One of the influential educators in Canada is Dr. William Peterson, President of that powerful and progressive educational institution, McGill University. Dr. Peterson’s policy in the conduct of the university is to maintain a harmonious relationship between classical education and the scientific training which is now so greatly in demand. That the university is kept well abreast of the times in scientific teaching and equipment is indicated by the fact that a recent addition to the institution has been a school for instruction in all branches of railroading. Dr. Peterson keenly realizes that the future development of Canada will depend in a very considerable measure upon the extension of the Dominion’s railway system—that in the railroad business there will, perhaps, be more and greater opportunities for young Canadians than in any other one branch of industry. Another proof of the scientific thoroughness at McGill is the high standing held by the University’s medical and engineering schools, but Dr. Peterson holds fast to the belief that no education is complete without a familiarity with the classics. He is himself an accomplished classical scholar.

After spending his boyhood in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, where he was born in 1856, he became a student at the Edinburgh University, and there distinguished himself. He won the Greek travelling fellowship, and continued his classical study at the University of GÖttingen. Returning to Scotland, he was elected to the Mackenzie scholarship in the University of Edinburgh and went to Oxford University, where he added to his scholastic laurels. He became assistant Professor of Humanity in Edinburgh University, and in 1882 was appointed Professor of Classical and Ancient History and head of the faculty in University College, Dundee. Here he remained until 1885, when he was chosen to succeed Sir J. W. Dawson as Principal of McGill University, Montreal. He has received honorary degrees from St. Andrews and Princeton universities, and is regarded not only as a scholar of unusual attainments, but as a man possessing in marked degree the executive ability necessary to successfully conduct the affairs of a great university.

George A. Cox.

Perhaps the most important financier in Canada is Senator George A. Cox of Toronto, who is regarded as the Dominion’s closest parallel, in financial activity, to J. Pierpont Morgan of New York. His interests are extensive and widely varied. He is the president of the Canadian Life Assurance Company, president of two fire insurance companies, president of the Central Canadian Loan and Savings Company, and is one of the ruling spirits in the great project to build the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway across the continent to the Pacific Ocean. He has a very considerable amount of capital invested in the United States.

Senator Cox was born sixty-four years ago in the village of Colborne. His father was a shoemaker in humble circumstances. The ability of Senator Cox, as a boy, attracted the attention of a neighbor, who educated him. When he became a young man he went to the town of Peterboro and embarked in the photographic business. He afterwards became an express agent, and also occupied himself with soliciting insurance for the Canadian Life Assurance Company. He engaged in politics, and for seven years was mayor of Peterboro. When the Midland Railway became involved in financial difficulties, he was one of the Canadians asked to reorganize the road. He at once became the dominating factor in this work and in 1878 was made president of the Midland line. The vigor and ability which he brought to his task soon put the decrepit railway company on its feet again. It afterward became the Midland Division of the Grand Trunk Railway. Besides his insurance and railway affiliations Senator Cox is largely interested in Canadian banks and lands.

Senator Cox attributes much of his success to the fact that he is a good judge of human nature. He has long made a point of surrounding himself with clever young men who are able to develop and zealously put into operation the hints which he freely gives them. Senator Cox’s personality is of a kind which inspires enthusiasm on the part of those who are working with and for him. He is genial and never stands on formality in his contact with the young men whom he has around him. In this respect he more closely resembles Andrew Carnegie than any other captain of industry. Senator Cox lives in modest style in Toronto. He is quiet in his tastes, and greatly dislikes anything suggestive of display or self-aggrandizement. He is a close personal friend of most of the political leaders in the Canadian Liberal Party, and of many of the financial powers in the United States. The Earl of Aberdeen appointed him to the Senate of Canada in 1896. He is a prominent member of the Methodist Church, and has long interested himself in the welfare of Victoria University in Toronto.

Timothy Eaton.

The most important retail merchant in Canada is Timothy Eaton. He began his career as an apprentice in a small shop in a village in Ireland, and now has an establishment which employs the services of six thousand persons, and which is by far the largest and best equipped retail store in the Dominion.

It was in a shop in the town of Port Gleone, in the north of Ireland, that Mr. Eaton obtained his first experience as a storekeeper. Here he served an apprenticeship of five years, receiving no pay until the end of his term of service, when he was given the sum of one hundred pounds. To convey an idea of the long hours that he used to devote to the services of his employer in Ireland, Mr. Eaton likes to tell about how he used to watch the donkey carts passing through the village streets to the market-town of Ballymena at five o’clock every morning, when he was taking down the shutters. While he had very little time in those days to devote to anything but his regular work, he was fond of books, and read Chambers’s Journal, an unusual literary selection for a lad of his education and position. In this publication he read one day an article on the then almost unknown process of manufacturing artificial gas. This so interested him that with the help of a companion he made with his own hands a small gas plant, and by means of it succeeded in lighting the store. Before that there had been no gas light in that section of Ireland. The innovation of the young apprentice aroused great interest and curiosity on the part of the people of the countryside. They flocked to the shop to view the miracle of the new light. This proved to be a valuable advertisement for the establishment, and it lifted young Eaton into a position of prominence in the community.

