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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la m^thode. 1 2 3 4 5 6 m I RAILWAY INTERESTS 06f Of Tsa CITY OF MONTREAL. SUBMITTED FOR THE CONSIDERATION OF THE MERCHANTS OF THIS CITY. MONTREAL : ' QA2ETTB" PBIKTINQ HOUSE, NEARLY OPPOSITE POST OFFICB. 1873. ^' flATlOIlAL LifUtARI r. A n kO K iMQTUICQIiE NAllONAMt 1 A I . X 1 .* ^' THE RAILWAY INTERESTS OF THE CITY OF MONTREAL. 1 The proposal to subscribe a Million Dollars to the capital stock of the Vorthern Colonization Railway, and thus add, bv the terms of the bj-lav.-, ci.Jity thousand dollars a year to the local taxation, is one which should challenge the interest and excite the attention of the merchants of this city. It is proposed in this paper to submit some considerations which, in the ophiion of the writer, justify the action of the Council in submitthig the by-law, and will justif} the people of Montreal in assenting to it. 1. Montreal is the only city on this continent of any pretentions to commercial importance, which is absolutely dependent upon one railway. Toronto has voted large sums of money in order to escape from a similar position ; and to-day there are no less than five distinct railways centering in that city. Hamilton, in spite of its financial embarrassments, which compelled it a few years ago to compromise with its public creditors, has just incurred additional burdens for the purpose of making It a competing railway point. Kingston has voted, as an absolute free gift, a sum far in excess, when relative wealth and population are taken into account, of the subscription now asked from Montreal, with the object of obtainino- access to the trade which will be tapped by the Northern Coloniza- tion and Canada Central Railways. Quebec has just voted a million ■* w of clollars to obtain the advantar!;o3 of railway competition. Mon- treal alone has as vet done nothin^i; in this direction. No one will question that it is an atlvanta^e to obtain competition in carriage. The mi'rchants of Montreal have abundant experience on this point, in the dill'erence between summer rates, when there is the compe- tition by water, and winter rates when that competition is cut off, and they are dependent upon the Grand Trunk Railway alone. 2. Jn view of the railway projects which are certain to be carried out in tlio West, the construction of an independent lino to connect with them is of the rrrcatest importance. There aro two distinct projects, or more aj proj)riately groups of projects, in which Montreal has a deej) interest. Take first the Pacific Railway schemes. The Government of Canada have undertaken to secure the construction of a railway from Lake Nipissing to the Pacific Coast, Lake Ni])issing being the point of junction with the Canadian railwav svstem. The Railwny will incline northward from that point, pass north of Lake Sujierior, through Fort Garry and across the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific slope. The action of the Government in obtaining an Imperial guarantee for a loan to bo raised for the construction of this railwav, and the success which has attended the exploratory surveys, prove that this railway will be constructed without delav. Then ai^ain there is another proposal, for which a Company has ai)plied to ParUament for incor- poration, to construct a line from Lake Nipissing to the Sault Ste. Marie, crossing by a railway bridge, and connecting by a line south of Lake .Superior with the Northern Pacii'c Railway, now under con- struction, at Duluth. If the reader will take a map and draw a direct line from Dvduth to Montreal, he will find that it will include the Canada Central and the Northern Colonization Railways, theso constituting the most direct route for the traific of the Northern Pacific as well as the Canada Pacific Railways. There is thus at Lake Nipissing the union of these two lines, securing for the Canada Central at that point the trallic of both lines. There is earnest competition to obtain this traffic. Toronto is bidding for it, and is pressing its railways on towards the Lake in order to obtain it. They have in this work the active co-operation of the Grand Trunk Rail- way Company, as if the direct Hue to Montreal could be defeated and the Pacific traffic brought down to Toronto, it would bo compelled to find its way to the seaboard over the Grand Trunk. It its manifestly, therefore, the interest of that Comj)any to ohtJtruct in every way in its power the construction of the direct line from Montreal. In oller- ing op{;osition to the lirst and the essential link in that direct con- nection, the officers of the Comjiany in Canada arc simply doing their duty to their proprietors in