Brassey was engaged; and the
railway system, not only by its own immense demands on capital, labor
and inventive skill, but still more by the stimulus and aid it has
given to industrial enterprises of every kind, must be regarded as the
main lever of a material progress that has outstripped the conceptions
and possibilities of all previous ages. With the development of a
system so different in its nature from the great undertakings of any
former period came the need of the contractor, entrusted with the
direction and laden with the full responsibility of works which no
government "boards" or similar machinery would have been competent to
carry through under the conditions imposed by the novel circumstances
of the movement and the exacting spirit by which it was impelled. To
attain the foremost place in the new career thus created demanded,
obviously, no ordinary powers--special knowledge of various kinds,
equal facility in mastering details and grasping a general plan, tact
in the choice and management of subordinates, courage and promptness
in encountering unforeseen obstacles and disasters, and skill and
clearheadedness in the general control of enormous and intricate
financial interests. To these qualities must be added in the present
case what is not so invariably associated with the names of succesful
contractors--a faithfulness and integrity which merited and received
the fullest confidence.
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