\

WE UTI

100,000 new jobs for B.C. workers.

Future of B.C. forest industr
depends

. By KEITH RALSTON

The future of the British Colum-
bia forest industry lies in the in-
creased use of the discoveries of
modern chemistry — in the new
-methods which provide literally
hundreds of uses for what was
previously waste wood. New plants
using waste wood can mean thous-
ands of jobs for British Columbia
woodworkers. ¢

What.are some of these new uses
for wood that have been developed
by the chemists? Here are a few
of them: ;

@ Pulp from branches and
small logs now left lying on the
ground.

@ Charcoal from mill waste.

@ Fibreboard that can be
turned out on present pulp ma-
chines,

“@ Laminated panels and lam-
inated timbers of great strength
made by gluing shaped sections
together.

@ Hardboard from plywood
waste.

@ Molded plywood.

@ Wood distillation which
Produces a whole host of pro-
ducts—tannin, alcohol, wax, tur-
pentine, rosin, acetic acid, oils,
pectins, sugar, saponins for soap.

@ Extracts from bark.

@ Extracts from sulphite
liquor left over from pulp mak-
ing. :

The startling truth about the
forest industries is that only 50
percent of the wood in a merchant-
able tree is made into manufactur-
ed products. The rest is wasted
‘in one form or another.

" The average sawmill has not
changed its basic mode of opera-
_ tion in the past quarter of a cen-
~ tury. There have been improve-
ments in the machinery —. better
head saws, edgers and trimmers,
hydraulic log carriages— but the
basic principles remain the same.

Plywood plants are also extreme-
ly wasteful of their raw materials
—the volume of wood wasted runs
as high as 55 to 60 percent. High
speed machinery and better meth-
ods of patching have cut the
amount of waste but it still re-
mains large.

Yet British Columbia as’ a big
forest producer has had the high-
est degree of integration in its
lumber industry of any province
in Canada. Big producers like
MacMillan—Bloedel and Alaska
Pine have installed whole log de-
barkers, pulp chippers and have
built pulp mills to run on the wood
formerly burned in mill burners
or used for domestic fuel.

Hardboard, once all imported, is now made
the only one of its kind in the province.
formerly considered waste to provide a substantial new pa

in B.C. at the
If uses wood left from
yroll.

Plant of Pacific Veneer which is
the manufacture of plywood and

est industries have a long way to

go in getting the best use out of
their wastes. The integrated oper-
ations of the big companies Have
so far merely been changing the
physical structure of the waste—
like chipping it into pulp — they
have not altered it chemically.

The chemical products of wceod
are highly valuable and the test
of an integrated program is wheth-
er it makes the best possible use
of its raw materials. B.C. wood-
producing industries leave much ‘o
be desired in this respect.

In British Columbia, for instance,
there is no wood distillation indus-
try on a commercial scale. ~ :

We have no plant to recover
waste sulpite liquor from the mak-
ing of pulp and paper for commer-
cial alcohol. Likewise there is no
hydrolosis of wood waste to sugar
and its fermentation to ethyl al-
cohol. :

Only one plywood mill makes
hardboard from the waste produc-
ed in its operations. \ :

The province has few wood-using
industries outside the main stand-
bys of sawmilling, pulp and paper,
shingles and plywood. Since wood
has an estimated 4,000 different
uses and since B.C.is one of the
great softwood producers on the
continent, it seems only reasonabl>

that secondary wood ‘using indus-

tries should locate here.

But in spite of this the B.C. fer-

No wood flour for use in ex-

plosives is made in B.C. and there

is no production of plastic molding
wood.

Laminated flooring which is idea]
for floors in factories and stores is
another. potential products from
B.C, forests, as are laminated tim-
ber for use in building.

We don’t produce any heat stab-
ilized compressed woods or resin-
impregnated woods or placticized
woods. There is no bonding of
Paper to wood or metal to wood
for structural and decorative fin-
ishes. :

Everyone of these processes
means more jobs in the woodwork-
ing industry. British Columbia is
in a most favorable position io de-
velop industries using these new
methods. We “are right at the
source of the raw material and in
Many cases it is much more econ-

omic to manufacture it on the spot |
than to transport the bulky raw

material. :

The processing industries are the
ones that mean jobs, It takes oniy
one man day of work of convert
1,000 board feet of standing timber
into raw logs.

It takes from four and a half to
five man days to make 1,000 board
feet into plywood, seven and a half
to 10 days to produce ‘sash and
doors from it.

