SPEECHES \ N i:> A.DDRESSf r .S IM CHARLTON ( 'rh /^ SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES POLITICAL, LITERARY AND RELIGIOUS BY JOHN CHARLTON TORONTO MORANG & CO., LIMITED 1905 C Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada in the year 1905, by MORANG & Co., LIMITED, in the Department of Agriculture CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION vii CANADA'S TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM THE NATIONAL TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILWAY Reply to the Hon. Mr. Blair - - 1 - 3 THE NATIONAL TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILWAY Defence of Government's Policy 29 THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR GREAT BRITAIN'S COURSE JUSTIFIED - 77 TERMS OF PEACE - 99 FISCAL RELATIONS THE BROWN DRAFT TREATY - 117 REPLY TO PERSONAL ATTACK THE LUMBER DUTIES 129 NATIONAL SELF-PROTECTION 151 NATIONAL RECIPROCITY CONVENTION - - 179 BRITISH PREFERENCE AMERICAN RECIPROCITY - 197 BOSTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE - 237 SPEECHES ON RELIGIOUS SUBJECTS SABBATH OBSERVANCE 253 QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY PRESBYTERIAN THEOLOGICAL COLLEGES - 291 CONTENTS Continued PAGE A LAYMAN'S VIEW OP CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES - 305 MISCELLANEOUS PARLIAMENTARY SPEECHES IRREDEEMABLE CURRENCY - 331 POLITICAL CORRUPTION - - 357 PLATFORM AND LITERARY ADDRESSES CONDITIONS OF SUCCESS IN LIFE - - - 371 ABRAHAM LINCOLN ... 389 DAVID LIVINGSTONE ... 423 GEORGE WASHINGTON ... - 453 AMERICAN HUMOUR - - 469 INDEX __._-_ 495 INTRODUCTION MANY of my friends have asked me to publish in the more permanent form of a book some of the speeches and addresses that I have had the honour of making before a great variety of audiences during my career. This request I gladly comply with, and I use the first break in a life-long series of pressing business and political engagements to prepare the book for publication. While a man makes many enemies by frankly speaking his mind, as it has been my principle and my habit to do, he makes many friends also ; and I certainly have every reason to be thankful both for the number and for the constancy of my friends. Speaking, as I have done, on many subjects, and in support of many causes, I could not hope to carry with me in all things those who agreed with me in many things ; but among those whose good opinion I valued, there have been few who were not willing to believe that I was no less candid when I differed from them than when I happened to express opinions that they cherished. Any reference to my friends would be incomplete did it not include special mention of the people who continuously honoured me with their suffrages in elections covering a period of thirty- two years, and vii SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES who, I believe, would have continued so to honour me had not illness compelled me to decline another nomination. At the time of the dissolution of 1904, there was but one member of the House of Com- mons Hon. John Costigan, of Victoria, N.B. who had represented one constituency in that House for a longer period than I had. To the kindness and confidence of the yeomen of grand old North Norfolk I owe this signal honour. I should be callous, in- deed, if I did not feel, and express gratitude for it. Many a man tries to do his duty in public life, but only some men are so fortunate as to find their work appreciated. Let North Norfolk be forever re- membered as always ready to give generous assistance to its willing servants. I have some hope that the student of public affairs will find in this volume historical and other material that will be of value to him. As the weight to be given to facts alleged, or opinions expressed, depends upon the man who sets them forth, those who turn to this volume have a right to facts upon which to base such a judgment. This makes some account of myself necessary. I am the eldest son of Adam Charlton, from New- castle-on-Tyne, England. I was born at Garbutts- ville, New York, on February 3, 1829. I attended the common and high schools of that district, and also had the advantage of some special reading. I studied medicine for a time, but recoiled at the dissecting room. I read law also, and intended to be a lawyer, but circumstances forbade. My parents Vlll INTRODUCTION removed to Canada with their family in 1849, and settled near Ayr, Ontario. I worked on my father's farm until 1853, when I engaged with a partner in carrying on a general store at Lynedoch, which has since been my home. Store-keeping led to grain- buying and lumbering. Those were the days of mag- nificent pines in this district, and I took part in the removal of the timber to market, and the opening up of what is now one of the finest farming sections on the continent. Working either for myself or for em- ployers, I took part in every phase of lumbering, from making and rafting the logs and sawing lumber, to dealing in the market. On the removal of the pine from this section, I extended my operations to Michigan and Northern Ontario, where, by myself and with different partners, I have for years been actively engaged in lumbering. I was elected township councillor of Charlotteville in 1856 and in 1857, after which I declined re-elec- tion. In the Dominion election of 1872 I was re- turned to the House of Commons as the representa- tive of North Norfolk. That position I continued to fill until 1904. In the last general election in which I took part that of 1900 I was returned by ac- clamation. I was made chairman of the Royal Com- mission to investigate the mineral resources of On- tario in 1888. In 1898, I was appointed a member of the Joint High Commission to arrange a settle- ment of the matters in dispute between Canada and the United States. As a youth I was instrumental in organizing liter- IX SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES ary and debating societies in places in which I lived. I was one of the founders of a circulating library in Ayr. My first experience in public speaking was in the delivery of lectures which I had prepared as a useful exercise in the course of my self-education in literature. From this I went on to the delivery of carefully written addresses on living but non-political questions. This work brought me into prominence, and I was asked to speak at political meetings. From that time I have usually spoken, not from manuscript, but from notes after careful preparation. I have been for many years a contributor to news- papers and magazines, and numerous articles of mine have appeared in the leading periodicals of America and Great Britain. My father's house was a place where religion was both preached and practised, and my religious asso- ciations have always been with the Presbyterian Church. I have been a delegate to many of the councils of the church, including the General Assem- bly, and also to the Pan-Presbyterian Council in Toronto. I was one of the founders of the Dominion Lord's Day Alliance. My name will be remembered by the Charlton Act. I have been the author of several statutes, but this Act is the only one of great importance. It took years of parliamentary fighting to place that law on the statute-book. Some may ask why no speech on that subject is included here. It is not that I am ashamed of the work I did to secure this protection for young girls against the wiles of the evil-minded INTRODUCTION far from it. I was driven to take up this question only by the strongest sense of public duty ; and I succeeded ; let the Charlton Act speak for itself. When I review the mass of material which my public speaking of over forty years affords for such a book as this, I find it almost impossible to make a choice, or, having chosen, to decide upon the ar- rangement. As to the selection of speeches, I have exercised my best judgment. In the arrangement I have been guided in part by the necessities of the situation, and in part by the judgment of friends. Any arrangement must be, in the main, a mere matter of taste, and only suggestive of order. I acknowledge with thanks the kindness of the publishers of the North American Review in allowing me to use here an article contributed by me to their issue of February, 1904. That article was, in effect, a report of a speech I had made in Boston, and per- mission to use it here with some additions is a great advantage. I have been assisted in the work of preparing this book for the press by my friend, Mr. A. C. Campbell, of the House of Commons reporting staff, to whom also acknowledgments are made. JOHN CHARLTON. Twin Oaks, Lynedoch, 1905. CANADA'S TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM THE NATIONAL TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILWAY REPLY TO THE HON. MR. BLAIR LEGISLATIVE action respecting the Canadian na- tional transcontinental railway was foreshadowed in the Speech from the Throne in opening the Dominion parliament in 1903. Negotiations with the repre- sentatives of the proposed Grand Trunk Pacific Railway Company proceeded during the session. These negotiations and the discussion of the terms of incorporation of the company consumed time. The Opposition complained loudly of delay. The situa- tion was complicated by the resignation of the Hon. A. G. Blair, Minister of Railways and Canals, owing to his dissatisfaction with the policy decided upon by the government. It was then expected that Mr- Blair would make the strongest attack upon the new railway scheme, and the Prime Minister, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, asked me to reply to Mr. Blair's criticisms and lead in upholding the government's policy. The great debate took place on Sir Wilfrid Laurier's motion to ratify the agreement with the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway Company. This motion was made on the afternoon of August 11, 1903. Sir Wil- frid did not speak, having explained the project at an earlier stage of the bill. Mr. Blair was the 3 CANADA'S TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM first speaker of the afternoon. I followed in the evening, dealing with Mr. Blair's speech point by point. The next day the debate was resumed, and I was afforded an opportunity to present my views more in the form of a set speech. The report here given is that of Hansard, revised and condensed. House of Commons, August 11, 1903. MR. CHARLTON Mr. Speaker: We are engaged in dis- cussing a question of very great importance. Never in the history of Canada has a question so important engaged the attention of parliament, and been brought before the people of this country. It is a question which we should attempt to discuss in a spirit of fairness, in a spirit of candour, and with a desire to promote the best interests of Canada. This is a project which has to do with the future of our country far down in its history, and no individual in this House, no individual in this country, has an interest in this matter differ- ent from that of other individuals; all are interested in hav- ing a policy carried out by this government which will be for the benefit of the whole country. There may be differences of opinion, honest differences of opinion. There inevitably will be such differences; and, indeed, differences have ex- isted within the ranks of the Liberal party. This question has been discussed in all its phases within the ranks of the party. The most courteous consideration has been given by members of the government to the views presented by the members of the Liberal party with regard to this pro- ject. There is nothing that has been presented here to-day by the honourable gentleman (Hon. Mr. Blair) that has not received consideration, that has not been fully considered, and a decision reached with regard to it. The honourable gentle- man (Hon. Mr. Blair) tells us that this measure has been urged with unexampled haste, that it has been sprung upon the country without due deliberation. Why, sir, this ques- tion has been under discussion in the country and has 4 THE NATIONAL TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILWAY received the attention of the public for months; almost for years. The question of another transcontinental line was dealt with nearly a year ago by the very gentleman (Hon. Mr. Blair) who has been addressing the House to-night; and I shall read, in due tune, what that honourable gentleman said, and I shall contrast, with a feeling of pain, his sentiments uttered a year ago and the sentiments which he uttered to-night. The question has not been sprung without due deliberation; the question has been thoroughly considered. Of course, parlia- ment has been delayed by the consideration of this question; we have remained in session much longer than we would have done if it had not been under consideration. I have approved of the delay, and the country will approve of it. The government has decided not to enter hastily upon a de- cision as to this matter. They have weighed all the argu- ments and all the conditions in relation to this case, and they have arrived at their decision after due deliberation. Whether that decision is correct or incorrect it has not been arrived at hastily; it has not been arrived at without full consideration of every circumstance and condition that had a bearing upon the matter. My honourable friend (Hon. Mr. Blair) says that the Prune Minister held that the necessity for the construction of this road was urgent, and he presented that statement as a reflec- tion upon the judgment of the Prime Minister, as an evidence that the Prune Minister has acted hastily, as an evidence that the Prune Minister has been influenced by considera- tions that are not considerations of wisdom, and that, in fact, the statement of the Prime Minister that the necessity for the construction of this road was urgent, is an ill-founded assertion. The honourable gentleman (Hon. Mr. Blair) spoke as though our only choice was either to wait a little while, as he recommends, or to plunge into this project and have the road next year. Why, sir, we are not to have the road next year; it is not a question as to whether we should have a transcontinental line immediately, but whether the ne- 5 CANADA'S TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM cessity for it is urgent. This line cannot be constructed in less than five years. In the meantime, a great tide of immi- gration is pouring into the North- West. What will be the condition of things in that country five years from to-day? Its productions will have increased; they may be doubled, they possibly may by that time be quadrupled. The gov- ernment is simply taking time by the forelock, taking into consideration conditions, not as they exist to-day, but as they will exist as soon or sooner than they can provide the means to meet them. And so, I repeat, the necessity is an urgent necessity. We shall need transportation facilities in the North- West as fast, if not faster, than they can be pro- vided. Every bushel of wheat that is raised in that country, all the productions of its soil, must find egress by rail. Our North- West is not provided, as are the western states of the United States, with great channels of communication, with rivers flowing to the sea, rivers that furnish outlets to com- merce; but the productions of our West must reach the tidewater or the Great Lakes by rail. Our prairie region must have railway facilities for every farmer in it. And so the government is not only taking into consideration the circumstances that now exist but the conditions that inevitably will exist. The government has made a reason- able calculation as to what conditions they have to meet five years from to-day; they have realized that these condi- tions will imperatively demand additional transportation facilities; and they have set themselves to work not with undue haste, not prematurely, but at a time when it was necessary to take action to enter upon a course of policy which will result in 'meeting this emergency when it does ar- rive. My honourable friend (Hon. Mr. Blair) in the course of his speech indulged in one remark which possibly, upon mature reflection, and when he is cool, and has a candid moment, he will regret; and that is, sir, to attribute to this government the desire to please Senator Cox. SOME HON. MEMBERS Hear, hear. 6 THE NATIONAL TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILWAY MR. CHARLTON Let my honourable friends on the opposite side cheer. I do not know whether such action is quite consistent with the course they have hitherto pursued, or whether it strikes them as a natural thing to do; but I do think this imputation was unworthy of the honourable gentleman (Hon. Mr. Blair), applied to the colleagues with whom he had recently acted, and applied under these cir- cumstances, when we are facing a great national emergency. AN HON. MEMBER A crisis. MR. CHARLTON No, not a crisis. When we are simply taking such action as prudence requires for promoting the interests of this young nation. Now, Mr. Speaker, our judgment as to this measure should be governed by a careful examination into the character of the undertaking. It is a very easy thing to raise ques- tions to befog a case; a very easy thing to appeal to preju- dices; to ascribe motives; to bring in Senator Cox and other irrelevant matters. But what we want to examine into on this occasion is this: What is the character of this proposi- tion which the government has laid before this House of Commons? I think, Mr. Speaker, that the proposition is a good one. I have examined it carefully, and I have arrived at that conclusion dispassionately, simply because an ex- amination of all the conditions bearing on the case forces that conclusion upon me. Other gentlemen may arrive at a different conclusion. AN HON. MEMBER Sure. MR. CHARLTON Some honourable gentleman says, sure. Quite likely many of them will. Their conclusions may be just as honest as mine. Mine may be based on fallacious reasons; the same may be said of theirs. It is for us to sit down calmly and argue out this question, to avoid appeals to prejudice and to party spirit, if that is possible, and to judge this proposition upon its merits. It may be that the honourable ex-Minister of Railways thought he was doing this; but if he did, I do not think he grasped very accur- ately or very fully the merits of the scheme. 