He felt, however, that there were no chances in Ireland for the degree of success of which he dreamed. The potato famine and other misfortunes had laid the country prostrate. Everybody was talking about the golden prospects in America, and great numbers were emigrating to the promised land. One of Timothy Eaton’s elder brothers decided to join the exodus, and Timothy himself lost no time in making up his mind to go with him.

After crossing the Atlantic they made their way to the town of St. Marys, in Ontario, and there started a very small store, being glad to accept produce in payment for their goods. Another brother came to St. Marys. One of these remained there permanently, while Timothy Eaton, not satisfied with the possibilities in St. Marys of the mercantile expansion which he had in mind, went to Toronto, and started a modest store on one of the lower streets. This was in 1869. In 1883 he had a larger establishment. In 1887 he had added to his general store equipment a small factory for the purpose of eliminating the charges of middlemen and thus conserving the interests of his customers by reduced prices. The factory was an unqualified success. By means of it, and through Mr. Eaton’s general methods, the establishment steadily grew until, at the present time, he has a store which from a comparative point of view may be regarded, perhaps, as the most successful in the world. Mr. Eaton’s pay roll includes nearly six thousand names, while the largest retail store on earth, which is located in Chicago, where the population is many times greater than that which can be reached by Mr. Eaton, employs only about twenty-five hundred more persons. It will be seen that this Chicago establishment is only one-half larger than the Eaton store. Indeed, the factories of the latter are larger than those of any establishment which deals directly with retail buyers.

The two leading elements in Mr. Eaton’s remarkable success have been his store-system, regarded by leading retail merchants as a model, and his constant endeavor to save money for his customers. It is to this end that he conducts his business on a cash basis, and that he has established his factories. He is a very firm believer in bringing goods direct from the maker to the consumer. In a single department in his manufacturing section, for instance, there are over a thousand sewing machines which produce nearly seven thousand garments a day for sale exclusively in the store. The money which Mr. Eaton has been able to save by this policy of producing his own goods is directly applied to the reduction of prices. The fact that his patrons feel that they are obtaining maximum value at minimum cost is the chief reason of the store’s great and constantly growing trade.

Another very prominent factor in his success has been his strict rule of allowing absolutely no misrepresentation. He very strongly feels that truth is a most important element in any permanent success in storekeeping and in life in general. In addition to Mr. Eaton’s constant vigilance in the interest of his patrons, he has always in mind the well-being of his employees. He was one of the pioneers in the movement for shorter hours, believing that opportunities for legitimate rest and recreation give those who are in his service an added zeal and energy which materially increase the satisfaction of buyers and has a direct beneficial effect upon the profits and progress of the store.

While Mr. Eaton is proud of his success, he by no means takes all the credit to himself. It is his idea that the quality which has chiefly enabled him to build up this great commercial unit lies in his ability to pick out the right man for the right place. Each employee is held to a personal responsibility, and is given to understand that he or she is considered a possibility for the higher positions in the establishment. Every clerk understands that promotion is to be obtained not by favoritism, but on the strength alone of conscientious and intelligent effort.

A celebrated department store proprietor in New York City not long ago remarked to a Canadian merchant who informed him that he had come to the New York establishment to obtain hints on the best system of store management, “Why, it is not at all necessary for you to come down here for this information. You have a man in Canada, Timothy Eaton, who can tell you a good deal more about this than most of us can. In fact, we always keep our eyes on him with a view of obtaining fresh suggestions as to methods.”

Sir Thomas G. Shaughnessy.

One of the most successful railroad men of this continent is Sir Thomas G. Shaughnessy, president of the Canadian Pacific Railroad. By means of a particularly virile personality and a remarkable capacity for hard work, Sir Thomas has raised himself to his present high position from the bottom of the ladder. He owes absolutely nothing to the extraneous circumstances of birth or fortune. His education has been chiefly obtained in the school of experience; yet Sir Thomas adds to his conspicuous knowledge of man and affairs a culture that would do credit to a university graduate.

