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Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul clich6, il est film6 A partir de I'angle supdrieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images n6cessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. 1 2 3 32X 1 2 3 4 S 6 h I 1^ m J I A. 8. WOODBURN, PRINTEK, OTTAWA. C ^ ' ' ' ^ / n , y^A^C l*- <^t..'U.O, yQ^t.^U, T THE S^5rrking at the scenery. The "great North West" my friends, will [ am sure become a great country, bi will Ije after years of iai)or and many dollai's are spftnt on it. Xow till we find this labor and those dollars, the irreat North West is to vou and T, and everv son of Canada, as if it were not ; unless indeed we except the cost it is to this l)oor country to support and pay for what is called the "North West Mounted Pol ice," a force, if reportsspeak truly, which will soon re(piire another force to look after them. It costs money now, and brings no revenue. What we want in the first place is population to fill up and till the soil. To transport people in such numbers as would even in our generation give us a beginning of a country out there you must find the means of bringing them to the land ; by this I do not mean a population of the poor from the crowded cities of Europe. To make the country anything like the Parliamentary picture, you must have at least a fair proportion of men with means and experience. Neither our pi-esent govern- ment system of emigration, nor all the fine speeches will ever induce IJritiah agriculturalists who have money or brains to use it, to come to the North West as matters are at present. In saying this I am ii\)ii'A\\\\\^froin2>raGtieal knoioledae. Now to bring the matter down to a fine point, I may quote a very familiar illustra- ^rr- TIIK HYNDICATK. 3 nc tioii from an old Scotcili I'ueoipt for iiiiikiiiy tliat stour clever and wise h'gisIatcM's of both sides of politics have been trying to catch this hare, iind have, T am sorry to think, made a very poor show— to lame for the failure, of either building a railroad to the North West, or inducing the proper class of emigrants to come here ; for no one except those who have had the expei'ience knows "how hard a thing it is to be a government," beset on all hands by hungry, and in numy cases by unscrupulous supporters who insist on, intlic most cases, the very man being employed at what he is perfe(^tly unfitted for and most incapable of. The conserpience is after nearly ten years time, and two Governments trying their hand at the business, altho' the pot is ready, there is no hare to put into it, nor so far the means of catching it. And if things were left {IS they are in the hands of the Government and ])olitical engi- neers, the chances are that in ten years more wc^ would have expended in useless surveys and expensive railroad making, a great deal more money than is being given to the so-called Syndicate for building the whole road. This word Syndicate, is what might he called a high-toned way 'of spelling Company^ and to the common sense practical public, Company would be more natural and better understood. I need only refer my readers to some of the wonderful speeches recently made against this new arrange- ment, for the immense amount of money it is g(jing to cost, &c. Now having read the terms of the agreement, we know at once and forever all it is to cost. We heai" any amount of talk from the gentlemen in opposition to the scheme, about the line bargain the Syndicate have made for themselves and their heirs ; for you must bear in mind that before this reputed fine bargain becomes "♦••l TIIK KYNDICATK. tlic l)ayiiig coiicLM'ii it is said to 1k', a ^(^ncratioii M'iil liave pasHcd away, ami in all liiiinan probability few if any of tliofo now form- ing tlic vSyndicate will livo to reap in their own persons the benefit of the risk. Not that I do not wish, and hope they may, as they eertainly deserve to do, but they will be vei'y dilfcient engineers, eontraetors or emigration agents than we have hitherto bad, if their (jreat (jvdnd c/iUdren are to rid<^e or a safe eulvert, a cheaper one will last our time, let the (loverninent, wiien thi'V i^et tlie road, l)uild better bridges, iV;e. I think that one of the wisest ])arts of t\w i)ar;^ain is i^ivin*^ it to the Syndicate in feesiinj)]e. Now, we an; sure that the road will hi; built, and also it will be a i^ood anstantial one wlien built, it will be well e<|ui|)|)('(|, well man- a;j!;e Syndicate will be capable of doinj^ their work, and not live a couple of thousand miles away from the scene of their duty, as soin(! do at j)resent. The Syndicate will not ask or cxj)ect any ?nan to do the work an ani^el would shrink from uiidertakinL^. Should any of my readers have time and money