ppointed. He argued it in Ottawa with
Cabinet Ministers. He did it in Winnipeg. One suspects that Beatty's
ability to do this was one of his qualifications for the presidency.

A year before Beatty became president a man high up in the system
predicted that the C.P.R. would spend a million dollars to campaign
against Bolshevism. He failed to foresee that the stolid old bulwark
of things as they are would never need to do any such thing. All it
needed to spend was Beatty who, within six months of the time he
changed the sign on his door, had convinced the system that a sort of
new optimistic vitality had got hold of it. There was once a cynical
proverb around those offices: "It's cheaper to buy editors than
newspapers." One hears very little of it now. The annual meeting of
the Directors may be fine copy for the _Montreal Gazette_, but the
yearly banquet of the officials is a matter of real public interest,
especially to the young President. There is a psychology in
this--"association"--that is not a corporation. How does he gauge it?
From the officials. He does not visit the Angus shops; though if he
did he would be welcome. It was an old axiom of Van Horne that what
the head is, so also will the system be. Beatty extends the axiom--to
include the officials. He would have them radiate optimism, not
particularly caring that they get it from him.

For the past two years optimism has been needed. C.P. reports are not
what they used to be. Even the stock exchanges tell the tale. But in
comparison with American lines, with other Canadian systems--ah! here
is always some comfort. Trust Beatty to miss no chance of intimating
that he would much prefer to have real competition from Government
roads. He fervently hopes for Government ownership to succeed. C.P.
cannot thrive on weak competition. He has no fear that any sane
Government will try absorbing the C.P.R. Even farmers, he thinks,
would soon settle down to a sense of responsibility. The old pioneer
is a hard organization to make into a tail that does not wag the dog.
Steadily he has advertised to the public that the system is still the
handbook of efficiency; let Government roads imitate. National
ownership, being impersonal, somewhat Bolshevistic, and very vague,
cannot develop the intensive "super-loyalty" of the big private system
vested in a board of directors, and the chief.

Since ever he became chief Beatty has made this clear; for a purpos