Time and Sandford Fleming

He was one of the most remarkablefigures in the historyof a remarkablenation. Yet we tend to forgetall he did, perhapsbecause the benefitsof his work are so commonplace today.Here, an appreciationof the legacyof Sir Sandford Fleming, Renaissance Man and Canadian.The firstin an occasionalseries on great people in ’spast...

[] SirSandford Fleming is nottotally unsung, but bordersof one country,confusion reigned. At consideringwhat Canadians owe him 63 years noonin Torontoin 1880,it was11.58 in Hamilton, afterhis death, it is odd that we so rarely celebrate 12.08in Belleville,12.25 in .Railroads hisfantastic achievements. In his own way, he did in theUnited States used one hundreddifferent as muchas Sir JohnA. Macdonaldor SirWilfrid timestandards. Stations displayed rows of clocks Laurierto strapthe country together. Yet if you tellingthe time at different points along the rail- were to ask a hundredassorted Canadians to way. Veterantravellers carried watches with identifySandford Fleming, most of themwould asmany as sixdials. probablysay that he was a senatorfrom New It wasto bringsweet reason to thistime-keeping Brunswickor a one-timedefenceman for the madnessthat Fleming invented the systemof 24 BostonBruins. timezones based on a primemeridian of longitude Words memorializestatesmen--words in atGreenwich, England. Scientific societies initial- speeches,words in print.But Flemingwas an ly treatedthe scheme as a crackpot’sdream, but engineer,and as he saidhimself, "engineers must he doggedlyflogged it for 20 years.Earl Grey, plodon in a distinctsphere of theirown, dealing the GovernorGeneral who gavethe GreyCup to lesswith words than with deeds, less with men Canadianfootball, once said Fleming had ~’the thanwith matter". Though Fleming was in fact missionaryfervour of St.Paul". In thematter of oneof themore verbose engineers of a verboseage, standardtime, the big, bearded,Canadian thetruth remains that his legacy lies in whathe engineerslowly made the world give in. By 1890, didand not what he saidand others said about him. NorthAmerica, Great Britain, Sweden, most of Thebenefits of hisacts are so familiartoday that Europeand Japanhad all adoptedthe system. we scarcelyspare them a thought. SandfordFleming is the reasonwhy anyone today Thanksto Fleming,the world runs on standardcanopen an atlas, look at a clock,and calculate the time.He wasboth a professionalrailwayman and timeon the far side of theearth. an amateursteamship authority. As such he His influenceon whereCanadians go in their sawthat, although trains and ships got faster and owncountry will survive as longas railwaytrains faster,the chaosin time-keepingthreatened to clatterfrom coast to coast.Why doesThe Ocean cancelevery gain they made. InternationalLimited,Montreal-bound from Halifax, penetrate scheduleswere a railwayclerk’s nightmare, a thisparticular forest, rattle westward beside that traveller’sparallel to Babel.Even within the particularriver? Who was it that, in 1862,gave the Canadiangovernment the first practicalplan, Sir Andrew MacPhail, professor of medical workedout to the lastcross-tie and dollar,for a historyat McGillUniversity and sometimeauthor, railwayto the Pacific?Who said,~The Pacific Rail- saidit was justpossible Fleming was not the grea- way wouldsurpass in everyelement of magnitude test engineerwho ever lived;he was merely"the and cost any work ever undertaken by man" greatest man who ever concernedhimself with --and who, a dozen years later, became chief engineering".Fleming concernedhimself with engineerof this same, stupendousconstruction much more. He designedCanada’s first postage job?Who led historicand death-defyingforays into stampin 1851.He foundeda societyof professional the RockyMountains to surveynot only the CPR’s men,called it The CanadianInstitute, and livedto route throughKicking Horse Pass but also what celebrateits 50th anniversary.On September5, would one day be CNR’s routethrough Yellowhead 1883,at 4,600feet above sea levelin the Selkirk Pass? The answer, in every case, is Sandford Mountains,he also helped found the Canadian Fleming. AlpineClub and becameits firstpresident. (That Flemingwas wellover six feettall. His beardhad was the day he and his party named RogersPass turnedwhite by Novemberof 1885 when, at Crai- and, beforeplunging forward on an expeditionthat gellachie, B.C., a hunchbacked Winnipegger almostcost them their lives, had a wild,mountain- named Ross took the most famous photographin top game of leap-frog.Fleming was 56.) Canadianhistory. It showsa bunchof navviesand dignitaries in the mountain mist. They are Makingway for nationhood wearingdark, rumpled clothes, bowlers and caps, with oystersand champagne and they surroundCPR directorDonald Smith as he drivesthe last spikefor the railwayFleming He was the first lithographerin Canada,and had firstplanned 23 yearsbefore. Behind Smith, printedthe country’sfirst real town maps. He drew wearinga stove-pipehat and almostdominating up an elaborateplan for TorontoHarbour, where the photograph, looms Fleming himself. The he took out a row-boatand did all the soundings bottomof his beardlooks like the edgeof a shovel. himself.He wrote articleson oceannavigation, He appearsas solidand impassiveas a totem-pole, steamboats,historical pictures, postage stamps but the momentmoves him deeply.Later, he would and colour-blindness.