and drought and
other plagues. The fact that in 1885 Canadian Pacific stock sold as
low as 33 3/4 in London, and a shade lower on this side of the water,
shows the estimate the world of finance put upon the bargain it had
made. Nor was the road completed in 1886. It was then only begun.
Grades had to be bettered, trestle-work filled up, extensions flung
out, terminals secured, and a new road built every few years.

{149}

Looking back now, after the lapse of thirty years, it would seem that
the government would have done better if it had given less of the land
which was to prove so valuable, and had, instead, guaranteed the
dividend on the stock for a term of years. In the eighties, however,
western acres were held in little esteem and money guarantees, with
Grand Trunk memories fresh, looked dangerous--and it was in the
eighties that the decision had to be made.

[Illustration: Sir William Cornelius Van Horne. From a photograph by
Notman]

More valid was the criticism of the remaining terms. The exemption
from duties was wise, if inconsistent in a protectionist government,
and the exemption from regulation of rates until ten per cent was
earned had a precedent in a clause in the General Railway Act, not
repealed until 1888, exempting all roads from such regulation until
fifteen per cent on the capital invested had been earned. The
exemption from taxation, however, was an unwarranted privilege,
throwing undue burdens on homesteading settlers; and the interpretation
afterwards given that the exemption on lands extended until twenty
years after the patent had been issued still further increased the
difficulty. Objectionable, also, was the monopoly clause, barring
United States {150} connections for ten years. It was claimed that
this exemption was essential if traffic was to be secured for the Lake
Superior link, and essential also if capital was to be secured from
England. The Englishman, one of the heads of the road declared, hated
a monopoly at home as he hated the devil, but he looked with favour on
monopolies abroad. The monopoly clause, as will be seen later, for a
time did more to split East and West than the Lake Superior link did to
bind them together in spirit.

But enough of discussion. Action came quick. Not a day was lost in
organizing and beginning work.

George Stephen was chosen president, and held the post until 1888. To
him more than to any other man the ultimate success of the Ca