The Guiding Hands
Nothing runs itself unless it is running down hill. This saying may be
contradicted by advocates of “blind chance” theories, but, generally
speaking, it will be accepted as a practically accurate statement of all
movements. The Canadian Pacific Railway Company has never allowed things
to run themselves. Strong minds and resolute hands were always at work,
and nothing was permitted to run unguided and uncontrolled. If this vast
transportation system has become one of the wonders of the modern world,
it has not just happened, but it is the result of a deliberate and a
well-ordered plan in which an intelligent sense of personal
responsibility for one’s own share of work is recognized as imperative
in order that the whole system may be a success. A human being is not,
as is sometimes said, a cog in the wheel, but a living link in the chain
of business causation. Every one’s work in every occupation is
monotonous in one sense, and in many cases it seems to the worker that
his or her task is of very little importance. But one can never estimate
the value of work by superficial standards, for the man or woman who
gives a telephone number or raps out a message on the key may be the
means of transmitting messages that will change the face of the world.
The Canadian Pacific has endeavoured, with a large measure of success,
to magnify the significance of every worker’s task and create a feeling
of _esprit de corps_ in its great army of over one hundred thousand
workers. Hence, for instance, I was not surprised to hear that in a
certain city when a merchant had made a foul public attack on the
Company, a host of the Company’s employees stayed away from that
merchant’s store. They were of the company that had been unfairly
attacked, and they were not going to stand for it. It was in that
spirit, I suppose, that Mr. Van Horne’s faithful porter, already
mentioned, used to put himself along with his “boss,” and speak of both
in the expression “we railway men.” All this means that, from the
beginning, the Company knew that it would owe its success not to any one
man, however great, but to the many who, though guided generally by one
dominating force, would be in particular directed by the heads of the
various departments.
In the world’s oldest Book, advice of a sage character was given to
Moses, the greatest human leader our world has known, by Jethro, his
father-in-law. The wise old chief saw that Moses was going to break down
because he was trying to do everything himself. And he told Moses that,
in order that he might have time and strength for the heavy task of
leadership, he (Moses) should share the responsibility with others by
“choosing out of all the people able men, and by making them captains
over hundreds and fifties and tens.” The Book which contained that wise
advice was a text-book in the schools of Scotland when George Stephen,
the first President of the Canadian Pacific, was brought up, and one
does not need much imagination to see that such a maxim of wisdom became
almost unconsciously part of his being. In any case, when he came to be
burdened with the Presidency of the great railway, he practised the
advice and passed it on also to others. Hence it was that he brought Mr.
Van Horne to take over part of the burden. Stephen knew his own
limitations. He could raise money, but he could not build railways.
Hence also we find this same Stephen, as we have seen, advising Van
Horne to put some of his load on others; and so Shaughnessy, the General
Purchasing Agent, moved up to be Mr. Van Horne’s first great assistant
and understudy, in line to be “the King of Railway Presidents” in his
time.
The Canadian Pacific Railway system has now over one hundred thousand
people on its payroll, and their remuneration means a monthly
expenditure by the Company of nearly eight millions of dollars—an
almost incredible sum—for salaries and wages of employees every thirty
days. It would be manifestly impossible to give any more than a few
outstanding names from this formidable host, and even they would be
given with the feeling that they were only representatives of the host
of men and women who in all departments have been, for these four
decades, carrying on their work in a splendid way.
Titles are now under the ban in Canada, but before that era of extreme
democracy arrived, the Crown had recognized the Imperial services of the
following men associated with the Company: Lords Mount Stephen,
Strathcona and Shaughnessy, Sir William Van Horne, Sir Thomas Tait, Sir
George Bury, Sir George McLaren Brown, Sir Arthur Harris, Sir William
Whyte, Sir Augustus Nanton, Sir James Aitkens, Sir E. B. Osler, Sir John
Eaton, Sir Vincent Meredith and Sir Herbert Holt. Mr. W. R. Baker, who
excelled in social qualities during royal visits, was given a decoration
by our present King.