l'hi;^land. The interests of the city, however, require an entirely diiVcrent course of action. "While in many respects they are identical with those of the great leading railway of the Dominion, in the matter of securing railway competi- tion they arc decidedly opj osed ; and a consideration of this fact ought to prevent the success of, as it readily accounts fnr, the opposi- tion now otl'ercd to this Kailwav hy the (J rand Trunk officials. The other railway project, of which the proposed Northern Coloniza- tion Railway forms an essential link is what is known as the Quebec and Ontario llailway. This road will run from Carlton Place, a point on the Canada Central Railway, to Toronto, ]>assing through the Town of Peterborough. When built ami with the Northern Colonization already comiileted, it will give a second Trunk line, running, as the Grand Trunk should have run, had it been properly located, through tho interior of the country, and connecting Montreal and Toronto. This line will bo about the same length as the Grand Trunk between those two points, tho dilT.'rencc not exceeding four or five miles. During tho present week the Company has been formally organized, stock books have been opened, and the stock subscribed by Sir Hugh Allan and others interested in the Northern Colonization and Canada Central railways. It thus becomes an essential yiart of those lines, and will, when comjileted, bo run in connection with them. Of the importance of this line no Montreal merchant need to be told. The one fact that it will secure for this city, what is above all other things required for its success in competing for the trade of Western Canada, summer rates all the year round, is suflicient to establish its value. No question of mere local taxation deserves to bo placed in comparison with this. At Toronto tl;c road will commence with the Great Western of Canada, that Company being active promoters of the enterprise. This connection is becoming every year more valuable as branch lines, worked by the Great Western, are extending in every direction. Already those branch lines extend from Guelph through the fine Counties of Wellington and Bruce to Southampton and port EIlmii, and through tlio Nortliorn part of the County of Huron to Kiiicardnic ; from liondon to Port Stanley ov(>r tlio lino just leased by Vac. comnaiiy ; from Hamilton into tho (.'ountios of lialdiniand, Norfolk, Kl_i:in and K<'nt ; in fact every j art of the Western peninsula is bcinij; tiiiijed by branches worked by the (jircat Western, so that direct and iiideitendent connection with that lino, which this in-opose I railway will aff ird, will ;:ive access to all tho Icadin.::; towns of Ontario. Let any merchant take time to estimate the ^ain which will result to the sprinct.s of which it is intended to he the eastern section are fui'thcr advanced, deserves a word in rc\,]y. The ohjector ignores alt<);;(>tlicr the efforts which are hein;^ made to tap the trade WJSt of this city, and when that is slated, the answer is supiilied. It is of the utn.05t importance that capitalists should become interested in hrinirin^ the trallic of these linoo directly down upon Montreal. Toronto ha? already conmienced its lines in the diiectlon of Lake Nijissin;^, and is pressing them forward with all vi;:or. Montreal, if it would secure the trade must commence the same work. 'J'Ik; I'anada Central may he said now to he completed from Ottawa to remhroke, for the arrajigements for its extension to that point have all heen made. It can find an outlet at ]>rockvillo or Prescott, if a hotter outlet is not secured at Montreal. The Kin,ii;ston people, havin;j; obtained a liberal j^overnment subsidy, are ]iressin<; their enteriiriso forward Avith a view of bringing the traffic to that city. If Montreal alono wore to remain indilferent, permitting contrihutions to be made, and trade to be diverted to its prejudice, it would have but itself to blame, if ultimately it should turn out that much of the trade was lost to it. By the construction of the Northern Colonization Railway, a large money interest will be at once enlisted in bringing over the lino the largest jjossihlo traffic, and the trade from" the first will find its way to this port. For this reason it is important that this Montreal link of these western lines should be commenced immediately, and completed within the shortest possible time. 6. But says r3amo objector, all that has f)een said is admitted. But the advantage described can be obtained for less money. These are two grounds upon which this statement is made. One is that by the Cotcau line to Ottawa, connection can be made with all their lines, and the trade secured ; — and the other that responsible persons, Messrs. Reekio