ts. A line to Trieste, to secure a share of
the immigration traffic from Eastern Europe, led to prolonged
complications with the Austrian government early in 1914, on account of
the hostility of German rivals. {227} Hotels followed steamships, some
eight or ten being erected at strategic points from St Andrews to
Victoria. Departing from the usual American practice, the company
owned and operated its own sleeping-cars, and maintained its own
express and telegraph companies. Its car-shops provided much of its
rolling stock. Grain elevators were built at terminal points. In the
later years a systematic policy of developing its western lands was
adopted. A special department of Natural Resources was established,
irrigation works were begun on a huge scale in the tract of three
million acres between Calgary and Medicine Hat, and ready-made farms
were provided or loans made to selected settlers.

The method of financing these countless enterprises was equally
striking. Instead of increasing the proportion of bonded indebtedness,
as was customary, the company sought additional capital chiefly by the
sale of common stock. This procedure was possible because of the
speculative value of the stock, based primarily on the growth of
traffic, and of the value of the western lands still unsold: the
dividend rose steadily to ten per cent in 1912, and the practice which
prevailed until 1909 of issuing the stock at par gave holders {228}
valuable rights. In the latter year 125 was charged for the shares
allotted, in 1912 150, and in 1913 175. As a result of the earlier
policy an unnecessarily high price was paid for new capital, but fixed
charges were kept low, and no great system was as safe from
foreclosure. In 1914 the total assets of the company were valued at
over $800,000,000.

Fifth in mileage among the railway systems of Canada is the group of
fragments connected with the Great Northern Railway of the United
States. James J. Hill had not been least among the members of the
original Canadian Pacific Syndicate, but differences with his
colleagues led to his retirement in 1883. Thenceforward he devoted
himself entirely to the building up of the St Paul, Minneapolis and
Manitoba, the railway acquired from the Dutch bondholders. Under the
name of the Great Northern it had been extended by 1893 from Lake
Superior to Puget Sound, and continued to grow steadily until, twenty
years later, it controlled nearly eight tho