7 CANADA'S TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM The honourable gentleman chose to make a quotation from the speech of the right honourable leader of the government (Sir Wilfrid Laurier) with regard to the bonding privilege, and to belittle the fears expressed by the Premier to assert that those fears were groundless, and that it was all nonsense to talk about the danger of the abrogation of the bonding priv- ilege. "Why, sir, "said he, the "Americans cannot afford to abrogate the bonding privilege; it would injure themselves; self-interest would prevent them from doing it." Why, Mr. Speaker, the Americans have threatened to abrogate the bonding privilege, not once, not twice, but repeatedly. Whenever friction exists, whenever bad feeling is aroused, one of the first things suggested in the United States is to bring this "spoiled child," as Senator Depew called Canada, to its senses by shutting it off from access to the sea by the abrogation of the bonding privilege. Now, we want an alternative route; we want to place our- selves in a position to defy the application of this threat if it is ever made in the future. The honourable gentleman, (Hon. Mr. Blair) who addressed you is loath to believe, he tells us, that the people of Canada are at the mercy of Americans. We are loath to believe that. We do not believe it. But we simply want to take prudent steps to place ourselves in the best possible position in our relations with the Americans. We do not want to quarrel with the Americans. If the bonding privilege is abrogated, it will not be abrogated with our consent. They call it a privilege, and they hold that we are beholden to them for this privilege. But it is a privilege they can withdraw. They have threat- ened to withdraw it. That may occur again, and this threat they may carry into effect. Now, Mr. Speaker, my honourable friend (Hon. Mr. Blair) characterizes this road as a sentimental road. MR. BROCK Political. MR. CHARLTON I do not know that he characterized it as a political road. He characterized it as a sentimental road. Well, it is a sentimental road. At the back of the 8 THE NATIONAL TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILWAY proposition to build this road is a sentiment, and that senti- ment is the freeing of Canada from the danger of being shut out from access to the sea. That sentiment is the develop- ment of Canada upon broad national lines. That sentiment is the building of a transcontinental road from ocean to ocean upon Canadian soil. That sentiment is the carrying to our own seaports, on our own roads, of the products of our own lands. At the back of this road is the loftiest and noblest sentiment that can exist the sentiment of patriot- ism, of love of country. My honourable friend says that the question of profit and loss does not enter into the calculation. Well, we have carefully considered that matter also. While the road is a sentimental road, I think we shall be able to show that the question of profit and loss has received due consideration; and the conclusion we arrive at is that a balance on the right side of the ledger will unite with sentiment in justifying the building of this road. My honourable friend tells us that he would favour the building of a road under certain conditions. He says he would favour a well-considered line proceeded with at the proper time. He intimates that this is not the proper time, and he goes on to say: " Now in the immediate future there is no need of another road, not even on the prairies." Compare this with the speech made by my honourable friend less than a year ago, on the ninth day of October, in Van- couver. He had been waited on by the Board of Trade of Victoria two days before. He had been presented with an address, and the Victoria Board of Trade had, in that address, recommended government aid to the Canadian Northern Railway for the purpose of securing an additional line across the territory of British Columbia to the ocean. Inspired possibly by that address he made a speech, in the course of which he made use of the following language: " There is no country where the soil is more fertile than in the millions of acres in Canada which the plough has not yet 9 CANADA'S TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM touched, and which man has not yet invaded. Railways are necessary to open up these great fertile tracts. If we are to invite the people from the world outside to immigrate here, they have a right to expect that the government can assure them the means of transportation. That means a great many railways in many parts of Canada, and we feel as a government that we have ample justification in going to all reasonable lengths to meet this need. The tide of im- migration is just setting in full and strong towards Canada particularly from the south, and I believe the time is near when there will be a greater immigration than ever before to Canada from the motherland. This influx of settlers must bring its problems. " It means an increase of soil production and necessarily of means of transport. We cannot long remain content with only one transcontinental line. I am ambitious myself to see another right away. It cannot come fast enough to satisfy me, and I am doing all I can, in my small way, with- out public pretence about it, to ensure its construction." How does that compare with the language used by the honourable gentleman to-night? Has he come around, after giving utterance to these sentiments, to the position that we show undue and indecent haste in spending a few months in perfecting a scheme to construct a road which cannot be ready for use before four or five years? We have the honourable gentleman's words quoted also in the Daily News- Advertiser, of Vancouver. That paper reports him as saying: " This influx of settlers," he said, " must bring its problems. It means an increase of soil production and necessarily a means of transport. We cannot long remain content with only one transcontinental line, I am ambitious myself to see another right away. It cannot come fast enough to satisfy me, and I am doing all I can in my small way, without public pretence about it, to ensure its construction." Then there is another report of the same speech hi the Daily Province of Vancouver. I quote these three in order to avoid the charge that the speech was not revised by the 10 THE NATIONAL TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILWAY honourable gentleman and that his sentiments were not correctly reported. This report says: " We cannot long remain content with only one trans- continental line. I am ambitious myself to see another right away. It cannot come fast enough to satisfy me, and I am doing all I can in my small way, without public pretence about it, to ensure its construction/' These were, I think, sound sentiments, and I endorse them. It is unfortunate that there was a difference in tone and in position compared with the position occupied and the lan- guage used by the honourable gentleman to-night. I am at a loss to account for the discrepancy. I would hardly sup- pose that the honourable gentleman could have had so radical a change of views in eight or nine months, as he has shown by his speech to-night compared with his speech of the ninth of October last. It has been suggested to me that, in quoting from these newspaper reports, I have overlooked something. I find that the honourable gentleman gave utterance to the following sentiments in Vancouver: " There are young men, perhaps middle-aged men, who are listening to me who will see three or four transcontinental lines running through Canada. And they will not see more than enough." Three or four transcontinental lines, and these will not be more than enough! Well, Mr. Speaker, I am at a loss to ac- count for the difference in these expressions of opinions as indicated by these quotations and the speech of the hon- ourable gentleman to-night. There are some expressions in my honourable friend's speech, which, perhaps, indicate something that was not fully revealed. Persons skilful in such business may read between the lines and draw inferences. He says: " As Minister of Railways I was entitled to know what was going on, I was entitled to know what the Premier of this Dominion thought about the matter, what he was doing about it. I was entitled to be consulted from day to day 11 CANADA'S TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM and step by step, if I was not entitled as Minister of Railways, to dictate which course should be pursued." Again he said: " No Intercolonial Railway official was consulted about this matter." I do not know what this means. It is not possible, I pre- sume, that pique could have induced my honourable friend to resign. It is not possible, I believe, that a feeling of indignation, because he thought he had not occupied that prominent position to which he believed he was entitled in shaping affairs in the councils of the state, could have in- fluenced his conduct; but it was unfortunate that he introduced these allusions to the fact that he had not been consulted. Comparing his remarks to-night with his speech of eight months ago, one is naturally led to look for some reason besides the one given: that he left his position as Minister of the Crown because the government had adopted a scheme for another transcontinental railway, much less radical and objectionable than the one he had proposed and advocated. He tells us in his speech that we want no rail- way, that there is no demand for it. How does that com- pare with his speech in Vancouver, where he tells us that we want railways to open up unoccupied territory, so that we may invite immigration? The two positions are radically and diametrically opposed to each other. No demand for a railway through unpeopled regions? I think I heard that in the old Canadian Pacific Railway time. I think we our- selves made the mistake of using the same language, and I think we paid dearly for our lack of comprehension of the position of things. And we are not going to be led into that trap again. We are not going to take advice that will lead us into a line of action of which we have such unpleasant remembrance. The honourable gentleman tells us that there is no demand hi Quebec for a transcontinental rail- way. Who promoted the project of the Trans-Canada line? Was it not a popular scheme in Quebec? Had it no backing, 12 THE NATIONAL TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILWAY no popular support there? Why, Quebec was unanimous in favour of the transcontinental line, and the honourable gentleman's statement is absurdly unfounded. And, I may remark parenthetically, we are adopting a scheme that dis- poses of the Trans-Canada project with its demand of enormous subsidies hi cash and land, in favour of which there would have been pressure which it would have been difficult to resist. Mr. Speaker, when the Speech from the Throne was de- livered, my honourable friend (Hon. Mr. Blair) was a mem- ber of the ministry. That speech foreshadowed a transcon- tinental road. We had not reached, at that period, a definite conclusion as to how this thing was to be proceeded with; but there was a broad statement to the effect that a transcontinental line was deemed to be a necessity, and that the government was about to proceed to consider the best plan to adopt for the construction of that line. Why did not my honourable friend resign then? HON. MR. BLAIR We got 600 miles of it authorized this very session. That is the thing that was hi my mind. MR. CHARLTON Now, the burden of my honourable friend's speech was the question of government ownership. And I give the honourable gentleman credit for having, honestly, ener- getically and without deviation, advocated that principle of the construction of the road by the government. And I have this to say, that I sympathized with that view myself. But I did not consider that my own views were entitled to be accepted by the government, as the ex-Minister of Rail- ways and Canals evidently did in his own case. I presented my arguments in favour of that scheme, and those arguments were received with courtesy and were given careful considera- tion. Then I heard the arguments against the adoption of the scheme, and I felt a little doubt whether I might not have been mistaken. And had my ideas been accepted, and had I been responsible for the adoption of that scheme, I should have trembled for the consequence, and, no doubt, should have regretted it. 13 CANADA'S TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM Government ownership has a seductive appearance. It appeals to the imagination. It would be a bold policy. It would be just the thing for this country, granted two or three conditions. The first condition is separation, total separation, of the management of the road from politics. The second condition is honesty of construction. The third condition is honesty and efficiency in the management, on the basis of a well-organized and well-arranged railway. If we could have all these conditions, government ownership would be a good thing in my opinion. But the danger is that we might not be able to secure these conditions. The members of the ministry, possibly, in arriving at a conclu- sion on this matter may have had the Intercolonial road in view and may have had some doubt, owing to the results of the management of the Intercolonial, whether it was best to extend the principle further. And I presume their doubts were well founded. Now, the honourable gentleman tells us that in his opinion we should have proceeded in a leisurely, careful, conservative manner. First of all, we should have secured an appropria- tion for surveys. Then we should have gone on and made the surveys. Then, in due time, at the expiration of a couple of years, we might have proceeded with the construc- tion; and, at the end of the next decade, probably, we would have had the road completed. In the meantime, the con- gestion in the West would unquestionably have made us sorry that we had not got it sooner. Now, with regard to exploration, we should not fall into the error of supposing that we are entirely without informa- tion as to the country through which this road will pass. We have a great amount of information. We have not actually located the line; we have not actually taken the levels. But we know what the general character of the country is between Quebec