In order to secure the services. of men of ability 

 and ambition, railways must give an opportunity for 

 them to earn incomes comparable with other kinds of 

 business and professional activity. If railways are not 

 efficiently developed and managed, their services will 

 deteriorate, and consequently, become more expensive 

 to the public. 



Wage Reductions 



The public prints recently have placed much em- 

 phasis upon the huge sums that will be saved to the 

 railroads by the 12 per cent, cut in wages authorized 

 by the Labor Board. Headlines teem with big figures, 

 such as $400,000,000 and other sums that stagger the 

 imagination and are really beyond the comprehension 

 of the average mind. So much has been said that the 

 public may lose sight of the fact that all of these "sav- 

 ings" and "reductions" and "decreases" are yet to 

 come instead of actual. 



Here are some figures from the other side of the 

 sheet: 



It is now costing the Central of Georgia Railway 

 Co. $487 per month to repair locomotives, as compared 

 with an average cost of $187 in 1917. This is an in- 

 crease of 160.4 per cent. 



It is now costing an average of $17 per month to 

 repair freight cars, as against $5.81 in 1917. This is 

 an increase of 192.6 per cent. 



The average revenue for handling each passenger 

 in 1917 was $1.03. In 1921 it Was $1.59, an increase 

 of 56 cents per passenger or 54.3 per cent.; while the 

 operating expenses per passenger increased from 71 

 cents in 1917 to $1.55 in 1921; an increase in expense of 

 118.3 percent. 



Ihe operating revenues from each ton of freight 

 handled, increased from $1.32 in 1917 to $2.40 in 1921, 

 an increase of 81.8; BUT the operating expenses for 

 each ton of freight handled, increased from 92 cents 

 in 1917 to $2.13 in 1921; an increase of 131.5 per cent. 



These figures show why decrease in expenses is ab- 

 solutely necessary if the railroads are to survive; and 

 why the wage cut of 12 per cent, is merely a relief and 

 not a cure for the transportation situation. 



The Canadian Arctic North 



In the lamentable ignorance which exists 

 in many other countries regarding Canada, her 

 wealth and resources, and particularly on her 

 climate, hosts of strangers who know not the 

 great land might be inclined to include under 

 the appellation the greater part, if not the whole, 

 of the Dominion, unheeding the fact that there 

 must be a summer of blazing glory behind its 

 consistent world successes in wheat growing, and 

 a bracing spring and fall to commence and term- 

 inate a lengthy agricultural season. There are 

 doubtless too, misconceptions on the mighty 

 Yukon territory where for many years a civiliza- 

 tion has existed, modern in its every phase, and 

 progressing along the same lines as areas further 

 south. 



But there is an Arctic north to Canada, by 

 which is indicated that territory adjacent to, 

 and inside of, the Arctic circle, a region where 

 only superficial exploration has been carried on 

 and for this reason is hedged about with a thou- 

 sand misconceptions and false impressions. It 

 is indeed a region of cold winters, but also one 

 of exceedingly bright warm summers. It is not 

 the barren waste popular opinion has pictured 



it but one of luxuriant verdure and extensive 

 vegetation. It has a wealth of natural re- 

 sources and other potentialities, a decided future 

 asset to the Dominion. International interest 

 being particularly centered on this northern 

 territory of Canada, it is now appropriate to 

 look into its features. 



Nothing has aroused such general and wide- 

 spread interest in Canada for a considerable 

 length of time as the discovery, last fall, of oil 

 in the Mackenzie River basin, within the Arctic 

 circle. The capital of many countries is being 

 invested in that area; investors and prospectors 

 are flocking thither by every means of trans- 

 portation; railway and river steamer services 

 are projected ; mushroom settlements are spring- 

 ing up all over its expanse. There is every 

 reason to suppose that the strike is not merely 

 an isolated flow, indications all over the area 

 being of the same favorable nature, and there 

 is every confidence that the many companies 

 carrying out prospecting and drilling will meet 

 with the same success. 



The MacKenzie River Basin 



Knowledge of the mineral resources of the 

 Mackenzie River basin is very imperfect and 

 limited, but sufficient exploration of a specific 

 nature has been undertaken to have encountered 

 many deposits of lignite coal and iron ore, which 

 for exploitation are dependent upon transpor- 

 tation facilities and agricultural development. 

 Lignite of fair quality occurs in the banks of the 

 Mackenzie at Fort Norman in a bed about five 

 feet thick, and iron ore has been found on the 

 Gravel Riveraboutfourmilesabove Fort Norman. 

 Another occurrence was observed further north 

 on the Mackenzie about thirty miles south of the 

 Arctic circle; iron ore occurs in the Bear Mountain 

 section in company with deposits of lignite coal. 



It may sound absurd to speak of agriculture 

 here, but one might suggest to memory the scep- 

 tics who said that wheat would never be grown in 

 the Canadian North-West. The amazing fact 

 might also be pointed out that as far back as 

 1876 wheat grown by Roderick Mackenzie, 

 brother of the great explorer, at Fort Chipewyan, 

 which is to all intents and purposes within the 

 Arctic circle, carried off the first prize at the 

 Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia. This 

 was in an era prior to the plains of the south 

 coming into prominence as cereal producers and 

 bearing off most of the prizes for the North 

 American continent. 



Though fur, at the present time, constitutes 

 practically the sole commercial product of this 

 region, there is every reason to suppose that at 

 some future time, when the millions of acres to 

 the south of it, as yet unproductive, have been 

 brought under the plough, this section will 

 make a name for itself in agriculture. There 

 is no reason why it should not. At present 



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