available before a Long _ time has passed. New areas developed the present buoyant Market has greatly stimulated the planters efforts and the various acreages now being opened up will easily take care of any extra demand there May happen to be. Taking existing acreages and the age of the Trees in 1930 into consideration the sup ply of crude rubber from Malaya and Brazil should approximate in that year to tons which should just about take care of the demand. As noted above there nay be a shortage in 1931 and 1932, but with the new acreages coming into tap Ping Early in 1933, production should be in the neighbourhood of tons with this figure growing in volume yearly. Except for Short periods during 1931 and 1932, the Price should not exceed 50 cents a Pound but at this figure the plantations efficiently operated can pay handsome dividends to invest Ever since its inception the Stevnson scheme has been adversely criticized but it was that or Noth encouragement not for several years has there been so much news of a definite and encouraging nature for Manitoba As during the present summer. For a Long time past we have been persuading ourselves that the Corner was now however it is apparent that substantial Progress has been made with the immediate Promise of much greater and much More rapid Progress. To be convinced of this it is Only necessary to enumerate some of the More recent happenings. The announcement for instance that the Hudson s Bay company intend to commence immediately the construction of a very Large store building on Portage Avenue that the City is commencing the construction of the Long talked of that definite arrangements have been entered into for the construction of a pulp and paper mall in the territory tributary directly to Winnipeg that in greater Winnipeg several Industrial enterprises necessitating the erection of Large plants Are now nearing completion and that spurred on by the evident Progress being made by Winnipeg several other con Cerns Are now considering the establishment of factories in this District. Add to this that the West is now almost assured Ofat least a fair sized crop and at prices that will Well repay the Farmer for his Effort and it requires no stretch of the imagination to see a busier brighter and More prosperous Winnipeg than for Many years. Woollen Industry faces grave crisis in immediate future physical Plant May have autumn Supply of raw longer possible to gauge demand accurately due to fashion and merchandising Active element is introduced Ruth Hope mine development is making strides a result. Under the the things Are it will be january 1. 1826, before approximately 90 per cent of the 1920 Basic figure will be available for expert. In the meantime the United state s buyers must blame themselves for the in Fermin Irish prices. In very truth they fell into the pit. That they had digged for the producer. By Max 1, 1926, reasonable to suppose that the Stevenson plan will cease and full production of the estates exported. This will re sult in the Supply slightly exceeding the demand for at least five years to come so in reality there is no need for the scare headlines in the out of chaos. No. The voluntary rubber Pool Millar in principle to the Canadian wheat Pool advocated in Malaya throughout 1921 and the Early pan of 1922, had never a Hope of going through owing to the fact that owners of rubber estates were in Many instances also manufacturers of. The crude article. Throughout the rubber planters of the mid East were faced with absolute ruin. There were on hand tons of rubber stocks for which there was no Market and which were being added to Day by Day by the unrestricted system of then in Force this meant that something had to be done either to limit production or to limit Export in order that stocks might be liquidated. There were three schemes presented to the rubber interests. First Hope to reach Silversmith vein by ., strike is Rich classification of Home Bank depositors e Braddon or voluntary poo scheme secondly the Duncan and still scheme which was practically u. Restriction of Export scheme and. Finally the Stevenson scheme which after due deliberation was Lucid by government on november 1, although it was of a Dis 19-22 Tinct by arbitrary nature considering that Many of the planters held unrestricted it has ser Ved its purpose and i ought order tobacco growing and sugar beet Industry for Belief expressed that Quality of tobacco can be grown that will secure ready Market special to the free Presa by s. W. Dafoe Kelowna ., aug. 7. Revivi i cation of tobacco culture and the establishment of a sugar beet Industry Are two possibilities of the Northern Okanagan Valley to which the people of the. District look Forward with u considerable degree of Confidence. This season with the assistance of the Dominion government in so far As tobacco culture is concerned experimental plots Hava been set out with the purpose of demonstrating that both beets and tobacco can