and Winnipeg north of Lake Nepigon. We have one survey made by Sir Sandford Flem- ing from the head of the Montreal River north of Lake Nepigon to Winnipeg. He tells us that it is a highly favourable line, 14 THE NATIONAL TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILWAY with no grades more than one per cent, with no bridges more than three hundred feet in length and only a few of them; that the country is a level one and highly favourable for railway construction. With regard to the country east of the commencement of that survey to Quebec, we have abun- dant information which shows that it is of the same charac- ter as that reported on by Sir Sandford Fleming. This great country north of the height of land offers few impediments to railway construction. We know enough of the general character of that country to warrant us in definitely enter- ing upon the scheme of constructing that railway. Then, with regard to the country from Winnipeg to Port Simpson, through the Peace River Pass, that country has been traversed again and again not only by explorers, but by engineers. The character of that country is thoroughly well-known. For the whole territory from Winnipeg to Port Simpson, the government is in possession of all the in- formation that is necessary to warrant it in embarking upon a scheme for the construction of this road. While they could not tell with definite accuracy what the road would cost, they could make an approximate estimate that would be within the cost per mile, and they knew definitely the character of the obstacles to be overcome in the building of the road. Now, Mr. Speaker, my honourable friend (Hon. Mr. Blah*) I am going somewhat discursively over the notes which I made at random while he was speaking my honourable friend tells us that the idea of developing a large lumber business from this country between Quebec and Winnipeg for the supply of the prairies, is illusory; that the British Columbia lumber is much handier, and consequently we cannot ex- pect to do very much lumbering in the territory east of Winnipeg. I went over to Vancouver a few weeks ago, and being a lumberman myself, I naturally looked into that business a little. I found that nearly all the lumber manu- factured in New Westminister, Vancouver and all points in British Columbia accessible to a railway for transport to 15 CANADA'S TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM the prairies, went up through the canyons of the Fraser and the Thompson, went over the heavy grades between Kam- loops and the Columbia, went over the Selkirk Mountains, went over the Rocky Mountains, went up the Kicking Horse grade, a grade of four per cent., where it takes a powerful locomotive to go up with three cars, and so out to the prair- ies. This all meant that this lumber was transported at great cost. With a well-equipped road of easy grades we can reach the prairie section with lumber from all parts of the region that this road will open in Ontario and the west- ern portion of Quebec, in my opinion, as cheaply as the lum- ber from Vancouver reaches that destination. A railroad man, if you ask him whether the capacity of a road is meas- ured by the length of the line, will tell you, no, that it is measured by the length of the line and the steepness of the grades. The grades over the Selkirk Mountains are one hundred and twenty feet to the mile, over the Rocky Moun- tains two hundred feet to the mile for four miles, and one hundred and twenty feet to the mile the rest of the way. These grades are equivalent to adding four level miles to the length of every single mile of the road. So the assertion that we cannot reach the prairies with lumber from this hinterland of ours, is not well founded. Now, he tells us that we know nothing of this country. Ten exploring parties were sent out last year by the Ontario government for the purpose of ascertaining the character of this country north of the height of land hi Ontario; and the report of these parties was to the effect that in Ontario, in that region of which we previously knew comparatively nothing, in what is termed the clay belt, there are 16,000,000 acres of good productive land, with a climate which fits it for agricultural operations, land which lies south of the latitude of Winnipeg, every acre of it. It is useless to talk about the road passing through a howling wilderness where there are no sources of business available, or to say that it will run the whole 1,300 or 1,400 miles from Win- nipeg to Quebec without having any local business whatever. 16 THE NATIONAL TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILWAY Then, the honourable gentleman comes down to the ques- tion of running rights: one road giving another road a right to use its road-bed. He refers to the sections that grant these running rights, particularly section twenty-four, and he tells us that this whole thing is a delusion. He makes merry over it. " Why," he says, " the absurdity of supposing that a railroad is like a wagon road, that you can set a train on it as you can put a wagon on a wagon road and run it to its destination." He tells us that the Premier knew nothing of what he was talking about, that the thing could not possibly work. Then he gave himself away a few moments later by saying that when the system went into operation the Grand Trunk Pacific would take advantage of other lines that were making use of the road and would not give them fair-play in the adjustment of the rules and regulations, and the despatching of trains. Now, Mr. Speaker, pullman cars run all over the United States and Canada without any reference to a particular railway. A pullman car will often traverse three or four different lines without a change of porter, without a change of passengers, without any change what- ever. A car will go from Boston to Chicago, it will go perhaps from Boston to San Francisco, traversing a great number of different lines. Freight will go in the same way. One of the great reasons for securing uniformity of gauge in railways on this continent was to avoid the necessity of breaking bulk. Formerly we had a five-foot gauge, a six- foot gauge, a three-foot-six-inch gauge, a four-foot-eight- and-a-half-inch gauge; and wherever one of these roads connected with another having a different gauge, the freight had to be transferred from one car to another, had to break bulk, as it was termed. Now, with uniformity of gauge, there is no breaking of bulk. A freight car is loaded at Los Angeles, or San Francisco or Portland, and it goes through to New York, or Chicago, or Boston, or wherever its destination may be, without breaking bulk, and then it goes back again, perhaps loaded and perhaps empty. The feasibility of running two roads over the same track 17 CANADA'S TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM has been demonstrated. I live on the air-line of the Grand Trunk Railway, a line extending from Buffalo to Detroit, 229 miles in length. That road is operated by the Grand Trunk and by the Wabash. The Wabash sends its through trains from Chicago, from Kansas City, from St. Louis, over ' that road to Buffalo and back again. The Grand Trunk Railway does the same. They have their running arrange- ments and a joint system of despatching. Agents at stations are paid by each company according to the volume of busi- ness that each transacts; and repairs are kept up in the same way. There is no hitch, there is no friction. They change engines on that route. They have a division 110 miles long from Detroit to St. Thomas, and a division 119 miles long from St. Thomas to Niagara Falls or Buffalo. Each road has its engine house, each road has its repair shops, and they can work them jointly if they choose. That system of things has been operated for three or four years, operated successfully, operated without the slightest friction, operated to the advantage of both these companies. They use the same bridge going into Buffalo everything in com- mon, and the share of expenses to be borne by the respec- tive companies is amicably arranged. The Flint and Pre Marquette road, which is a Michigan system, exchanges its traffic at St. Thomas with the Michigan Central. They send their freight trains over their own road from Walker- ville to St. Thomas and over the Michigan Central to Buffalo. They have a joint arrangement in the matter of despatching and the whole arrangement is working harmoniously, effi- ciently, and to the satisfaction of both parties. The honour- able gentleman has not been Minister of Railways and Canals long enough to learn his trade. He has not been Minister of Railways and Canals long enough to learn some of the elementary principles of the business. SIB FREDERICK BORDEN The Canadian Pacific Railway runs over the Intercolonial Railway between St. John and Halifax. MR. CHARLTON Yes, and the honourable ex-Minister of 18 THE NATIONAL TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILWAY Railways and Canals admitted that the Canadian Pacific Railway ran over the Grand Trunk Railway line from Toronto to Hamilton, but he said there was no change of engines and that they could consequently work that arrange- ment. If you can work a road 229 miles long with two divi- sions and a change of engines, you can have twenty changes of engines and work it satisfactorily. All you have to do is to have your despatching system properly organized and make your arrangements for the use of the road. In this instance the government steps in and acts as an arbitrator, and if any attempt is made to take an unfair advantage on the part of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, the government can see to it that the stipulations of this contract are carried out. The honourable gentleman (Hon. Mr. Blair) wants to know why we cut off government ownership at Winnipeg. Why put this section of the road west of Winnipeg on a different basis from the section east of Winnipeg? In one sense the govern- ment has the same control over the western division that it has over the eastern division. The arrangement secures to other roads the same rights from Winnipeg to Port Simpson as from Winnipeg to Quebec. It gives these privileges to every road from ocean to ocean and the government exer- cises similar control in this matter. That is one of the con- ditions of the contract, but the government retains ownership in the eastern divison while it leases the road to the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. Why does it retain it? Winnipeg is the great converging point of all the roads in the North- West Territories. Here the trade of that country concentrates, and will do so for a long time to come, if not perpetually. The government constructs a great trunk line from that point to tide-water, to an ocean port, for the purpose of securing Can- adian trade for Canadian ports, and it does so because this is the great main artery into which will be poured, and over which will run, the trade of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, of the Canadian Northern Railway, perhaps, and the Canadian Pacific Railway, possibly, and of any road that wishes to use 19 CANADA'S TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM it. Its use is free to all upon equal and equitable terms. The motives are all right and it remains to be seen how much traffic we can get for the road. But we cannot get anything unless we try. If we are to attempt to secure busi- ness for our own seaports we must provide a road to get there. My honourable friend (Hon. Mr. Blair) at this stage of his speech entered upon the Intercolonial Railway question. He really feels sore over that. The Intercolonial Railway is, no doubt, a pet with the honourable gentleman, and the bril- liancy of the management of the road, of course, entitles him to feel doubly interested in its welfare. The people's money, he tells us, will be squandered by the construction of a rival, line, but he neglects to tell us that the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway promoters were in favour of building their short line, and making Moncton their eastern terminus, and that they moved for this in the railway committee. He tells us that the building of this new line will save a very few miles of distance, that it will have heavier grades, that it will in every other respect be a less desirable road and that the whole thing is a supreme act of folly. I have never been over the line. He tells us what an excellent road the Intercolonial Railway is, how much business it is capable of doing. And, in the next breath, he tells us that if we took some of this money that we are to expend on the short line and reduced the grades on the Intercolonial Railway, making it a"first-class road, it might be able to do the business. What are the grades on the Intercolonial Railway? There are sixty-two-and- a-half-foot grades and fifty-foot grades to the mile. No road can claim to be a first-class road with grades more than one- half per cent, or twenty-six feet to the mile. In the construc- tion of this short line and in the construction of the line from Quebec to Winnipeg it should be an absolute condition that the road should be first-class in point of grades, in point of construction, and in point of weight of rails. The rails should not be less than ninety-pound rails, and the grades should not be more than four-tenths per cent. And, if these con- ditions are complied with, this road will compete with a water 20 THE NATIONAL TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILWAY route or anything else. The object of the building of a short line from Chaudiere Junction to Moncton is to correct the costly mistake that the country made when the Intercolonial Railway was constructed. What I regret is not the correct- big of the mistake, but the making of the mistake. All first- class railways hi America for the last ten or fifteen years have been spending enormous sums of money in correcting the mistakes made in their first construction. The Pennsylvania, the New York Central, the Grand Trunk, and other first- class roads that I could name, have been pumping out money like water, quietly, without observation, for the purpose of reducing grades, correcting alignment, taking out curves, and increasing the power of the roads to do business and earn money. The Canadian Pacific Railway has built a short line from Ottawa to Montreal. It had a line already, north of the Ottawa River. Why did it build the new line? Because it was necessary. AN HON. MEMBER No sentiment there. MR. CHARLTON No sentiment there. It was business; it was necessary to have the best conditions they could obtain in order to secure the business. Why should we level, straighten, and improve the Intercolonial Railway? It is simply because we have set out with the purpose of securing trade for our own seaports, and if we are to secure that trade we must have the best obtainable conditions with regard to our lines of transportation. We must not be obliged to go away around by the sea 120 miles farther than a short line would take us; we must not have grades of sixty- two and a half feet to the mile; but we must reduce the distance, reduce the grades, improve the efficiency of the road and secure the necessary conditions, so far as it is possible to do so, hi order to get the trade that we aim to get. That is why we dealt with the Intercolonial Railway. But the whole question is befogged by the course which the honourable gentleman (Hon. Mr. Blair) has pursued in talking about this line and that line, and about one line being ten miles longer than it was represented to be, and about crossing so many 21 CANADA'S TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM gullies, and about this and that difficulty to overcome. We have to overcome these difficulties. We are putting that road there for a specific purpose, and that purpose is to increase the capacity of the road, to reduce the cost of the transporta- tion of the products of the West to our maritime seaports. Now, I think the trouble with my honourable friend (Hon. Mr. Blair) is that his view is somewhat circumscribed. He has not yet got out of provincial ideas; he has still a provincial range of vision; he has not become continental in his aspira- tions, in his desires, in his grasp of affairs. We regret that the Intercolonial Railway will be injured by this new line; we regret that it is necessary to spend