to spare, aiul want to see the difference of a railroad run and owned by a Syn- dictate, and one we are said to own, (that is the people of C/anada) run by the (lovernment, let him take a trip over the St. Paul and Minneapolis Railroad, and then prolon;^; their journey over our Railroad, the Pembina Uranch, pass Winnipeiij, on to Kat Portau^e, and r.turn, and if by the time they ^et back they don't vote for the Syndicate, on even better terms, we will t, never seems touched upon in any of the speeches I have read, possibly hecause not much known to the speakers, and that is that a great proportion of this tine fertile " North West " is a series of lakelets, and that what is and will be the the best land is totally useless for settlement until an expensive system of drainage is TIIK HYNDICATE. I I i'WiU'tvA on ;i Uri^o scale. Most of our travt'Mui'H, such uh (^apt. liutlrr aiuUoiue otliurs who rcallv naw the Xorth West, went over tlie ^rouul ill wiiitiir, I tliiiik it* reeeut Hurv(!y(»rs will tell the truth till'}' found more water than lan«l in what is suj)i>o«e(l to be the trafk of the railroad. i*(.'for(! the Syndicate can sell tlicHO lamls tlii\v must drain them, and in draining their own portion they will at least drain oat'n. I say ours, as the opposition to the Syndicate always talk of '' the people," and their very rted of late years nearly as many as we have imported. Now the Syndicate will stop all this. We will have a home market for our surplus population, and our manu- facturoi's will then have increased sale for everything they can make ; this will give work here and circulate money ; for it is not so much the direct as the indirect advantages that benefit a country. That there may be weak points in the Syndicate bargain possibly no one will deny, but it would liave been hard to have framed a measure which would liave pleased every one, and at the same time be such as cautious business men would risk to under- take. We are told a great deal by the opponents of the Syndicate about the excellence of the scheme proposed by the late adminis- tration, but it was so excellent that no one would look at it. We want the road built and the country peopled ; this the Syndicate THK flYNmcATK. will do, luul if tliirt is done and a sto]) put to tlio dirt^raceful trattic in (Tovt!riimentcoutrH(^tiiijr\vliicliruceiit in v(.'Ktij.';atioiishav(! partially laid haru, for I am afraid l>nt a v(M'v nnmll part of tlic truth was told, and if the (>!vnadian peopU^ know tlio wliolo truth and thu whole coKt to thin pooi country they would think the Syndicate even at harder terniH a ^ood bargain. What with unKcruj)lous eotj- traetors, (rontract hrokijji^, not to wpeak ot the new moral code bcin'roceries, thoui»-h later on Gov- ernor of the State ; the two Crockers were dry goods men. These five, all or past middle age, all living in Sacramento, then an insignificant town in the interior of California, believing in each other, believing that the railroad must be built, and find- ing no one else to undertake it, put their hands and heads and their means to the great work, and carried it through. fNoTE.l Tliis stoiy is tnken fniiii " Cilifdiiiia," a book for travclli'i's and auttlcrs, by Charles Nordoff. Pultlislu'd by narpei' Bros., Now York, 1S72. ^^ THE SYNDICATE. d Every one knows what is the common fate in tliis country of raih'oad projections, A few sanguine and public spirited men procure a charter, make up a company, subscribe for the stock, drag all their friends in, get the preliminary surveys made, begin the work, and then break down : and two or three capitalists who have been quietly waiting for this forseen conclusion, forseen by them, I mean, buy the valuable wreck for a song, and build, and run, and own the road. This is a business in itself. Dozens of men have millions apiece by this process, which is perfectly legitimate, tor the French say in order to succeed you must be successful, or as we say in this country, to the victors belong the spoils. Now the projectors of the Central Pacific Eailroad complet- ed it and to-day control and manage it. They did not let it slip out of their fingers ; and, what is more, being only merchants, totally inexperienced in railroad building and railroad managing, they did their work so well that, in the opinion of the best engin- eers, their road is to-day one of the most thoroughly built and equipped and best managed in the United States. Their bonds sell in Europe but little, if any, below United States Government bonds, and their credit, as a company, in London, Frankfort, Paris, is as high as that of the Government itself. Moreover, you are to remember that these five Sacramento merchants who undertook to build a railroad right through eight hundred miles of an