The New Company
When the contract with the Canadian Pacific Railway Company was
submitted to the Canadian Parliament, Mr. Edward Blake, then leader of
the Opposition, and his party, met it with a chorus of indignant and
derisive protest. They declared that the Dominion would be ruined by
such a contract and that they intended to fight the matter out before
the House and the country. There is no need now to cast any personal
discredit on Mr. Blake and his following for their action at that time.
He was a man of unblemished name and of intense conviction, as evidenced
by many facts in his distinguished career. And, besides, he and the
leading men in his following then in Ottawa had already committed
themselves at former sessions of Parliament by taking the position that
the Canadian Pacific would have to be built by slow stages if built at
all. Mr. Blake had not then visited the West, and seriously doubted its
future. He and Sir Charles Tupper, who introduced the bill, were the
combatant officers of their respective parties over this railway
problem. So when Mr. Blake declared an itinerating attack on the
Canadian Pacific amongst the people of Ontario, where the Grand Trunk,
the rival road, had been long in undisputed possession, Sir Charles
wrote asking for an opportunity to reply on the same platform. Mr. Blake
answered that he would require all the time each evening, as the subject
was a big one. This was true, and Blake’s exact legal mind led him
generally into more exhaustive detail on any subject than an ordinary
public audience could appreciate. But Sir Charles had girded on his
armour for the fray, and found a plan of action by having his friends
announce at each of Blake’s meetings that Sir Charles would appear in
the same hall the following night to give reply to Mr. Blake. Sir
Charles thus had the advantage of having Mr. Blake’s speech in hand a
few hours after its delivery, and next night was able to assault Mr.
Blake’s position effectively by a characteristic fighting answer.
To complicate matters for the Government, a rival syndicate was suddenly
formed of Ontario capitalists, headed by Sir William Howland, who
offered to build the railway for three millions less in money and three
millions less in land acreage, and at the same time give up practically
all the privileges which the Government had agreed to allow the Stephen
group. The Government denounced the Howland syndicate as trying to draw
a herring across the trail by making a transparently impossible offer in
an effort to break the contract already signed with the other company.
There is no reason to think that the Howland syndicate, which was
composed of well-known citizens of high standing, would not have tackled
the building of the railway if they had got the contract. But the
Government had already signed with the other organization and,
denouncing the offer of the Howland syndicate as utterly impracticable,
and intended only to hamper the construction of the road, Sir Charles
Tupper rallied the Government forces and put the original contract
through Parliament on a straight vote, in February, 1881.
We do not dispute the good intentions of the Howland syndicate; but if
the gentlemen of that syndicate really could have seen into the future
they would have breathed a sigh of relief when their offer was rejected.
They had asked for the contract, but it was a mercy for them that their
request was declined without thanks. For if the Stephen men, who knew
the country better and had already some extraordinary allies, came up
later against so many unexpected obstacles that they were more than once
within a hair-breadth of failure, it is safe to say that the Howland
men, with their hurried and unconsidered offer, would have ridden for a
fall, disastrous alike to themselves and to Canada.
By the action of the Dominion Parliament, in adopting the contract and
giving it the force of law, in February, 1881, the field was clear for
Mr. George Stephen (who was elected President of the new Company) and
his colleagues. They lost no time in unlimbering their artillery and
going into action with the bearing of men who knew they were going to
have a hard battle, but were moving steadily forward as gentlemen
unafraid.
Concerning Mr. George Stephen (who chose his peerage title from the
mountain that was called after him in British Columbia, and so became
Lord Mount Stephen) much might be written, but he was so unobtrusive
that, as compared with others, hardly anything has been put in print
about the first President. Mr. Smith, his cousin (later Lord
Strathcona), was much better known and more in the public eye, and no
one would think of minimizing Mr. Smith’s great achievements and his
services to Canada and the Empire. But so far as the Canadian Pacific
Railway is concerned, Mr. Smith’s greatest contribution was made when,
after getting in contact with Hill, he persuaded Stephen to branch out
from business in Montreal and become a railroad builder. Once again in
this connection let me emphasize, though it anticipates the narrative
somewhat, the peculiar sequence in the chain of Canadian Pacific men and
events in the following way: Smith secured Stephen, Stephen secured Van
Horne, and Van Horne secured Shaughnessy. It was an extraordinary
succession, and every link in a chain that holds is worthy of equal
honour. These men were different in many ways, but the truth is that,
historically considered, no man ever really takes the place of another,
even though he succeeds him. Each man must do his own work in his own
way and bear his own burden, and in each man’s assertion of his own
individuality we find the true law of human progress. We can standardize
inanimate things such as motor cars, but we are essaying interference
with the Divine order when we try to standardize men.
George Stephen was the son of a carpenter and was born, in 1829, in
Dufftown, Banffshire, Scotland. His youth was not rose-coloured. He was
educated in the parish school (the world owes much to many an unknown
school-teacher), served for a season as herd-laddie on the glebe at
Mortlach, and then was sent to Aberdeen to learn the drapery business.