some millions of dollars to rectify the costly mistake that was made years ago. But we are dealing now with a question of national importance; we are dealing with a question that is national in all its bear- ings; we are dealing with the question of securing for our own seaports the business that will go to the seaports of an- other country, if we do not take steps to secure our own in- terest. And whether we can do it or not I cannot venture to say, but I do venture to say that we cannot do it unless we construct roads of the very best character with the lowest possible grades. In regard to that matter, as I was going over to Vancouver a short time ago, I sat in the rear car of the train as we were passing north of Lake Superior, with General Manager Mc- Nicoll, two or three American railway magnates and a number of railway men, and the discussion turned upon the question of water transportation versus transportation by rail. The subject of discussion was whether railways could be made to compete with water-carriers, and Mr. McNicoll stated that if the Canadian Pacific Railway over which we were passing had grades of four-tenths per cent, per mile (that is twenty- one feet and a fraction) and some improvement in the align- ment, it could do four times the business it was doing now, and that it could compete with the water route. Now, sir, if we build a line from Winnipeg to Quebec, say 1,400 miles long, and if we can secure four-tenths per cent. 22 THE NATIONAL TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILWAY grades; if we lay that road with ninety-pound rails; if we put bridges upon it that will carry the heaviest locomotives and trains of cars, each car carrying a load of fifty tons, we can carry, hi my opinion, grain from Winnipeg to Quebec for twelve cents a bushel and perhaps even less. The lowest rate that I have known for gram from Chicago to New York was twelve cents per hundred, or seven and two-tenths cents per bushel for a distance of 1,000 miles. Now, if it can be carried at that rate with a profit and I don't suppose it was carried at a loss it is a reasonable thing to suppose that we could carry grain over this road for twelve cents a bushel, if it is the right kind of a road. But if it has fifty-foot grades; if it has a light rail; if it is a second-class road, we can secure no business, we cut ourselves off from the con- ditions that are necessary to secure business. And we must bear that in mind when we are building this road. My honourable friend (Hon. Mr. Blair), hi the course of his remarks, had a thrust at the Globe. He stated that the Globe had an article which said that when this new road was built there would be freight trams and passenger trams on the road passing each way hi embarrassing numbers. Well, it is a matter of conjecture, of course, as to what kind of business this road might do. The writer of that article perhaps looked into the future, and he saw Canada with vast developments, with a great increase of population, with a great increase of production, with a great increase of business, with business largely attracted over the transcontinental line; and perhaps his forecast of the future was not so extravagant after all. We do not know what the result may be. We have been guilty, constantly guilty, of underrating the capacity of our country. This gentleman perhaps overrated a little, but we cannot tell, and I would rather have speculation in that direction than in the other. Now, I do not know but that perhaps my honourable friend (Hon. Mr. Blair) would have looked with a somewhat greater degree of favour upon this scheme if the road had gone to St. John. And it would perhaps have served the purposes of 23 CANADA'S TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM the country just as well if it had. I do not know as to that, but the government was bound, hi my opinion, to adopt a course that was fair and impartial. They could not properly discriminate between Halifax and St. John, in favour of the one and against the other, and they have adopted a plan which will serve the purposes of both. If St. John wants to meet the conditions for reaching this business, let it pro- mote the construction of a road up to this short line, and no- body will have any objection to that, i MR. TUCKER There is a road to Chipman now. j& MR. CHARLTON Let that road be unproved and made first- class, and let them get the business at that point. The gov- ernment, I think, acted with perfect propriety in placing the eastern terminus of the road at Moncton, from which point both St. John and Halifax will be accessible, though the advantage in distance will be in favour of St. John. MR. TUCKER It increases the distance to St. John eighty- nine miles. MR. CHARLTON Well, you want to cut that off. Now, Mr. Speaker, a good deal of criticism has been indulged in by the honourable gentleman (Hon. Mr. Blair) in regard to the increase of our debt. We are to add $15,000,000 to it by the construction of the section from Moncton to Chau- diere Junction, and untold millions by the construction of the line from Quebec to Winnipeg, and by the guarantees of the line west of Winnipeg. I did not hear the honourable gentle- man make anything of the fact that this was, in reality, a mere lease to a railway company, and that the company was to pay interest on the cost of the line. We shall have some little burden on the country, of course. We shall have interest to pay for seven years on the cost of the line from Moncton to Winnipeg, and probably some little interest to pay on our guarantee of a portion of the cost of the line west of Winnipeg. All this may amount to $14,000,000 or $15,000,000, but that is a small consideration in comparison with the benefit to the country resulting from the construction of this trans- continental line. 24 THE NATIONAL TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILWAY The honourable gentleman refers to the Premier's state- ment with regard to this road as a national line, and inti- mates that the Premier paid no attention whatever to the commercial side of the question, that this had no weight with the Premier, but that the national consideration wholly gov- erned his course in the matter. This was not a fab: presen- tation of the views expressed by the right honourable gentle- man (Sir Wilfrid Laurier). The Premier, as he was entitled to do, did lay due stress on the importance of the construc- tion of this road from a national standpoint, for the purpose of having a railway on our own soil from ocean to ocean. He took high ground in that respect, a ground which I think the country will support him hi taking. But he did not lose sight of the commercial aspects of the case far from it. While dwelling on the national importance of the road, he pointed out at the same time that its commercial results would be in the highest degree important and satisfactory. The honourable ex-Minister of Railways (Hon. Mr. Blair) enters into a financial statement with regard to this road, and estimates its cost from Moncton to Winnipeg at $35,000 per mile. Well, it is impossible to say whether that estimate is a correct one or not; the probability is that it is excessive. You must bear in mind that this is a question of the construction of a railway without equipment. The cost of equipment adds very largely to the cost of a railway line. This line is simply to be constructed and handed over to the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway Company, and that company is to place the equipment upon it. I do not believe that this road will cost over $30,000 a mile from Moncton to Chaudiere Junction, and I doubt very much that it will cost more than $30,000 per mile or even that much from Quebec to Winnipeg. The honourable gentleman, in reckon- ing the burdens that will rest on the government in connection with the guarantee of the western section, assumes that the government guarantee will amount to the cost of building the road. He overlooks the fact that the guarantee of the gov- ernment is to cover merely three-fourths of the cost of the 25 CANADA'S TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM road, and that when the government advances this guarantee, it takes over security upon the road and its equipment, including what the company has put into it, so that the security is ample. The honourable gentleman refers at some length to the question of the stock. What is there about this stock question? There is to be $45,000,000 of stock. Of that, $20,000,000 is to be preferred stock, which goes into the equipment of the road, and $25,000,000 is to be common stock. The honourable gentleman would lead us to sup- pose that that will all go into the pockets of the share- holders and directors. What will it be used for? Why, sir, the company will require money with which to build ele- vators, to improve the road, and for various purposes in con- nection with the operation of the road. It will require money to carry out its stipulation with regard to providing vessels and shipping facilities at each end of the road. That is what that stock is set apart for $20,000,000 of preferred stock for equipment, and $25,000,000 of common stock to be used for these various purposes to which I have referred. The honourable gentleman regrets that it is not the Grand Trunk Railway that is going into the West, but the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. Well, it strikes me that there is a distinction without a difference. I think we shall be thank- ful if we get the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway into the North-West, with the stipulations and conditions with which it is hedged round with all these stipulations which place it absolutely in the hands of the government, as to the operation of the road, as to its maintenance, as to providing facilities at each end of the road for the transaction of business, and as to not discriminating against Canadian ports and in favour of American ports. The honourable gentleman asks what that condition about discrimination amounts to. He says the company will send their agents through ^the North-West, and will quietly secure freight and have it shipped with their own connivance to American ports. Well, this company enters into a solemn agreement not to 26 THE NATIONAL TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILWAY discriminate against Canadian ports. But he tells us that we have no penalties by which we can enforce the fulfilment of this agreement. Is the whole thing ended when this bill passes? We have to go on and perfect the conditions by a lease; and what does this agreement say in regard to that? It says: " The said lease shall also contain such other covenants and provisions, including proper indemnity to the government in respect of the working of the railway, as may be deemed necessary by the government to secure the proper carrying out of this agreement." Does not that cover the ground? The honourable gentleman surely could not have read that. The government has a most carefully prepared agreement here. After reading it over and over again, I cannot see any point that has been neglected. I pronounce it a perfect agreement. The time that has been devoted to the perfection of this scheme has not been mis- spent or wasted. Now, Mr. Speaker, I have got through with a sort of rambl- ing criticism of my honourable friend's speech, and I have my own speech to make yet. I beg to move the adjourn- ment of the debate. 27 THE NATIONAL TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILWAY DEFENCE OF GOVERNMENT'S POLICY AT the opening of the second day's debate on the National Transcontinental Railway, I resumed speak- ing. In the speech of that day, I devoted myself to explanation and defence of the government's policy. The speech is given as it appears in Hansard, with some modifications. House of Commons, August 12, 1903. MR. CHARLTON Mr. Speaker: At the close of my remarks last evening I had very nearly finished my review of the speech of the honourable ex-Minister of Railways (Mr. Blair). I have only a word to add to what I have already said in that connection. I have thought over the position of that honour- able gentleman, thought it over carefully; and I am obliged to arrive at the conclusion that there was no sufficient reason for the course that he has taken. When I contrast his declara- tions in his speech made in Victoria, B.C., last October, in which he asserted that we wanted another transcontinental road, that we wanted it right away, that we wanted to open up new districts in the North- West and fit them for settle- ment when I contrast that with his statement of yesterday : that we do not want a transcontinental road now, that the government was proceeding with indecent and reckless haste in the matter, I cannot shut my eyes to the fact that the two positions are entirely irreconcilable. He puts me in mind of a story I read a few years ago of the great riot in Chicago. A United States regiment of regulars who had been engaged in a winter campaign under General Miles against the Sioux 29 CANADA'S TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM Indians, were on their way to quarters in the east where they were to be granted a respite from their labours. They were ragged and toil-worn, but they were veterans, and as they were drawn up in line a person on the sidewalk said to the soldier nearest to him: " You would not shoot us fellows would you?" He replied, "I would not, unless the captain told me to." Now, the difficulty with the ex-Minister of Railways is that he did not shoot when the captain told him to. It is necessary to have discipline in an army; it is necessary to have discipline in a party. Individual men may have very strong individual opinions I belong to that category myself but it is unreasonable for an individual to suppose that a party must accept his opinions and act upon them, and it is in the highest degree injudicious for that individual to kick over the traces because he cannot govern the party; for, in doing that, he destroys what little influence he might otherwise possess, and that is what my honourable friend the ex-Minister of Railways and Canals, I fear, has done. Now, as I have said, there is no radical difference between the policy that the honourable gentleman (Hon. Mr. Blair) ad- vocates, namely a government road and the policy adopted by the government of a road partly of government construction partly aided by the government, and leased by the government to a private corporation, a road destined to serve the same pur- pose, under the arrangement that is made, that a strictly gov- ernment road would serve. I say there is not such a radical difference between these policies as to warrant the honourable gentleman in resigning his position as Minister of Railways, and opposing the government, as he did most unmistakably and most bitterly yesterday. His position yesterday, lacking as it did that dignity which ought to characterize the position of a gentleman who resigns on high patriotic and moral grounds, and the bitterness of his attack, convinced me that there is something beneath and beyond the ostensible reason assigned for his leaving the Cabinet. I repeat what I said last night, that the honourable gentleman in the course of his remarks gives us a clue to his feelings and to his action in this matter, when he 30 THE NATIONAL TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILWAY tells us that he was not consulted, that no official of the Inter- colonial Railway was consulted, that the government, for- sooth, that the Premier of this country and his advisers, pro- ceeded to organize and arrange a policy about which the honour- able gentleman was not consulted and which he did not approve of. I imagine, Mr. Speaker, that when that honourable gentle- man resigned, he had arrived at the conclusion that he would make the captain shoot at his command, instead of shooting at the captain's command. And the outcome was that the cap- tain did not shoot, and that the rebellious member retired from the ranks, and he is out of the ranks. I am sorry that the ex-Minister (Hon. Mr. Blair) should have thought so highly of his own individual opinion; should have decided that it was necessary for the government to accept his opinion and act upon it, and that if the govern- ment failed to do so he would leave the government in the lurch. Well, he has left