Unveiling of the Clergue Portrait, 1937

January 30th, 1937

PERSONAL

Sir Edward W. Beatty, K.C.,
President,
Canadian Pacific Railway,
MONTREAL.

My dear Sir Edward:

As you will see, this is a personal communication.

The citizens of Sault Ste. Marie have had my portrait painted, to be hung in City Hall; the unveiling takes place on Monday, the 15th of February, when I, necessarily and appreciately, will be present. Several friends from Montreal who had to do with these material things in these old days of Canadian development will accompany me on this visit to the scene of these activities.

I would be very glad if you would supply me with some date through your statistical bureau, as to some actual present facts which I can truthfully make use of in my address on this occasion.

You may remember that I introduced the first Japanese minister to Canada at our Mount Royal Club – Tokugawa – when you were "seconder". On that occasion, I emphasized the extent of trade between the countries through the transport system of the C.P.R. from the Atlantic to the Pacific by rail and across the seas by steamships, and I mentioned that your railway had really established the production of steel rails in Canada, from orders received by my company from the C.P.R., which, up to that time, had amounted to something like sixty million dollars and had given employment to many thousands of operatives.

Our dinner at the Mount Royal Club was some years ago and I would like to be able to state authoritatively on this occasion at Sault Ste. Marie the more recent approximate amounts which Sault Ste. Marie has contributed to the gross railway since I first established myself there in that then little community of five hundred souls.

Could you not supply me, through your statistical department, with an approximate estimate of the gross revenue of the C.P.R. from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, between 1894 and 1936? As my developments on the Michigan side of Sault Ste. Marie were incident to and necessarily caused by my operations at Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, I think you ought to include the C.P.R. revenues from Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan as well, but separately.

All the beneficial results of my efforts at "The Falls" of the Sault Ste. Marie on both sides of the Sault River came from the support which I received from Sir William van Horn, from Lord Shaughnessy and from their understanding associates.

I would like to have your permission to read your reply in my address on this occasion, when I will make mention of these particular events; my hydraulic and metallurgical developments at Sault Ste. Marie were financially supported by the Philadelphia groups of the Pennsylvania Railroad, Samuel Ray, Vice-President and, subsequently, President, was one of my influential directors and supporters, and when I projected our steel plant operations at Sault Ste. Marie, he sent me to Andrew Carnegie for advice and thus happened the establishment of our steel rail mill there.

The rest is a long story, but what I would like to have from you – if willing – is a letter to state what has been the total approximate amount which the C.P.R. has collected from its station at Sault Ste. Marie between 1894 and 1936, with the actual amount for the year 1894 and for the year 1936, with the gross total of the inclusive period of 42 years.

In those ancient days we had a through sleeper from Boston to Minneapolis; but "nothing doing" now; Toronto seems to be C.P.R. Headquarters!

Those were the days of Van Horne and of McNicholl and Bosworth; the days of "great expectations" and of the "Soo Line" and the "Pere Marquette". Earl Grey was Governor-general; Sir McKenzie Bowell was Prime Minister, succeeded by Sir Charles Tupper and then by Sir Wilfred Laurier, with whom I had to discuss these matters of a protective tariff on steel rails, which I finally extorted from Sir Wilfred against the opposition of his distinguished and influential and able Finance Minister, Fielding, from Nova Scotia, whose only market for Nova Scotia potatoes and codfish was Boston, facing a big U.S. duty.

Sir Wilfred Laurier was always very sympathetic about the development of Canadian manufacturing industries, and whatever successful results have followed from my developments at Sault Ste. Marie were really established with his cordial support.

This was at a critical condition internationally, so that I had to develop simultaneously the hydraulic and chemical works on the Michigan side, together with those on the Canadian side. These efforts caused the creation of the Boundary Commission between the United States and Canada.

President Taft, subsequently Chief Justice of the United States, was Justice of the Court at Cincinnati when this question arose, and during his life time he was a very interested supporter of those international relations. Whenever he passed through Montreal we always discussed these matters.

This occasion at Sault Ste. Marie has a significance quite outside my own personal reception there, and I would like you, if agreeable, to let me have a letter, which I could read during my address, which will convey your personal and official sympathy in the development of all our Canadian industries.

I shall be leaving, with my party, for Sault Ste. Marie on the 13th of February, and would be glad if you would let me have a reply to this letter as early as possible.

Yours very truly

Francis H. Clergue
FHC/FP

 

 

By way of reply to this somewhat rambling letter, Clergue received the following response:

Canadian Pacific Railway Company
Office of the Chairman and President

MONTREAL
9th February, 1937.

F.H. Clergue, Esq.,
360 St. James St.,
Montreal, P.Q.

 

Dear Mr. Clergue:

I have your letter of January 30th.

I can quite understand the desire of the citizens of Sault Ste. Marie to pay tribute to the work you have done in the interests of the Town, and their action in having your portrait painted to be hung in City Hall seems to me to be a very appropriate recognition of their appreciation of your achievements.

Our accounting records do not show the earnings of separate stations as far back as 1894, but those of Sault Ste. Marie are available beginning with the year 1904, and I quote below from those records the information which you have requested:

Total Gross Revenue on Freight Handled and Accounted for at Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
(Forwarded and Received)

For Years 1904-1936, inclusive $32,057,554.03
For Year 1904 $ 269,041.32
For Year 1936 $ 1,396,932.61

I have often discussed with you the relations of the Canadian Pacific, the Town of Sault Ste. Marie and of the enterprises you were responsible for establishing there. In a very special way this company has been a partner with the Steel Company and the Town. And I am satisfied it has been both pleasant and profitable to all concerned. It is a very particular pleasure to me that you are being accorded such a high honour by the citizens of the Town, in whose prosperity the Canadian Pacific Railway is so intimately interested.

