With regards to claims I can speak with authority. Mr. William Trant,
the ex-stipendiary magistrate for Regina, once said in a newspaper article
that I was the only man in the West who ever got ahead of the C. P. R.
Well, I did and I didn't. The facts are these. I was running a country
newspaper on the American boundary. At that time that big-hearted man
and true friend of the West, William Whyte, had been retired from the
active management of the prairie divisions, and given another position.
I neglected when my C. P. R. advertisement ran out to make a formal
application for renewal and continued the advertisement as a matter of
course, as it was not stopped. When the bill went in the C. P. R. refused
to pay it, on what was really the technical ground mentioned. A friend
sent me some prize vegetables from Gainsboro. A man was on substitute
at the station, and his habits needed correction. He gave me no notice
and the vegetables rotted at the station. I claimed two dollars. A long
and heated correspondence-heated at least on my part-followed between
me and the claim agent; but the C. P.R. wore me out. Then a relative of
mine by marriage met with an accident on the C. P. R. and lost a limb.
I made no claim; but asked for a pass when she was able to travel in
order that she might have a change. This did not even meet with
a reply. These three cases all occurred in something over a year.
When the C. P. R. subscription ran out I stopped the paper. By this time
William Whyte was back to his old position. I had a letter from Winnipeg
office stating the paper was not being received and asking for it to be sent.
I wrote back saying that the terms were a dollar a year in advance. The
paper would be sent when I received the dollar and not before, as unfortu-
nately the credit of the C. P. R. was not good in the Gazette office. I got
a very polite personal letter from Mr. Whyte, asking me why the credit of
the C. P.R. was not good. I wrote back intimating that I was not making I
any claim but simply appeasing his laudable curiosity. Then I recounted
my experiences and rang in the changes after each item with such re-
marks as "Great business! Mighty C. P. R. two dollars in and little coun-
try editor two dollars out." But I wound up with one serious sentence.
I said: "If these three instances can occur in one little newspaper office
in less than eighteen months, there must be thousands of other cases.
Now perhaps you know why the very name of the C. P.R. is hated from
Winnipeg to the Rockies." I received a very courteous reply from Mr.
Whyte asking me to send in my claims and they would be paid. I wrote
back and said if he would give me a pass to Calgary and back we would
cry quits; so I didn't get ahead of the C. P. R. very much after all.