But following out our theory as to the importance of every place in
service, my recollections swing from the contemplation of the work done
by men of such remarkable ability and initiative as those above named,
without whom the road could not have succeeded, and I recall more men
than I could possibly mention in many volumes who out in the humbler
places did their enormously important work. Many an hour, for instance,
did I spend on the back platforms of the last coach on the old Southern
Manitoba trains with Charlie Panser, than whom no better or more
reliable roadmaster ever watched the ties and spikes and fish plates and
switches anywhere. Nothing escaped his attention, and his little
notebook recorded his observations in his own way. And I think in that
connection of all the maintenance-of-way or section men, whose faithful
labours through summer heat and winter cold keep the road-bed in
amazingly perfect order. I have seen them fighting blizzards on the
prairie and watching washouts or slides in the mountains, and all with
such astonishing success that there is no more safe roadway in the world
than the Canadian Pacific. I look back in another direction and see old
Gideon Swain, a big, powerful man, who, despite his “rheumatics,” was
general custodian and guard at the old Winnipeg station. He looked after
everybody. He was as gentle as a woman in looking after children and
their travel-weary parents, but woe betide the tough or loafer who tried
to impose on the kindly old gentleman in whose big-hearted organism
there slumbered a volcanic energy against wrong. Once I was there when
the old board platform was cracking in a forty-below-zero morning. Swain
was assisting some ladies and children on a train when two “smart” men
came into the circle and began to swear about something. Turning round
the old station-guard, who looked like a mountain in his coonskin coat,
raised the big stick he always carried and told them in a thunderous
voice to “shut up with talk like that before children.” The men tried to
explain, but Swain would have none of it, and they simply had to subside
and move away with the best grace possible, to escape the wrath of the
guardian of the children. Possibly, like old Constable Richards of the
Windsor Street Station in Montreal, of whom George Ham writes so fondly,
he too has found congenial work beyond the Great Divide where they have
both gone. Incidentally, that is a fine human story of old Constable
Richards telling Lord Shaughnessy at the station gate in Montreal, when
the President was returning from a trip, that he, the old keeper, had
been overlooked when others had got an increase of pay, which apparently
under regulations could not go to Richards, who was being kept on over
the age-limit. The President, keeping some big people waiting, listened
to the old gate-keeper’s story attentively. The next day Richards was
delighted to get an envelope with notice of increase, and the back pay,
but he never knew that Lord Shaughnessy was paying it out of his own
pocket.
I have singled out these few men from the rank and file, but they are
representative of the loyalty and devotion of thousands in the various
departments.
Like them also in this do we find the locomotive engineers and
trainmen—steady, careful, cool-nerved men, who know their duty and do
it. Gentlemanly conductors are there, also porters, waiters and the
rest, who all take pride in the road over which they have their runs.
And back of it all are the men in the great workshops, like the “Angus,”
in Montreal, and “Ogden,” in Calgary, and others all across the
continent, the roundhouses, divisional quarters and similar
establishments, where engines and cars are builded and repairs of all
kinds made. Then we have the “live-wire” people in the telegraph
department, and so on through all the ramifications of a vast
organization; but all enter into the life of the system and make it a
marvel of co-operative efficiency. Doubtless there are many here and
there amongst these employees who growl in regard to some of the
conditions of their employment. So have we found men in a military
regiment here and there who exercised their privilege of complaining
against the conditions of their service. But in both cases let an
outsider attack their organization and the _esprit de corps_ and
regimental pride will assert itself so that the man who ventures on
criticism does well if he escapes without some injury.
We have thus taken a hurried survey of this great host of people in the
employ of the Canadian Pacific. But we must not forget that they have
been, through these years, marshalled and led by remarkable men all over
the system. It is a well-organized army with its parts all closely
linked up and related, so that there is a place for every one and every
one has to fill that place according to the measure of his ability.
