ss the northern tier of States and Territories to the Pacific, and
this plan had been constantly in his mind while he was building up
the system in Manitoba. The original line running up into Manitoba and
reaching Winnipeg was all very well as a start. It had paid so well that
the original group of men had become millionaires almost overnight. But
Hill meant to show the public that, after all, the early success was
only an incident and merely a stepping-stone to the really great thing.

Practical railroad men everywhere ridiculed the idea of a railroad
running across the far northern country, climbing mountain ranges,
traversing hundreds of streams and extending for great stretches through
absolutely wild and uninhabited regions. Especially did they deem it
absurd to attempt such an undertaking without government aid, subsidies,
or grants of land, pointing to the experience of such roads as the
Union Pacific, Northern Pacific, and Santa Fe. All these had received
financial assistance and large land grants, and yet all had gone through
long periods of financial vicissitude before they had become profitable
and stable enterprises.

But Hill was more farseeing than his critics. In 1889, the name of the
company was changed to the Great Northern Railway, and under this title
the extension to the coast was rapidly carried forward and was opened in
the panic year of 1893. When all the other transcontinental lines
went into bankruptcy, Hill's road not only kept out of the courts but
actually earned and paid annual dividends of five per cent on its stock.
The five years from 1896 to 1901 were years of uninterrupted prosperity
for the Great Northern Railroad. Each year its credit rose; each year
it grew to be more of a force in the Western railway situation. In these
years the control of the property had somewhat changed and a few of the
original promoters had died or had withdrawn. But Hill, Lord Strathcona,
Lord Mount Stephen, and John S. Kennedy of the original group, all held
their large interests, and Hill in particular had added to his holdings
as the years had gone by.

The secret of Hill's striking success with his Western extension was the
method by which the line was constructed. Hill had a theory that it was
far better to go around mountains and avoid grades than to climb them or
to bore through them; it was always better to find the route which would
make long hauls easy and economical. He thus built his road with th