Though Sir Thomas is always associated in the public mind with Canada for the reason that his most important work has been done in the Dominion, he was born in 1853 in Milwaukee. His school days ended at the age of sixteen, when he obtained a place in the office of the Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway as a clerk in the purchasing department. During a period of ten years the young man slowly rose in this department until, on the strength of his ability and alertness, he was promoted to the place of a general storekeeper for the railroad. Mr. Shaughnessy took hold with an acceleration of the powers which had brought him his steady promotion. Work in the office began to move more swiftly than ever before. Each man was held to a very strict accountability in the performance of all his duties, and yet with a new spirit of contentment and zeal for the reason that Mr. Shaughnessy was very considerate to those under his direction. He was quick to criticise, but was equally quick to praise. No man who had ever held a position of authority in the company was more popular with his subordinates.

But Mr. Shaughnessy’s abilities were too great for his position. William C. Van Horne, who had recently become general manager of the young Canadian Pacific Railway, had known Mr. Shaughnessy in Milwaukee, and asked him to take a place of purchasing agent in the new company. This was in 1882. He became assistant to the general manager in 1884, and the next year was promoted to the office of assistant to the president. He became a full-fledged vice-president in 1891. Mr. Shaughnessy was the right-hand man of the president of the road, Sir William C. Van Horne, and when the latter resigned the presidency in 1899 it was obvious that the man in all respects best equipped to succeed him in the very important position of executive head of the longest railroad in the world was Mr. Shaughnessy. The latter was knighted by the Prince of Wales, then Duke of York, in Ottawa, Canada, 1901.

The work of Sir Thomas as president has been notable. He has had a careful regard not only for the interest of the line, but also of Canada. During his incumbency of the presidency the Canadian Pacific system has been greatly extended. It now employs over thirty-five thousand persons and buys products of the labor of fifty thousand more. Within the last two years it has paid Canadians over one hundred millions. The progressive management of the line under the direction of Sir Thomas Shaughnessy has greatly stimulated the prosperity of the Dominion, and on this account the Canadians feel that Sir Thomas has been one of the Dominion’s most valuable citizens.

William S. Fielding.

The Hon. William Stevens Fielding, considered one of Canada’s ablest men, stands high in the administration of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, holding the important place of Minister of Finance. He attained distinction by the path of newspaper work. Mr. Fielding was born in Halifax of English parentage in 1848, and at the age of sixteen entered the business office of the Morning Chronicle. This was perhaps the most influential newspaper of the Maritime Provinces, and counted among its contributors numerous men of intellect and influence. It was from them that young Fielding imbibed his political views and became imbued with the spirit of broad patriotism which has since distinguished him.

Soon after he formed his connection with the Chronicle he was promoted to a place as reporter, and was most zealous and thorough in this sphere. Before he was twenty he had commenced to write editorials. For two decades Mr. Fielding remained with the Chronicle, rising by degrees to the place of editor, and at the same time taking an active part in the political campaigns in Halifax. He was elected in the elections of 1882 to a seat in the Nova Scotia Legislature, and rose so rapidly that within a few months he was offered the premiership of the Province. He declined the honor on this occasion, but soon afterward organized a government at the request of some of the other leaders, and took upon himself the duties of provincial secretary, which also involved the work of financial administrator. His government was so effective that for years it controlled the affairs of the Province. When Sir Wilfrid Laurier became premier of the Dominion in 1896 he appointed Mr. Fielding Minister of Finance, and the latter was returned by the constituency of Shelbourne and Queens to the Dominion House of Commons. It was Mr. Fielding who introduced the measure for the preferential tariff which has been so conspicuous a feature of the Laurier administration. Mr. Fielding is regarded as one of the strongest members of the cabinet.

Charles Fitzpatrick.

The Hon. Charles Fitzpatrick, Minister of Justice in the Canadian Government, and one of the ablest of the Dominion’s lawyers and political leaders, was born of Irish parentage in the Province of Quebec in 1851. His father was a lumber merchant. He was graduated from Laval University in Quebec, studied law and began practice in the city of Quebec, where he rapidly rose to prominence. He had acquired such a reputation at the bar when he was thirty-four years old, that the half-breeds and others who rallied to the support of Louis Riel when the latter was imprisoned and about to be tried for his life, retained Mr. Fitzpatrick as the man best fitted to defend their leader. In this case he opposed a number of the ablest lawyers in Canada, and while his client, Riel, was condemned to death, Mr. Fitzpatrick’s eloquence and command of legal principles attracted wide attention. He has since appeared in many of the most important cases that have been tried within the Dominion.

Mr. Fitzpatrick’s entry into public life was made in 1891, when he was elected a member of the House of Commons of the Province of Quebec, representing his native county. He held this seat until 1896, when he was a successful candidate for the Dominion House of Commons. His general ability and his attainments as a lawyer had by this time become so conspicuous that when in the same year Sir Wilfrid Laurier organized his government he appointed Mr. Fitzpatrick to the position of Solicitor General. In 1900 he was re-elected, by a large majority, a Liberal member from Quebec, in a constituency that was largely Conservative. In 1902, on the elevation of the Hon. David Mills to the Supreme Court bench, Mr. Fitzpatrick was called to his present post of Minister of Justice.

