

A CALL TO ARMS 37 



not until 1878 that a railway was built north into 

 Manitoba from St. Paul; but it was followed shortly 

 after by the projection of the Canadian Pacific Kail- 

 way, which reached Vancouver in 1886. 



Then began what has been called the greatest wheat- 

 rush ever known. Land, land without end, to be had for 

 the asking rich land that would grow wheat, forty 

 bushels to the acre, millions of acres of it! Fabulous 

 tales, winging east and south, brought settlers pouring 

 into the new country. They came to grow wheat and 

 they grew it, the finest wheat in the world. They grew 

 it in ever increasing volume. 



Successful operation of new railroads even ordinary 

 railroads is not all glistening varnish and bright new 

 signal flags. The Canadian Pacific was no ordinary 

 railway. It was a young giant, reaching for the western 

 skyline with temerity, and, it knew Trouble as it knew 

 sun and wind and snow.s^he very grain which was its 

 life-blood gorged the embryo system till it chokecl\The 



l^not 

 yield 



upsettiji^-aM-alculations. The season^ forhar?esTmg 

 and marketing being necessarily siiQjri^ the railr^ad 

 became the focus of a sudden belch of wheat; it 

 required to be rushed to the head of the lakes in a race 

 with the advancing cold which threatened to congeal 

 the harbor waters about the anxiously waiting grain 

 boats before they could clear. With every wheel turn- 

 ing night and day no ordinary rolling stock could cope 

 with the demands ; for the grain was coming in over the 

 trails to the shipping points faster than it couid be 

 hauled out and the railroad was in a fix for storage 

 accommodation. 



It was easy to see that such seasonal rushes would 