We have written in some fullness already about Sir William Van Horne,
because as General Manager he was the guiding hand in the great days
when the construction of the main line was carried to completion, and
because, both as Manager and President, he began the big task of
creating conditions for the support and extension of the road. Branch
line feeders in the West, and Eastern Canadian, as well as American,
connections, were established and the Pacific shipping service well
inaugurated in his day. Notable lines, such as the Crow’s Nest through
the Kootenay Valley, and the “Soo” Line, from near Moose Jaw on the
prairies to the United States, had been established. Van Horne had said
that he would never leave the Canadian Pacific until “it was out of the
woods.” By 1897 or so things were looking well for the Road. Stock had
run up to par and the land sales for the first time had begun to be
worth while as a source of revenue for the Company.
It was evident that Van Horne was beginning about that time to consider
modifying his relation to the Railway, and that was so for two or three
apparent reasons. The first was that the Company was never the same to
him after Mount Stephen had withdrawn from the Directorate. Van Horne
missed him terribly on personal grounds. The second was that Van Horne’s
powers were more creative than administrative and he knew it. He
delighted in making a new thing go, but once it was going well he had a
sort of distaste for the detail of keeping it going. He was more
interested in putting a road across the country than in running it. He
loved the Canadian Pacific and knew quite well that his lieutenant,
Shaughnessy, could do the intensive development work and the detailed
administration work better than he himself could. Shaughnessy was ten
years younger and much more active. In fact Van Horne wished, for the
good of the Company, to hand the leadership of it to Mr. Shaughnessy as
early as 1895, but Shaughnessy persuaded him to stay on till the Company
was more firmly established. And besides, Mr. Van Horne, who said he had
wealth enough, wished not only to devote more time to the fine art of
painting and other artistic tastes, but to follow up his farm and
similar hobbies. Moreover, he saw in such places as the island of Cuba
and in other industries than railroading in Canada, opportunities for
exercising his restless creative habit of mind.
[Illustration:
I. G. OGDEN
_Vice Pres. of Finance_
GRANT HALL
_Vice President_
W. R. MACINNES
_Vice Pres. in Charge of Traffic_
E. W. BEATTY
_President_
A. D. MACTIER
_Vice President Eastern Lines_
D. C. COLEMAN
_Vice President Western Lines_
SIR GEORGE McLAREN BROWN
_European Gen’l M’g’r_
_The Present Management_]
Accordingly we find this Sir William Cornelius Van Horne, who had
started in railroad work at the age of fourteen in another country, and
had made such a world-record in constructive enterprises that he
received the special recognition of knighthood from the British Crown,
voluntarily resigning in June, 1899, from the Presidency of the vast
transportation system he had done so much to create and develop. He
remained as chairman of the Board and a member of the Executive,
retaining his office in the Company headquarters at Montreal and saying
to his friends, “I shall still hang around the old stand.” I recall
reading a statement made by Edward Gibbon when, after years of work, he
finished his world-famous book on the Roman Empire. He said that when he
had written the last page he took a turn in his garden. His first
sensation was a feeling of relief over the completion of the great task,
and then a feeling of something like exultation over what he knew to be
an important contribution to the historical literature of the world. And
then, he says, he realized a sense of loneliness because he would no
longer have his wonderfully congenial daily work, and a sense of loss
because something had gone out of his life as a finished chapter in his
career.
I think that Van Horne felt all that, when he gave up the Presidency of
the Canadian Pacific Railway, and to say so is much to his credit. He
missed something out of his life. He began to plan trips to fill up the
blank, but not very successfully, as we judge from the following account
of a visit he paid to Monterey in his private car after having seen
California. He says, “I went out on the verandah of the hotel and smoked
a big cigar. Then I got up, walked about the verandah and looked at the
scenery. It was very fine. Then I sat down and smoked another cigar.
Then up again; another walk about the verandah, and more scenery. It was
still very fine. I sat down again and smoked another cigar. Then I
jumped up and telephoned for my car to be coupled to the next train;
and, by George, I was never so happy in my life as when I struck the C.
