Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 67.djvu/465

Rh steamers plying from Quebec or Halifax on the Atlantic to Liverpool, and from Port Simpson to Japan, China and perhaps Australia. At Moncton the Grand Trunk Pacific will make connection with the Intercolonial, over which it will have running rights to Halifax and St. John.

No more forcible evidence could be presented of the keen interest now taken by Canada and the Canadian government in the adequate development of the transportation facilities of the country, than the fact that within the last year or two no less than three official commissions have been created to deal with different phases of the same wide subject. These are, the commission on transportation, the board of railway commissioners and the national transcontinental railway commission. The members of each commission are men of the highest standing, chosen because of their special knowledge and experience in regard to transportation.

The first of these commissions is charged with the duty of investigating every branch of the transportation problem in Canada. The commissioners are to study the best available rail and water routes; the improvement of lake, river and ocean ports; the improvement of the St. Lawrence route; the adjustment of freight rates; foreign competition in transportation; and other questions of a like nature. The commissioners have already accumulated a mass of invaluable data, gathered by personal examination, and supplemented by the views of practical railway and shipping men and others connected in one way or another with the transportation interests of the country. When these facts and figures have been digested, the result will be submitted to the government, with recommendations from the commission covering a broad and comprehensive plan of transportation development by rail and water, designed to meet the large needs of a rapidly growing country.

The board of railways commissioners is a permanent department of the federal government, with offices at Ottawa. The commissioners are, however, continually moving about the country, from Cape Breton to Vancouver Island, hearing and adjusting disputes of all kinds—as to freight rates, station accommodation, the distribution of rolling stock, and a host of other questions at issue between municipalities or individuals and the various railway corporations. The board is vested with very large powers, and their decisions have so far been characterized by a spirit of conciliation and common sense, which have commended them to not only the people at large, but also to the special interests affected. The decisions of the board may be overruled by the privy council, but in practise the commissioners have fortunately a free hand, and the results so far have been of immense benefit to the country. Much of the initial success of the board in the settlement of disputes between the people and the railways was due to the wide familiarity with