A BUILDER OF EMPIRE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9715, 10 February 1910, Page 7

A BUILDER OF EMPIRE.

The Macaulay or the Fronde of tomorrow, when dealing with the affairs of our age, will find his imagination fired not by [the speeches and campaigns of partisan statesmen, but by the work of those who to-day are creating sew nations of English-speaking people where yesteiday there was wilderness. Among these Sir Thomas Shaughnessy, president of the Canadian Pacific railway, will take high place. Forty years ago Tom Shaughnessy, a poor lad in Wisconsin, joined a railway in St. Paul, starting at the bottom of the, ladder. Nature had given him parents to be proud of, and good fighting Irish blood in his veins—not a bad beginning in life. To-day he possesses more actual power than many a king. He is head of the greatest railway in the world. Eighty thousand picked men gladly do his bidding. The line over which he presides. Tis the veritable backbone of the premier of the British overseas Dominions. The J Canadian Pacific Railway stretches from the waters of the Atlantic to the Pacific; its steamers do their business from Antweip to Hongkong i and from Liverpool to Shanghai. For a man to be born in the West is. for those able to seize their opportunities, to be a favourite of fortune. Thomas Shaughnessy started when the West was in the beginning of its making. He rose rapidly from post to post on the St. Paul system, and 13 years latter he was invited to join the Canadian Pacific Railway. . How has Sir Thomas Shaughnessy ', succeeded? How, above all, x has he : znanaged to retain the vigour, the . strength, and the buoyancy which ' to-day display themselves in this bearing and incisive speech, despite ', his tremendous duties ? First, he j works on system. He is a ruler, and, j as every great railroad president must be, he is largely an autocrat. He is an untiring student of detail, and nothing is too small for his attention. He plans, but he leaves the others, while keeping in constant touch with all sides of the work. He is master of his work, and is a strong believer in the theory that he works best who remembers i that work is not all. During office hours he is a machine, mastering, directing, controlling. When he 1 leaven office he leaves business cares behind. "1 never want to see my secretary when business hours are over,'' he declares. "The busiest man should be able to end his work in business hours, and should have evenings clear for home, and family and friends." It is not given to many men to see within a few years such evidencesfgof success |mark

j their work. As the railway king i coutemplates] the 14,500 miles of j track under his control, the main | Canadian telegraph system in his hands, the lines of hotels under him, examples to any in the world, and I the great communities created by the I deliberate activities of his emigration agencies, he may well fell pride. The development of the Canadian Pacific Railway has brought not merely wealth, titles, and great power to its creators. It has brought a new empire to Greater Britain and prosperity to millions.