the government in the lurch, if being deprived of the honourable gentleman's sanction could place it in that position. The honourable gentleman (Hon. Mr. Blair) devoted a large portion of his speech to the Intercolonial Railway. I shall leave the detailed discussion of that matter to gentlemen better acquainted with the condition of affairs in the Maritime Provin- ces than I am. Still, it is patent to me, and must be patent to any person who has a fair knowledge of the situation, that the honourable gentleman in his criticism upon the policy of the government with regard to the Intercolonial did not take the pains to put us in possession of all the facts. He laments the ruin of the Intercolonial. He laments that we did not adhere to the policy of attempting to create a business for our mari- time ports by using a second-class road with an unnecessary mileage of from one hundred to one hundred and forty miles, with heavy grades, and one that we know cannot fulfil the conditions that we must expect of it if the Scheme of the gov- ernment is to be made a success. He did not tell us that the Grand Trunk Pacific and the Grand Trunk are separate and distinct corporations. He did not tell us that the government 31 CANADA'S TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM had a contract with the Grand Trunk for ninety-nine years to turn over to the Intercolonial at Montreal all freight the road brings to Montreal designed for points east of Quebec. The Intercolonial cannot be deprived of that business, one of the largest items of business it possesses. He made no calculation as to the great accession to this road of business at Moncton for Halifax and St. John. If the straightening of its line, if the reducing of its grades, if the increase in its capacity, which are making it first-class and shorter, will lead to bringing from the West a large amount of grain for shipment at maritime ports, the Intercolonial must share in the benefit. The Grand Trunk Pacific ends at Moncton. There are one hundred and eighty-three miles of the Intercolonial road to share in the business that will come to Halifax; there are eighty-nine miles from Moncton to St. John to share in the business. The gross business of the Intercolonial will inevitably be increased by the construction of this short line, owing to the large in- crease of traffic between Quebec and the Maritime Provinces; and there is, besides, the retention to the Intercolonial of the trade which I have mentioned that pertains to it and that cannot be taken away from it. I have a line of argument to present with relation to this scheme of the Grand Trunk Pacific which I propose to enter upon briefly at this stage of my remarks. As to the question whether we need another transcontinental railway, the ques- tion has been answered by the ex-Minister of Railways (Hon. Mr. Blair) at Vancouver. I can quote him as an authority. According to him, we need the road and we need it quickly. He said on that occasion that men were standing in the audi- ence who would live to see three or four transcontinental lines north of the boundary. I have no doubt he was right. We must bear in mind the fact that we cannot get this road at once. We are taking the initiative steps now towards get- ting it. We have to proceed with surveys; we have to locate the line; we have to proceed with the construction of a road three thousand and thirty miles long in an air-line, and it will take several years to complete it. 32 THE NATIONAL TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILWAY In the meantime, population is pouring into the North-West; new acreage is being brought into cultivation; its prolific soil will furnish a large harvest every year, and by the time of its completion this road will be a crying necessity. I estimate that five years from to-day, with a continuance of the conditions that exist now, the grain products of the Canadian North- West will have increased at least threefold. The present means of transportation will prove utterly inadequate and this road will be imperatively called for. The govern- ment is not entering upon an enterprise which it is not warranted in entering upon; but on the contrary, it is entering upon a scheme which is called for, and called for now. I pointed out last night that our situation, so far as our great wheat-producing region is concerned, and the situation of the United States when it was a young country, are entirely different. The United States had an outlet by the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. There were navigable rivers scattered along the Atlantic coast the Hudson, the Savannah and other rivers. At an early date a canal was constructed from Albany to Lake Erie, tapping the waters of the Great Lakes. The country was able to get along largely without railways. In 1850, when the country had twenty-three million inhabi- tants railroads had hardly become a factor in the transporta- tion situation at all. But we have no Mississippi to convey the products of our western fields to the sea; we have no Erie canal; we have no natural outlet, not even by access by navigable rivers to Hudson Bay. If we are to have a route, it must be provided by artificial means. The whole country, to as far north as the northern limit of cereal pro- duction, must depend on railroads exclusively. We have to provide our North-West with the means of communication which are absolutely essential to its success and its prosperity. Consequently, delay in providing these facilities is not advis- able. Therefore I dismiss the assertion as to the action of the government in proceeding with this railway being premature, as totally without foundation, as betraying a lamentable 33 CANADA'S TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM ignorance of the conditions that exist and the probable wants of the near future. The government proceeded carefully to the consideration of this question. The Speech from the Throne contained an allusion to the necessity for a transcontinental line. The government was evidently considering the propriety first of constituting a transportation commission to examine and report as to the proper course to pursue. But it became evi- dent that there was not time to wait for the slow operation of an investigation by a commission; that the time for action was now, and that if we could secure such knowledge as would warrant us in taking action, we should proceed. The gov- ernment considered several propositions. They considered a proposition of building a government road, considered it care- fully, as I am well aware, and rejected that proposition the proposition which my honourable friend the ex-Minister of Railways and Canals (Hon. Mr. Blair) pins his faith to. The government rejected that proposition for what, I suppose I may fairly concede, were good and sufficient reasons, although I was favourably impressed by it. The government realized that to make a success of a government road across the con- tinent required the total severance of that scheme from politics. Can that be done in Canada? The government thought not, and so do I. It required, in the second place, honesty in construction. That would require the possession of expert knowledge in supervising and carrying on that work, which perhaps no gentleman in this House pos- sesses. It required, in the third place, honesty as well as efficiency of management, and called for a degree of expert railway knowledge which we do not find among men in public life. It would require a man like Sir Thomas Shaughnessy or Mr. Hays, at a salary of $50,000 or $75,000 per year, to manage efficiently such a scheme. Whether the government was right or wrong, whether its reasons for rejecting the proposition were sound or not, it did reject it. ^ The government proceeded next to consider a proposition for the construction of the road in the old-fashioned way, that 34 THE NATIONAL TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILWAY of granting subsidies. There was a proposition to build a road from North Bay to the West, which involved a land grant of 5,000 acres per mile and a money grant of $6,400 per mile. Well, the government has never adopted the sys- tem of making land grants to railways, and wisely concluded that this was not a good time to begin it. Then a compromise proposition was accepted, namely, the construction of a road over which the government should have supervision. One division of that road, estimated at 1,835 miles in length, was to be constructed by the govern- ment, but the company was to lease the road and was thus interested in having the cost of the construction kept down. The company was to have the right and opportunity of investigating whether the government was doing the work economically or not. This was adopted for the construction by the government of the eastern section. Perhaps it would have suited my honourable friend, the ex-Minister of Rail- ways, better if he had had the disposal of the contracts for building that road, but I think it will be constructed fully as cheaply under the arrangement arrived at. Then we have the construction of a line from Winnipeg to Port Simpson by the company, the right being reserved to the govern- ment to audit the accounts, and supervise the work, and take any necessary steps to see that the work is done pro- perly. By this scheme we are to have the eastern section owned by the government and leased to and operated by the company, and the western section owned by the company and operated under the supervision of the government, which is to have control of the rates. This scheme will serve the purposes of the country, I think, possibly better than the construction of a government road, even if a government road could have been constructed with the conditions necessary for success which I have mentioned. There were three schemes before the government, and taking everything into consideration, in my opinion they acted wisely and have adopted the scheme which is the safest and most likely to confer on the country great advantages. 35 CANADA'S TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM The government was criticized for delay. My honourable friend the leader of the Opposition, (Mr. R. L.Borden) every day or two, would inquire what was the cause of delay, why we were kept dancing attendance while the government was shilly- shallying. But yesterday we had my honourable friend, the ex-Minister of Railways, telling us that it has shown un- due and unseemly haste. MR. R. L. BORDEN If my honourable friend will allow me, it had been announced in the government organs, over and over again, that a certain policy was to be brought down, and I protested against the House being kept from day to day and week to week waiting for the government to announce its policy. I was not insisting on the government bringing down a policy, but insisting that, if they had any policy to bring down, they should bring it down at once. MR. CHARLTON The government was probably in a posi- tion in which circumstances were arising that rendered them unable to say definitely how soon they would arrive at a decision. They had announced their intention of bringing down a railway policy. They took time, however, to consider and weigh carefully all the conditions before concluding fin- ally an agreement with the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. That agreement will stand as a monument of their sagacity. And they brought down their policy with celerity and despatch, if we consider all the circumstances attendant upon the case. It was proper that they should take careful action. We were at the parting of the ways. We had, on the one hand, the policy recommended of building a government road. On the other hand, we had the policy recommended of assisting the construction of a road in the old-fashioned way of grant- ing subsidies. Between these two policies, the government had one which is better than either, but which required tune and careful consideration because there were vast interests at stake. And if, owing to haste and lack of due care, mis- takes were made which would cause difficulties in the future, my honourable friend, the leader of the Opposition, would not 36 THE NATIONAL TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILWAY be slow to say that the government had acted too quickly and brought down its policy too soon. In adopting this policy, the primary consideration which the government had in view was the national interest the building of a national road to connect our Atlantic with our Pacific ports, and which would pass all the way through Canadian territory. That object they have kept steadily in view. They desired to secure the trade from the North- West for our own ocean ports, or as large a share of that trade as possible. I do not say this all-rail route will not be able to compete successfully with the water route; but I do say that it will not, unless it be made first-class in every respect. I notice that the Mail has an editorial contrasting my position with that which I took on the transportation question in a speech I made on the twenty-sixth of May last. I took the position then that water transportation was cheaper from the North- West to the seaboard than transpor- tation by rail, under the then existing conditions. I take the same position to-day. If this road from Quebec to Winni- peg is to be no better than the other railways with which it will have to compete, it will be outdistanced in the race; and to that extent I endorse the position which I took hi my speech of the twenty-sixth of May. I was then discussing water versus railway transportation in the then existing condi- tions. This road from Winnipeg to Quebec, if it is to serve the purpose which it is intended to serve, must be a first-class road. It must have not more than half-per-cent. grades, and should have four-tenths-per-cent. grades coming east, or twenty-one feet to the mile. It should be laid with ninety- pound rails, should have bridges that will carry the heaviest rolling stock in use, with a margin to allow for an increase in the weight of rolling stock; it should have engines of one hun- dred tons weight without the tender, and cars of fifty tons capacity of cargo. And, with a road of that kind, consider- ing prospective improvements in railways, I feel hopeful that the route will be able to compete with the water route. 