One day a customer from Montreal noticed that the clerk signed his name
“George Stephen,” and it turned out that the customer and clerk were
cousins. As a result the young clerk was taken out to Montreal and
showed such devotion to business and such capacity, that he became
President of the great Bank of Montreal when he was a little over forty
years of age. He was a man of a high sense of honour and of intense
powers of concentration. He had public gifts and could speak well on
political and other topics, but all through life he applied himself
principally to business and the development of the country. Years
afterwards, when the one-time “herd laddie” at Mortlach and draper’s
apprentice had become a man of wealth and a peer of the realm,
recognized amongst the foremost as a builder of the Empire, he was
presented with the freedom of the city of Aberdeen. In his reply to the
address of presentation, he shattered some modern theories as to the
making of men by saying: “Any success I may have had in life is due in a
great measure to the somewhat Spartan training I received during my
Aberdeen apprenticeship, in which I entered as a boy of fifteen. I had
but few wants and no distractions to draw me away from the work I had in
hand. I soon discovered that if I ever accomplished anything in life it
would be by pursuing my object with a persistent determination to attain
it. I had neither the training nor the talents to accomplish anything
without hard work, and, fortunately, I knew it.” All of which would be a
good motto for every young lad to paste in his hat, so that he would see
it frequently. It is well also to remember that Sir George made good use
of the wealth he gained in later years by laborious effort. His
benefactions were wide-spread, amongst them being the contribution of
half-a-million, to go with a like amount from Lord Strathcona, into the
establishment of the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal. And when Dr.
Barclay retired from St. Paul’s Church in the same city, it was Lord
Mount Stephen who supplemented the donations of others by a princely
gift in bonds to the minister of his Montreal days.
It was this great man, George Stephen, then, who became President of the
new Canadian Pacific Railway Company in 1880, and continued in that
responsible office for the eight most critical years of the company’s
struggle to live and conquer. On him, in the grim days ahead, was to
rest most heavily the burden of financing, although his cousin, Mr. D.
A. Smith, was forward in securing the help of financial magnates at
every opportunity. The time was to come when these two were to pledge
all their private possessions to keep the Canadian Pacific going on to
completion. I think it worth while to say here that none of these men
seemed to care about money as an end, although they appreciated its
value as a means to achievement. They had no reason to go into the
Canadian Pacific Railway undertaking to make money, for when they began
it they all had enough. In fact it is well known that some of them
demurred strongly at first for fear they would be left penniless in
their old age. But they were all amenable to the appeal for the building
of Canada, and that was sufficient. In this connection it is interesting
to recall that on May 26th, 1887, Mr. Smith (Strathcona) said in the
House of Commons, “The First Minister will bear me out when I say that
Sir George Stephen and the other members of the syndicate did not
approach the Government with regard to the building of the Canadian
Pacific Railway until the Government had tried in Europe and elsewhere
to get others to take it up, capable of carrying it through, but had not
succeeded in this. I say distinctly that the gentlemen who undertook the
charter, although at first unwilling to assume the responsibility,
ultimately consented, more with a view of assisting to open up the
country than from any expectation of gain to be derived from it.” It is
equally interesting to note, in this same connection, the attitude of
Mr. James J. Hill, who once wrote to an old Canadian friend saying, “I
think you know that I am not anxious about the money part of it. I am
sure I have all and more than all I will ever want and all that will be
good for those who come after me.”
It was in this spirit, then—that of Empire-builders, rather than
money-makers—that President Stephen and his associates took up, in
1881, the tremendous task of building the Canadian Pacific Railway
across the Dominion of Canada. It was the wide West-land that had called
the transcontinental into the orbit of public vision, and though, when
Eastern connections would be made, it was inevitable that the
headquarters of the road would be in Montreal, where the leading
directors lived, offices were first of all opened in Winnipeg. Canada,
as already noted, was young in the railway business. Later on she would
find her own men for leaders in every department, as we know by this
time she has done. But in those days Canada had to go to her big cousin,
the American Republic, for railway experts. And so Mr. A. B. Stickney,
who was later President of the Chicago and Great Western, was installed
as General Superintendent in Winnipeg. With him came, as Chief Engineer,
General Rosser, who had been a dashing Confederate cavalry officer in
the Civil War. Those were my school days in Winnipeg, and I recall
seeing Rosser once—a man of very distinguished bearing. But, for
various reasons, neither he nor Stickney remained long, though I confess
I never pass the little station of Rosser just west of Winnipeg, but I
visualize again the tall, handsome Southerner after whom it was called
in those early days.
When these men were going, Stephen turned again to his old friend Hill,
who knew all about railroad men, and Hill recommended William Cornelius
Van Horne, then General Superintendent of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St.
Paul. This was another of Hill’s great contributions to his native
Canada. Though these two strong men, Hill and Van Horne, eventually
became rivals and heads of practically opposing systems, they doubtless,
to the end, recognized the consummate ability of each other. If they had
to contend at times they could at least realize
“That stern joy which warriors feel
In foeman worthy of their steel.”
