“Did time permit I could tell you much of how Mr. Hays carried on his great heart, the toiling multitudes of earth and their needs, and of how it was to him a vision glorious that he was permitted in some measure to contribute to their uplift and redemption. He, too, like Israel’s leader, had looked upon the burdens of the people. To us it seems that, like Moses, he has been permitted only to view his promised land from afar. On the threshhold of completion he has been bidden to lay down his work. A broken column? A work incomplete? Yes, if this world is all, and this life the only life, but if death is indeed for the life that lives in Christ, not extinction but expansion, not frustration but promotion, than surely in some other of the many mansions in our Father’s one great house, they still serve who have ceased from labor here, and work with gladness for the bringing in of that day when throughout all the universe of God there shall be nothing to hurt nor to destroy, but ‘God shall be all and in all.’”
The press throughout the American continent united in tribute to Charles Melville Hays and under the caption of Montreal’s Loss the Gazette of April 19, 1912, said editorially: “Among the many places which will have home reasons for bearing the loss (April 15, 1912) of the steamship Titanic in sorrowful memory there will be few to rank before Montreal. Of residents who had won or were winning honorable places of usefulness in the city’s commercial life, no less than four ended their earthly career in the dark hours of Monday when the Atlantic waters closed over the wreck of what had been one of the world’s noblest vessels. First of these, of course, ranks Mr. Charles M. Hays, president of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railways and director and adviser in many allied and other enterprises. Mr. Hays came to Montreal as a stranger, when the condition and fortunes of the Grand Trunk Railway were low indeed. The life had apparently gone out of the direction and a great property, with greater potentialities, was in danger of passing into bankruptcy. He and his associates found their task harder also because they were strangers. It was only a little while, however, before the city and the country, as well as the proprietors of the railway, recognized that in the new general manager, which was the title Mr. Hays then had, they had a man who for capacity ranked with the highest in his profession. With a slight interruption Mr. Hays has had chief executive control since 1897 of the Grand Trunk Railway. In that time it has been lifted physically to the standard of a high class, well equipped road, with few superiors in America. Financially it has been so improved as to meet the interest charges on the new capital raised for betterments and has been able to pay dividends on some of the older issues that once seemed to have lost all value as investments. In late years he was a chief moving spirit in the projection and construction of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, which is now approaching completion. His work in these connections speaks of his executive ability louder than can words written or spoken. It is only to be added that in all relations of life, business or social, he was a plain, courteous and kindly gentleman, to whom all were ready to pay in full measure the respect that he deserved.”