“Mr. Ross was first president of the Mexican Light, Heat and Power Company and during his several visits to the Mexican capital was brought in contact with the then ruling spirits of the republic. He at once formed a very high opinion of the then president with whom Mr. Ross had several interesting interviews, touching the trade relations of Canada and Mexico, and with that never erring foresight he also stated to a friend on his return from the Mexican capital that if ever Diaz was forced to relinquish the helm of state, trouble would follow in the southern republic as it did not appear to the Montreal financier that there were enough of trained men around the then president to carry on successfully the affairs of that country, and the words of the former appear to have been prophetic.
“Although having a commanding interest in many other establishments and industries Mr. Ross used to say that the Bank of Montreal, the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Dominion Coal Company were nearest his heart. He was a director in the first named institution since 1899, the largest individual shareholder in the great national railway system and up to a few years ago the president and the holder of five million dollars stock in the last named corporation. Mr. James Ross succeeded the late Mr. Hugh McLennan and had been in consequence director of the Bank of Montreal for fourteen years. Speaking of the loss that institution sustained in the death of Mr. Ross, its vice president and general manager, Mr. H. V. Meredith, said: ‘We have lost an eminently strong man and a sound adviser,’ while Mr. R. B. Angus, the president, spoke of him as a very able director of the bank and a warm personal friend.”
About the time that Mr. Ross arrived in Canada the country was deeply engrossed in the discussion of free trade versus protection, and having seen the neighboring republic grow from an agricultural to a manufacturing community, and realizing what the same fiscal policy would do for Canada, he at once espoused the cause then championed by Sir John Macdonald and Sir Charles Tupper, both as regards the fiscal policy of the Dominion and their railway program as well. Mr. Ross was a moderate protectionist, believing that such a policy was mutually beneficial both to the manufacturer and consumer. He had seen such states as Illinois, Ohio, Minnesota and other agricultural sections of the Union vote for protection and often when apprehension was expressed over the probable outcome of a moderately protective tariff for the western provinces of Canada, Mr. Ross would reply that the establishment of eastern industries all over the west would soon convert the farmers of Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan to protectionist ideas.