almost uninhabited countrv, over mountains and across an alkali desert, were totally unknown to the great money world ; that their project was pronounced impracticable by engineers of reputation, testifying before legislative commit- tees ; that it was opposed and ridiculed at every step by the mon- ied men of San Francisco, and even in their own neighbourhood they were thought sure to fail ; and the " Dutch Flat Swindle," as their project was called, was caricatured, written down in pamphlets, abused in newspapers, spoken against by politicians, denounced by capitalists, and for a long time held in such ill re- pute that it was more than a banker's character was worth for prudence to connect himself with it, even by subscribing to its stock. How much of this could be applied to the proposed Syn- dicate and it's terms ! Nor was this all. Not only had credit to be created for the enterprise against all these difficulties, but when money was 10 THE SYNDICATE. 1,., If raised, the material for tlie road, the iron, the spikes, the tools to dig, the powder to blast, the locomotives, the cars, the machiner;y, everything, had to be shipped from New York aronnd Cape Horn. Not a foot of iron was laid on the road, in all the eight hundred miles to Ogden, not a spike was driven, not a dirt car was moved, nor a powder blast set off, that was not first brought around Cape Horn ; and at every step of its progress the work depended upon the promptness with which all this material was sliipped for a sea voyage of thousands of miles around Cape Horn. Men, too, as well as material had to be obtainedtrom a great distance. California thinly populated, with wages very high at that time, could not supply the force needed. Labourers were obtained from New York, from the lower country and finally ten thousand Chinese were brought over the Pacific Ocean, and their patient toil completed the work. When you get to Sacramento, if you have a quarter of an hour to spare, ask some one to show you No. 54: K street. It is not far from the railroad depot, and it is the place where the Central Pacific Railroad was nursed, and from which it grew. You will see over the plain frame store a weather-beaten old sign " Huntington and Hopkins," and if you walk in you will find a tolerably complete assortment of hardware. . Here C. P. Hunt- ington and Mark Hopkins, the first from Connecticut, the last from the hill country of Massachusetts, gathered by diligence, shrewdness, and honest dealing a respectable fortune. They were so cautious they never owned a dollar of stock in a mine, never had a branch house, never sent out a " drummer" to get business, never sued a man for debt. It is still related in Sacramento that the cardinal rule of the firm was to ask a high price for every- thing, but to sell only a good article, the best in the market. In fact Huntington and Hopkins were merchants, and noth- ing else in business. They sold hardware. But in politics they were free soilers and later Republicans, and thet/ did not sell their principles. Sitting around the stove on dull winter evenings in the store at 54 K street the two hardware merchants, and their Republican allies, Stanford and the Crockers, when politics flagged are said to have returned again and again to the project of a Pacific Rail- road. The desire for a road was in everybody's mind in Call- THE SYNDICATE. 11 f an It is tlic forniii. The question entered so fully into politics that no man for years could hope to be chosen for an office by either party unless he was believed to be a zealous friend of the railroad. Finally there came to build the Little Sacramento Valley Railroad, one Judali, an engineer, who, many people thought was Pacific Railroad crazy, lie begged some money amongst the most sanguine railroad men, and made a reconnoissance of two or three gaps in the Sierra. After some time, he proclaimed that he had discovered what everybody wished for, a possible passage for a railroad. By way of Dutch Flat, he asserted, there was a long easy ascent, practicable for a road. Judah, sanguine and restless, personally solicited subscriptions from the people of Dutch Flat, Auburn, Giass Valley and Sacramento, to help him 10 make a more thorough exploration. Public meetings were held, and men gave according to their meanc, ten, fifty, one hun- dred dollars, for this object. A law of the state, which made every stock holder liable individually for the debts of a com- pany, made people cautious about subscribing to new projects, and Judali got his support chiefly in gifts ; and among his lead- ing supporters in this way were the five merchants that I have named. About this time came the rumble of war, and the San Fran- cisco capitalists, mostly at that time Southern men, would not have