Another grievance was that the C. P. R. was unfenced. This from
first to last caused the killing of hundreds of cattle and horses belonging
to settlers who could ill afford to lose them. Settlers made claims, but
not one in twenty was paid. The claim agent's business was not to pay
just claims, but to pay as few as he could. One of the worst cases I know
was that of a neighbor of mine. The Duke of Connaught was returning
from India by the new Imperial route, after being commander-in-chief
of the army there. The C. P.R. spread itself by giving him a special train
and rushing him through. It was boasted that the Royal train made
sometimes as much as a mile a minute. My neighbor was a poor man,
struggling along with a family of young children not one of whom was
able to give him any help. His working animals consisted solely of a yoke
of oxen. The Duke's train whizzing along past my friend's place which
was close to the unfenced railroad, killed one of his oxen. He tried in
vain to get compensation from the C. P. R. He then wrote to the Duke
in England, and he received no answer. It was things like this that
created a feeling of exasperation amounting almost to actual hatred of
the great monopoly.

Another thing! Not only was the railroad unfenced; it was unguarded
from fire. Hundreds of thousands of acres were burnt over with great
loss to the settlers, year after year through fires set by sparks from
C. P. R. engines. And the government did nothing. Gradually as the
years went on these abuses were remedied.