These things indicate how eagerly Mr. Van Horne was trying to get the country settled, and generally to build up within its borders, prosperous and successful communities. There is a theory in the minds of some kinds of people that a railway like this has been always bleeding the country to death. Hardly any theory could be more assinine and ridiculous. It could only spring from the alleged brains of the unthinking, even though it passes muster as a piece of stump or soap-box oratory. It may sound well as a vote-catcher, but thinking people will not be deceived by such a manifest contradiction in terms. The country and the railway, in such a case as this, must stand or fall together. Each is necessary to the prosperity of the other. Hence for one to attempt the destruction of the other is practically a round-about, but effective, way for that one to commit suicide. And a business concern has sense enough not to commit suicide. In this connection there is a fine paragraph in a sort of valedictory review of the history of the Canadian Pacific Railway, given in 1918 by Lord Shaughnessy, then President of the Company and Chairman of the Board. It is quoted here in advance of the chronological order of our story, because it is specially applicable to the point we are discussing, namely, the interdependence of the country, and the road. The paragraph is as follows: “The shareholders and Directors of the Company have always been impressed with the idea that the interests of the Company are intimately connected with those of the Dominion, and no effort or expense has been spared to help in promoting the development of the whole country.” This statement was intended to cover the whole record of the railway, and Lord Shaughnessy had such an outstanding reputation for stern rectitude and straight-flung veracity that we are fully warranted in taking it at its face value. Hence when we recorded above the efforts of Mr. Van Horne to extend and create the business of the road in the years immediately succeeding the completion of the main line, we were justified in saying that Mr. Van Horne’s endeavours in that regard were in the interests of both the railway and the country. The Canadian Pacific was from its inception an integral factor in creating and extending the social and productive activities of Western civilization.