P. R. again.” There is humour in this, but there is pathos also. Van
Horne was too keen-minded a man not to have foreseen this situation. And
we repeat, as a lasting proof of his devotion to the Canadian Pacific,
that when there came the hour when he felt it was in the interests of
the Railway to transfer the growingly intensive and complex detail of
its administration to the sinewy business hands of Shaughnessy, whose
amazing powers as a financial administrator and master of detail had
been amply tested through seventeen eventful years of the railway’s
history, Van Horne resigned from the Presidency. And thus it was that
Shaughnessy became President in June, 1899. From this date, although Van
Horne remained on the Executive, he in large measure passed out of the
story of the Canadian Pacific Railway. He retained all his financial
interests in the Road, and was always ready to assist as Chairman at
Board meetings by counsel; but to all intents and purposes he felt he
had done his share and was now, by his own choice, handing the work over
to his successor.
But to a man of Van Horne’s initiative and creative talent, idleness was
unthinkable, and so, when he had unloaded the heavier burden, he took up
some others less weighty, for exercise to keep himself fit. Accordingly
we find him going into such concerns as the Laurentide Pulp Company and
the Windsor Salt Company, and with his usual energy he made them
successful. Then he went to Cuba as a free lance, and by building
railways and other industries he did more for Cuba, as has been said,
than Spain had done in centuries. He continued to reside in Montreal,
busy with many projects, and when the end of life was at hand he said in
effect what Cecil Rhodes, whom he somewhat resembled in driving power,
had said: “So little done; so much to do.” What Van Horne actually did
say was, “I see so much to do that I wish I could keep active for five
hundred years.” But this strong scion of Netherland stock had done a
great day’s work, and his high place in the temple of railway fame is
secure for all time. Though of Dutch descent and American birth, he had
become a British Empire builder under the Red Cross flag; but his dust
reposes in the old graveyard of his people in Joliet. On the day of his
funeral every wheel on the vast Canadian Pacific system came to a stop
in silent tribute to the memory of a Napoleonic fighter in the fields of
peaceful industry. His legal advisor and friend through many years,
George Tate Blackstock, of Toronto, himself a man of most unusual
ability, bore testimony to “the stupendous virility of his conceptions
and exertions.” “He had his faults,” said Blackstock, and he indicates
an approach to egotism in many of Van Horne’s sweeping statements, but
it was not the “egotism of impotence, but of power.” And there is a
place in the battle of life for self-assertion of the right kind.
We have already met in these pages his successor, Mr. Thomas G.
Shaughnessy. In most ways he was unlike Van Horne. Born in Milwaukee, of
Irish descent, he was tall and athletic in appearance, and altogether
different in that respect from the stocky and heavily-built descendant
of Holland. A newspaper friend of mine, Mr. Hope Ross, of Winnipeg, in a
reminiscent article on Lord Shaughnessy, has the following interesting
note on his appearance and manner, which carries out the impression made
by the same Shaughnessy as a young man on Mr. E. A. James and noted in
an earlier chapter. Mr. Ross says:
“Many years ago Sir Thomas, as he was then, arrived in Winnipeg
depot with a party, and an inexperienced reporter at once picked
him out as the leader. His dress, his quick manner, his general
appearance, his commanding demeanour, his attitude, all
indicated and revealed his position. As to his dress, President
Shaughnessy seemed on every occasion that I ever saw him as
though he had just stepped from the band box. Everything he wore
looked as though put on that moment for the first time. No one
would, however, suggest that he was overdressed, but just
perfectly, as the successful head of a great corporation should
be.
“In his general appearance Sir Thomas was the incarnation of
prosperous big business. In nearly twenty years’ reporting
around the Canadian Pacific depot, and later about the Royal
Alexandra Hotel, I met no Eastern banker, railway executive,
manufacturer, statesman, or other who seemed to personify and
embody what is known as the business power of the East as he
did.”
It was this appearance and type of the President that gave _Punch_ the
opportunity to make the famous cartoon, “The Canadian Pacific.” The
cartoon was just a fine upstanding photograph of Lord Shaughnessy. He
was an embodiment of the vast system of transportation, and _Punch_ had
caught the right idea, as usual.
