dies alone, up to 1913, municipalities, chiefly
in Ontario, had given over $18,000,000; the provinces, in the order of
Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Manitoba, and British
Columbia, double that sum; and the Dominion $163,000,000. Land-grants
exceeded fifty million acres. Guarantees reached $275,000,000--the
Dominion, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba
leading--with some sixty millions looming up in the year to follow.
The privately owned railways of the Dominion were then capitalized
{242} at a billion and a half; allowing for the 'water' in this
capitalization on the one hand, and for construction out of earnings on
the other, it may fairly be computed that, omitting the guarantees, the
state had contributed from one-third to one-half their cost. The
objections to this policy were manifold. It had been one great source
of rottenness in politics. It had pauperized some sections of the
country, leading them to look to the government to take the initiative
in every movement. The land subsidies had delayed settlement, and the
exemption of grants from taxation had pressed heavily on the average
settler. The wealth of Canada tended to concentrate in a few
dominating groups. Roads were built that were a sheer waste of
capital, useless for traffic or colonization, or recklessly cutting
into territory sufficient only for existing lines. Yet the profits
side of the account was large. Settlement had been hastened, transport
facilities had been provided, values had increased, social intercourse
had been ameliorated, national unity had been fostered, in ways
impossible had private enterprise been left to struggle on unaided. In
future, it might be hoped, private capital could build unaided, or the
state act directly.

{243}

In the allied field of government regulation progress had been made.
Until very recent years, Canada had been more anxious to get new
railways than to control old ones, and, besides, the worse forms of
discrimination which stirred indignation in the United States had not
been widely practised in Canada. But with the growing complexity of
the industrial organization, and the recognition that competition could
not solve the difficulties, a demand rose for more efficient
regulation. The Dominion government, acting upon an able and thorough
report by Dr S. J. M'Lean, established in 1904 a Railway Commission,
permanent, non-political, and large enough to make it possib