The Topeka state journal., 1911-09-21
Two Men Without Capital liuiId,
ing Canadian Northern.
Mackenzie and Mann Spending
Millions on Project.
LIFE is A ROMANCE
Started as LabOrers OnCOnstruc-
tiOn of Railway Lines.
Other Items of General Interest
in Traffic World.

Two men without capital have been
building railway across the continent
in Canada in competition with the Ca
madam Pacific and the Grand Trunk,
says William E. Curtis in the Chicago
Record Herald in speaking of William
Mackenzie and Donald Mann and their
work on the Candian Northern. They
already have nearly 5000 miles of track,
to Bristol. England They own the
Royal Edward and the Royal George
new modern ships Of $4,000 tons
handsomely equipped for passengers as
well as for handling freight.
These ambitious men who have been
Partners from bOyhood, with a most
romantic experience, expect to COM
plete their railroad to Vancouver with
IN the next three years, and are plan
ming to divide the commerce Of that
port with the Canadian Pacific, which
has monopolized it up to date. They
are building rapidly westward over
the Rocky Mountains, at the rate of
several miles q day, and their track
runs through the richest wheat fields
Of western Canada. They propose to
put on a Inc of steamers from Van
couver to Bristol, England and di-
vide the harvest between the Pacific
and Atlantic oceans at some point be-
tween Vancouver and Winnipeg, ac-
cording to the laws of economy. When
they determine the comparative cost
of carrying a buShel of grain by way
and the cost of carrying it by way of
the great lakes and the St. Lawrcnce,
they will make their rates accordingly.
They have a line from Duluth to
Winnipeg; another from Fort William,
on Lake Superior, to Winnipeg and
three parallel lines about $50 miles
apart across the wheat nelds from
Winnipeg west converging near the
City of Saskatoon. From there they
viii have one line westward to Ed
monton, ard thence through the Vel
owhead Pass of the Rocky Mountains
to Vancouver. They are following the
track of the Grand Trunk Pacific for
several hundred miles. The two tracks
are often within a stones throw OF
each other
The Canadian Northern is thus get
ting the benefit of the Grand Trunk
surveys and is using that road as an
auxiliary to haul its construct n ma
terial at ordinary rates and deliver ties
and rails where they are to be laid
This is a new and novel method of
railway building and saves an enor-
nous expense as well as the time and
trouble of hauling it by mules and
oxen across the country and along the
muddy grades.
The Canadian Northern is using the
same pass that the Grand Trunk oc-
cupies through the Rocky Mountains.
The two lines will lie so close togeth-
er that one would think them the dOu-
Bile tracks of the same road The
Grand Trunk was practically finished
before the mountain section of the
Canadian Northern was begun, but the
minister of railways, realizing that
there would be little local traffic to
quarrel over in that territory, permit
ted the Canadian Northern company
to select its right of way adjoining
that of its rival.
After emerging from the Yellowhead
Pass through the Rocky Mountains the
Canadian Northern bids the Grand
Trunk goodby and breaks off at a
southwestern angle for Vancouver.
The United States has no transcon-
finental railroad. When the one I have
been describing has been completed
Canada will have three-fron ocean to
ocean-the Canadian Pacific, the Grand
Trunk and the Canadian Northern.