Generally speaking, the opinion of many—perhaps of most people, about
Lord Shaughnessy—was that he was a keen, swift and rather hard man. He
could be all that on occasion, and he was usually dignified in his
manner, as became the head of a great enterprise. But those who knew him
well say he was one of the kindest of men. Temperamentally he was
generous, and was always ready to give assistance to those in need, or,
as George Ham put it, Shaughnessy helped many “a lame dog over the
stile,” and said nothing about it. But the fact remains that the popular
impression, as we have indicated, was that he was keen and rather hard
and that impression was a quite wrong deduction, due to his
distinguished manner and detached attitude. It is well to remember that
he was head of an immense army, and that discipline requires a certain
amount of dignity in the officer commanding.
To have that and also to possess the warm human heart is to have an
ideal officer, like “The Beloved Captain,” as painted for us in Donald
Hankey’s famous book of war experiences. Here again I quote from the
article written by Mr. Ross as it illustrates well the many-sidedness of
the dignified railway President. Mr. Ross says:
“A little incident of which I was apparently the sole Winnipeg
witness, in connection with Sir Thomas, occurred on a perfect
May morning. The President was to arrive and did arrive on a
special train from Montreal, shortly before eight o’clock, and I
caught him just as he stepped from his car. As usual he was
courteous and ready to talk to the press and said that if I
would wait until after breakfast he would answer any questions I
could ask. His car, the Killarney, was left standing on the
track closest to the depot. The rear was all glass, and all the
members of his party, seated at the breakfast table—there were
not more than four or five—were in full view. Taking no chances
I remained in close proximity, waiting for the end of the meal
when the interview would be obtainable. There was at that time
no train shed at the Canadian Pacific depot and there was a wide
expanse of board walk. At the moment of the little incident to
which I refer this sidewalk was absolutely clear. Strange to
say, there was not a red cap nor a Canadian Pacific police or
official of any kind in sight. A local train was standing on one
track, well loaded, and ready to pull out in a few moments.
“Suddenly I saw Sir Thomas arise and come quickly out of the
car. Believing that he was coming to meet his appointment with
me, I went forward. He passed me by saying ‘Not yet.’ I then
noticed that a slight, small, foreign woman, in a worn,
discoloured cotton dress, carrying her possessions in a white
sheet, a big package about three feet high and three feet wide
at the widest, and with four small children, was making her way
across the expanse of sidewalk. The conductor had just given the
signal for departure. Sir Thomas hurried to the side of the
woman, gave a signal to the trainmen, took the huge bundle in
the white sheet in one hand and one of the children by the
other, helped the woman to the train, handed the white bundle to
the brakeman, lifted the four children up the steps, aided the
foreign woman up, and returned to his breakfast. A little later
he was telling me in his private car of the plans of the Company
for immigration work that year, about the new lines that were to
be built, betterments which were to be made, and the prospects
for the future in the prairie country, then humming with
prosperity and brimming over with optimism.”
I can quite imagine this scene at the old station I knew well in the
early days. It was not then so ornate or so much protected by fences and
gates, but it afforded opportunities for deeds of the kind recorded
above. It was a fine, but perfectly spontaneous act, on the part of the
famous President, who saw from his private car the plight of the
immigrant mother.
Mr. Ross adds another story which reveals a depth of feeling in this
great President, which even the reporter who had been in touch with him
for years had not discovered. Sir William Whyte, that princely man who
had been such a tower of strength to the Canadian Pacific in its most
difficult days, and who had not long before retired when two years over
the age limit, had passed away somewhat suddenly during a visit to
California. The funeral was, of course, in Winnipeg, where he had been
the foremost citizen. Incidentally those of us who knew Sir William
Whyte say a hearty amen to the allusion made to him by Mr. Ross in the
following paragraph:
“Sir Thomas Shaughnessy had none of the official manner when I
met him in his private office here on the day of the funeral of
Sir William Whyte. Sir William had been a father to me, as he
was to a good many younger men, and his death and burial
concerned me much more than as a matter of news. Sir Thomas was
obviously profoundly moved and I had a different feeling with
reference to him always afterwards. He was never again the
military dictatorial head and President of the corporation in my
feeling with reference to him.”