and O^iilvv, have offered to build the Northern Colonization Railway for one half the city subscription. As to the first, it is answer sufficient to say that the line from Coteau to Ottawa, passing for thirty miles over the Grand Trunk Railway, would not bo an independent line, and would not, therefore, meet the the conditions which are essential to the progress and prosperity of Montreal. It is a well recognised principle in railway management that the Company owning a line can practically control the traffic of 8 any othor lino usin;^ part of it. Tlio result is that there is not on tho Continent of America a 8in;.'lo case, which haa proved successful, of a railway c )n-iontini^ to use any portion of tho lino of another riiWwnyii/it'vt/ii'i/ari'intcri'stidin ruiiipitui;/ for the miiut' traijlc. In l'!n;^Ian 1 thei'o are one or two ca.-es, which the enoruKnis ex] enso of railway huildinu; '\n that country, has forced upon tiie comjianies ; but there the usual exjcdicnt f(n* <:;etlin;^ over this coni[ietition is tho adoption of the one-purse system. No merchant in Montreal would consider it an advantat^e t(» have the one-purse system adojied by tho two leading' trunk lines which thn or four years hence will h(> in 0{)cration hetween Montreal and Toronto. There is an illustration at this moinent of how unwillin^^ railway companies are to avail them- selves of oilers of nuiiiini arraniiemonts hv others mtcrcsted in the same trallic. The line of the (J rand Trunk Railway, from (lodericli to Fort Erie, sku'ts alon.Lt tho Lake Erie shore for nearly fifty miles from Canfield to Fort Krie. Tho (Ireat Western Company are buildin;; a line from (Jlencoe on their main line to Fort Frio ; and tho Canada k^(jut!iei*n arc building one from t^andwieh to tho same joint. And yet, altiiou;^h the law expressly provides that runnin;^ arraniij^emcnts he niado witli the (irand Trunk lor usin;^ these forty miles of tho line, neither Company will avail them- selves of the provision ; but each is buildin;:; an independent lino, at a cost of about a million of dollars to each of them. Why 't Simply l)Ccauso they recognise that as they are comjicting for the same trallic, to us.' any iiortion of each other's line would be to i;ive to tho Com- pany Avhoso lino was used an undue advanta;^c. Nay, they are going even further than this: the Great Western is actually proposing to build a second bridge, rather than use that now being constructed by tho (irand Trunk, or rather under its auspices. The same principle applies here. The fact that the line from Coteau nmst use tho Grand Trunk track to get into Montreal would destroy its value as a com})eting line, and would render it not simply useless but worse than useless, because it would be an additional obstruction in the way cf getting an independent line into the city. If any proof of this is wanting, it can be had by reference to one fact. The Grand Trunk Railway Comj any offers no opposition to the Coteau road. On the contrary it is actually promoting its construction, Mr. Brydgca himself having taken iu stock to amount of oyer a hundrei thousand dollars, lie i.^ alto;;eihcr too shrcTfd a mnn, too hon<>stly and earnestly di'votod to tlio intoro??t3 of his own Company, to proinoto the construction of lines dosi^jjnod to comj oto with it. He is far- soeing enou;j;h to understand that the surest way of drawin;; the teeth of the propo-ied new Trunk line from Montreal t< Toronto, in to ohtain control nf the eastern end of it. That aceonijilishoil it would I)e ft sunicit'iitly harmless C(»m[etition. The Montreal merchant .'»un'ly dues not re'juire to be told that his internt in thia rcdjjoet diU'ers somewhat from that of the Giand Trunk Railway! Then as to the oiler of Messrs. Reekie and 0;'ilvv, it is surelv not necessary to point out at any length the proofs of the utter insincerity of that ofL'r. A>i to Mr. Ogilvy, a reference to another project in which his name appeared as a Director, and which 'vas put upon the market at a suspiciously convenient time to influence public ojinion against th'' Northern Colonization, is due to .uc jiubjic. "lie Mont- real and ^t. Jerome Colonization Railway Prospec. .s, published last \\ inter, [irumiscd to build the railway to that poini, without any sulj- scrij)tion from the City. Shortly after its issue the announct'ment was authoritatively made that the stock had been subscrM^nl and that the oTcr, in fact, was far beyond the rccpiirements of the Com- pany. \\ hat has become of it since ? In all tho petitions presented to the Council ai:;ainst the million dollar By-law, not a single mentiou is made of this St. Jerome Company ! In the second letter of Messrs. Reekie and Ogilvy to the Finance Committee, when