anything more te do with the scheme ; and once more it seemed to be crushed. Working under the state laws, which provided that before a company could have a charter |1,000 must be paid in for every mile of its proposed road, it was not easy to raise the cap- ital, about $135,000, needed to obtain a charter, and yet affairs had now come to such a pass that it was no longer worth while, or even possible, to go on without organization. Sacramento w\as canvassed, but with too little success ; San Francisco had buttoned up its 'pockets ; and at last, Huntington, who had refus- ed to give any more money for mere reconnoissancos, proposed to half a dozen others to undertake the enterprise among themselves of making a regular and careful survey. " FU be one of ten, or one of eight, to bear the whole expense, if Hopkins will consent," he said at a meeting called at Governor Stanford's house, and thus the great work was at last begun, seven men binding them- selves in a compact for three years to pay all needful expenses 12 THE SYNDICATE. of a thorough survey out of their own pockets. Of these seven, one, Judah, had no means, and shortly afterwards died, and an- other person dropped out. There were a few outside subscrip- tions ; but it is curious to remember tliat when apromine it banker friendly to the project, and having faith in it, was asked to take some stock, he declined on tlie plea the credit of his bank would suffer if he were known to be connected with so wild a scheme. This was in i860, twenty years ago. The Central Pacific Railroad Company was thus at last or- ganized, with Leland Stanford, as President. C. P. Huntington, as Yice-president, and Mark Hopkins as Secretary :.nd Treasurer. Affairs now began to look, to the prudent hardware dealers at No. 54 K street, as though they were likely to have more rail- road presently than would be good for the hardware business. While the explorations and surveys were going on in the winter of 1860-61, and while a Pacific Railroad Bill was getting drawn in Congress, business details began to be examined, and at 54 K street they asked themselves why it was that so few railroads in this country had been successful in first hands. The answer was that they were not prudently and economically managed in the beginning, and second, that American railroads are built largely on credit ; thus it almost always happens that the interest account begins to run before the road can earn money ; and to pay interest when no business is done would ruin almost any undertaking, even the hardware business, thought these shrewd merchants. As to the first fault, the engineer had designed what to his professional eye, seemed a proper building for the Sacramento business. It was large, elaborate, complete, and would have cost $12,000. Huntington approved of the plan, which he said was admirable for by-and-by. " For the present," said he, " we are not doing much business, and this would do better ;" and with a piece of chalk he drew the outline on one of the iron doors of 54 K street of such a board structure as he thought 'sufficient. The four sides were nailed together in an afternoon, it was roofed the next day ; it cost $150 ; and when it grew too small for its orig- inal uses, it was removed and used as a paint shop. There was no nonsense or flummery about 54 K street. And, I may add, the same spirit still prevails there. As to the second point, Huntington was, after consultation, sent to Washington, strictly enjVined to see that in the Pacific Railroad Bill it should be pro- I c< THE SYNDICATE. 13 seven, nd an- bscrip- jaiiker ;o take would jlieme. vided that the Cotnpaiij should pay no interest on the bonds it received of the Government for at least ten years ; and if this condition was refused, to abandon the whole affair, and sell the wreck for what it would brinor. Another and more notable thing these five men did. When they sent Huntington to Washington, they gave him power of attorney authorizing him to do for them and in their name any thing whatever, to buy, sell, bargain, convey, borrow or lend, without any if or hut, let or hindrance whatever, except that he should fare alike with them in all that concerned their great project. It is not often that five middle-aged business men are found to place such entire confidence in each other as this ; but it was vital to their success that they should feel and act just thus. At last Huntington telegrr plied from Washington : " The bill has passed, and we have drawn the elephant." Thereupon the company accepted the conditions, and opened books for stock subscriptions to the amount of eight and a half millions to carry the road to the State line. The beginning was not hopeful. 