If an employee had left with wages owning it would likely have been put in his
personnel record after the Paymaster's office had carried it on the books for a
period of time. (Those records still exist although generally not accessible
due to privacy laws.) If Shaughnessy or another executive had become aware that
Trotsky had worked for the company, once he became a public figure as head of
the Red Army during the Russian civil war, they could have called for his
record to see what his involvement had bee. Or the government may have done so
and asked about him. If Trotsky had indeed left without his final pay then the
fact might well have stayed in Shaughnessy's mind (he was the ultimate
bureaucrat who had inspected every one of the invoices for the CPR's original
construction in order to find irregularities and fraud, and was successful) and
that was the sort of thing that was likely to stick in his mind. On the other
hand if he wasn't aware of any unpaid wages he probably made the statement as a
jesting response and it is likely to have been taken as such.
Don Thomas
----- Original Message -----
From: Rob Kirkham
To: cpsig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Sunday, November 16, 2008 4:33 PM
Subject: Re: [cpsig] Funny old news.
Interesting find Frank. The comment about the $40 is a loaded statement -
I'd be shocked if Shaughnessy was able to identify what wages were
outstanding to any other former employees of the company. In fact, I
wonder if what he said was actually true re the $40.00 or just one of those
power moves people may try in order to convey the idea they are aware of the
"important" details of the company? I suppose that the way the RCMP and
U.S. police agencies would have been investigating soviet and "communist"
organisations, labour trouble generally, and risks to infrastructure, etc,
it isn't hard to believe that Shaugnessy and the power structure of the CPR
would have considered it a significant issue.
Rob Kirkham
--------------------------------------------------
From: "Frank Valoczy" <destron@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, November 16, 2008 12:13 PM
To: <cpsig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [cpsig] Funny old news.
> A short but amusing news piece from the March 1921 issue of Canadian
> Railway & Marine World:
>
> "In speaking at a recent Canadian Club dinner in New York, Hon. N.W.
> Rowell, MP for Durham, Ont., said: "E. W. Beatty is the only young man
> of prominence Lord Shaughnessy has produced. Our guest may not be so
> proud of it, but when Trotsky lived in New York he also worked for the
> C.P.R. here." Lord Shaughnessy added, "True, and we still owe him $40.""
>
> Frank Valoczy
> Vancouver, BC
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
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