It was in 1914 that these railroad chickens came home to Ottawa to roost, and the end of the World War found the government up to its neck in the transportation business. This did not come about by anybody’s choosing, but through the working of forces set in motion years ago. The Dominion government was first led into running railroads by its bargain with the Maritime Provinces. Out of this came government operation of the Intercolonial Railways serving the eastern provinces and joining them to the St. Lawrence basin. This system never earned any profits. The government built the National Transcontinental from Quebec to Winnipeg on the understanding that the Grand Trunk would lease it for fifty years. When it was finished, the corporation begged off, and the government was compelled to operate the line. In 1914, the owners of the Canadian Northern announced that unless they received sixty million dollars at once they would have to suspend. They got the money. Two years later it was the Grand Trunk Pacific that appealed to Ottawa for financial aid. Sustaining these railroads was such a drain on the public treasury that finally the government assumed responsibility for all their obligations and absolute control of the properties. It then began to weld them into the single system now known as the Canadian National Railways. For years the Canadian Pacific Railway has paid dividends regularly. The lines making up the Canadian National have, for the most part, never paid anything, and they were unloaded upon the government because they were regarded more as liabilities than as assets. As the largest taxpayer in Canada, the Canadian Pacific Railway Company must contribute indirectly to the support of its competitor, unless the government lines are able to earn their own way. After the war, one year’s deficit on the government lines was sixty-seven million dollars. In railroad subsidies, Canada has paid out nearly three hundred million dollars. Bonds and other railroad obligations to the total of four hundred and fifty-five millions have been guaranteed, while four hundred and seventy millions of public moneys were spent in building roads for the government. One student of Canada’s railroad policy tells me that the national treasury would now be four hundred millions to the good if the government had given the National Transcontinental, the Canadian Northern, and the Grand Trunk Pacific to some corporation, and had thrown in a cash bonus of two hundred millions besides.