(He was colour-blind;once he write: unintentionallyalarmed his futurewife by court- Most of the engineers,with hundreds of work- ing her in a pink suit that clashedwith his red men of all nationalities,who had been engaged beard.) in the mountains,were present...The blowson He wrotea bookof ShortDaily Prayers for Busy the spike were repeateduntil it was driven Households,invested so shrewdly that he was home. The silence, however, continuedun- wealthyby his mid-thirties,and, at the timeof the broken...It seemedas if the act now performed historic Charlottetownconference of 1864, had worked a spell on all present.Each one dreamed up and successfully promoted post- appearedabsorbed in his own reflections. . . conferencetrips by the Canadiandelegates to Suddenlya cheerspontaneously burst forth, and Halifaxand SaintJohn. He believedthat ’~there is it was no ordinarycheer. The subduedenthu- nothinglike the brotherhoodof knifeand fork"; siasm,the pent-upfeelings of men familiarwith and as his own lustyparties in Ottawaand Halifax hard work, now found vent. Cheer upon cheer had alreadyproved, his was also a brotherhoodof followed...Such a sceneis conceivableon the oystersand champagne.After the Maritimeparties fieldof hard-foughtbattle at the momentwhen in 1864,the SaintJohn MorningTelegraph patted victoryis assured...As the shoutssubsided, a its editorialtummy and allowed:~The Canadians voicewas heardin the most prosaictones, as of are goodfellows and a jollyset, and we are sorry constantdaily occurrence:’~All aboard for to part with them."Fleming had made the ground the Pacific."The noticewas quicklyacted upon, for the plantingof Confederationsofter than and in a few minutesthe train was in motion. before. It passedover the newly-laidrail and, amid renewedcheers, sped on its way westward. Fleming had a knack of showing up at places It was a tributenot onlyto his reputationas an where Canadianhistory could breatheon him. In engineerbut also to his lust for work,and more 1849,he travelledfrom Torontoto Montrealto get work, that at one time he held down no fewer a surveyor’slicense, and walkedright into a riot. than three of the biggest railwayjobs in the A streetmob had peltedthe Governor’scarriage country.He was chief engineerfor the Inter- with rotteneggs and stonesand the throngswept colonial Railway, under constructionbetween Flemingto the doors of the burningParliament Halifaxand ;chief engineerfor the CPR, Buildings.He was then22, and onlyfour yearsout forwhich he was to surveythe routeto the Pacific; of his home in ,. He promptly and chief engineerof the surveyfor what would organized a small party to rescue a massive one day be the NewfoundlandRailway. "No man paintingof QueenVictoria. A lifelonglover of the without his extraordinarymental and physical BritishEmpire, Flemingwould later celebrate vigourcould have bornethe tremendousstrain," supreme moments, such as crossing the Great hisfriend and biographer,L.J. Burpee, wrote. ~’The Dividein the Rockies,by drinkinga toastto Queen task was Herculean."Fleming was the quint- Victoriain the sparklingwater of an alpinebrook. essentialhard-working Scot in the New World. But if Flemingwas a Scot he was also a super- Aroundthe world and back Canadian.It is a clich~of ourhistory that the chal- againvia Fleming’scable lengeof conqueringdistance to achieveunity has forcedCanadians to mastersolutions to problems Havingwelded Canada together by rail,Fleming of communicationand transportation.Fleming’s decidedto weld the Empiretogether with cables. passionsincluded railways, telegraph systems, The massivemissing link in the imperialcom- steamships,ocean navigation,postal communica- munications system lay between Canada and tionand cablesto girdlethe globe. Australia.In 1879 he wrote his first letterto proposea Pacificcable. After a campaignwhich, A link betweenthe boardrooms for tenacityand dippinginto his own amplepocket, andthe wildernessall about put even his promotionof standardtime to shame, he at lastsaw the cablego intoservice on October He was also that peculiarlyCanadian type, a 31, 1902.The PrimeMinister of New Zealandsent gentlemanof the wilderness.He was a scholar,a a wire to congratulatehim. To mark the occasion scientist,an unswervingchurchman, a man of Flemingsent westboundand eastboundmessages publicaffairs. Yet he was as hardas an axe-blade, aroundthe worldand back again. secondonly to the Indianat scratchinga living out Even in an age that regarded work as holy, of the wilds. He hob-nobbedwith princes and Fleming’swork-addiction was spectacular.As a trappers,governors and M~tis,prime ministers and boy in Scotland,he had copiedthe followingfrom Indians,lords