ore than eighteen thousand
miles of railway, or more than six times the length of the original
transcontinental line. It gave employment directly to ninety thousand
men, whose monthly pay-roll reached five million dollars, and
indirectly maintained many more, {221} justifying the boast of its
president in 1907 that directly or indirectly one-twelfth of the people
of Canada received their income from the Canadian Pacific. In 1913
alone, the supreme year of Canadian railway expansion, the Canadian
Pacific appropriated for new construction and betterments, equipment,
terminal facilities, steamships and hotels, shops and elevators, nearly
one hundred million dollars, or more than the original cost of the
road. It touched the life of the nation at every conceivable point.
From Atlantic to Pacific there was scarcely a town of any importance
that was not reached by its lines. But its position was not merely
national. It controlled over five thousand miles of railways in the
United States, taking rank amongst the foremost systems of the
Republic. Its steamship lines stretched more than half-way round the
world, and in Liverpool and Trieste, Hong-Kong and Yokohama and Sydney,
the red-and-white house flag of the Canadian Pacific made the company
and the country known.

The management of the Canadian Pacific showed stability and continuity.
It trained up in its own ranks the men for its highest posts. Sir
George Stephen, later Lord Mount {222} Stephen, on resigning the
presidency in 1888, had been succeeded by Mr, afterwards Sir, William
C. Van Horne. As general manager, and then for eleven years as
president, Van Horne carried the road through its most difficult
period. In spite of failure of crops, low prices, and the slow
trickling in of settlers, he kept aglow his own faith in the West and
communicated it to others. Indomitable courage, tenacity of purpose,
breadth of vision, mastery of organization and detail marked him as one
of the great railroad builders of the century. Even when he retired
from the presidency, becoming for another twelve years chairman of the
board of directors, it was only to find new outlets for his energy in
building pulp and paper mills in Quebec and railways in Cuba; for
though, unlike many millionaires, he had not narrowed into his own
business groove, and could paint a picture as well as buy one, the call
to action never failed to stir him.

When Van Horne came to the Canadian Pacific