'The rich men of San Fransisco did not subscribe a cent. One man in Nevada took one share. Others elsewhere took five one-hun- dred dollar shares more. Six hundred dollars were subscribed at the fii'st rush to build the Central Pacific Railroad ! Later, mechanics, working-women, and others in Sacramento and other small towns, homesick people who wanted to go back to the Atlantic States without the perils of the sea, it was said, took up one hundred and fifty shares more. It was a long time before a million and a half of stock was taken. Meantime in the summer of 1^61 a considerable traffic had sprung up between Nevada and Sacramento. This was done over the Placerville Turnpike, and Mark Hopkins took pains to ascer- tain the amount and value of this commerce, which the Pacific Railroad would do, of course, as soon as it was sufficiently com- pleted. He caused the number of teams, on the turnpike and the number of passengers to be counted ; and this gave a certain pro- mise of local business Next it was necessary to cause well known bankers to certify to the world the good standing and pecuniary re- sponsibility of the principal subscribers to the stock. The Californ- ian Legislature then merged the State charter into the Federal char- ter ; all the statutes of the State bearing upon the Company were gathered together ; and thus armed with facts and credentials, u THE SYNDICATE. I > /i it. Iv li Huntington went to New York to raise a great many millions of dollars. lie was promptly told by the capitalists that the bonds of the company had no value in their eyes until some part of the road had been built. The Government bonds, of course, were not to be given until a certain part of the road was completed. The stock subscriptions cameintooslowly for practical purposes. Huntington, courageous, full of resources, and of faith in what he had under- taken to do, announced that lie would not sell his bonds except for money, and that he would not sell any unless a million and a half were taken ; and finally, when that amount was bid for, he called all the bidders together, explained in detail the full importance and value of the enterprise, and thereupon the bonds were taken, on condition that Huntington and his four partners, Hopkins, Stanford, and the two Crokers, should make themselves personally responsible for the money received, until the bonds could be exchanged for Government bonds. Huntington did not hesitate a moment to pledge his own moderate fortune and those of his associates to this effect. These bonds built thirty-one miles of the road, the easiest part of it fortunately. And now came the severest test of the courage and endurance of the men at 54 K street. Eleven months passed over before they could get the Government bonds for the completed and accepted portion of the line ; these bonds in the mean time had gone down from one and a half per cent, premium in gold, where they had stood when the charter was accepted, to thirty-nine cents for the dollar. Railroad iron in the same period went up from $50 to $135 per ton. All other material, locomotives, &c., rose in proportion ; insurance increased for the eight or nine months' voyage around Cape Horn, which every pound of the material of the road-bed and running stock had to make, rose from two and a half per cent, to ten per cent. ; freights from $18 to $45 per ton. Intoit on keeping down their interest account, the five men at 54 K street asked the State to pay for twenty years the interest on a million and a half of bonds, in exchange for which they gave a valuable granite ouarry, guranteed free transportation of all stone from it for the public buildings of the State, and also free trans- portation over their line of all State troops, criminals, lunatics and paupers. This was done. Then Sacramento and some of the CO] col m(i ly ol^ ch cal THE SYNDICATE. 15 Jgton, counties were asked to cxcliange their bonds for the stock of the company, and this was done l)y a popular vote. Meantime the money was used up. Tlie business was from the first kept rigid- ly under control ; every contract was made terminable at the option of the Company ; every hand employed was paid off monthly ; and in reading over some old contracts I came upon a clause specially obliging the contractor to keep liquor out of the camps. When Huntington, after long and trying labors in New York, returned to Sacramento, he found the treasure chest so low that it was advisable to diminish the labouring force, or at once raise more means. " Huntington and Hopkins," said he, " can out of their own means, pay 500 men during a year; how many can each of you keep on the line ? " The five men agreed in counsel at 54 K street that out of their own private fortunes they would maintain and pay 800 men during a year on the road. This resolution ended