37 CANADA'S TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM There has been a constant, a regular increase in the efficiency of railway transportation. We have had the introduction of the fish-plate joint, making practically a continuous rail. We have had the introduction of the steel rail in place of the iron rail. We have had the increase in the weight of the rail. We have had the increase in the firmness of the road-bed. We have had a great increase in the weight and hauling capacity of engines, and an increase of from ten to fifty tons in the carrying capacity of cars. Trains are run on first-class roads with a capacity of hauling two thousand tons of cargo to the train without requiring any greater force of engineers, firemen, brakemen and other employees of the train than were required twenty years ago for trains that carried two hundred and fifty or three hundred tons. And this improvement still goes on; the efficiency of railways will be still further increased. And with the kind of road that I foreshadow it is my belief that we can compete with the water route. I know of a road with a maximum grade of nineteen feet to the mile running from Buffalo to Detroit through the province of Ontario. The only limit to the size of their trains is the question of their management whether they are too unwieldy or not; they do not like a train that is over half a mile long. They can haul sixty or seventy loaded freight cars with ease. Compare that with a road on which the engine is struggling up a grade of sixty or seventy feet to the mile with twelve or fifteen cars, and you can see the difference between a first- class road and a second-class road. We want a road from Winnipeg to Quebec that, in the ordinary way of business, can carry trains with two thousand tons of freight. If we get that kind of a road, in my opinion we can transport wheat from Winnipeg to Quebec for less than twelve cents per bushel. Now, the rate to-day from Winnipeg to Port Arthur by the Canadian Pacific Railway is seven and a half cents per bushel. And, at the rate I have given as a basis of transportation between Winnipeg and the Lakes, the transportation on this line will be cheaper than the present transportation partly by water and partly by rail. 38 THE NATIONAL TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILWAY With the kind of road I am talking about, in my opinion, we can carry grain from Winnipeg to Quebec in competition with the partly water and the partly rail routes that pass to the south. And at this point I wish to impress upon the government the absolute necessity of securing the construc- tion of a road of this kind. If because of difficulties of en- gineering, if because of enhanced cost of the road, we permit ourselves to construct a road with grades of fifty or sixty feet to the mile, we shall defeat our own purpose; we cannot then compete with the other routes. But with a road of the kind I speak of, we can in all probability transport freight to Quebec successfully. And I say this in the face of the arguments I used on the twenty-sixth of May last, comparing water rates with the rates on the now existing roads from the west to the east. It is evident that the government comprehends the magni- tude of this issue; for it is an issue of great magnitude; we have not been confronted with so great a one since the Cana- dian Pacific Railway debate. The government comprehends the magnitude of this issue and has conscientiously done its best. And I may be allowed to say to my honourable friends opposite, that this is a question that momentously affects the future of this great country, with its three millions of square miles of territory, with its enormous resources and with its splendid future. We are considering the best means of sub- serving the interests of this country. This should not be a party question, but we should get down to the consideration of this problem on business principles, and make up our minds, on the basis of the evidence we have, to arrive, if we can, at a reasonable conclusion. Now, the government has had in this matter a twofold object, and it has not confined its attention to one or to the other. The first object is to provide an additional outlet for the grain of the North- West; the second is to direct the trade of the North- West to our own ports. There would have been no trouble about giving an outlet to the trade of the North-West with, perhaps, the expenditure of no money at all. 39 CANADA'S TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM We had only to allow these roads to reach Lake Superior. Perhaps we might have granted a little aid for that purpose. We t had^simply to allow the Jim Hill roads and other American roads to come in without let or hindrance, without bonus or aid, and they would have furnished the North-West with an outlet and carried its grain to Duluth, Minneapolis, and Chicago, and so over American roads to the ocean. This would have been just as good an outlet as any other, so far as the mere interest of the farmer is concerned, but it would not have served a national purpose; it would have diverted the trade from our own ports and would have been a suicidal policy. The government has avoided such a policy. The government has not counted a few millions as weighing against the fact that such a settlement of the transportation problem would have taken away from our own ports this great trade of to-day, this trade which is to be so much greater in the future. So, due weight has been given to national considerations; and when my honourable friends opposite be- little these considerations and make an effort to cast odium upon the government's policy and to show that what is claimed for this route cannot be accomplished, I do not think they are acting a patriotic part. Now, I wish to refer to the physical features of the scheme. It designs to make Quebec the great seaport of the Dominion; that is the first great physical feature of this scheme. It will reach Quebec, one of the best harbours of the Dominion, by a direct route from Winnipeg. The only drawback is that that harbour is closed for some portion of the winter. After having given Quebec a business that that port can transact during the season of open navigation, it is designed to carry that trade on during the winter to ports in the Maritime Provinces, to the port of Halifax, to the port of St. John. It proposes to give the very best conditions that are attainable for securing that object. It may be that it cannot be done, but we intend to attempt it, and to attempt it by using the best means in our power to accomplish the purpose. A first- class road from Winnipeg to Quebec and the Maritime Pro- 40 THE NATIONAL TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILWAY vinces for the purpose of securing the trade of the North- West for these ports that is the object had in view by the government, that is the purpose they intend to attempt to attain; and if our honourable friends on the opposite side wish to throw obstacles in the way of that purpose, why, I merely say that in that regard they are not patriotic. I remember, Mr. Speaker, some twenty-one years ago when the party that I belonged to at that time occupied very much the same attitude that my honourable friends opposite occupy to-day, belittling to some extent, casting aspersions upon, raising objections to, and magnifying the obstacles in the way of the construction of a transcontinental line. Well, some of our objections were well taken, but the general trend of our policy was not to our advantage. The country believed in a transcontinental line, and wanted it, and got it. We believe now that the country believes in another, and wants it, and is going to get it; and honourable gentlemen who stand in the way of the consummation of that purpose will find that they have been poor statesmen and still poorer politicians. The next physical feature of this road is the fact that it opens up a vast unsettled area in Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec. It is a colonization road for fourteen hundred miles. It passes through our hinterland, and while opening it up, goes over the best route for a direct line from Winnipeg to Quebec. This road passes through this hinterland, with a trunk branch in the proper time, running down the valley of the Nottawa River I presume some of my hearers have never heard of the Nottawa River, a stream about the size of the Ottawa, with what is supposed to be an extensive and fertile valley. This branch will go to a harbour upon James Bay, and will open up a vast section of country that will be tributary to this road. That is another physical feature. This road, through its connection with the extension of the Temiskaming road be- ing built by the Ontario government, will provide access to Ontario centres for all the country tributary to this Grand Trunk Pacific line. But this Temiskaming road will not serve as a line to divert traffic to other ports than the port of Quebec. 41 CANADA'S TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM The new transcontinental road will run, from Winnipeg west, largely through a new country, a vast unsettled region, a region supposed to contain the richest and most productive land in the North- West. It will open up a region from north of the Saskatchewan to Dunvegan on the Peace River, and thence up the Peace River valley and through the Peace River Pass to Port Simpson on the Pacific Ocean. The road will cross the Rockies by easy grades. The summit of the Peace River Pass has an altitude about eighteen hundred feet above the sea. The construction of the mountain section, as that portion between the western side of the level country and the Pacific Ocean is termed, will be found to be much less expen- sive and much less difficult, probably, than is now anticipated. The port that is to be its western terminus will be much nearer to Asiatic ports in north China and Japan than any other port on the Pacific Ocean. While the length of the road is somewhat greater than one running to Vancouver, the dis- tance by the ocean to the ports named is very much less, and so this route will have important advantages in the overland and oriental trade over any other line. It will reach Quebec by easy grades, by a direct line, and in this respect will be superior to any other possible route from the West to that city. It will open up the great clay belt of this northern region that is supposed to contain sixteen million acres of arable land now lying unoccupied, not possible of being occupied, because it has no .means of communication with the outer world. It will open up that clay belt, and it will open up all the agricultural, timber and mining resources of that great stretch of country, fourteen hundred miles in length, from Quebec to Winnipeg. Now, with regard to the route of this road, there were two propositions. The one proposition was to carry the road north of Lake Winnipeg. That was the route that would have been adopted by the Trans-Canada line. A good friend of mine in this House, whom I very highly esteem, thought that this line ought to have been adopted because it was five hun- dred miles shorter than the other. Well, if there had been 42 THE NATIONAL TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILWAY that difference in the distance it would have been a strong argument in favour of adopting that route. To find the distances but of course they are only approxi- mate I have calculated them by the map. I converted the geographical miles into statute miles, and made some allow- ance for deviation from the direct line in estimating the length, and the distances I obtained are as follows: BY THE WINNIPEG ROUTE: From Quebec to Winnipeg 1,380 miles. Winnipeg to Port Simpson 1,650 TOTAL 3,030 " BY THE NELSON ROUTE: From Quebec to Nelson River 1,466 " " Nelson River to Port Simpson 1,490 " TOTAL 2,956 The difference of distance in favour of the northern route, north of Lake Winnipeg, is less than seventy-five miles. Now, I was surprised at this result myself. The two lines at their furthest points of divergence are three and a half degrees apart. But when you come to lay out, as I did, a sketch to ascertain the difference between the length of the hypothenuse of a triangle as compared with the length of the base and the per- pendicular combined, it is less than one would naturally sup- pose. For instance, you lay out a line with a perpendicular of four hundred miles and a base of eight hundred miles, and the hypothenuse is but a trifle more than one-fourth more than the length of the perpendicular line. So that showed this calculation was substantially correct. Now, there is a reason why the Winnipeg route is prefer- able to the other. If there had been no such reason, the government would naturally have chosen the shorter line, even though the advantage to be gained was only seventy-five miles. But the Nelson route has less agricultural land upon it than the other. The distance is greater from Quebec to the river Nelson than it is from Quebec to Winnipeg, by about seventy miles. Then the unproductive country extends from 43 CANADA'S TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM the Nelson River west a long distance; while from Winnipeg, the productive country extends at least to the Peace River Pass. That is a sufficient reason for putting the road upon that line. Another reason is that at Quebec the road touches a point where all the business of the North- West converges, a great entrepot for the vast country west and north-west of it. It is so to-day, it will probably continue to be so, and a road reaching that point is in a position to compete for the business furnished by all these roads ramifying the North- West in every direction, while if it had gone by the Nelson route it would have reached none of them, and could have competed for none of this business. For these reasons the choice of line by way of Winnipeg was a judicious one. I wish next to call attention to the -business prospects of this proposed road. We have dealt with the necessity from a national standpoint of having a great transcontinental road upon our own soil, and it has been asserted by the hon- ourable ex-Minister of Railways and Canals (Hon. Mr. Blair) and by others, that, leaving out this view of the case, this road has nothing to commend it to us from a commercial stand- point. Well, sir, what are the business prospects of this road? First, it will furnish an outlet to the North Saskatchewan val- ley, an enormous extent of country and a fertile and rich region of the Canadian North- West. It will furnish an outlet to the Athabaska River and Peace River valleys. These regions are to be peopled in the near future by millions of people; they are to be the heart of the productive region of the Canadian North- West, they are to furnish an untold amount of business business that one line will be incapable of carrying. As the honourable ex-Minister of Railways and Canals very properly said at Vancouver, the building of a road through this new and wilderness country is an act of statesmanship, of good policy. When this road has been built to Fort Dunvegan on the Peace River, the natural corollary is to extend the line from that point to Dawson City, in the Yukon. The line would be per- haps a thousand miles long. I have not measured the exact 44 THE NATIONAL TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILWAY distance; it may be something less than that. It would cross the Hay River, it would follow the Liard River and traverse the fertile country watered by those streams. Not three hundred miles of the length of that road to Dawson would pass through a country incapable of settlement and cultiva- tion. This road to Dawson would do away with this question of the bonding privilege from Skagway over the White Pass, and the trouble about the Alaskan boundary, so far as reach- ing the Yukon from the Pacific is concerned, for it would afford a direct route through the heart of that region, and would give us its entire trade. The road will open up, in addition to the regions I have named, Northern British Columbia. Recent discoveries have been made upon the Skeena River of enormous deposits of coal, of hundreds of millions of tons of coal of superior quality. We are just scratching the surface of the country, we are just learning about its enormous resources. It is a country rich in coal, in iron, in precious metals awaiting development. The road will build up a great city at Port Simpson, a city that will command an enormous trade with the Orient, a city that will command, when the Panama canal is completed, an enormous grain trade with Europe. Grain from the Peace River valley can then be taken to Port Simpson by this road and shipped to Liverpool at rates that will set at rest the transportation ques- tion for that rich country. It will afford an outlet for the grain trade and for the flour trade which is sure to be developed in that great western country with China and Japan. This road will have a great lumber trade. That will be another item in its business prospects. It will have a lumber trade from the forests of British Columbia to the prairies of the West. It will have a lumber trade from the forests of the hinterland of Ontario and Quebec, which will be traversed for a length of 1,300 miles by this road. Wherever the road crosses a stream every tree standing upon that stream above the line of the railway will be tributary to the railway, and lumber from this section of the country can be trans- ported to the prairies as cheaply as lumber is now transported 45 CANADA'S TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM from Vancouver, where there are two mountain ranges to climb, offering grades of from one hundred and twenty to two hundred feet to the mile. This road, when it is com- pleted, will be called upon, in all human probability, to handle one hundred million bushels of grain annually by its line west of Winnipeg. As I have said, it will be the exclusive outlet of the clay belt. By its branch down the Nottawa River, with a good harbour on James Bay it will command the business of that great mare clausum of Canada, Hudson Bay, thousands of square miles larger than the German Ocean, a sea with untold re- sources in fish, with enormous resources in minerals upon its shores, and near whose shores Philadelphia companies have been locating iron mines for the