There was another costly factor of immense importance which did not enter into the “national” administration of the United States railways. Thirty-five per cent. of all our mileage had been taken over from the contractors during the war. Anybody who has noticed what happens when a gas or water main is disturbed in a street, knows that though the filled earth, when the job is done, is a hump in the road, it becomes a hole as the earth settles. Every motorist has mourned when he hasn’t objurgated, as he comes again, again and again to a piece of new provincial highway where the concrete has not been put down, because the “fill” must have time to settle. Thirty-five per cent. of the National Railway mileage was, to a considerable extent, like the roadway of the disturbed water main, or the disturbed motorist. Besides these factors new roundhouses, section men’s residences, water facilities and many terminal plants had to be provided or improved. In so general a sketch as this it is impossible to distinguish between expenditures on capital and maintenance accounts. We were compelled to go to Parliament for large sums for ordinary as well as for deferred maintenance, in addition to what was imperative for new equipment, terminals and completion of branch line construction. In the public apprehension of somewhat complex financial relationships, the uppermost idea no doubt was that the Canadian National Railways were losing millions, hand over fist, on the mere running of trains, and that the money voted by Parliament was swallowed up in hopelessly irrecoverable deficits. The report for 1921 gives the distribution of the total net cash advances to the Canadian Northern:-- Refunding of loans, including principal of equipment securities $ 32,306,952.49 New Construction 29,804,673.62 Betterments 21,962,955.31 Railway Equipment 42,339,483.81 Rails, accessories and other material 19,212,656.94 Capital contracts payable 1,973,820.00 Fixed charges and operating deficits 103,487,706.71 --------------- Total $251,088,248.88 ---------------