The political success of Mr. Fitzpatrick is made the more notable by the fact that ninety per cent. of the voters of Quebec are French Canadians, while he himself is an Irishman.

In addition to his powers as an orator, his grasp of legal principles and his strong personal magnetism, one of his predominant traits is energy. It has been said of him that in the days of his youth he was in the habit of rising so early in the morning that he had his cases carefully analyzed and his plan of action formulated before other lawyers were out of bed. At present his most absorbing interest is the project for the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway line across the continent. It was he who drew up the contract for the undertaking, and he has been its chief defender, in its legal aspects, against the many attacks to which it has been subjected by the opponents of the government of Sir Wilfrid Laurier.

Mr. Fitzpatrick attributes his zest for work to the fact that he has always been an outdoor man. During his early years his reputation as an athlete was as great in Quebec as was his fame as a lawyer. He married a daughter of the late Lieutenant Carors, and thus became intimately identified with one of the oldest of the French-Canadian families, which dates back to the early days in Canadian history.

There is no more enthusiastic believer in the future of Canada than Mr. Fitzpatrick. In 1903 he made a tour of the Northwest, and has expressed himself as astonished at its marvelous resources. It is his opinion that the projected Grand Trunk Pacific line, adding another railway to the transportation facilities of this territory, will develop it into one of the richest and most productive regions, not only in grain, but in minerals, the world has ever known.

George William Ross.

The Hon. George William Ross, Premier of the Province of Ontario, was born near London, Ontario, in 1841. His father was a Scotchman, who, after migrating to Canada, became a prosperous farmer. Mr. Ross began his active life as a country school teacher. The government of the Province of Ontario established in 1871 a system of school inspectors, and he was appointed to one of these places. In the general election of the following year, Mr. Ross was chosen to represent the Conservative party in the western division of his native county, and was elected to the Dominion House of Commons. It was particularly his ability as an orator that brought him this honor. He was a member at the time of the Sons of Temperance, and it was at the meetings of this society that he seized his first opportunities to develop and display his gifts as a public speaker. He has said since that this experience in talking on his feet was invaluable to him, and he advises all young men who desire to acquire the gift of public speaking to join a debating society or other organization whose members are willing to listen to budding eloquence.

Mr. Ross was made Minister of Education for the Province of Ontario in 1883, and in 1887 succeeded in having passed a law for the federation of the denominational colleges of Toronto into a single unit, The University of Toronto. He inaugurated other educational reforms, and materially raised the standard of public education in the Province. Mr. Ross relinquished his work in this special field in 1900 to become Premier of Ontario. He has been prominently identified with movements in the cause of temperance, and holds honorary degrees in five Canadian universities. One of his distinguishing qualities is versatility. He is interested in astronomy, and has a marked literary bent, having written biographical sketches and some poetry.

Lord Mount Stephen.

In spite of the fact that Lord Mount Stephen has not resided in Canada for a number of years, he must be included in any group of important workers in the Dominion. He played a leading part in the upbuilding of the Canadian commonwealth. The vital importance of his work for the Canadian Pacific Railway cannot be overlooked. Lord Mount Stephen and Lord Strathcona were the two great personalities which carried the project of the transcontinental line through a dark period of financial storm and stress. Lord Mount Stephen reorganized or built several other railroads in Canada, and was very closely identified with many of the Dominion’s most important commercial movements.

Like so many other men who have achieved remarkable success in Canada, Lord Mount Stephen is a Scotchman, having been born in that country in 1829. In his childhood he was a herdboy on the Highlands, and served as an apprentice in Aberdeen. He afterward obtained employment in London, and in 1850 migrated to Canada, where his uncle, William Stephen, was engaged in the woolen business. The young man was taken into partnership, and upon his uncle’s death bought his interest in the firm, which steadily grew in importance in the manufacture of woolen goods. Lord Mount Stephen’s financial standing at this time is indicated by the fact that he became a director in Canada’s leading banking institution, the Bank of Montreal, of which he was afterward vice-president. It was owing to this financial eminence, as well as to his great ability, that he was able to build a magnificent structure of success out of what appeared at that time to be the wreck of the project for the Canadian Pacific Railroad. In recognition of his services for her domain across the ocean, Queen Victoria knighted him in 1886, and a few years afterwards raised him to the peerage with the title of Lord Mount Stephen, a title suggested by the peak in the Rockies called Mount Stephen, which itself had been named after the able Scotchman. Lord Mount Stephen retired from the presidency of the Canadian Pacific Railroad in 1888, and has spent most of his time since then in England. He has, however, retained some of his interests in Canada, and has remembered numerous hospitals and other institutions with generous contributions.