ven ordinary railroads--is not
all glistening varnish and bright new signal flags. The Canadian
Pacific was no ordinary railway. It was a young giant, reaching for
the western skyline with temerity, and it knew Trouble as it knew sun
and wind and snow. The very grain which was its life-blood gorged the
embryo system till it choked. The few elevators and other facilities
provided could not begin to handle the crop, even of 1887, the heavy
yield upsetting all calculations. The season for harvesting and
marketing being necessarily short, the railroad became the focus of a
sudden belch of wheat; it required to be rushed to the head of the
lakes in a race with the advancing cold which threatened to congeal the
harbor waters about the anxiously waiting grain boats before they could
clear. With every wheel turning night and day no ordinary rolling
stock could cope with the demands; for the grain was coming in over the
trails to the shipping points faster than it could be hauled out and
the railroad was in a fix for storage accommodation.

It was easy to see that such seasonal rushes would be a permanent
condition in Western Canada, vital but unavoidable; so the Canadian
Pacific Railway Company cast about for alleviations. They hit upon the
plan of increasing storage facilities rapidly by announcing that the
Company would make special concessions to anyone who would build
elevators along the line with a capacity of not less than 26,000
bushels and equipped with cleaning machinery, steam or gasoline
power--in short, "standard" elevators. The special inducement offered
was nothing more nor less than an agreement that at points where such
elevators were erected the railway company would not allow cars to be
loaded with grain through flat warehouses, direct from farmers'
vehicles or in any other way than through such elevators; the only
"condition" was that the elevator owners would furnish storage and
shipping facilities, of course, for those wishing to store or ship
grain.

At once the noise of hammer and saw resounded along the right-of-way.
Persons and corporations whose business it was to mill grain, to buy
and export it, were quick to take advantage of the opportunity; for the
protection offered by the railway meant that here was shipping control
of the grain handed out on a silver platter, garnished with all the
delectable prospects of satisfying the keenest money hunger.

On all sides protests arose from the few