This mention of Lord Shaughnessy and Sir William Whyte leads me to
recall an incident of which both these railway men were part. Both held
very strongly that the use of intoxicating drink should be pared down to
the minimum if it was used at all. Once I recall that certain saloons in
the North End of Winnipeg were enticing the employees of the railway to
their premises by putting out notices that pay cheques would be cashed
after bank hours. And one bitter winter night a railway employee who had
used the proceeds of his cheque too freely for liquor was found frozen
to death in the back-yard of the saloon. I saw Mr. Whyte about it the
next day and he was furious over the action of the saloon keepers. He
said, “We will change our method of payment, if necessary, for the
welfare of the men and their families, and perhaps make drinking a
dismissable offence whether on or off duty. Trainmen and others off duty
may be called up for duty any time and they ought to be fit in order to
avoid danger to themselves and others.” One day when both Shaughnessy
and Whyte were on a train which stopped at Moose Jaw, where the Company
had a hotel at the station, Shaughnessy saw some trainmen entering the
bar-room. He called to the General Manager of Western Lines (that was
part of Mr. Whyte’s title) and said, “Whyte, close up that bar.” Whyte
asked, “Now or at the closing hour of the day?” And Shaughnessy said,
“Close it now, and do not allow it ever to open again.” It is quite well
known that Lord Shaughnessy would not tolerate the practice of drink or
any habits usually associated with it.
Lord Shaughnessy’s power as an executive officer lay partly in the
characteristics indicated already, but mainly in his tremendous prestige
as a man of business whose ability as such was acknowledged the world
over. When he was General Purchasing Agent for the Company he introduced
a system of accounting which is said to have been adopted by the
Corporation of the City of New York. There was no movement in the world
of finance that he did not know about, and his mastery of the complex
problem of international credits, led to his being called into the
councils of the Empire both in peace and war. During the nineteen years
of his Presidency, the Canadian Pacific was brought into a system of
operation which was the last word in efficiency, so that, as already
mentioned, he was called “King of Railway Presidents” on this continent,
where the biggest railway interests of the world are in operation. His
services in the years of the Great War are spoken of more fully in a
chapter on that special subject. Little wonder then, that this famous
chief executive officer of the Canadian Pacific was honoured by the
King, first by knighthood and later by a peerage under the title Baron
Shaughnessy, K.C.V.O., of Montreal, Canada, and of Ashford, County
Limerick, Ireland.
When the Great War, which left him with a proud, but wounded, heart
because of the death of his gallant son, Fred, at the Front was well
over and things became more normal, Lord Shaughnessy felt that he should
relinquish the Presidency. His age and strength admonished him that he
should take things easier and call a younger man to the office to deal
with the tremendous problems of the reconstruction period. So, after
forty-one years of service with the road, he retired in 1918 from the
Presidency, which he had occupied since 1899, but he retained to the end
the office of Chairman of the Executive Board. Mr. E. W. Beatty was
called to the place in succession to the “King of Presidents” and is
proving that the choice was a wise one. Later on we shall write more
particularly of Mr. Beatty, this youngest President of such an immense
organization.
It was characteristic of Lord Shaughnessy to insist, despite Mr.
Beatty’s protest, on the young President taking the large and ornate
office room which Presidents had always occupied. Lord Shaughnessy kept
busy at his office in the Board room every day in Montreal, till a
sudden weakness of the heart carried him away after a few hours illness,
on December 10th, 1923. Few incidents in the thrilling history of this
pioneer transcontinental Canadian railway are so wonderfully touching
and, in a true sense, dramatic, as the incident connected with Lord
Shaughnessy’s death. Mr. Beatty was in to see him shortly before the end
came, and to Mr. Beatty Lord Shaughnessy said: “Take good care of the
Canadian Pacific Railway. It is a great Canadian property and a great
Canadian enterprise.” There is nobility and solemnity in the incident.
It was a long way from the entrance of young Shaughnessy to the
Milwaukee Railway, at the age of fifteen, to that scene in the sick-room
in his Montreal mansion. But he had been put in charge of a great trust
in the Canadian Pacific, and to that trust he was “true till death.”