they were reminded that t'lo St. Jeronvj branch was omitted from their first offer, they did not venture to say that that had already been provided for by the new Company. On the con- trai-y, after offering to build the road without any 3ubscrip>tion, after authorising the announcement that more than sufficient stock had been subscribed to do this, Mr. Ugiivv came down to the City Coun- cil. and cooly dropj'ing the pretended Company, asked four thousand dollars a mile to build the line fiora St. Thcreso to St. Jerome ! Having failed in its object of alienating the symj athies of tho peo[ile of St. Therese and St. Jerome, and the eastern suburbs of Montreal from the Xorthern Colonization Railway, the scheme was quietly drop- ped out of sight, without even the pretence of an apology for the insincerity which prompted it. Viewed in the light of his conduct iu conuection ^.vith the Montreal and St. Jeromo Colonization Hail- ^ 10 Tvay, can Mr. O^ilvy claim that he should be deemed sincere simply because he has put his name to t]i'> ofTcr to build a line ^vhose pros- pects he had thus done so much to destroy ? As to Mr, Reekie, there are these facts to be remembered in considering the value of his propo.sitio!!. lie was one of the original directors, named in the act incorporating the Northern Colonization Railway. lie after- wards withdrew from the Company, and was regarded as opposed to the enterprise. He interested himself then in the Ottawa and Vau- drcuil scheme, at a time when it was supposed the Grand Trunk Railway Company were favoring it. Eut on the transference of tlie sympathies of the latter to the Coteau road, he withdrew from the "N^audreuil enterprise, withdrew in a way, if report speaks truly, to considerably embarrass it, and went over to the Coteau scheme, and his name appears on the stock books of that Company together with that of Mr. Brydges for over a hundred thousand dollars. It will thus be seen that he has presumably been acting with the Grand Trunk Railway throughout, and the presentation of his offer to build t:ie line, on tlic very day that the Council met to consider the By- l.iw. although the scheme had been for eighteen months prominently before the citizens without even a suggestion from him of interest in it, may fairly raise a presumption that in his last as in his former movements he has simply been playing the card of the Grand Trunk. It is nceessaiy at least to remember these facts about the gentlemen making tliis o.Ter in, order to determine the value of the offer itself. And what was the ofi'er made ? An offer to the Council which liad no pitwor to give a contract, to build a Railway for a fixed sum, proviced the Council would do what it had no power to do ! But had Messrs. Reekie and O^filvv reallv been sincere in making this offer, how came it that they took no notice of a proposal to tliem to allow th.cm to build the Railway on the terms proposed ? The Council had no I ower to make a contract, but the Company had. And the Com- pany at once proposed to Messrs. Reekie and Ogilvy that if they were ready tu buiid the road for the $480,000 proposed by tiicm, and were willing to enter into contracts at once, with securities, the Com- pany would award them the contract, and apply to the City Council to reduce the mm named in the liy-huv to the smaller sum which th'tfc (jnitlemcn professed their williriyness to accept. Did they take the contract? uSot a bit of it. They did not even reply to the f ^1 11 letter ; but when asked for particulars from the Council, amended their offer, asking some seventy per cent, more than they had at first a^-ked, but avoiding; all reference to the actual contract offered to them ! Surely, M-ith the immense interest hinging upon this enter- prise, -which has been but briefly touched upon in this paper, the merchants of Montreal vrill not be driven from securing them hy such shallow artifices as the St. Jerome Colonization Raihvay, and the proposal of Messrs. Reekie and Ogilvy. We have reached a point in the history of this Country, and especially in the interests of this city, -when ordinary prudence and foresight will ensure for u.< a future of rich rcAvards. Tiie question is, — have we in Montreal far- seeing intelligence enough to grasp the opportunity ? The game we are playing for is the bringing down upon our port the traffic of the Canada Paciffc, the Northern Pacific, and the Great Western Uuil- ways, the ensuring of Railway competition, and the obtaining of .-ura- mer freight rates all the year round. Are theser^objects worth obtaining ? Those who believe they are will go to the City Hall during the next few days and vote " yes " upon the By-law which has been submitted for our concurrence. /