"That The Discipline And Traffic Of The Line Could Be Easily Put Upon A
Sound Basis, That That Traffic Could
Be vigorously developed, that the
expenses, except always those of repair and renewal, could be kept
down, and that friendly,
And perhaps improving and more beneficial,
arrangements could be made with the local government - is matter, to me,
of little doubt. Any man thoroughly versed in railways and quite up to
business, and especially accustomed to the management of men and the
conduct of serious negotiation, could easily accomplish this. But after
all, unless I am very much deceived, all this will be insufficient, for
many years to come, to satisfy the Shareholders; and I should not
advise Mr. Glyn or Mr. Baring to tie their reputations to any man,
however able or experienced, if it involved a sort of moral guarantee
that the result of his appointment should be any very sudden
improvement, of a character likely much to raise the value of the
property in the market, which unfortunately is what the
Shareholders very naturally look at, as the test of everything.
"To work the Grand Trunk as a gradually improving property would, I
repeat, be easy; but to work it so as to produce a great success
in a few years can only, in my opinion, be done in one way. That way,
to many, would be chimerical; to some, incomprehensible; and possibly I
may be looked upon myself as somewhat visionary for even suggesting it.
That way, however, to my mind, lies through the extension of railway
communication to the Pacific.
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