the United States. Never again could the C.P. recover
its splendid isolation of greatness. Public ownership was being thrust
upon the nation by the bankruptcy of the other roads. Shaughnessy had no
real fear that it would ever absorb the C.P.R. But he had reason to
suspect that a huge Government system would be more or less of a menace
to the system which he had spent his life to build up. There was no
better way than to retire, leaving the chief administration to a man of
his own choice and retaining the post of Chairman along with the room
occupied by the old President. Even here the old autocrat survives. The
proposal made by Baron Shaughnessy to pool all the railways, except the
Grand Trunk, and to put them all under C.P. administration with a
guarantee of dividends to C.P. shareholders--was a magnificent play to
the gallery. The other roads were undeniably bankrupt, when even the
splendid showing made by the management could not make their records
palatable to the public. It was a strategic time to advertise once,
finally and for all, the unequalled efficiency of the old
Transcontinental.

But Canadian railwaydom is dominated by C.P.R. as naturally as tides by
the moon. The Railway Association, once the Railway War Board, are now a
junta of dividendists and of paid chiefs of the Government system, to
oppose--whenever necessary--the adverse judgments of the Government's
Railway Commission. The road which was the tangible nexus of
Confederation was built by two Americans, one of whom became a
high-tariff Tory and a knight, the other an Imperialistic baron who
believed in Dominion Home Rule for Ireland when the average Canadian
considered Home Rule as treasonable as annexation. It is the prerogative
of any robust Canadian to oppose either infection from Broadway or
domination from Downing Street. But, regarding the strategic position of
Canada in the misnamed "British Empire," we might all take a cue from
Lord Shaughnessy, who has had all the internationalizing emotions of
which any man is normally capable, and can challenge any man to shew
where he has ever compromised conscience or country.

THE PUBLIC SERVICE HOBBYIST

SIR HERBERT AMES

Whatever may be done by the Washington Conference to the League of
Nations, there still live two men to whom it is and shall be the hub of
the world. Lord Robert Cecil and Sir Herbert Ames at least will never
admit that the League was a mere Wilson-Democrat