The romance of the Canadian Pacific RailwayMacBeth, R. G. (Roderick George)
History
The romance of the Canadian Pacific Railway
MacBeth, R. G. (Roderick George)
Canadian Pacific Railway Company
It goes without saying that all the Presidents were aided and advised by
an exceedingly able staff of wise and experienced men. Where there is
such a host, it is manifestly impossible to even mention many without
seeming “to make invidious distinctions,” as a student once answered
when he declined to name the major and the minor prophets on an
examination paper. But, in addition to those whose names appear
elsewhere in these chapters, a high place amongst the early men who
helped to really build up the Canadian Pacific is given by general
consent to David McNicoll. Once when a friend in Ontario referred to him
as “Dave” he followed it up by saying that they went to school together
in Arbroath, Scotland, and that “Dave” always had great ability. After
some experience on a railway in the Old Land, McNicoll joined the
Canadian Pacific in 1883, when times were hard. He rose steadily to be a
Vice-President and General Manager. He was an encyclopedia on all
matters pertaining to the road, studied maps till the whole country was
an open book to him, and he became known as an incessant worker with all
the grim determination and reliance of his race. He met difficult
situations without flinching, and was a tower of strength to the road
till he practically broke his health through excessive toil. His work is
commemorated by Port McNicoll, as Mr. R. B. Angus and Mr. I. G. Ogden
are commemorated in the great shops bearing their names.
[Illustration:
_The late_ DAVID McNICOLL
_Vice President
and
General Manager_
_The late_ R. B. Angus
_Former Officers_]
Then we have such men as Vice-Presidents W. R. McInnes, with the Company
since 1885; George M. Bosworth, head of the Pacific Ocean services;
Grant Hall, with the railway since 1886, a mechanical genius; A. D.
McTier, who began clerking in the baggage department in 1887, and is now
Vice-President, a man of vision; Mr. D. C. Coleman, who started as clerk
in the engineering department at Fort William and who is now
Vice-President at Winnipeg, a man with much literary taste and a hobby
for collecting books; Charles R. Hosmer, who organized the telegraph
service at the beginning; and others whose names will emerge in the
closing chapter, with some account of a few special features in the life
of the road. One does not forget the press service embodied in Col.
George H. Ham, who has popularized the Railway in many lands, nor George
Murray Gibbon, a writer of ability, who now presides over the publicity
department at Montreal. All over the immense system I can see the faces
of men in all departments who were and are contributing to the success
and boundless efficiency of this world-wide organization. They do not
tolerate carelessness, in themselves or others, and, to an extraordinary
degree, they are imbued with the spirit of the great leaders of the
Company who sought to make the whole system a builder of Empire and a
contributing factor to the well-being of the world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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