Sincerely yours,
"Edward Beatty"

Clergue immediately responded to the letter from Sir Edward Beatty:

Sir Edward Beatty,
Montreal.

My dear Sir Edward: -

Thank you for your letter of the 9th February.

This contains exactly the information which I wish to make use of in my public address at Sault Ste. Marie.

Of course I shall elaborate for the information and amusement of my audience on the opposition which I encountered from Sir Thomas Shaughnessy in my efforts to obtain the equal in Canada of the American duty of $7.00 a ton on rails, and on his surrender and support as soon as this duty actually became effective. Sir Thomas became one of my most hearty and helpful supporters from the time we really began rolling rails, and he and McNichol rendered every assistance reasonably possible, to keep our costly operations going on.

With thanks for your attention to this matter, I am,

Sincerely yours,
Francis H. Clergue
FHC/B

Encl.

Clergue was warmly welcomed and received when he arrived at Sault Ste. Marie. He and his party, including his sister Gertrude, were greeted at the train station by a number of leading local citizens and taken on a tour of the City. Clergue was later taken on a tour of Algoma Steel.

The Banquet and the unveiling of the portrait of Clergue took place at the Windsor Hotel before a crowd of 250. All of the tickets were sold leaving a number of interested people without the opportunity to attend. Following dinner, Judge Fred Stone delivered an address then the Judge, together with Mrs. T.F. Rahilly, unveiled the portrait of Clergue. Clergue feigned surprise when he saw the portrait. "I don’t look like that,’ he is reported to have said. "That isn’t the image I look at when I’m in front of the mirror in the morning. I look ten years younger. That looks like me when I’ll be 60 or 70 years old. Will you take it off my hands? It was nice of the citizens of Sault Ste. Marie to have my portrait painted but I’d like to unload it. That’s not me as I look now but as I will look 20 years from now." Mayor Jack McMeeken accepted the portrait on behalf of the City. Clergue was also presented with an illuminated copy of an address prepared, presented and signed by the persons who contributed to the commissioned portrait. The text of the address stated:

TO FRANCIS HECTOR CLERGUE, ESQUIRE

We desire to express to you our hearty greetings, and our sentiments of esteem and respect, on this occasion of the unveiling of your portrait, presented to the City of Sault Ste. Marie as a memorial of your connection with this Municipality and the District of Algoma.

The subscribers are of the old residents of Sault Ste. Marie, who, or whose relatives, intimately knew of you, and of your services to this community. Either they possess personal knowledge of your advent here, and of your effort, courage and vision in the development of the natural resources in Sault Ste. Marie and in its vicinity, or else they have that story from the lips of their parents or other relatives.

Not alone have they felt that, for themselves, it was desirable that this portrait should be painted, but, more particularly, that it should exist that, in the years to come, those who will follow in their footsteps should be able to see the face of the man who, so long as the City of Sault Ste. Marie exists, will be known as its builder and benefactor.

We rejoice that the events of the years have justified your efforts and courage of nearly half a century ago; and have proved the correctness of the vision you then entertained of the development that then just lay dormant in the natural resources of the Country.

We rejoice that you and we, alike, have been spared for so many years that tonight we can join together on this happy occasion. That, though nearly two generations have passed since your active connection ceased with the Industries you established here, the subscribers, and all the citizens of Sault Ste. Marie of the District of Algoma, continue to hold the memory of your labour and effort here in the highest admiration, and you in the highest regard and affection.

Of you in truth it may well be said, "he builded better than he knew", for you have raised here to yourself a monument more enduring than stone, more lasting than this portrait tonight unveiled.

That you may be spared for many years to come and that the sentiments here given expression will serve to brighten the path of life still left to you to tread are the sincere hoped of :

"The Subscribers"

When it was Clergue’s turn to address those assembled, he used the opportunity to reminisce about the old days, when he first arrived in Sault Ste. Marie. He discussed how he came here not by chance but rather by intention and then, in uncharacteristic fashion, he discussed his family background. In a letter to the Editor of The Sault Star the following day, he offered to write a series of articles regarding the development of the industries at Sault Ste. Marie. The editor of the paper, James Curran, accepted the offer but the articles do not seem to have materialized.

Clergue was obviously touched and gratified by the outpouring of feelings expressed at the banquet and unveiling. He wrote to those responsible for the event soon after his return to Montreal:

3522 Mountain Street,
MONTREAL
February 18th, 1937

TO MY OLD FRIENDS AND MY NEW FRIENDS AT SAULT STE. MARIE

This is in grateful acknowledgement of the beautiful momento which you presented to me on the occasion of the unveiling of my portrait at Sault Ste. Marie on the 15th of February, 1937.

Such recognition of human effort is very rarely given an individual during his own lifetime; it often happens that communities offer functions and sound applause to living persons from whom future benefits may be expected, but very rarely, indeed does it occur that a community of people spontaneously desires to bestow praise upon an individual whose efforts undertaken forth years before might have been beneficial, but from whose future career no common advantage could be expected. Such a manifestation of sympathy and of friendship and of cordial recollections is unprecedented in my observation of the careers of living men; I am profoundly impressed by and most grateful for this evidence of your still living interest in the individual who had to do with the beginning of the industries at Sault Ste. Marie, in the origin and development of which many of you, or members of your families, participated.

I beg each of you to accept my sincere and most appreciative thanks, and I rejoice with all of you that our great undertakings at Sault Ste. Marie are now firmly established under energetic and competent direction, and that no longer need we be anxious about the future of "The Industries" of Sault Ste. Marie.

FRANCIS HECTOR CLERGUE