noted for its bustling port, extensive gardens, and broad streets. He had been warned to expect a frigid reception from the men at the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, but he wrote with relief to Addie, “I have been very cordially received here — more cordially than I could have expected in view of the harsh colours in which I have been pictured to the employees. From what I have heard some of them looked for a regular ogre with fangs and fiery breath.” Still, it was not all smooth sailing. Although his job qualifications were excellent, several important officials objected strenuously to a new man being placed over them and did not hesitate to express their antagonism. They even encouraged insubordination on the part of younger men. By 1881, though, Van Horne’s expertise, inexhaustible patience, natural buoyancy of spirit, and irresistible personality had won over all the disaffected.
During his first year with the Milwaukee railway, it acquired still more small lines. The task of integrating the railway’s different branches, such as the Chicago and Pacific, and welding them into one well-coordinated system presented a major challenge. But the most daunting task of all was to reduce the company’s operating costs. Here Van Horne started a revolution in the operation of railways, according to an unidentified railroader, and he implemented methods that are still in use today. He taught the railway world how to load freight cars to their fullest capacity and made eight hundred cars do the work previously done by a thousand. He applied similar strictures to engines and all the other equipment. His colleague, Frank Underwood, a future president of the Erie Railroad, reported: “Most of the present, up-to-date methods of transportation were thought out by him. Some of them have been enlarged and improved. The original suggestions, however, were his.”
As part of his campaign to streamline operations and reduce costs, Van Horne instituted a comprehensive store and accounting system. First, though, he appointed a three-member committee to study and report on the systems used by other large railways. One of the committee’s members was a young clerk, Thomas George Shaughnessy, who would soon play a leading role beside Van Horne in the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway.
Among Van Horne’s many responsibilities was the erection of new stations and buildings. He welcomed this challenge because it involved him in architecture and art — two of his personal passions. Previously, railways had been content to erect cost-saving, efficient buildings. Van Horne, however, aimed to design structures that not only met the requirements of function and economy but also harmonized with their surroundings and appealed to the eye. A typical Van Horne station was a rather Spartan, two-storey building that provided living quarters for the stationmaster and his family on the second floor. Adjoining this utilitarian structure was a one-storey wing where freight could be stored. When the Canadian Pacific Railway was built, many of the depots erected in western Canada would incorporate this basic design.
During his stint at the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad, the company tried to get possession of a small, obscure line, the Chicago, Rockford & Northern, which was in receivership. The Milwaukee had been in a continuing dispute with this railway’s receiver and, to bring the matter to a conclusion, Van Horne resorted to rough-and-tumble tactics. He summoned A.J. Earling, a divisional superintendent, to his office, presented him with a large bundle of documents and correspondence, and ordered him to take possession of the Chicago, Rockford & Northern. He allotted him two engines and twenty men to accomplish the task. After reaching the crossing of the two railways, Earling moved the engines onto the smaller company’s line — and there they sat. The receiver attempted to oust the trespassers and recover possession of the line, but he was confronted by Earling, his phalanx of men, and his mountain of documents. The receiver hastened back to Chicago for reinforcements — but Van Horne heard what he was up to and countered with additional men of his own. Both sides proceeded to raise the stakes, until Earling eventually had eight hundred men supporting him on the spot. Five or six times a day he consulted with his boss by telegraph, and Van Horne always responded: “Be sure to have plenty of good provisions for your men. As long as you keep their bellies full, they will remain loyal.” Fortified by good food, the Milwaukee squad emerged from a week of enforced idleness and threats with flying colours. Van Horne’s road remained in possession of the Chicago, Rockford & Northern. Ultimately, however, the courts decided that the two claimants should have joint use of the disputed line.
Van Horne had been with the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul for just over a year and a half when he was invited to move north to become general manager of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Although he was only thirty-eight, he was already a seasoned railroader whose tenacity, resourcefulness, and capacity for hard work had attracted the attention of senior railroading men in the United States. One of these men, a transplanted Canadian named James Jerome Hill, persuaded the CPR’s president, George Stephen, to make the offer that would launch a new chapter in Van Horne’s life.
5
Van Horne Moves to Canada
William Van Horne first met James Jerome Hill, an almost mythical American railway magnate, in 1876, when he was busy transforming the small, bankrupt Southern Minnesota Railroad into a paying property. Hill, who had settled in St. Paul, Minnesota, was then reorganizing the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railway with the aid of several associates, two of whom — Donald Smith and George Stephen — were Scottish Canadians. Hill quickly became Van Horne’s mentor and friend. That they were attracted to each other is not surprising. Both were driven, gifted, practical railroading men with inquiring minds, amazing stamina, a strong aesthetic streak, and a passion for art. They even bore a striking physical resemblance to each other — stocky, bald, and barrel-chested.
In 1881 it was Hill who suggested to George Stephen, the CPR’s president, that Van Horne be invited to become general manager of the fledgling company, incorporated earlier that same year. Relatively little of the CPR’s main line had been built by then, and the CPR syndicate was eager to see the pace of construction speeded up. “You need a man of great mental and physical power to carry this line through,” Hill wrote to Stephen. “Van Horne can do it. But he will take all the authority he gets and more, so define how much you want him to have.” Van Horne was indeed the ideal choice for pushing through the construction of the railway. For one thing, he had a practical knowledge of almost every department of railway work, from the construction of bridges or the laying of curves to the management of an extensive system. He also had the ability to make tough decisions, an asset that would prove indispensable to building the CPR.
James J. Hill, empire builder of the American Northwest and Van Horne’s friend and arch railroading rival.
Courtesy of Library and Archives Canada, C6654.
The construction of a transcontinental railway had been a central issue in Canada ever since Confederation in 1867. Many people all across the wide, sparsely populated country believed that a ribbon of steel was essential to the survival of the fragile Canadian union. The framers of the British North America Act had even incorporated the Intercolonial Railway in Canada’s constitution, and the terms of British Columbia’s entry into Confederation in 1871 also contained a provision calling for the construction of a transcontinental line.
The new federal government had been able to complete the eastern section of the project quite easily by finishing the construction of the Intercolonial Railway in 1876, the first through-train arriving at Quebec from Halifax on July 6 of that year. The western section would pose far more problems and take much longer to complete. Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald made the first attempt, placing a privately owned syndicate headed by the wealthy shipping magnate Sir Hugh Allan in charge. The entire enterprise soon collapsed, however, when it was reported that Allan had contributed large sums of money to Macdonald’s party during the hard-fought election campaign of 1872. The eruption