be pro Rhice of a Quality to justify pro duo years on a Commer Tion in future Cial scale. Tobacco growing in British Colum Bia is no new thing but in past years it has been confined to the Kelowna area and it is not anticipated that any considerable Quanti ties will be grown outside that urea within the next few years. Beet a rowing. On the other hand should it be embarked upon in the future would have to to extended Over a Large Section of the. Interior including the Vernon and Salmon Arm Dis its in order to provide the volume production necessary to the successful operation of a manufacturing previous efforts to establish a to Sacco Industry proved to be a fail ure because of die attempt to facture cigars in the province of part or men with insufficient. Acc and Cap Tal and also be Wise of War. Conditions. In 1919 almost one Hundred thou Sand pounds wore grown and sold manufacturers for Twenty per Pound. Then production Winfied and reached the Cli appear Point in 191-3. With the support of government Many experimental have icon planted with the of reaching definite Conlu wons As to what varieties of Leaf can grown to the Best Ucol Vantage. The i shown i e past was con vet to a High Grade product it is thought that even better can be obtained and that tha Sald with certainty at the present moment. It has been established that beets of. A very High sugar con tent can in produced but it is by no Means certain that the right kind of land with adequate water sup plies is available to grow As big a tonnage As is necessary to make sugar a commercial Success. Huge Sims invested in Mineral Industry plants represent billion and half investment a preliminary report prepared in the mining metallurgical and chem ical Branch of the e Dominion Bureau of statistics shows that Canada 3 Mineral industries and the manufacturing industries dependent there on numbering plants in All in 1924, represented an actual Money investment of million dollars As compared with a reported invest ment of million dollars in the preceding year. Included in this sum were the Cost of build Ings and Plant equipment the Cost of materials and products on hand and the actual working capital of the companies reporting. These Indus tries employed on the average ss3 persons to whom salaries and Vages amounting to were development work on a Large scale is now being carried on at the Ruth Hope mine Sandon The new main Cross Cut to the Silversmith vein has been driven feet and should reach its objective next month. It is being driven from no. 5 level of the Kuth and will cover a distance of feet. The Silversmith vein is the thing in the Ruth Hope mine. It was Dis covered by r. , and since 1918 has produced Ore valued Ait in the Silversmith property itself. Work is in charge of r. H. Stew and r. S. Dennle and since the beginning of their regime ship ments from the Ruth have made sufficient profit to take care of 50 per cent of the Cost of new develop ment and also meet the payments due to English investors. The mine is shipping two carloads of Ore a month taken out in the. Course of development according to the min ing and engineering record the Ruth Hope development has. Been in the past the fourth largest producer in the Slocan District and was one of the in the Kootenay to attract Tho Atten Tion of. Capital. Consisting 14 Mineral claims containing Sil ver Lead Zinc Ore. It is situated at the town of , practically in the Canadian Pacific railway line. The mine is completely equipped with Power Plant and a. Concentrating Plant of 100 tons capacity which was constructed in 1899 and re modelled in 1916. Its dividend re Cord totals but the property has actually earned profits of about 000 on its production the mine itself was located in 1894, merely because of. Us proximity to the big strike on the Slocan Star discovery of the Ruth veins was Only made when after a big windstorm a tree was uprooted exposing Iron stained vein matter which led ultimately to the discovery of the vein. Shortly after this British capital took the property Over and the Ruth mines limited was formed in London in 1897. Active development was begun and the first tons of Ore shipped to the smelter returned values of 100 to 120 ounces of Sliver per ton and 54 to 75 per cent. Lead. The mine was equipped with Aerial Tramway and Mill and was worked steadily until 1917 it was one of the nest mines to ship Zeno o re from British Colum Bia in connection with the further payment of dividends to depositors in the defunct Home says the financial times the following letter has been sent by i. L. Secretary Home Bank depositors National re Lief to. Isidore Crepeau president of the Home Bank committee for Montreal which reads As follows just a line. We Are now working to pay off All the depositors of. Or less the dividend coming to them ot-35 per cent on the Dollar. Or. Justice Mclean a working on a form of questionnaire and Raffl. Davit to be made by All the depositors of Over claiming under