C. P. R.

Have you ever seen the pistons

On the giant C.P.R.

With the driving force of a thousand horse?

Then you know what pistons are.

On Dec. 10, 1923, Baron Shaughnessy, K. C. V. 0., of Montreal and of Ashford, County Limerick, Ireland, third president of Canadian Pacific Railway, was on his deathbed. His successor, Edward Wentworth Beatty, 45, was ushered in. To young Mr. Beatty, Lord Shaughnessy spoke 19 words which have lived in the lore of The World's Greatest Travel System "Take good care of the Canadian Pacific Railway. It is a great Canadian property and a great Canadian enterprise."

In the intervening years President Beatty, first native Canadian to head the company, has taken good care. Cocky, busy, he is a familiar figure all along the right-of-way from Halifax to Vancouver. But last week his great company was forced to admit that, temporarily at least, it has not been able to take the grade of Depression at full speed. After a long meeting in the grey Windsor Station, Montreal, last week the C. P. R. directors filed out slowly, grave in the knowledge that they had ordered only half the regular dividend payment. What was a 10%, rate on C. P. R. is now a 5% rate. Not since 1902 has C. P. R. made so small a payment. From that year on the rate gradually worked higher until in 1912 it reached 10%, and there it was maintained even through the difficult War years. Last week C. P. R. stock sold at $28, the equivalent of $112 for the original shares--a price not seen since 1921.

Hurt by the dividend cut are 65,000 C. P. R. owners--20,000 in the United Kingdom, 27,000 in Canada, 13,000 in the U. S. And affected psychologically by the cut is each & every one of Canada's 9,000,000 citizens, for between the Dominion and the C. P. R. is a great bond. The C. P. R. has grown because Canada has grown; Canada could not have grown without the C. P. R.

The story of the C. P. R.'s construction is one of railroading's most spacious epics. In many Canadian schoolrooms hang pictures of the driving of the last C. P. R. spike at Craigellachie, B. C., on Nov. 7, 1885. Symbolizing the hardships the road went through, the last spike was iron, not gold. And every man who went to see it driven paid full fare.

Since 1885 the C. P. R. has expanded by land and sea. Its assets exceed $1,371,000,000. Yet they are understated if anything. Its main Montreal-Vancouver line runs 2,893.6 miles, but the 2,044 C. P. R. locomotives pull freight and passengers over 22,438 miles of track, including the 4,379 miles of the controlled Minneapolis. St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Ry. ("Soo" Line). Much of its equipment is made in its 200 acre Angus Shops at Montreal.

Anxious to secure freight at Vancouver, the C. P. R. early in its history chartered three ocean liners. Now its fleet of steamers carries the checkered C. P. R. house flag over Atlantic and Pacific, sometimes around the world. Greatest of the "White Empresses of the Pacific" is Empress of Japan. Greatest on the St. Lawrence-Europe route will soon be Empress of Britain, launched last summer. The ocean-going going and coastal fleet of C. P. R. numbers 57 vessels with a gross tonnage of 468,717. Its inland lake and river fleet has 20 ships.

C. P. R. operates 16 hotels in Canada, most famed of which are the Chateau Frontenac at Quebec, the Royal York (1120 rooms) at Toronto, and the summer hotels at Lake Louise and Banff Springs. C. P. R. operates a worldwide telegraph and cable service, has its own express service, its own money orders and notes for 59 currencies.

To dispose of its big land grants, the C. P. R. has encouraged immigration, run model farms, installed irrigation systems (C. P. R.'s $20,000,000 project in southern Alberta is greatest in North America). It still has 4,600,000 acres of town and country land for sale. Its stake in Canada extends to minerals. Its balance sheet shows 3,000,000 acres of coal land carried at $1 although they have produced $346,000 revenue. Natural gas rights which have produced similar revenue are also carried at $1. One dollar is also the value given 445,000 acres of petroleum rights which have brought in more than a half million dollars. Under C. P. R. control is Consolidated Mining & Smelting Co. of Trail, B. C., producer of lead, silver, gold and zinc, also an investor in other mining companies.

From its railroad last year C. P. R. earned $38,000,000 against $43,000,000 in 1929, but "other income" jumped $5,000,000 so that the total stood at $58,291,000 against $58,376,000 and net at $38,000,000 against $41,000,000.

Sir Henry. Like the U. S. roads, C. P. R. faces hot competition from motor trucks and coaches, but in recent years its most potent competitor has arrived in the form of the once junky, now efficient Canadian National Railway system (whose one share of common stock is held in the name of King George V). Renovator of C. N. R., perhaps the greatest railroad man of the age, is Sir Henry Worth Thornton. Born in Logansport, Ind. Sir Henry studied under bush-bearded Leonor Fresnel Loree of the Delaware & Hudson. He headed the Long Island until, during the War, he was called in to make efficient the Great Eastern Ry. of Great Britain. After a brilliant performance there, he was called to Canadian National. He is a tall, husky democrat, different in many ways from his sprightlier but more standoffish rival, Mr. Beatty. It would be unfair to say C. P. R. cut its dividend because of Sir Henry. But if Sir Henry had never arrived in Canada, it is possible that C. P. R. would still be paying 10%.

U. S. Last week the Bureau of Railway Economics revealed that during the first quarter of 1931, Class I railroads of the U. S. (earning more than $1,000,000 a year) had a net operating income of $107,000,000 against $176,000,000 in the same period last year and $259,000,000 in 1929's first quarter. First quarter earnings came to only 2.07% on property investment, and 52 of the 171 roads in the group showed a deficit. These facts have caused the venerable Commercial & Financial Chronicle to demand a reduction of railroad wages, to warn that the solvency of the whole industry is periled. But last week one cheerful note was heard among the railroads' many plaints. Palmer & Co., brokers, said: "In every period of general depression, public opinion has held that the railroads are on the verge of ruin. Yet in every succeeding period recovery of earnings and of security prices have followed rapidly."

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