At one of the early annual meetings there was great consternation. The small stockholders were alarmed and Mr. Donald McMaster spoke out indignantly for them. Then up rose Sir Donald Smith and said:
“Gentlemen: I would be a richer man today if I had never touched or seen the C P.R.; but I am not going to go back on it now. On the contrary, my faith, which has never wavered, is stronger than ever. I fully and unwaveringly believe in the C.P.R. I believe in its future. I believe that in a very short time, it will be the greatest earner in the Dominion of Canada. Mark my words. Retain your holdings. Do not give way to depression. The moment is unpropitious, owing to the general depression; but the clouds will lift; and you will be thankful, in the course of a year or so, that you held on to your stock.”
The bad times passed, the corporation turned the corner, the earnings increased. Lord Mount Stephen retired, Sir William Van Horne became president, Sir Thomas Shaughnessy became first assistant, then general manager, and finally president. David McNicoll moved up from assistant passenger agent to general passenger agent until he became manager and vice president.
One remarkable feature of the history of the C.P.R. is that no one of the men who financed the road in the beginning, has made anything like a big fortune out of it, in spite of the tremendous success which has crowned the undertaking. Lord Mount Stephen sold the three or four thousand shares he held in the company when he retired in 1885, at fifty-three. Lord Strathcona, of course, retained his connection with the line, and drew his dividends on the five thousand shares he held, but he did not make what might be even considered a reasonable return for the staking of his financial existence, and the same thing applies to other men who have directed the affairs of the company from time to time.
At the time of the incorporation of the road in 1881 the capital was $5,000,000. Today it is $200,000,000 and every cent of it needed to provide for the development of the corporation. In 1882 two stock issues totalling $60,000,000 worth of stock were made, to complete the road. Three years later, on November 7, 1885, Lord Strathcona drove the last spike and the road was officially opened, and its splendid history began.
In 1886 the gross earnings of the road were $8,368,493. In 1911 the gross earnings were $104,167,808, crossing the hundred million mark for the first time in the road’s history. This growth has continued in corresponding ratio, though partially effected by the international war of 1914.
In 1886 the mileage controlled by the C.P. R, was 4,315 miles. Its rolling stock in its principal divisions in 1886, was totalled as follows:
Locomotives, 336; freight cars, 7,835; no steamships.
In 1914, the line owned rolling stock as follows: