239} height-of-land, was begun by the Ontario government in 1902
as a colonization road. It was fortunate enough to uncover the riches
of Cobalt's silver-camp in its construction; later, mining development
at Gowganda and Porcupine brought it traffic; and the building of the
Grand Trunk Pacific made it an important connecting link. It was able,
then, from the outset to show favourable results, direct as well as
indirect. It was built and controlled by a government commission,
efficient and more or less free from politics.

[1] The deputy-minister, Mr Collingwood Schreiber, instanced in 1882 an
attempt of a farmer, whose claim was nursed by influential politicians,
to collect $70,000 for a gravel-pit liberally estimated to be worth $5.

{240}

CHAPTER XIII

SOME GENERAL QUESTIONS

The Question of State Aid--The Railway Commission--Progress in
Service--The Unknown Builders

When the pace of construction slackened in 1914, Canada had achieved a
remarkable position in the railway world. Only five other
countries--the United States, Russia, Germany, India, and, by a small
margin, France--possessed a greater mileage; and, relatively to
population, none came anywhere near her. Three great systems stretched
from coast to coast. Need still existed for local extensions, but by a
great effort the main trunk lines had been built. Not only in mileage
were the railways of Canada notable. In the degree to which the minor
roads had been swallowed up by a few dominating systems, in the wide
sweep of their outside operations, in their extension beyond the
borders of Canada itself, and in the degree to which they had been
built by public aid, they challenged attention. While there were
nearly ninety railway companies in Canada in 1914, the three {241}
transcontinental systems controlled more than eighty per cent of the
total mileage. The variety of the subsidiary undertakings--steamships,
hotels, express service, irrigation and land development, grain
elevators--has already been indicated. The control by Canadian
railways of seven or eight thousand miles of lines in the United
States, with corresponding, if smaller, extensions into Canada by
American lines, was an outcome of geographic conditions, intimate
social and trade connections, and a civilized view of international
relations which no other countries could match.

The aid given by the state had been remarkable in variety and in
extent. In cash subsi