petite for
further western railway building and further millions of rich western
acres in subsidies. They met Macdonald and Tupper half way. By the
bargain completed in 1881 the Canadian Pacific Railway Company undertook
to build and operate the road from the Ottawa Valley to the Pacific
coast, in return for the gift of the completed portions of the road (on
which the Government spent over $37,000,000), a subsidy of $25,000,000
in cash, 25,000,000 selected acres of prairie land, exemption from
taxes, exemption from regulation of rates until ten per cent was earned,
and a promise on the part of the Dominion to charter no western lines
connecting with the United States for twenty years. The terms were
lavish and were fiercely denounced by the Opposition, now under the
leadership of Edward Blake. But the people were too eager for railway
expansion to criticize the terms. The Government was returned to power
in 1882 and the contract held.

* See "The Railroad Builders", by John Moody (in "The
Chronicles of America").

The new company was rich in potential resources but weak in available
cash. Neither in New York nor in London could purse strings be loosened
for the purpose of building a road through what the world considered
a barren and Arctic wilderness. But in the faith and vision of the
president, George Stephen, and the ruthless energy of the general
manager, William Van Horne, American born and trained, the Canadian
Pacific had priceless assets. Aided in critical times by further
government loans, they carried the project through, and by 1886, five
years before the time fixed by their contract, trains were running from
Montreal to Port Moody, opposite Vancouver.

A sudden burst of prosperity followed the building of the road. Settlers
poured into the West by tens of thousands, eastern investors promoted
colonization companies, land values soared, and speculation gave
a fillip to every line of trade. The middle eighties were years of
achievement, of prosperity, and of confident hope. Then prosperity fled
as quickly as it had come. The West failed to hold its settlers. Farm
and factory found neither markets nor profits. The country was bled
white by emigration. Parliamentary contest and racial feud threatened
the hard-won unity. Canada was passing through its darkest hours.

During this period, political friction was incessant. Canada was
striving to solve in the eighties the difficult question which beset