Edward Beatty got his start in the Canadian Pacific Railway law department in 1901 earning $50 a month. "I thought a year's work in Montreal would be a useful experience," Beatty recalled, "but the work was fascinating. I was learning new things all the time and every now and then a small increase in salary came along to show that I was making progress. I was happy at it."
Edward Beatty at his desk at the CPR headquarters in Montreal, 1919. Image: Queens University Archives.
Four years after joining the CPR, Beatty was promoted to assistant solicitor. Despite rising in the ranks at the CPR, he considered an offer to leave and become a partner in a major Toronto law firm. As Beatty would often recall, CPR President Lord Thomas Shaughnessy called him into his office to ask, "Do you want to be an ordinary lawyer all your life, or do you want to be President of the CPR?" Beatty decided to stay and in 1910 was appointed general solicitor and then three years later to general counselor. In 1914, Beatty was appointed vice president. As he later said, "In my first ten years I took ten days holidays. There was too much to do."
Edward Beatty, date unknown. Image: CRHA/Exporail.
"The man with the world's biggest job"
In 1918, Shaughnessy retired and offered Beatty the job as president, then the highest paid position in Canada. Beatty accepted the offer and just days before his forty-first birthday, he became the company's first Canadian-born president. In seventeen years Beatty had risen through the ranks to head what was known as the greatest transportation enterprise the world had ever seen.
As one American newspaper put it, Beatty was "the man with the world's biggest job." He was now president of a railway with nationwide lines in Canada and parts of the United States, plus international lines that ran from London to Hong Kong. He also led a global steamship line. And a telegraph system. And a hotel chain. And a fifteen million acre land company. And a billion dollars in investment. The CPR's sixteen story building in Toronto was the highest office tower in the British Empire. In 1919, the CPR payroll for its 80,000 employees totaled $7,500,000 per month and gross earnings from transportation was $157,000,000.
Edward Beatty, 1922. Image: McCord Museum.
In Beatty's inaugural speech to CPR employees in 1919, he stated, "Canada's prosperity is our prosperity, and what is good for Canada is good for the CPR. Canada's interests are our interests… The CPR's fortunes and development have heretofore been linked up so intimately with those of the Country itself that the CPR can rightly be termed a National enterprise and its development a National development."
Edward Beatty and CPR staff at Cameron Lake, British Columbia, circa 1920s. Image: Exporail Archives.
Leading Through the Boom Years
Beatty's youth and his lack of practical railway experience made his presidency a controversial decision, but he rapidly proved his merit. His first ten years were marked by tremendous expansion, including line extensions, hotel construction and the expansion of shipping fleets. From 1925 to 1929, the CPR's earnings reached the peak in its history. Beatty led two of the CPR's largest projects at the time, the construction of the Royal York Hotel in Toronto in 1929 (the CPR had also constructed the Château Frontenac in Quebec City and the Banff Springs Hotel), and in 1931 the launch of the Empress of Britain, the largest, fastest, and most luxurious ship traveling between England and Canada. During that decade, Canada had more railway mileage per capita than any other country in the world.
According to Beatty, in a 1923 speech to CPR employees, "There is no single institution, so far as I am aware, in any country which touches the life of the people in as many and varied ways as does this Company and each time it extends its activities the country receives a benefit."
Video: Library and Archives Canada.
Facing the Great Depression
But the 1920s' boom couldn't last and Beatty had to steer the CPR through the Great Depression of the 1930s. From 1928 to 1933 the CPR's revenues dropped by half. The company scaled back on its passenger and freight services and stopped issuing dividends to its shareholders in 1932. The CPR's immigration sponsorship operations were also greatly reduced. Thanks to Beatty's leadership, the CPR had entered the Depression debt free and so despite deep struggles, the company was not affected to the extent of its rival, the government owned Canadian National Railway (CNR).
One bright period for Beatty occurred midway through the Great Depression when on June 2 1935, King George V made him a Knight Grand Cross of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.
Montreal Daily Star article on the knighting of Edward Beatty which took place on June 2 1935. Image: McGill University Library.
World War II Years
After weathering the Great Depression, another monumental task awaited Beatty. The Second World War began in 1939. Following in the footsteps of his predecessor Lord Shaughnessy, who led the CPR through the First World War, Beatty ensured that the CPR joined the war efforts on behalf of Canada and the British Empire. The CPR shipped 307 million tons of freight and 86 million passengers, including 280,000 military personnel. In addition, 22 CPR ships went to war, 12 of which ultimately sunk in combat.
From 1939 until September of 1941, Beatty served as the Canadian representative for the British Ministry of War Transport. In 1940, he led the organization and operation of the "Atlantic Bridge”, a colossal undertaking that flew CPR Air Service transport bombers in between Canada and Britain.
Beatty's health was falling into serious decline due to the wartime stress and years of overwork. In 1941, he suffered a massive stroke. His doctors persuaded him to resign as CPR president but he chose to remain as the company's Chairman. For his near quarter-century tenure at the CPR, Beatty became known as the "modernizer" for his lead role in opening a new era in railroading and leading the company through the greatest boom and depression in history as well as keeping the company running successfully through war.
Montreal Daily Star article about Edward Beatty's resignation, May 1 1942. Image: McGill University Library.