Big Undertaking, Broad Policy.
For completing this herculean task, the present company was given a subsidy of $25,000,000 and 25,000,000 acres of land, the larger portion of which was practically worthless then, owing to its inaccessibility. This land grant has been frequently quoted as a munificent gift to the Company by the people of Canada. Its greatly enhanced value, however, is attributable to the inauguration of a liberal immigration policy by the C.P.R. and the expenditure of millions of dollars in advertising and peopling the land. In its early days, the company was at times sorely pressed financially, but through wise administration and careful management, its difficulties completely disappeared and to-day—well, it’s the “C.P.R.,” of which in former times its worst detractors at home were when abroad the loudest boasters about its marvellous success.
The policy of the company has of necessity been somewhat broader, by reason of the variety of its activities, than that of a purely railway enterprise, and, under Lord Mount Stephen, Sir William Van Horne and Lord Shaughnessy, its affairs have been administered with what Sir John Willison terms “A Nation Vision,” and this is largely responsible not only for the company’s own success, but for the unique position which it occupies in Canada and abroad. In fact, it was due largely to this broadness of view that the company’s prestige in America, England and Europe has reached such a high pinnacle. If there was anything necessary to add to this it was the extra-ordinarily important work which the company was privileged to do during the late war, involving activities so numerous as to be beyond the scope of any ordinary enterprise. The company had more points of contact with the war than any other enterprise outside of Great Britain.
It is now in the fortieth year of its existence, and has had four presidents during that period—Lord Mount Stephen, who occupied the position for seven years; Sir William Van Horne for eleven years, Lord Shaughnessy for nineteen years; and the present incumbent for two and a half years.
The company was fortunate in possessing chief executives whose personal qualities and official abilities were such as to make them specially fitted for the problems which had to be met during their particular term of office. It is safe to say, however, that the problems of to-day are without parallel in the previous history of the company, and therefore require different methods and different men.
Conspicuously Canadian.
The policy of the future will be an extension of the policies of the past, namely that the company should be a good citizen of Canada, which means contributing to Canada’s advancement and its own success, and taking, as it always has, its share of the country’s burden. In this democratic age it is possible that methods may be adopted which would not be thought of in previous times. It is certain that the company and its patrons will be closer together than ever before, because a greater mutual understanding is necessary if the unique problems of the present time are to be dealt with satisfactorily.
Historically, that’s pretty nearly all that is going to be said about the Canadian Pacific Railway, except that when rail communication was established between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in November, 1886, the company had 4,306 miles of track. To-day it operates or controls more than 18,000 miles. That’s going some. But it’s not all. A magnificent ocean service has been established on the Atlantic and the Pacific, and on the inland lakes and rivers of Canada its craft ply. It has become the “World’s Greatest Highway,” carrying the traffic of three continents. It lodges and feeds globe-trotters, so that a person may travel from Great Britain to China and Japan exclusively under its protecting care, on its trains, ships and hotels. It has developed fishing, mining, agricultural, immigration, forestry and other resources and industries. It is not a mere transportation company, as all railways were before its construction. It is an Empire builder.
Let me speak now of those courageous captains of industry to whose activities and counsel are due the great success which has crowned their indefatigable efforts to make the Canadian Pacific the wonder of the world.