Very inadequately the scope of the Board’s work, from the fall of 1918 to the fall of 1922 has been sketched--although we stepped out in October, our resignations were requested in July. The co-operative spirit was not confined to the directors, or even to the higher branches of the daily service. The esprit de corps that was developed far exceeded the expectations of those who believed that Government ownership meant general slackness. The consolidation of the staffs of the Intercolonial, the Grand Trunk Pacific and the Canadian Northern was accomplished without friction of any kind; and the loyalty of the employes all over the system was admirable. The justification of the policy laid down in 1918 is contained in the figures of earnings and expenses for the four years of our regime--it is fair to include the whole of 1922 in this survey, since we retired in October and the new chief did not take charge until mid-December. It will not be too wearisome to give, on the next page, the only considerable table of statistics which this work contains. From the mass of facts embedded in these tables one can only extract a few. The progressive decline in the total loss on operating after the zero year of 1920--a decline which has been accentuated in the figures for 1923--is obvious. But it is not so obvious that the disparity between earnings and expenses in 1922, is due to the revival of the Crow’s Nest Agreement which threw the railways backward, from a business point of view. We had expected to break almost even in 1922; and would have done so, if the revived agreement had not lopped over eight millions from revenue. CANADIAN NATIONAL RAILWAYS COMPARATIVE STATEMENT OF EARNINGS AND EXPENSES (For the Years 1919, 1920, 1921 and 1922) GROSS EARNINGS 1919 1920 Canadian Northern $53,562,177.57 $66,695,398.80 Canadian Government 40,179,380.93 44,803,045.84 Grand Trunk Pacific 11,294,617.87 14,408,549.66 -------------- -------------- Total $106,036,176.37 $125,906,994.30 OPERATING EXPENSES: Canadian Northern $60,034,023.92 $82,953,978.60 Canadian Government 47,728,205.73 55,445,651.29 Grand Trunk Pacific 17,587,567.37 24,543,063.60 -------------- -------------- Total $125,349,797.02 $162,942,693.49 OPERATING DEFICIT: Canadian Northern $6,471,846.35 $16,258,579.80 Canadian Government 7,548,824.80 10,642,605.45 Grand Trunk Pacific 6,292,949.50 10,134,513.94 ------------- -------------- Total $20,313,620.65 $37,035,699.19