In any case, Hill’s commendation of Van Horne to Stephen in 1881 was
whole hearted and emphatic. Hill said that of all the men he knew Mr.
Van Horne was altogether the best equipped, both mentally and every
other way. A pioneer was needed, and the more of a pioneer the better.
And to this Mr. Hill added, in his message to Stephen, “You need a man
of great physical and mental power to carry the line through. Van Horne
can do it. But he will take all the authority he gets and more; so
define how much you want him to have.” This last was a well-meant—and
somewhat necessary admonition. Mr. Stephen then offered Van Horne a
bigger salary than any one in a similar position had ever received in
this country. I do not think that the salary was the main thing with Van
Horne. Neither would I say that he did not take it into consideration.
He was such a many-sided man that he seemed like several men. He could
be lavish in entertaining or spending for things that he specially
fancied. But he could be close in other ways. No doubt the unprecedented
salary was, in his mind, worthy of thought. And one cannot wonder at
that, because he was asked to give up a high position in the railway
work of the States, with a presidency certain there in a few years at
most. He was, in fact, staking the prospects of a career on his decision
in favour of moving. But he did not decide to move without some idea of
the prospects of the country to which he was invited. So he made a sort
of incognito visit to Winnipeg, and took some survey of the vast plains.
He saw the possibilities of unlimited grain and root production, and
noted the practically inexhaustible soil along the Red River, where the
Selkirk settlers had been sowing and reaping for three-quarters of a
century. It is interesting to find here, as noted by writers on Van
Horne’s life, special allusion to the Selkirk settlers. These settlers
were stated in an early chapter of the book to be a factor in leading to
the inception of the Canadian Pacific Railway undertaking, as they had
demonstrated the agricultural possibilities of the West. And they are
mentioned by Van Horne’s biographer, Mr. Vaughan, as one of the elements
whose demonstration of the country’s suitability for the world’s
foundation industry helped to draw to Canada the extraordinary man who,
in the face of apparently insuperable obstacles, threw a railway line
across her wide-flung spaces.
[Illustration: LORD MOUNT STEPHEN
_First President_
LORD SHAUGHNESSY
_Early Financier and Third President_
SIR WILLIAM VAN HORNE
_First General Manager and Second President_
_Early Builders_]
One wonders yet at the fact that Van Horne left an assured career in his
own land, the richest country in the world, to come to the Canadian
West, which was then, and for some years afterwards, as I recall it, a
sort of illimitable and sparsely inhabited wilderness. He came to
undertake a railway building project such as neither his own country or
any other in the world had ever planned in similar circumstances. No
doubt he, with the keen mentality which flashed out in many varied
gifts, foresaw the country’s future. But no doubt also, as his
biographer above-mentioned affirms, and as men, like Sir George Bury,
who were intimately yoked up with him in practical work on the road
declare, it was the difficulty of the work that successfully appealed to
him. The fighting spirit of his imperturbable and determined Netherlands
ancestors rose to the challenge of the opportunity, to satisfy what Mr.
Vaughan calls his master passion “to make things grow and put new places
on the map.” So, after visiting Winnipeg and the plains, Van Horne
accepted Stephen’s offer and came from the States to become a great
Canadian who, without forgetting his lineage, grew into a deep devotion
to his adopted country.
Reference has been made already to the many-sidedness of this colossus
amongst railway builders. Once, many years after his coming, I recall
meeting Mr. Van Horne at a dinner in Lord Strathcona’s house in
Montreal, when nearly all the leading business men of their group were
present. I happened to be in the city at the time, and as Lord
Strathcona and my father had been close friends in the old Fort Garry
days, he asked me up to that dinner. Gentleman of the old school that he
was, with the courteous manner and considerateness of the perfect host,
he asked Mr. Van Horne to show me through the picture gallery. I had
known Mr. Van Horne in a general way as a forceful railroader who had
begun in railway work at the age of fourteen, and knew it from the
ground upwards in practically all departments, and I also knew something
of his taste in art. But I was hardly prepared for the wealth of the
acquaintance with painting and literature which his conversation, in
easy, flowing language, revealed that evening. And yet this was the same
Van Horne who could make men quake with the strength of his invective
against incompetency or carelessness in work, and who was apparently at
times a mere impersonal dynamo for the purpose of driving seemingly
impossible enterprises to completion. There was something more than
Napoleonic in the way in which he abolished the word “fail” from the
dictionary as he drove his undertakings onward. And yet again he was an
inveterate player of practical jokes, and was, on occasion, a sort of
big boy with a sufficient spice of fun about him to keep things from
becoming dull. If he knew how to work he also knew how to relax, and
that is a great thing.
It was this composite man, then, who, at President Stephen’s call, threw
up golden prospects in his own country and came up to Winnipeg on New
Year’s eve in 1881, to take practical command of a vast new
problematical enterprise. His powers may have been defined by Stephen
and his associates, but the definition must have been very much
tantamount to a free hand, as the sequel will show.