their troubles. Before the year was over they had received their Government bonds. They still liad the worst and most costly part of the line to build ; they still had to transport all their material around Cape Horn ; they had many trials, difficulties, and obstacles before them, for nearly four years were consumed in crossing the Sierra ; they had to encounter law suits, opposition, ridicule, evil prophesies, losses ; had to organize a vast laboring force, drill long tunnels, shovel away one spring over sixty feet of snow over seven miles of the line, merely to get at the road bed ; had to set up saw mills by the dozen to saw ties ; haul half a dozen locomotives and twenty tons of iron twenty- six miles ov^er the mountains by ox teams ; haul water forty and wood iifty miles for construction trains on the alkali plains ; but it seems to m.e that this brave resolution was the turning 23oint in their enterprise. Surely there is something admirable in the courage of ifive country merchants, ignorant of railroad building, and unknown to the world, assuming such a load as the support of eight (8) hundred men for a year out of tlieir own pockets, for an enterprise in the success of which, in tlieir hands, very few of their own friends believed. The secret of their success was that these five country mer- chants meant in good faith to build a railroad. They did not expect to get money out of an enterprise before they had put money of their own into it. They managed all the details as 16 THE SYNDICATE. ir. carefully and prudently as they were accustomed to manage the hardware or dry goods business. They were honest men. When Huntington began to buy iron and machinery in New York, people flocked to him to sell, and there is a story of some one who came with an offer of a handsome commission to lluntiongton if he would deal with him. " I want all the commissions I can get," was the reply ; " hut I want them put in the hill. This road has got to be built without any stealings."* Don't keep a man at work whom you can't pay regularily at the end of the month : we won't stop work if we can pay only one man, we will employ only one man," was their rule. There- fore every contract was made terminable at the will of the Company. In New York, where the money was to be raised on the bonds, and the material had to be bought and shipped, the bonds were sold only for money, and the iron bought for cash, and all this time the interest was kept down by every possible provision. " If there is any money to to be made in building this road," said Huntington, " I mean that the Company shall make it." When some person tells you that the Central Pacific people were close you icill understand that they were honest. Nor were they satisfied to merely complete their road. They have busied themselves establishing feeders for it in California, and already own and manage almost the whole railroad system of that State. North towards Oregon, and southward, through the great San Joaquin Valley, towards Los Angelos, San Bernardino, and the Colerado River, engineers are busy laying tracks or com- pleting surveys. The Californian and Oregon Railroad, which will be completed this year, opens the whole of the Great Sacra- mento Valley and the northei-n part of the State, and connects with the Oregon Railroad system. The Southern Pacific Railroad, with the Visalia branch, in like manner opens up the still richer San Joaquin Valley, as well as the series of smaller valleys lying west of the Coast Range, which already produce enormous crops of grain. The Western Pacific and Californian Pacific Railroads complete connections between Sacramento and San Francisco ; and the Napa Valley, the Copperopolis, the Watsonville, and other branch roads gather in the products of other fertile regions, and carry them to the main line. t( h h a •Coinphre this with our Canadians and their mi»ae of doing business. This honesty (fool now) of purpose and faith in each other. « J THE SYNDICATE. 17 ge tlie WJien people came if he ," was The Central "aciiic Raih'oad was one of the most expensive to build in the world. Its engineers, Montague and Grey, would have been famous all over the world had they constructed a road half as difficult in Europe. Nor will you see, unless you enquire for it, in Sacramento, an admirable institution, the Central Pacific llailroad Elospital, a fine building which stands in an open square, cost $60,000, and is supported by a monthly contribution of fifty cents from every man engaged with the company, from the President down. One of the ablest physicians of Sacramento has charge of this Hospital, and he too was one of eight men who, in 1850, organized the Republican Party in California. In the report of the State Board of Health this Hospital