last two years. While on that subject, I would counsel the honourable Minister of the Interior (Hon. Mr. Sifton) to look closely into this question and see that these people do not obtain enormously valuable properties at a mere fraction of their value. It will bring back to Quebec and I am sure this will interest you, Mr. Speaker, (Hon. L. P. Brodeur) its palmy days. Once that was the seat of an empire in embryo. Its adven- turous explorers reached the far West, planted fortifications and military and trading posts, in the rear of the English colonists, at Fort Duquesne, near Pittsburg, at Fort Kaskaskia, opposite St. Louis, at Mackinaw and various other points in the country, and projected an empire that was to be tributary to France; but by the struggle on the Plains of Abraham that dream of empire was shattered. But, with this road, Quebec will reach out to the future again; Quebec will reach out to the commerce of this vast region with its untold resources, and it will command that trade and become a queenly city. This project will practically straighten the Intercolonial Railway a necessary step to be taken if we are to furnish our maritime ports in the winter with grain for cargoes. Vast expenditures have been undertaken by all the principal Ameri- can lines in betterment of their roads, in reduction of grades, in improvement of alignment, in laying with heavier rails, 46 THE NATIONAL TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILWAY and in giving better equipment. These vast expenditures were absolutely necessary. The roads could not perform the functions for which they were designed without these expen- ditures. If one road made these expenditures every rival road had to follow; and the result is that the capacity of these roads has been quadrupled by the expenditure of money made in the way I have mentioned. The same necessity rests upon us in regard to the Intercolonial Railway. That road was built upon a wrong route, and it is not first-class in the matter of its grades. The straightening of the road, and the improve- ment of its grades will vastly increase its efficiency and will render it possible to give to the maritime ports a trade which, without this improvement of the line, could not be secured. If we seek to divert trade to the Maritime Provinces we must have the best tools, the best appliances. We cannot do it with an antiquated system and with an inferior and second- class road. This road will develop an extensive and valuable section of the country in Quebec and New Brunswick. Another consideration, and a consideration of no mean importance, is, that it will remove the dread of the abrogation of the bonding privilege. The ex-Minister of Railways and Canals (Hon. Mr. Blair) scouted the idea that there was any danger of such a thing. He told us: "The Americans will never dream of adopting a course that would result to their own disadvantage; will never think of depriving themselves of the trade that now flows to their own seaports." Well, sir, I do not know. The Americans have threatened to do this. Their President had power placed in his hands a few years ago to do it by his own proclamation without reference to Congress, without being governed by anything except his own supreme will in the matter. It is a dangerous position for us to be in. We have had friction in our relations with the United States. Those relations are pleasant and agreeable now. The Americans say it is because they treat Canada as a " spoiled child." I think we can stand all the spoiling from any generosity that has been shown us by them for thirty-five years past. But the day may come, sir, when friction may 47 CANADA'S TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM exist again. Our trade relations have got to be readjusted; we must have from the United States fairer trade conditions or we must apply to the United States the treatment that they apply to us. If we get fairer trade conditions it is all right, and there will be very little danger of the abrogation of the bonding privilege; if we enter on the other line of policy, I would not guarantee that there would not be friction, I would not guarantee that there would not be talk of abrogating what the Americans call a privilege, and I would not be surprised if it were abrogated. And in any event, self-respect, care for our own interests, respect for our standing as a country, im- peratively demand that if we can place ourselves in a position where such a calamity cannot be visited on our heads, it is our duty to do so; and the construction of the Grand Trunk Pacific line will do it. I wish now, Mr. Speaker, to enter upon a consideration of the financial basis of this scheme. We have government construction from Moncton to Winnipeg. From Moncton to Chaudire Junction, according to the best data that can be obtained, would be a distance by the new line of 378 miles, and by the present line it is 488 miles. The saving in the distance would be 110 miles. Estimates have been made of a saving of distance of from 120 to 140 miles, and I take this estimate of 110 miles saving, as being a moderate and reasonable one. Then we have from Chaudi&re to Winnipeg a distance by air-line of 1,380 miles. I add to the air-line distance, for deviations slight deviations going north of Lake Nepigon and so forth an increase of four per cent., which I believe is sufficient; and this would make the line from Quebec to Winnipeg 1,435 miles, and the line from Moncton to Winnipeg, 1,823 miles. Now, these are approx- imate estimates. I arrive at them by careful measurement of the map, by ascertaining the number of geographical miles, by turning these into statute miles, by taking 69 miles and 900 feet and making that the width of each degree instead of 60 geographical miles. Now, the cost of this 1,823 miles and we must bear in 48 THE NATIONAL TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILWAY mind that this cost does not include the equipment I esti- mate the cost of these 1,823 miles at $30,000 a mile. I think that estimate is not too high; I presume it is not too high for that section of the road from Moncton to Chaudi&re Junction, but I believe it is too high for the stretch of road through that level country most of the way from Quebec to Winnipeg. But we will allow $30,000 a mile as the cost of a road 1,823 miles in length, or a total of $54,690,000. Then we guarantee the mountain section, and we are to pay interest upon that as well as upon the line from Moncton to Winnipeg. We guarantee the mountain section for not more than $30,000 per mile; the guarantee to be three-fourths of the cost of the line. That I believe is too high. I do not be- lieve the line will cost $40,000 a mile through the Peace River Pass and from that point to Port Simpson. I estimate the length of that mountain section at 450 miles. This would be a guarantee of $13,500,000. The total cost of the road, and guarantee of the mountain section which rests upon the same basis as the cost of the road so far as the payment of interest for seven years is concerned, would amount to $68,- 190,000. If we pay upon that sum three per cent, interest for seven years that would amount to $14,319,900. Now, I have no doubt that the calculation of $13,000,000 by my right honourable friend the Premier is much nearer correct. I be- lieve I have allowed sums in excess of what would be the actual cost of the mountain section and the actual cost of that stretch of 1,435 miles from Quebec to Winnipeg. But on the basis of this estimate we shall pay $14,319,900. This will be equivalent to a bonus. Now, it was represented by the ex-Minister of Railways and Canals, and no doubt it will be represented again, that the total cost of the eastern section represents an actural increase of our debt, that the burden that the country assumes is measured by this amount, and that that burden is $68,190,000. It is nothing of the kind. After the payment of $14,319,900 we lease this road to a responsible company, under guarantees and conditions highly advantageous to ourselves, and with a 49 CANADA'S TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM reversion of title and ownership in fifty years. We lease this road upon conditions that pay the interest on this sum year after year; and we hold ample security for it. We hold the rolling stock, we hold on the western division their own invest- ments in the road in addition to our guarantee. To assert that this whole amount is an addition to our debt, an increase of the burdens that rest upon the country, is absurd. It is not honest; it is not a truthful presentation of the case. Now, with regard to the western division from Winnipeg to Port Simpson, I estimate an increase in length over an air-line of five per cent. Perhaps that is somewhat too little, but the difference cannot be great enough to seriously affect the cal- culation. This will make the line in statute miles 1,733 miles. The government guarantees the mountain section. I assume that that mountain section will not exceed 450 miles in length I do not believe that road will cost $40,000 a mile, judging by the character of the country, but the guarantee at $30,000 a mile amounts to $13,500,000. Then there will remain 1,283 miles upon which the guarantee will be $13,000 a mile. The ex-Minister of Railways and Canals assumed that the road would cost the sum that this guarantee represents only. It is estimated that the prairie section will cost be- tween $17,000 and $18,000 a mile, and the government guarantee upon that will be $13,000 a mile. The mountain section will cost $40,000 per mile, and the government guarantee on that portion will be $30,000 per mile. This amounts to a guarantee of $13,500,000 for the mountain sec- tion and $16,679,000 for the prairie section, a total of $30,- 179,000 of government guarantee applied to the entire portion of the line from Winnipeg to Port Simpson. If this estimate of cost is correct, the company's expenditure on this portion of the road will be $10,059,000, in addition to which they have to put on it $15,000,000 worth of rolling stock. So that the expenditure by the Grand Trunk Pacific of one- fourth the cost, and $15,000,000 on rolling stock, in addi- tion to the guarantee by the government, will represent a 50 THE NATIONAL TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILWAY value of $55,238,000 which we will hold as absolute security for our guarantee of $30,179,000. Is there anything reck- less or prodigal or unbusinesslike in this arrangement? Why, the more I consider this agreement, the more I analyze its conditions, the better satisfied I am with the bargain. I would suggest that my honourable friends opposite also make a careful study of it, and see if that will not bring them to the same conclusion. Now, Mr. Speaker, this is a bargain that could have been made with any prospect of its being carried out with no other company in Canada than the one with which it has been made. No private company could take this agreement just as it stands to-day and finance the undertaking. No private company could raise on its second mortgage bonds the balance of the cost of the prairie section, over the amount guaranteed by the government. No private company could provide this road with $20,000,000 of rolling stock (which includes $5,000,000 from Winnipeg east). It was the credit of the Grand Trunk Company, standing behind the Grand Trunk Pacific, which consummated this bargain. We have the entire strength, resources and character of the Grand Trunk Company of Canada behind the Grand Trunk Pacific; the two are united a fortunate concurrence of cir- cumstances, a rare opportunity which the government has had the wisdom to seize upon; and by seizing upon it they have secured the construction of a transcontinental line upon terms that are surprisingly favourable. As I said before, the road reverts to the government at the expiration of fifty years. What will it probably be worth then? How many people will be in Canada fifty years from now? What amount of business will be done by this road then? There is a very carefully drawn provision here with regard to betterments and the keeping of the road up to a certain standard. The government has a right to compel this company to keep the road up to the highest standard that exists at any time. If improvements are made in railways, this road must be made to correspond 51 CANADA'S TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM with the character of the improved lines. The keeping up of the road is an absolute condition of the contract. When this road reverts to the government at the expiration of fifty years, is it an extravagant calculation to suppose it will be worth twice its original cost? There is something marvellous about the increased value of railroads. Take the New York Central. It fell into the hands of Cornelius Vanderbilt about the year 1860. That road's stock was watered, and watered, and watered again, until every dollar of that stock to-day represents a cost of only twenty-five cents; and yet this great volume of watered stock goes on paying dividends of six per cent, per annum, due simply to increased value from increase of business. The same con- ditions will apply to this road. I think it is a very moderate calculation to suppose that this road, at the time it reverts to the government, will be worth twice its original cost. The agreement provides that if the government does not then choose to assume the road and run it itself, the Grand Trunk Pacific Company shall have the right to lease it if it offers as good conditions as the government can secure else- where. Well, do you suppose that that road will be leased a second time at three per cent, on its original cost a road that will be worth twice what it cost? Is it unreasonable to sup- pose that the road will then become a great source of revenue to the government? It is a moderate calculation to suppose that while the government will continue to carry its bonds at three per cent., the company on the second lease will pay at least six per cent, on the original cost. I do not know but that is a better arrangement than to rush into a scheme of government construction of railroads. At all events, it is an arrangement which will certainly enable the government to establish an efficient railroad from ocean to ocean, and leave that road under the absolute control of the government in every essential respect. Now, I wish to refer to the management and practical basis of this scheme. The Canadian Pacific Railway dis- tance from Montreal to Winnipeg is 1,424 miles. The 52 THE NATIONAL TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILWAY length of the Grand Trunk Pacific from Quebec to Win- nipeg, if my calculations are correct, will be 1,435 miles, eleven miles longer from Quebec to Winnipeg than the distance on the Canadian Pacific Railway from Montreal to Winnipeg; and I doubt if, when the surveys are made, the difference will be as much in favour of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The length of the entire road is considerably greater than that of the Canadian Pacific Railway, but that increased length is all, except eleven miles of it, west of Winnipeg, and it is a consideration that does not matter much, for every mile of it is developing a rich country, which will afford business to the line. The government retains running powers on the road, or the right to give running powers over the entire line. The eastern division, from Winnipeg, is made a great artery as an outlet from the West, connecting with every road which comes from the West into Winnipeg; and, if it carries grain as cheaply to Quebec as gram can be carried to Boston or Portland, it will divert to Quebec and our maritime ports all the traffic they can possibly handle. Was there any wis- dom hi the government retaining this right, and making these provisions for joint use and joint running powers? Certainly there was, and the question is, can this right be secured on reasonable terms for other companies? I an- swer, beyond question it can. The criticisms made by my honourable friend the ex- Minister of Railways and Canals with regard to this matter betrayed an utter ignorance on his part of the conditions surrounding this question. The gauges of the roads in the United States have been made uniform for the purpose of exchange of freight and to avoid the breaking of bulk when one