The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1906-11-01

studying those processes Of up
Il building which were so rapidly
| converting the west into an empire Of
extraordinary wealth and power. He
had made many suggestions that had
| commended themselves for immediate
execution, together with some that
must wait for years to come. He had
condemned some projects that seemed
hopeful to others, and he had induced
notifications in many.
All these things had been done main
| ~ in his letters and reports to Captain
Will Hallam, but the substance Of
those letters and reports had been
promptly laid before others, especially
before those great fnanciers Of the
east upon whom all enterprises of mo-
| ment throughout the country depended
for the means of their accomplishment
In that way Guilford Duncan had be-
| come known to the master builders"
as he called these men, and had won a
goodly share Of their confidence. He
was regarded as a young man Of un-
| usual gifts in the way Of constructive
enterprise "a trife overbold, some
| thought, overconfidept, even visionary,
but, III the main, sound in his calcula-
lions, as results had shown when his
plans were adopted. On the other
hand, some projectors, whose enter
prises he had discouraged as unsound
or premature, complained that so far
from being visionary he was in fact
a pessim1st, discouraging force that
stood in the way of that development
of the country" from which they hoped
for personal gain OF one kind or an
other.
Napier Tandy was ,iuilford Dun
| cans enemy from the hour in which
Duncan had forced that little branch
railroad in the coal regions to haul
Hallams coal on equal terms with his
own. But Tandy had said nothing
whatever about that. He never pub
lished his enmities till the time came.
About the time of Duncan's return to
Cairo he added another to his offenses
against Tandy, in a way to intensity
that malignant persons hostility.
Tandy was scheming to secure a
costly extension of this branch rail-
road through a sparsely settled and
thin soiled region in a way that would
greatly enrich himself because of his
vast property holdings there. He had
we'll nigh persuaded a group of CAPT
talists to undertake the extension
when, acting cautiously, as fnanciers
must, they decided to ask Duncan to
study the situation and make a report
upon the project. He had already
studied the question thoroughly during
his stay at the mines and was con-
WINGED that nothing but loss could
come Of the attempt. The region
through which the line must run was
too poor in agricultural and other re-
sources to afford even a hope Of
paying traffic. The line itself must be
costly one because of certain topo-
graphical features, and, finally, another
and shorter line, closely paralleling
this proposed extension, but running
through a much richer country, was
already in course Of construction.
| Tandy knew all these things quite
as we'll as Guilford Duncan did. But
Tandy also knew many methods in
business with which Duncan was not
familiar.
AS soon as he was notified by the
capitalists with whom he was negotiat-
ing that they had employed Duncan to
examine and report and that their final
decision would be largely Influenced by
his judgment, Tandy, with special po-
likeness, wrote to Duncan asking him
to call at his house that evening 'for a
little consultation Oh business affairs
that may interest both of US"
Duncan we'll knew that he had Of
tended Tandy in the matter of the coal
cars, but as Tandy had made no sign
he could see no possible reason for re-
fusing this request for a business con-
sultation. Moreover, Guilford Duncan
felt himself under a double response
bility. He felt that he must not only
guard and promote the interests Of
those who had employed him to study
this question, but that he was also I'M
der obligations to consider carefully
the interests involved on the other side.