the act. We Are trying to simplify the procedure so As to make it As inexpensive As possible but this work period of violent Price liquidation following the Spring of 1920. Wool manufacturers have been forced to operate on a High raw Wool Market and profits derived from advancing the raw material through the successive Steps in manufacturing have been meagre. A Large Wool crop in the Southern hemisphere last season part of which failed to find buyers at ruling prices resulted for the first time in several years in an accumulation of supplies and offered some Promise of Relief from High raw material costs. A. Dramatic decline carried Wool values in this country to a Point More than 30 per cent below he Peak Levels established in the Winter. However despite wide realization that consumer resistance orbits the steady marketing of any thing like a full output of the world s Wool textile Mills on the basis of the extreme values for Wool lately seen raw Wool prices have advanced sharply from recent lows and there is a Little evidence that stability is in sight. Shortage of raw material Wool manufacture is face to face with the question of whether its physical Plant has outrun the Supply of raw material and demand for Woollen and worsted goods based on prices for raw Wool resulting from the failure of the world Wool clip to keep Pace with world population. For some ten years or More be fore. 1914 Wool manufacturing was expanding both in the countries where the Industry was most advanced and in those countries where the existence of a Domestic Wool Supply or other favouring influence was stimulating a local manufacture hitherto Little developed. Reliable estimates place the in crease in world population Between 1900 and 1924 at about 20 per cent. While Complete figures Are not available in regard to expansion of Wool manufacturing equipment Dur ing that period such evidence an there is indicates that manufacturing capacity increased As fast As Anc probably faster than population. On the basis of expanding population and a higher Standard of living the the total accessions to Mill capacity do not seem alarming unfortunately there has been n commensurate increase in Wool piles. Pre War expansion. In Wool Roan facture followed upon a period in which vast were opened to sheep grazing in the Southern hemisphere and in the United states according to the Best estimate available the trend of Wool product Lon had been strongly upward for ome fifty oars the period of to. Mansion having Home to an end by he beginning of the War. From 1914 to 1910 or 1920 rend of production differed greatly n the various Wool Browing n the last tier cd or four Yrnes is been a considerable in Ivnic in tool production the world Over owns to the stimulation of hash prices. Unfortunately As conditions Are Oday markedly lower prices for tool would probably vetault in a material a Dou lion in supplies. World flocks Are now much smaller than in 191-1. Furthermore Grain production has developed rapidly in Australia. Argentina and the United states la the last thirty years and the trend toward a diversified agriculture has from plod an increase in the area under various other crops. Expansion of the cattle Industry hat Ilso tended to discourage sheep raiding a Many localities. For the Wool manufacture As whole the next few undeniably present Many serious problems. The evidence is that Duran or the last fifteen years supplies of Wool have failed to keep Pace either with population or with woo manufacturing equipment. Rapid changes in and merchandising changes of sweeping character have injected nto the Wool manufacturing Busi Ness additional highly Specula Ilvo elements. Therefore those Indus ties which have a certain supple less in shifting production with Uio shifting of popular demand and which can reduce costs by More efficient management agreements with their labor or by judicious admixture of reworked Fibre in their products will probably receive the at ilk of the world s business in Wool fabrics. The desire for economic self sufficiency at present Manifest in Many Purtz of the world would seem to favor those industries which enjoy a wide Home Market As com pared with those which Are Depuit Derit on Canadian employment shows much improvement employment at the beginning of july showed a further increase in Canada of per cent. This gain caused the Index number to stand 96.s, compared with 94.5 in last and with 95.9 on Lucy 1, 1924. This increase however Wae than in the preceding month of june but exceeded that indicated on the same Date it any other year of the same Date. Since employment at the beginning of Augull three of the past four years has shown an increase Over july further improve ment May be looked for in the next report. The b.940 firms making re turns on july 1, 1925, employed 797. 