he has never profoundly believed.
In conversation with the President of the Canadian Pacific he
practically admitted that a Government cannot compete with a great
corporation in operating a railway. But in 1912, on the principle that
an egg hatches into a chicken, he must have foreseen that national
ownership of half Canada's railways would be thrust upon him.

It is not explicitly known what are Sir Thomas White's opinions about
the Government ownership of railways; but one can easily imagine what
he would have said prior to 1911 to any proposal of any Government to
begin owning and operating banks and trust companies. And as
Government is the owner of the Royal Mint in Canada and does its own
coining of the metals used in our currency, it would seem to be vastly
easier for a Government to own banks and loan companies than to own and
operate transportation systems. Sir Thomas would scarcely deny that.
He is too shrewd in experience. It is one thing for a municipality to
own street railways, because all the streets are automatically part of
a city's property. It is quite another matter for Government to own
and operate railways, because the routes of these highways and the
machinery necessary to conduct traffic are not naturally the property
of a Government, which exercises its power chiefly through the
regulation of rates and the functions of the Railway Commission.

One imagines that Sir Thomas sincerely hoped that the railways built
from cash borrowed on Government guaranteed bonds, and by direct loans
from the national exchequer would some time develop business enough to
pay their own way. But it is not remembered that he held any
conferences with the Minister of Railways to prepare a public statement
on this question. Both these Ministers had troubles enough without
creating more. The country was on the crest of a wave whose trough was
not far ahead.

Sir Thomas had made but one really constructive budget speech when the
inevitable slump began to come. But as yet he seemed to be rather
charmed with the novelties of Parliament and the ironies of preparing
to win elections. The war plunged him into a system that cared no more
for his budget than a cyclone for a baby carriage. Tariffs, bankrupt
railways, the banking system, exchanges, and the common cost of living
were all but obliterated in the campaign of war loans, not the least
marvellous feature of which was that selling Victory Bonds almost made
t