is spoken of as " first in the order of salubrity and successful results in the world," and it is in every way a complete and carefully managed institution. The Company, which, as I have told you, has still its head quarters at 54 K street, Sacramento, now employs more than all the other manufacturers in California, its pay roll in the State alone contains nearly seven thousand names. It manufactures within the State every article and material used in building and running its roads : it is spending half a million dollars per month in building new roads, and it has, still at 54 K st' '^et, Sacramento, the most complete land office in the United States, not excepting that at Washington, a place where you may select on maps, locate and pay for, any quantity of the Company's lands you wish for, and where you may obtain in a few minutes detailed and specific information concerning land in any part of California. One incident of the building of the road will conclude what I have to say of it. In April, 1869, ten miles of the road were built in one day. This is probably the greatest feat of railroad building on record. What is most remarkable about it is that eight (8) men handled all the iron on this ten miles. These eight giants walked ten miles that day. lifted and handled one thousand tons of rail bars each. Now possibly few of my readers can follow or comprehend the wonderful tables of probable cost and estimates, the grade, gauges, &c., talked about so profusely ; sometimes, I am afraid, as little understood by the parties using them as by you or I, but any ordinary man or woman can understand the huslness grade and moral standard followed in the building of " the Central 18 THK fiYNKICATK. i\ Pacitic Rail road," and can contrast tlietrutli, lionc>stly, and Rterlin*:; ])rincipk'S followed l>y those tivc merchants of 54 K street, Sacramento, and compare them with the recent ''.I^ook of Keve- lations," published hy the Canadian Koyal Commission on our Pacific llailroad. I should like to know what these ssessions in security, leaving them crippled for means to carry it on honestly afterwards, nor will they have to M'ade through a host of broken political hangers on, cajoling one another, bribing till there is not a strictly honestaction connect- ed with the whole concern. The Syndicate will employ engineers who really kiiow their business, not political nominees, whose sole (pialitication for the work is their i)arliamentary influence, and who use the pultler to h so by uilcl our section tliej see 8 of tlie » nhiJity to bond ^Jed for Iiave to cajoling lonnect- igiiieers . whose Alienee, > liarass tliein- Jat tlie irs, for will be 1 cases ' their ti that ticiau, eving in my country, llavin^^a young faniily I am trying to bring up as honest nu'U and ;rood citi/ens, and who one dav may be called on to take their part in buihling up this great nation, and regret- ting, as eyery honest man must do, at the yery parti/an and unpatriotic spirit disjilayed on this great (piestion by those who must ;ind do kiujw better, and who for the most tcmpoi'ary and selfish interest, woidd sacriiice the whold country for generations to come. The country had one edition of this work and gave it a readinij> fhc h(nul)ly liiird to l>e a IViiuc MiTiistcr. Till) (juc'stion (if tlio hour is not Himpl}' Sviidicato or no Syndicato. it moans Countrv or no Counfrv, in ho far as it nicnns arc we to remain a set of scmidctaclMMl Provincfs notwiflistand- in^ ConfiMlcration, or are w(^ to hccomo a mi^lity Kinj^dom, bound to<^i'flior by an iron band of comninrncation, a (v.^untry teomin«:j with iidial)itants, not a prairie desert for our K'^islatora to extol, and vear after vearand make meanitii^less s|)eeelies about. The country is siek of this, sick of parti/an politics carried to Rueh an extent as would sink the countrv's <;o(»d for a j^eneration to come if they could blackt-n oi- kill Sir John Afacflonald. They remind me of a Rection of Scotch Liberals in, I think, 1SG7, when Karl Beaconsfield, then Mr. Disrueli, carried the Reform ]>ill ; altliou<^h it was virtually their own measure, they would rather want it than accept it at the hands of the Conservative party. So now with the Opposition'; the most dama^in<^ point in the Syndicate bargan is that it has been pro])osed, perfected and will be carried through by Sir John Macdonald and his Government. When the people of CVmada, led astray by the former, and for the time too successful agitation of the JJberal Party, sup- ported by all that was anti-Canadian in the United States, were induced to give these men a trial, what was the result ? Millions of money wasted, time lost, and neither road nor emi<»:rants, unless we accept those of the latter who were attracted to Kansas by the anti-patriotic speeches of some of our would-be Canadian States- men. The Opposition and indeed some of the Government support- ers talk of modifying the bargain. Now, my friends, it does not do to tinker a pot, it mi*jcht become leaky and in the end turn out like the saucepan the late Hon. George Brown presented to Miss Canada in the shape of a reci])rocity treaty. When his friends were in power it was so punctured by repairs Miss Canada had to tell him it would not hold water.