road connects with another. No bulk is broken now. Cars go from where they were billed to their destination over one or two of a dozen roads, and arrangements are made for the division of freight on the basis of mileage. I pass over a road almost every week which is used by two lines for a distance of 229 miles. There is one division 53 CANADA'S TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM from St. Thomas to Detroit 110 miles, and another division from St. Thomas to Buffalo 119 miles long. Each of the lines which uses this road has its own round houses, its own appliances, its own engines, and runs its own trains, and there is no friction between them. Their system of train despatching is arranged in the easiest manner. Passenger trains take precedence over freight trains, and stock freight takes precedence over ordinary freight. The whole business is conducted with the utmost system and works with the most perfect regularity and without friction. If you can run a road where there are two divisions, you can run a road where there are three or four or a dozen divisions. The same system applies to many as it does to a few. The run- ning of pullman cars and passenger cars is reduced to a system on all roads. A pullman starts from New York or Boston and goes to San Francisco, and it makes no difference whether it goes over two roads or half a dozen. The system is per- fectly adjusted to the satisfaction of all the roads, and every- thing goes on smoothly. The same system can be introduced here, and it is absurd to say that it cannot. We have this further assurance in our own case, that while in the United States all these matters are subject to mutual arrangement, so that any road may defeat the working of the system by being too grasping or exacting, here we shall have an umpire, the government itself, which can compel the faithful and equitable carrying out of the provision laid down in section twenty-four. This company, as an assurance of good faith, deposits the sum of $5,000,000 with the government, and that money is to remain in the hands of the government until the company has fulfilled its obligations. But if the company is within $3,000,000 or $4,000,000 of the completion of the work, then the government may allow the company to use the $5,000,000 deposit to complete the work. But the government holds this $5,000,000 in hard cash or convertible securities in addition to all these other conditions. The government controls the rates on this road and it has the right 54 THE NATIONAL TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILWAY to audit the accounts at any time. At any time it may send its accountant to see whether the accounts of the company are properly kept, whether there is any stuffing of accounts and pay-rolls. It can ascertain exactly what the road is doing, what its earnings are, what its dividends should be, and whether its rates can be reduced without injustice to the company. Contrast that with the Canadian Pacific Railway, which we cannot interfere with at all until its dividends are ten per cent. Then this company is liable to taxation; the Canadian Pacific Railway is not. This com- pany has neither land grants nor cash subsidy, unless you can call the seven years' interest on the guarantee on the cost of the mountain section a suosidy. Contrast this with the first proposal of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway itself. That company came down to the government with a proposition to build a line from North Bay. It wanted a subsidy of $6,400, and 5,000 acres of land, a mile, equivalent in value to at least $15,000. Contrast the present bargain with that demand. I believe that the government has pressed the Grand Trunk Railway to the last point. I believe Mr. Hays was ready to throw up the sponge, if one single concession further had been demanded. I am, I think, hi a position to know that the government got the very last concession possible from the managers of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway; and that it has got a good bargain the future will prove, whether it be admitted now or not. I give great credit to the government for having refused to give a land grant and greater credit for having made that its uniform policy. The government deserves well of the country, to a greater degree, perhaps, in this respect than in any other. Contrast this with the policy of the late government. That government made land grants to rail- ways to the amount of 57,087,000 acres an empire thrown away recklessly. It gave away our lands as freely as you would stones from a brook, and of this amount of 57,087,- 000 acres, 29,986,000 have been earned and have passed out 55 CANADA'S TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM of the hands of the country. Our honourable friends oppo site are welcome to all the credit they can extract from that policy. It has been a most wasteful one and I trust that the Liberal government will add to the brilliancy of its record in this respect by continuing to enforce the old principle, which we advocated when we were in opposition, of the land for the settler and the settler for the land. With regard to the question of subsidies, I do not know that I would take the position taken by many persons in Ontario. Subsidies, reasonably granted, are a proper thing. Railroads may be subsidized and their construction secured that could not otherwise be had, railroads that would be of great benefit to the country. And here again, in regard to their system of subsidizing railroads, the government has adopted a principle which redounds greatly to its credit. It has adopted the principle that a railroad which is subsidized must carry the mails free, and, I believe, they must provide a mail car and a mail clerk the Postmaster- General will correct me if I am wrong they must carry military forces free, in fact, they must perform all govern- ment services free to the extent of three per cent, interest upon the amount of subsidy granted. Under these condi- tions, and with these provisions, I believe that subsidies granted within the limit of reason, granted to meritorious enterprises, and hi moderate amount, may be reasonably granted, notwithstanding the outcry that has been raised. MR. MONK Are there any of these conditions in this con- tract? MR. CHARLTON I was speaking of the conditions upon which railroads are subsidized by this government. There is no subsidy in this contract. Now, sir, I desire to refer to some of the wise provisions in the public interest con- tained in this agreement. Great care has been taken hi this respect. We have not a Minister of Railways and Canals with carte blanche in the construction of a transcontinental line. This would be a very pleasant position, no doubt, for a public official to occupy. But in the construction of 56 THE NATIONAL TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILWAY the eastern section, we have a joint supervision provided for on the part of the company and the government. The company is interested in having the road constructed as cheaply as possible, as it has to pay three per cent, interest on the cost. It has joint supervision with the government hi the letting of contracts and the construction of the line. This provision will secure perhaps such a provision would be unnecessary with a government like this economy of construction to the utmost attainable extent. Then, we have a provision in the public interest that the standard of the road west of Winnipeg shall be equal to the standard of the Grand Trunk between Toronto and Montreal. If this provision in the contract is complied with and the Grand Trunk builds a road in the West that shall not be inferior to the Grand Trunk between Montreal and Toronto, it will build a road thirty or forty per cent, better than any road now in that western country. Compare these conditions with those that were imposed on the Canadian Pacific Rail- way when it was built. That company was under obligation to build a road equal to the standard of the Union Pacific when it was first constructed a road whose rails were laid on cottonwood ties two feet apart, ballasted with frozen dirt in the winter, and with grades as high as ninety, or even one hundred feet to the mile. There are other important conditions in this contract. We have a provision in section sixteen that the government may improve the eastern section. So, if this road is not kept in a condition to answer the pur- poses of the government, in a condition to secure the trade for the maritime ports and Quebec, the government may step in and put the road in condition necessary for this pur- pose, and the cost is capitalized at the cost of the company. The government is adopting provisions with regard to the eastern section that insure against the deterioration of the line, and that insure its maintenance at the same standard of efficiency as the rest of the road. Then there is the provision with regard to the hauling rights, made in the interest of the shipper of the West and of 57 CANADA'S TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM the whole country, that will be vastly beneficial to the trans- portation interest of Canada. The government has a mort- gage that covers the road-bed and the rolling stock and is ample security for all its advances by way of guarantee. Then there is a clause providing for the purchase of Canadian material. My honourable friends on the other side may say that this does not amount to anything, because the company is not obliged to purchase Canadian materials, unless it can get them as advantageously as other materials. But I think this clause secures to us an important advantage. The time will come, and come very soon, unless we get advanta- geous trade conditions from the United States, when we shall have duties high enough to assure the purchase of mater- ials in Canada; and this condition that the company shall purchase its materials in Canada will prove a great boon to the manufacturing interests of this country. The right of the government to control rates is a condition of the first importance. I have already referred to that. There is a provision for continuous and efficient operation of the road, and that condition is secured by a clause in the agreement which says that when the lease is drawn the government shall have plenary powers of imposing penalties in the event of this condition not being complied with. This agreement provides that the rates on export trade shall be no greater to Canadian ports than to American ports. The road must absolutely place Canadian seaports on the same basis with regard to advantage as it places other sea- ports. It has been said that the company could evade this provision by sending its agents to the West to secure freight routed to American ports. If it did this it would violate clause forty-three, which provides that there shall be no discrimination on the part of the railway company in favour of American routes. Then there is a condition that the company shall provide ample shipping accommodation at Port Simpson, Quebec, Halifax, St. John or any other ocean port that its business reaches. 58 THE NATIONAL TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILWAY The attempt was made last night to convey the impression that of the $45,000,000 of stock which this company is to issue, $25,000,000 was to be treated in some way so that the manipulators of this contract could put it in their own pockets confiscate it. Why, the $20,000,000 of preferred stock is to secure $20,000,000 of rolling stock for the road. That is the purpose to which it will be devoted. The $25,000,000 of common stock is to be laid aside and put upon the market for the purpose of constructing the elevators and other shipping facilities at the end of the route^' that the government stipulates it shall furnish, and, for other such purposes. So that we have in this contract ample security for all the stipulations that it contains. Now, to sum up the matter: Under this arrangement we are about to secure a transcontinental line. We have granted no land for it. We pay interest for seven years on the cost of the eastern section, and upon the guaran- teed portion of the mountain section not exceeding $14,- 500,000. And, at the expiration of fifty years, when the value of this property will be greatly enhanced, it comes back into our possession. That, broadly speaking, is the outline of this arrangement. I wish to contrast this bar- gain with the first bargain for a transcontinental road made in this country. I think there will be food for reflection in this contrast; and while doing this, I wish distinctly to dis- claim that I have any reflections to make upon the manage- ment of the Canadian Pacific Railway. I admire the cour- age, the grasp, the energy, the push that characterized that movement from the outset. I criticize, not the Canadian Pacific Railway syndicate, but the government of that day. In 1886 I had a letter from the present Lord Mount- Stephen, thanking me for a speech I made in that year at- tacking the policy of the government and showing what vast franchises the Canadian Pacific Railway Company had ob- tained, what an enormous bargain they had from the govern- ment. This letter complimented me for having tried to act justly, and I was informed that my speech had been used 59 CANADA'S TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM efficiently in promoting the credit of the company. So I say now, that while I point out the recklessness of the government of that day, I utterly disclaim any intention of casting reflections upon the management of the Canadian Pacific Railway. When the contract was made with the syndicate in 1881, it provided for the construction of a line from Callander to Port Moody. Of that line, certain portions were to be built by the government the Lake Superior section from Lake Superior to Selkirk, 405 miles in length; the western section from Port Moody to Kamloops, up through the canyons of the Thompson and the Fraser, 238 miles in length, a total of 643 miles that the government was to build and hand over free of cost or charge to the syndicate. The balance of the road was to be built by the syndicate. It was 1,906 miles long. Now, whatever subsidies, whatever grants of land, whatever gifts of completed railway the syndicate received were applicable to the construction of that 1,906 miles of road only. Let us see what they got. They got a cash bonus of $25,000,000; they got the 643 miles of completed road which cost, with the surveys, in round numbers, $35,000,000; they got 25,000,000 acres of land, worth at the least calculation $3 an acre, or $75,- 000,000. Their cash subsidy therefore for the 1,906 miles of road amounted to $13,100 a mile; their subsidy from the gift from the government of 643 miles, which had cost $35,000,000, amounted to $18,300 a mile; their subsidy from the 25,000,000 acres of land, worth $75,000,000 as the outcome proves, amounted to $38,300 a mile. So the syn- dicate for the construction of 1,906 miles, the portion that was constructed by it between Callander and Port Moody, received in cash, in road completed, and in lands esti- mated to be worth three dollars an acre, a total subsidy of $69,700 a mile. Now, I hope my honourable friends on the opposite side will make a note of that. That was a pretty reasonable subsidy $13,100 a mile in cash, $18,500 a mile in the value of the road the government built for them, and 60 THE NATIONAL TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILWAY handed over, and $38,300 a mile in land at three dollars an acre. It may be argued in regard to the land grant that its value was created by the construction of the road, and that we are not entitled to count this as being in the shape of a bonus in regard to the aids rendered to this line. Leaving that question aside, I may say, in this connection at least, that we grant no land bonus to the present scheme and that the increase in the value of the land consequent upon the construction of the road will be ensured to ourselves as a country and not to a railway corporation. I shall now enter into other conditions of contrast be- tween these two schemes as relates to the government's position in the respective cases, and the first one I will refer to, sir, will be the exemption of the Canadian Pacific Rail- way from taxation. That exemption is contained in section sixteen