If we use more of the wood in
our forests, if we manufacture it
into chemical by-products of high

Value, then we can create more
thousands of new jobs for the
working people of B.C.

| afforestation, of barren areas;

LPP names
candidates
in Ontario

PORT AR
Bruce .Magnuson and arnold es
| Westerback were _nominated ne ih
week to carry the Labor-Progt® —
sive party banner in Port ae
Thunder Bay East and in Fort We
liam in the next Ontario provinG#
elections. mee
A $100 million, 5-year forest 1
habilitation and development PY?”
gram was proposed by Magnus
including making all logging * apd
public, . cleaning up rivers
streams, draining of sw@ at
municipal-provincial cooperation
the administration and promorr
of outdoor sports and recrealleh
and the development of PUT”
parks. :
Magnuson’s nomination meetin’
endorsed a petition to Free
Leslie Frost of Ontario to call th
emergency conference to deal ¥*

the unemployment situation. _

between the farmer’s diminishing
income and the increasing cost of
consumer goods must be closed, he
said. E ‘
The conference said a delegation
would be sent to see Prime Minis-
ter St. Laurent and his cabinet if

increase farm income before this
year’s harvest. (The last big march
of farmers on the capital was in
1942.) :
Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba,
B.C. and Ontario farms unions are
Tepresented at the conference. .

‘ 2 REGINA

While the announcement that
wheat initial prices will be $1.40
represents “a victory for western
farmers,” Saskatchewan LPP lead-
er Nelson Clarke last week warned

POPULARITY:
CONTEST

DANCE

AUUC HALL
805 E. PENDER

GOOD ORCHESTRA

Admission. 75c

Doors Open — 8:00 am.

13th ANNUAL

e 4:00—Grand

UNITED LABOR PICNIC
SUN. AUGUST 8- CONFEDERATION PARK

— Take No. 14 Street Car to end of line;

@ 11:36-—Competitive Sports.
12:3G¢—Children’s Races.

Stand Program.

Features: Folk Dances — Songs of Canada —
Chinese Novelty Acts — Ron Pjala,

5:30—Winners of Popularity Contest Announced.
8:00—Film Showings at 805 E. Pender and 600 Campbell Ave.

IN CASE OF RAIN—805 E. PENDER AND 600 CAMPBELL AVE.

transfer to buses 4600 blk. E. Hastings St. —

dohn Niechoda, Tenor —
Accordianist. -

t

PACIFIC TRIBU

Farm unions plan
march on gov

The plan for a march on Ottawa to win demands of Canatee
hard-hit farmers was received approvingly by the five-province In as
provincial Farm Union Conference here July 20: J. L.. Phelps, chit
man of the council, and head of the Saskatchewan Farmers’ p
said Canada was now in a period of agricultural depression. The 4

Ottawa refused to take action to.

|H-bomb tests

Je

WINNIPEG

Uniol:

that the decision itself does 10
offer a guarantee for the futur”
Clarke took issue with the 1s
gestion of Premier T. C. Doué: fi
that the worst that can happe”
that the world price will go dow’:
to the International Wheat AS é
ment minimum of $1.40. He PO?)
ed out that there was two verre
supply of wheat on hand 17
capitalist world now; and pressuy”
of. U.S, dumping policies is wei .
ing heavily on Canadian farme™
“Western farmers have nos!
antees that they will be able wie
liver the crop that will be co! ote
off in the next two months, tbe
have they the guarantee that ot
initial price of $1.40 might Ty
also be the final price they a
receive for their crop,” Clarke sa a
Only new national policies py i
ed on Canadian interests and ve
ening markets would answeF
problem, he added. os

Call for ban on

eB 5

TOON
When the national CCF conve?
tion opened July 28 in Edm
it faced a demand from the hid
katehewan CCF for the laut! bab
of an immediate campaign 109 y
the further testing and use of sy
nuclear weapons. oth
_ Over 600 delegates at the 4 :
provincial convention of the 216
katchewan CCF meeting July viet)
adopted a resolution urging tio®
the CCF national organiZ@i i,
open.a drive for an immedi
meeting of the UN General
bly to ban further tests
use of “all nuclear weapons; |
cluding hydrogen, atomic and of
balt bombs, and other weapon od
mass destruction such as J®
gasoline.”

7 : 4
NE — JULY 30, 1954 — PAGE “