* No, no, we are going to accept the Syndicate bargain as it stands for the present, and if modifications are wan<-ed they can come afterwards, when it may appear that Canada has got the best of the bargain. You have all heard the story of driving a coach and six through an Act of * See cartoon of Canadian niustroted of thli date. 22 THE SYNDICATE. Parliament. There is no fear that if after a fair trial, things do not suit means will be found to remedy them. One of the things made much of is the loss of duty on steel rails, ifee. Well, we can suppose, as Sir John Macdonald put it, had the Syndicate been compelled to pay duty, they would have required so much more money. Again, were the road built by the Government, as the Opposition clamor for, and not by a Syndicate or Company, where would the duty be ? But, my friends, there is another way to put this question, but it is a secret known only to the initiated,— all the amount in question would not pay the blunder of one political Engineer, and you might count them by the dozen, — would not pay the subsidy of one set of political contract brokers on a single contract ; and on how many contracts would we, the people, have to be bled by these vampires before we reached the Rocky Mountains ? No use to blame a Minister or Chief Engineer. Their hands were tied, and so far their tonguei ; they were compelled to ap- point these men, I mean the Engineers, to M^ork ?,nd positions they were perfectly incompetent to till. The country's money was wasted and they were held responsible. Again, have we not reason to fear contracts were adjudged not to the proper men or those intitled to them, but to some political supporter. Those contracts, in 8ome cases before all was done, — in most instances for politii^ai reasons — cost the country double the original contract price. Some room here to pay duty on steel rails to an honest company, or rather to relieve them of it. This is a question, or phase in it rather, none of our political friends care to touch upon, yet it concerns the people, and is a potent argument in favor of the Syndicate. As matters stand, no Government could be held responsible for such ; i?i a manner it is the political im- morality of the people, that is to blame; for the moment a Minister possesses the fatal power to be in a position to reward his support- ers, he is compelled to do so or out he goes. As we cannot hope to educate the present generation up to the mark of even semi- political honesty. Sir John Macdonald and his Government are going to do the next best thing ; they are going to remove the temptation, so as those gentlemen may with a clear conscience repeat the latter part of " the Lord's prayer," and in saying " lead us not into temptation," may with sincerity add ''deliver us from evil doing." o THE SYNMCATft. ds It would be waste of time and lowering to the respect we owe to ourselves, to notice the mean personal, scurrility indulged in by the opponents of the Government ; some of the latest ad- ditions to Syndicate literature is a proof of this; it only shows the poorness of their causC; and the smallness of theintellect of those personally employed by our American Cousins to prevent our Canadian road being built, when they can find agents willing to descend to such arguments. My friends that game is played on' : we know more than we did in 1872. The people want tlic country served, no matter by whom ; the railroad built and tlic prairie peopled, and they are going to have it. Worse than this is the taste of dragging the name of the noblemen, who so ably represents Her Most Gracious Majesty in Canada, into this now partizan quarrel. No, my friends, we must tell these gentlemen, the boots of Mr. Letellier de St. Just would in no way become the feet of the son of McCallum Mohr and more than that, allow me to whisper in their ear, His Excellency was born " north of the Tweed." You must fight out this question yourselves ; and in the meantime abide by the verdict of your representatives ; a few years hence you will have it in yonr own power to get the voice of the country, and if by that time the Syndicate are as we have every reason to suppose they are, honorable men, who will per- form duly their share of the contract, we have no reason to fear the verdict of the people.