In view of the recent announcement of the resignation of Sir Henry Thornton, K.B.E., from the position of President of the Canadian National Railways, the following account of the great railway system which he was largely instrumental in developing, will be of interest to our readers.

The Canadian National Railways is, first and foremost, a great enterprise in partnership. The spirit of cooperation gives life and character to what might be called the body of the railroad, the thousands of miles of steel, the thousands of locomotives and cars, the hotels, the telegraph lines, the steamships, which comprise the National System.

The Canadian National System came into being at the end of 1922. The materials of which it was created were many and diverse, chief among them the Grand Trunk, the Canadian Northern, the Grand Trunk Pacific, the National Trans-continental and the Intercolonial. They all did their part in opening up Canada in the days of the pioneers, but they made mistakes, they crumbled, and it was a step in the public interest that the Government of Canada took, in amalgamating them and creating out of the chaos the Canadian National System.

The stress of the early days of the war compelled the Federal Government to take over those lines which formed a part of the Canadian National Railways. In October, 1922, the Grand Trunk and Canadian National Railways were united and co-ordinated under its own Board of Management. The appointment of Sir Henry W. Thornton, K.B.E., and the new Board of Directors completed the amalgamation.