463 persons or More than on june 1. American agriculture has every Prospect of Good year says us. Secretary Jar due by Tom Kino up Wool to the free Washington aug. 6. After an extended tour of the United states the american Secretary of agriculture William m. Jardine. Issued the following statement on conditions As he found them considering this season by itself. I am convinced that it is going to a fairly Good year for agriculture. Considering this second year of improvement against the previous four year background of acute Dis Tress. I am ready to Call agriculture safely convalescent. I was Irre atly encouraged in what i saw during my eight weeks trip through the fall of 1920 until the Spring of last year the Farmers of this country were forced to a pro gramme of drastic retrenchment. They had to work out from under paralysing surpluses of Cotton wheat Corn hogs cattle and other major products. That was the legacy of War times. The readjustment has been made against heavy Odds but producers have made it nevertheless. Now the most depressing sur pluses have been world off. In this season for the first time in six Vears a stable programme of pro Ducolon has been possible Una nil capped by menacing carry overs. Over the country As a whole the Outlook is for As Good or better in comes than last year and the senti ment is one of moderate optimism. I found Farmers greatly encouraged in practically every Section of the country 1 visited. Corn prospects Bright conditions in the Corn Belt Are reversed from what they were a Vear ago when hogs wore still cheap ind Corn a poor and expensive crop. Hog prices have advanced mater.-. Ally since last summer and the Pron a acts now indicate a heavy Corn crop. The average Cost of packers and shippers droves of hogs at Chi Cago last week was a hundredweight compared with for the same period last year. These conditions afford a basis for the re turn of some degree of Prosperity in the Corn Belt. The balance Ihus in favor of a. Section of the country which has been one of the greatest sufferers since the War period. The wheat situation is similarly but less fortunately reversed from a ago. Last year Wohr wheat crop while the world did not. This beat growing less can be ing firms in Ottawa state they were bait. The Canadian Bank of Commerce Tieno. Office building in 7or Toronto Wal fee wry handsome one Hen com yeras housed the last year to had a splendid rest of the season our wheat crop is apparently 185 million bushels or More Short of last year while the foreign crop in larger than it was in 1924. My observations convince me however that there will be an excellent out turn of Spring wheat. That will mean much to the Northern wheat states particularly As the Price Prospect in fairly Good. In the far West i found the Industry prosperous and still sex the cattle Industry is still in distress. I noted an under current of feeling however that the turning Point has been passed and that cattle prices Are in for slow but certain ment. I see Concrete evidence of improvement in the fact hat in Chicago brought compared with for the same period a year ago. Conditions on the Pacific coast impressed Moas reasonably san bulb. The general sentiment la optimistic. Marketing met the coast has been confronted by the greatest marketing problem of any agricultural Region but has met the problem effectively through efficient and effective co operative or Granz talons. Reports gathered the department of agriculture Aryl submitted to me on my return Indi Cate that the South in growing apparently the largest acre affo of cot ton in its history. The crop has done Well generally no caking. Except in the drouth stricken territory of the Southwest. Indications ate for a Large and a favourable in come in the Cotton Belt As a whole. There arc certain dark in the general agriculture picture. H True. The Kou Thweat in drug glib under prolonged and Verlous drouth. The cast Dors not a irked pro vement. This Region was lilt fast year by Low prices for potatoes Hay and other important and Dairy Industry has had economic ill Ori the whole however. I see stronger evidence of the approach of Good to mob for agriculture than i have seen since 1920. Indication of this the Index of purchasing Power of farm products which is now about 90 per cent of what it was before the War. The level of this summer being to highest since 1920. Moreover 1 find an evident return of Confidence. Karma in Are getting out of the Shadow of bankruptcy. Farms Are Belling once More. Long Bland debts Are being liquidated. In Short agriculture appears to gradually getting its House in again after the Post War disrupt american Rivers Lead in Salmon packing Trade the Rich Salmon packing Industry of the Pacific coast Octal Klows in importance any other part of the world work is american Rivers however lion s Ebro of the business Southeastern Alaska leading. Brit ish Columbia last year packed 1. Cases out of a world total of 8.471.000. The Complete list is Western Alaska Central Alaska. Southeastern Alaska puget sound. Total Columbia Stiver British Columbia outside Siberia and Japan. Cases grand ;