The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-05-16
c. M. HAYS, TITANIC VICTIM, WAS BORN
 56 YEARS AGO TO-DAY

As | a rule, such verbal wreaths as ] am capable of weaving are for the brows of the living. AS an exception I shall write today of Charles Mel ville Hays, the eminent Canadian railroad man who, having lived the life of a useful man, died the death of hero when the Titanic went down a little over a month ago. In a state of nature the Attest always survive, but civilized man has improved up and club and club. That is why Chas. M. Hays is dead.
 Had he lived until today the pres- ident of the Grand Trunk Pacific and Grand Trunk Railroads would have celebrated his ffty-sixth birthday. as Island, III. He began his railroad career at the age of seventeen in the service of the old Atlantic & Pacific Railway, system which was far from living up to it's ambitious title. It is said that he got his first promo- tion because Vice President Talmage going through the office where young Hays. was employed as a. clerk, found him to be the only youngster obliv- ious to the hands of the clock, which were pointing to closing time. From that time on MT. Hays was constant ly promoted, and he was still :s young man when he reached the post
 
 Pacific.
 In 1895 the Grand Trunk was about as decrepit and doddering a railroad as could be found anywhere. It was popularly called 'AThe Dead Line," which was a compliment In 1896 MT. headquarters in Montreal, and imme- diately the almost moribund system began to take on the appearance of life and returning vigor. Having look ed over the field, and found exactly what was the matter with the Grand to London and told the board repre- senting the English stockholders ex- actly what to do to realize on their investment. Everything he advised was without precedent and in defiance of tradition, and MT. Hays had diffi- cult time of it convincing the board members. Eventually he succeeded, and the Grand Trunk became a rail- road instead of mere streak of rust.
 In 1901 MT. Hays was offered the presidency of the Southern Pacific. and accepted, but within ten days of arriving in San Francisco he rendered his resignation. He returned to the president of the Grand Trunk Pacific, the great transcontinental railroad system that will be a memorial and monument to Charles Melville Hays for centuries to come. The plan and the execution of the gigantic project of a railroad system stretching from Atlantic to Pacific a distance of $500 miles, involving the raising of a hum dred million dollars of private capi- tai in addition to a similar amount from the Canadian government, fell to Hays.
 Still at the height of his powers, with many years of achievement be- fore him, Charles Melville Hays died that women, children and Ismay might. be saved. These lines from Ingersol seem peculiarly appropriate:
 ::'Yet, after all, it may be best, just in the happiest. sunniest hour of all the voyage, while eager winds are kissing every sail, to dash against the unseen rock, and in an instant hear the pillows roar above a sunken ship. For, whether in nid-sea or among the breakers of the farther shore, a wreck must mark at last the end of each and all, and every life, no matter if its every hour is rich with love and every moment jeweled with joy, will, at it's close, become tragedy as sad. and deep, and dark as can be woven of the warp and wool of mystery and death."