What a deal of strenuous argument would have sufficed to coax James J. Hill, wizard of finance and foresight, from his art, enriched castle, St. Paul, to the farm near the village of Rockford, Ontario, where in boyhood, he followed the lowing herd and foraged for squirrels. Occasionally he sought denizens of the deep along the St. Lawrence or Labrador Coast, and he reached into fields and factories of the Dominion for tonnage, but the wealth and power he possessed and wielded so astutely behind the scenes for Great Northern Railway, et al, were not stumbled on with energies relaxed. His mature opinion regarding economic conditions and conservation of the country’s natural resources, was the outgrowth of years of watchfulness and a peculiar bent for accuracy in conclusion builded primarily on a heritage of worthy foundations. Like those homespun idols of the people, Presidents Grant, Garfield and McKinley, he lived close to the soil absorbing bodily vigor and clarity of judgment amid homely surroundings. Biographies of such outstanding characters as Jim Hill make inspiring reading. If this generation’s youthful male population cultivate childhood’s imitative proclivities they could, with profit, emulate the perseverance of another young man from the same neighborhood. Foremost amongst those whose life work in the drama of ever changing railway activities has introduced them to a theatre for energetic effort in the sunny south, must be listed the name of W. B. Scott, President at New Orleans of the Texas Lines of the great Southern Pacific System. Guelph, Canada, with streets named to commemorate many Scottish cities, proudly boasts that he is her son. His success is the concrete result of hard work along given lines, and his journey from the duties of messenger boy in the freight shed of G.W.R.--G.T.R., via the route of C.P.R., Winnipeg, “Union Pacific” Omaha, Santa Fe at Chillecothe, &c., &c., to power and wealth is a fascinating study for younger railway men. He had been Director of Maintenance of Way & Operation for S.P.R. at Chicago, and his present most important position, helping to determine the policy of the vast network which annually transports hundreds of thousands of the world’s pleasure and health seekers, will give you an idea of the calibre of the man. He is modest to a degree, never reads what is printed about himself, is thoroughly inured by long experience, to the “hardships” of a private car and was well known by the late E. H. Harriman.