The passing of Lord Shaughnessy was deeply mourned by the employees of
the road, who were proud of their great “Chief.” And that mourning was
practically world-wide. Perhaps no better summing up of his career was
written than in the London _Times_ editorial, where, after speaking of
his coming from abroad, the writer goes on to say:
“Here lies half the romance of Lord Shaughnessy’s career. Born
in Milwaukee, a citizen of the United States, he lived to become
not only a citizen of the Dominion of Canada across the border,
but most essentially, a citizen of the British Empire. Under his
administration the double track branched and extended so as to
carry new settlers every year into the farm-lands of Ontario,
through the gateways of the West, into the wheatfields of the
prairies and beyond the Rockies into the valleys of British
Columbia. In building the greatness of the country he served, he
helped to build the greatness of his adopted country and of the
Empire as well. Himself an immigrant, he realized to the full
the vital importance to Canada of a vigorous system of
immigration, and his characteristically outspoken comment on the
possibilities that might be achieved under the Empire Settlement
Act were in marked distinction to the hesitation of some of the
political leaders of the Dominion.
“Of Lord Shaughnessy it may be said that he was a living
instance of the manner in which the Britons overseas assimilate
the many elements of which they are composed. He came to Canada
from a foreign country as a servant; he remained to be honoured
by the king to whom he gave such loyal allegiance, and to be
recognized universally among his fellow-countryman as the first
citizen of the Dominion.”
The mantle of Lord Shaughnessy fell upon Edward Wentworth Beatty who, on
Lord Shaughnessy’s passing, became President and also Chairman of the
Board. A young man not far over the forties in years was Mr. Beatty when
he took up the mantle and assumed the high office of the Canadian
Pacific Presidency. First of the Canadian-born to occupy this
responsible position, he bids fair to measure up fully to all its
imperious demands.
There are unthinking people in the world who have a sort of
compassionate way of wondering whether a man can fill the place of a
great predecessor. But in reality each man fills his own place, and by
the full play of his own individuality makes his own contribution to
history. Each may do work his predecessor could not have done, and,
while keeping up a continuity, each brings a new force into the march of
human progress. It may be interesting in this connection to recall and
summarize the work of these men who, up to this date, have headed the
Canadian Pacific. Hence an extract from an article by the present writer
on the subject, in the press recently, may be introduced in line with
the statement just made:
“These four presidents were of different types in many ways, and
of quite distinctive talents, but they seemed to be specially
suited for the work which each was called upon to do in the
given period in which he exercised the duties of his high
office.
“Stephen was a master of finance, whose authority in that realm
was recognized by every one, and whose integrity was beyond
question. In executive boldness he was not the equal of some
others on the road, but the questions he had to face were
largely financial.
“It was the period when the great railway, owing to the terrific
cost of construction and practical impossibility of selling land
was, financially speaking, gasping for breath. Stephen’s mastery
of financial problems and his high repute in the world of
business made him the man for the hour.
“So consummate a master of finance was he that before he
relinquished the office of President, every dollar loaned by the
Dominion Government to tide the Canadian Pacific Railway over
the sandbars of construction time was repaid.
“Mr. Van Horne, who succeeded Stephen in the Presidency, was
particularly gifted in the powers required for the period when,
although the main line was completed from coast to coast, an
enormous amount of work was required in creating traffic,
constructing branch-line feeders, as well as a large amount of
inspection of all lines, the replacement of temporary by more
permanent track and bridge equipment and such like. In such work
Mr. Van Horne had no equal.
“Mr. Shaughnessy, who came next, brought to the Presidency his
brilliant business gifts, the experience through which he had
passed as Purchasing Agent in the critical days, as well as
extraordinary foresight and withal a determination to maintain
the financial stability of the road.
“Once, when a Winnipeg newspaper man asked him why the Canadian
Pacific had not launched out into certain projects of railway
building in a new direction, he said: ‘The future is always
uncertain, and an executive must always be prepared to meet
contingencies that may arise and circumstances that may emerge.
