Locomotives, 2,248; freight cars, 88,000; first and second class passenger cars, baggage cars and colonist sleeping cars, 2,174; sleepers, dining and cafe cars, 502; conductors’ vans, 1,427; work cars, shovels, etc., 5,850.
The total mileage owned and controlled by the line, up to June 30, 1914, was 18,050 miles, and the passenger cars could move simultaneously 165,000 people.
In the course of its development, the C.P.R. has been extremely fortunate in being able to secure for its directorate men of broad vision. Thus it is that this railroad which is more than a railroad, and this corporation which is in operation an Empire Builder of the truest type, has found occasion in the course of its existence to put its energy to work in directions which the average railroad never dreams of. The scope of a great transcontinental railroad is wide enough in ordinary circumstances, but the policy of the C.P.R. has been to extend its activities in every direction where it appeared that the interests of the Dominion, which are indissolubly united with the interests of the road, might be advanced. In pursuance of this plan we get its immigration and land development policy, which is unique on the Continent.
One of the first notable efforts of the road in this direction was its aid to the cattle ranching industry in Alberta. By means of low rates and the special facilities offered by the line to cattle ranchers the great beef industry which founded the prosperity of Alberta was nurtured and developed until it grew to be a feature of Canada in the minds of uninitiated Old Country people, and to the regular impression of snow and Indians which prevailed in the average Englishman’s mind in the ’80s, was added the romantic idea of cowboys. After cattle, came wheat and here again the railroad aided the farmers in all possible directions, realizing that in the prosperity of the inhabitants of the territory which it served, lay its own future greatness.
In a thousand and one ways the great railroad has advanced the various interests of the West. Its splendid immigration organization has seconded the efforts of the Dominion Bureau in London. Each year at harvest time it transports tens of thousands of labourers from Eastern Canada to the West to help harvest its crops, and as an instance of the lengths to which the road is prepared to go in order to advance the interests of the great community from which it draws the greater part of its wealth, there may be taken the case of the Winnipeg water scheme.
Some years ago the City of Winnipeg desired to install an expensive plant to improve its water supply. The undertaking was a huge one, planned to meet the needs of the rapidly growing city for many years to come and the cost was heavy. The C.P.R. donated $200,000 to help defray the expenses, and Winnipeg was duly provided with a water supply which cannot be bettered on the Continent.
The Company’s various interests, outside of its straight railroad work, would make by themselves a huge undertaking for any ordinary commercial organization. It owns coal, copper, lead, and gold mines, big smelting plants in British Columbia and enough timber limits to make any lumber company in the Dominion envious. The hotel section of the Company’s operations, originally planned to provide accommodation for passengers where such accommodation did not exist, have extended until they are a material factor in the Company’s wealth.
The Company’s tremendous land holdings in the West are regarded by many financial experts as its most powerful asset. When these grants were made, or at least such of them as were made to the Company in return for its services in opening up what was then regarded as a barren and trackless waste, it is not likely that anyone, not even excepting the directors themselves, realized the value of the grants. Since the original grants were made other valuable and extensive land areas have been acquired through the purchase of other railways which owned land grants. Altogether the Company now owns over seven million acres of land in Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan and nearly four and a half million acres in British Columbia. These lands have steadily increased in value as the railroad itself developed the country. In 1905 the sales were 509,386 acres at an average of $4.80 per acre. In 1909 the sales of these same lands were 306,083 acres at an average of $10.96. In 1910 the inrush of settlers from the United States and Great Britain served to increase the demand for the C.P.R. lands and 829,609 acres of the unimproved lands sold at $12.78 per acre along with 145,421 acres of irrigated lands at $26.59 per acre. And in 1911, the sales of unimproved land were 631,777 acres at the average of $14.11; and of irrigated lands 19,097 acres were sold at the very satisfactory average of $33.63 per acre. This progressive rise in value is most impressive. Every year without exception shows an increase, and in some years the increase is considerable. It is to be remembered, too, that when the company sells a parcel of land to a good farmer-settler it is just beginning its profitable relations with him. For he will in all probability be a heavy shipper of grain outward over its lines in future years, and he will occasion the shipment of much merchandise inward as well.
The latest and perhaps the greatest work which the C.P.R. has undertaken in connection with its land holdings, is its irrigation scheme, which has transformed nearly one and a half million acres of barren land into fertile farm country, at an outlay of over $15,000,000. The rounding out of the irrigation scheme involves the bringing of the best class of farmers from the United Kingdom or the United States and planting them in the Canadian West, on farms which are “ready made” for them. Demonstration farms are provided to show the best methods of working the land, and everything possible is done to ensure the success of the newcomers’ enterprise. In this manner and by the sale of similar farms to residents of the United States desirous of settling in Canada, the C.P.R. in its latest undertaking is perhaps doing more than ever before to provide Canada with her most pressing need, sturdy self-reliant citizens, and so furthering the cause of Imperial unity which has been the guiding spirit of this splendid enterprise ever since those four Montrealers dreamed their dream of a new Empire plucked from the barren expanse of the Last Great West.
Of the C.P.R. steamship line we speak in its proper place. For the C.P.R. railroad and its attendant enterprises on land, there appears to be an almost limitless future. A rough estimate of the value of its railroad, shipping and hotel systems would not be far wrong if placed at $885,000,000. What the C.P.R. will be doing this time ten years from now, who shall say? With the inspiration of so glorious a past behind them, who can set a limit on the possibilities which will open up for the new rulers of the road’s destinies? The All Red Line so greatly discussed some years ago as a government project already exists in the C.P.R. It is possible to board a C.P.R. train at Windsor Street and to circle the globe, never leaving the sphere of influence of this tremendous organization. A splendid result surely to be attained by the little quartette of dreamers whose idea of a railroad line of Atlantic to Pacific met with so scornful a reception when it was first mooted a bare forty years ago.