and frontierhorse traders.The BenjaminFranklin’s Poor Richard’sAlmanack: RenaissanceMan of the Wildernesswas the link ~’But dost thou love life? Then do not squander betweenhinterland and the boardrooms,bureau- time,for thatis the stufflife is madeof. Howmuch craciesand universities.Fleming flourished in both more than is necessarydo we spend in sleep, worlds. forgettingthat the sleeping fox catchesno poultry, He crossedCanada by foot,snow-shoe, dog team, and that there will be sleepingenough in the canoe,wagon, raft and dug-out.But he cruised grave. Sloth maketh all things difficult,but Venicein a gondolaand went up in a balloonin industryall easy."Fleming spent his wholelife, Parisas well.He oncedrove a sleighfrom Shediac, all 88 yearsof it, refusingto squandertime. N.B.,to Rimouski,Que., a journeyof morethan 300 milesin fivedays of ferociouswinter weather. He also visitedfive continentsby steamshipand revelledin thatsupreme luxury, a privaterailway car. Out on the prairie,he met a Siouxchief with a salmon-fishingon the MatapediaRiver in Quebec. bear-clawnecklace, skunk’s fur at his anklesand In only five days there,he dinedseparately with hawk’sfeathers in his hair;in Paris,he met the GeorgeStephen (the futureLord Mount Stephen), Princeof Wales and joinedhim in the royalbox DonaldA. SmithClast-spike" Smith, the futureLord at an opera.On the trailof a futurerailroad, he Strathcona),Lord Elphinstone,and the Duke of pulleda wolfskinover his head and joineda gang Beaufort.He also foundtime to share"a splendid of dancingIndians. In Londonhe ran intoSir John bonfire"with his old friendGeorge M. Grant,the A. Macdonald.The two and their wives spent a principalof Queen’s University,and Princess coupleof daystogether, shopping and sightseeing Louise and Prince Leopold. They were both in high stylealong the banksof the Thames. childrenof QueenVictoria, and Louisewas the wife of Lord Lorne,Governor General of Canada.At the "What made them elect a man end of this gruellingbackwoods social schedule, who has neverbeen to college?" Fleming reported that his son had caught a 25-poundsalmon, and that"I lostone in gaffing-- He spentthe nightof his 24th birthdaysleeping almost hooked another--finallylanded two- on the banksof Lake Huronin threefeet of snow verytired." He was only53. He couldnot slowdown and a wind that pushed the temperaturedown to yet. Therewould be sleepingenough in the grave. -14F. He spentother birthdaynights on feather That was the year he became chancellor of mattressesin the four-postersof the mostsumptu- Queen’sUniversity and happilyconfided to his ous hotelsin Europe.Once, with an umbrella,he diary,"This is the strangestthing of my life.What routeda large bear that blockedhis path in a madethem elect a man to the highestposition, who desolatepart of Ontario.There were times when he has neverbeen in his lifeat college?"He had first ate bear,moose lips, snipe, loon, yellowlegs and, of seenQueen’s only a few days afterhis arrivalin course,roast buffalo. He couldhappily eat lunch Canadain 1845.The 35 yearssince then had given underan upturnedcanoe during a rainstorm,or at him a lot to be thankfulfor. He had a lovingwife, the bestParisian restaurants. a placecalled ~’The Lodge" on the NorthwestArm Sometimeshis wildernessworld and his society in Halifax,a familymansion called "Winterholme" world converged. In 1864, for instance, the in ,a tractof salmon-fishingterritory in Governorof New Brunswickinsisted he come to northernNew Brunswick,the rightto travelfree dinner.Fleming had no choicebut to arrivein the on some of the world’sbest trains,independent clotheshe had been wearingfor weekson end in wealth,general respect and, in the university the deep forest:a red flannelshirt, homespun appointment,prestige. trousers, rough boots. "You can imagine the Not longbefore he diedon July22, 1915,Fleming sensationI made when I enteredthe drawingroom reflectedon ~my great good fortuneto have my at Government House, filled with ladies in lotcast in thisgoodly land". He added,"I haveoften wonderfultoilets and officersin full dressuni- thoughthow gratefulI am for my birthinto this form,"he wrote."However, I was givena charming marvellousworld." Others, too, might occasionally companionto takein to dinner,and enjoyedmyself considerbeing gratefulfor his birth into this immensely." land and this world. A good place to consider He knew the Premierof Australia,the Queenof SandfordFleming is aboarda trainon the CN main Hawaii,and, accordingto Sir AndrewMacPhail, lineas it chugsup to Montrealfrom the Atlantic "everypersonage of note in the Empire".He got Ocean, or the CP line as it arrows across the to know at leastsome of thesepersonages in the Prairies,zooms into the mountainsand rampages wilderness.In July,1880, for instance,he went down to the westernsea. A good time to pay him a silenttribute is the momentyou crossfrom one to another,anywhere the world over, and adjustyour watch.

ALSOAVAILABLE IN FRENCH AND IN BRAILLE ©THE ROYAL BANK OF CANADA 1978/PRINTED IN CANADA