The Canadian Pacific is a very large enterprise, and its success
is so vital to Canada that we must exercise due caution. The
surplus assets and the liquid assets must be kept in a condition
to meet all emergencies.’
“Mr. Beatty had come to the Presidency in a new day, when legal
as well as financial problems are numerous. Mr. Beatty is an
experienced railway lawyer, as well as a keen man of business.
He is cool rather than impetuous. He has a personality as
suggestive of reserve power as an engine with steam up ready to
go when the time comes. But he will make no hasty and premature
rushes at anything. He speaks well in private and in public and
he is thinking all the time. He has become a leading figure, but
he will never become diffuse or aimless in his thinking or
speaking. He has his powers harnessed and so under his control
that he will not be thrown off the track by outside forces. He
will go far in the railway world.”
New occasions teach new duties, and the present railway situation in
Canada is unprecedented. President Beatty is evidently treading firmly,
but cautiously, along a new trail and his self-control and keen study of
the situation indicate a remarkable insight and foresight which will
make for a great tenure of a tremendously potent position.
Biographically it may be noted that Mr. Beatty is the son of a noted
steamship operator on the inland seas of Ontario. The future President
had good opportunity for education in Thorold and Toronto University,
before he entered on the study of law in the office of Adam Creelman,
who was counsel in Toronto for the Canadian Pacific. When Mr. Creelman
moved to headquarters at Montreal, he took Mr. Beatty with him. Mr.
Beatty’s ability and devotion to work made his promotion to the position
of Chief Counsel and a Vice-Presidency rapid. He so studied every phase
of the Company’s great system that his succession to the Presidency came
in natural sequence.
It goes without saying that all the Presidents were aided and advised by
an exceedingly able staff of wise and experienced men. Where there is
such a host, it is manifestly impossible to even mention many without
seeming “to make invidious distinctions,” as a student once answered
when he declined to name the major and the minor prophets on an
examination paper. But, in addition to those whose names appear
elsewhere in these chapters, a high place amongst the early men who
helped to really build up the Canadian Pacific is given by general
consent to David McNicoll. Once when a friend in Ontario referred to him
as “Dave” he followed it up by saying that they went to school together
in Arbroath, Scotland, and that “Dave” always had great ability. After
some experience on a railway in the Old Land, McNicoll joined the
Canadian Pacific in 1883, when times were hard. He rose steadily to be a
Vice-President and General Manager. He was an encyclopedia on all
matters pertaining to the road, studied maps till the whole country was
an open book to him, and he became known as an incessant worker with all
the grim determination and reliance of his race. He met difficult
situations without flinching, and was a tower of strength to the road
till he practically broke his health through excessive toil. His work is
commemorated by Port McNicoll, as Mr. R. B. Angus and Mr. I. G. Ogden
are commemorated in the great shops bearing their names.
[Illustration:
_The late_ DAVID McNICOLL
_Vice President
and
General Manager_
_The late_ R. B. Angus
_Former Officers_]
Then we have such men as Vice-Presidents W. R. McInnes, with the Company
since 1885; George M. Bosworth, head of the Pacific Ocean services;
Grant Hall, with the railway since 1886, a mechanical genius; A. D.
McTier, who began clerking in the baggage department in 1887, and is now
Vice-President, a man of vision; Mr. D. C. Coleman, who started as clerk
in the engineering department at Fort William and who is now
Vice-President at Winnipeg, a man with much literary taste and a hobby
for collecting books; Charles R. Hosmer, who organized the telegraph
service at the beginning; and others whose names will emerge in the
closing chapter, with some account of a few special features in the life
of the road. One does not forget the press service embodied in Col.
George H. Ham, who has popularized the Railway in many lands, nor George
Murray Gibbon, a writer of ability, who now presides over the publicity
department at Montreal. All over the immense system I can see the faces
of men in all departments who were and are contributing to the success
and boundless efficiency of this world-wide organization. They do not
tolerate carelessness, in themselves or others, and, to an extraordinary
degree, they are imbued with the spirit of the great leaders of the
Company who sought to make the whole system a builder of Empire and a
contributing factor to the well-being of the world.