do, and at the same time make just as big profits, 

 due to the decreased cost of production and the 

 increased value of the dollar. 



Railroad Development Convention 



The Thirteenth Annual Meeting of the 

 American Railway Development Association 

 held last month in New York brought together 

 representatives from practically all United States 

 roads as well as delegations from the Canadian 

 Pacific and Canadian National lines. Interesting 

 papers on all phases of industrial, agricultural, 

 immigration and publicity matters were read 

 and discussed, and brought out an interchange 

 of ideas demonstrative of the value to the rail- 

 roads of such periodical meetings. 



It is evident that Canadian railroads are not 

 behind their neighbors to the south in coloniza- 

 tion methods and operations. Unlike Canada, 

 United States lines are handicapped by not 

 owning the agricultural lands through which 

 they run, and are not, therefore, in a position to 

 handle their settlers from steamer to train and 

 from train to farm in the same personally con- 

 ducted manner as Canadian roads do. Indus- 

 trially, methods are more or less alike both in 

 collection and distribution of data to prospects 

 and their "follow-up" and in advertising, but 

 agriculturally -again on account of the United 

 States roads not owning the lands they are 

 colonizing Canadian methods appear more 

 comprehensive and aggressive. 



Interesting addresses dealing with agricul- 

 tural and industrial development on the Cana- 

 dian Pacific Railway were delivered by Thomas 

 S. Acheson, General Agricultural Agent, Western 

 Lines, and G. W. Curtis, Industrial Agent, 

 Eastern Lines, Canadian Pacific Railway, and 

 are here reproduced. It must be borne in mind 

 that in the brief time allotted to each speaker 

 for the presentation of his address, it was impos- 

 sible to more than touch lightly on the subjects 

 in question. Both papers were well received and 

 brought forth keen discussion during the full limit 

 of time permitted for that purpose. 



The retiring President, Mr. H. O. Hartzell, 

 Manager Commercial Development, B. & O. 

 R.R., Baltimore, Md., handled the meeting 

 well, and was ably assisted by J. M. Mallory, 

 Industrial Agent, Central of Georgia R.R., 

 Chairman of the Industrial Committee, and Mr. 

 W. H. Olin, Supt. of Agriculture, D. & R.G.R.R. 

 Acting Chairman, Agricultural Committee. 

 There will be a semi-annual meeting in Chicago 

 next November and a general convention at 

 Denver, Col., in May, 1922. George E. Bates, 

 Assistant to General Manager, Industrial Devel- 

 opment, D. & H.R.R., Albany, was elected 

 President, with James Jackson, Industrial Agent, 

 Georgia R.R., Augusta, Secretary. 



Interest in things Canadian amongst the 



assembled delegates leads to the belief that an 

 invitation from Canada for an early future meet- 

 ing will meet with strong support from the 

 Association. 



Agricultural Development on the C.P.R. 



By Thomas S. Acheson, General Agricultural Agent, 

 Western Lines, C. P. R. 



Inasmuch as the majority present this afternoon are 

 residents of the United States, I am approaching the 

 subject assigned me with the assumption that there is a 

 great deal about your Northern neighbor with which you 

 are not familiar, and would desire enlightenment. I will 

 concede that during more recent years a more compre- 

 hensive knowledge of the Dominion of Canada has been 

 and is being acquired, but there was a time, and not so 

 far distant, when residents of your cities would make 

 anxious inquiry about long lost brothers, and designate 

 their last address as Alberta, or some other one of our 

 large and magnificent provinces, and expect them to be 

 promptly located by the provincial directory. This after- 

 noon, in the limited time assigned me, I will as briefly as 

 possible outline to you, "Methods of agricultural develop- 

 ment work on the Canadian Pacific Railway." 



Eliminating the numerous historical features leading 

 up to it, a charter was granted to the Canadian Pacific 

 Railway Company, and on February 15th, 1881 just 

 forty years ago was undertaken Canada's greatest 

 venture and to-day her greatest railway system. The 

 broad vision of the handful of men connected with the 

 corporation willing to undertake construction of a railway 

 system into a vast country, only then occupied by hunters 

 and trappers, received much ridicule from many sources 

 at the time. The Government, in order to induce the 

 building of a railway, gave the Company, then known as 

 the Syndicate, all the odd numbered sections of land in 

 a belt twenty-four miles wide on each side of the main 

 line, from the present City of Winnipeg to the Rocky 

 Mountains, twenty-four million acres in all, sufficient for 

 a nation. 



From the beginning of construction of the railway, 

 due thought was given to the magnificent agricultural 

 possibilities of the great prairies to be traversed, ways and 

 means of developing this huge area, inducing settlers to 

 locate on land and satisfying them and their needs, and 

 forty years record of unremitting endeavor in this direction 

 has earned for the Canadian Pacific Railway Company 

 the title of "Canada's Greatest Colonizer." 



A Fair and Square Policy 



You may well ask how was such a tremendous task 

 accomplished. From the outset a fair and square policy 

 was adopted by the Management, one which they have 

 maintained ever since. Whilst the Company might have 

 realized immense sums of money by disposing of large 

 areas of the land to eager speculators, they refrained 

 consistently from doing so. In accordance with their 

 policy of settlement and development, the lands were 

 put on the market at a flat and nominal price of $2.50 per 

 acre, with a rebate for every acre put under cultivation 

 of SI. 25. The Company through its land department 

 has built tip step by step, surely and safely, a business- 

 like policy which has at once served the best interests of 

 the country, and the settlers upon the land. It has not 

 all been smooth sailing through the years, as Canada 

 suffered depressions as did other countries at intervals. 

 There was, for instance, the period when the price of wheat 

 went down to the lowest figure on record, and when the 

 land department accepted wheat in settlement of deferred 

 payments under their land contracts, giving credit to 

 their purchasers' accounts at fifty cents a bushel when the 

 market price of wheat went as low as thirty-seven cents. 



There were times, too, when owing to the low price 

 of wheat, or for local reasons which specially affected certain 



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