“When he has finished his work on the road, he will take his place
in the offices here, and learn how the system is administered. He
will study the financial department especially, which deals with
expenditures and receipts. This is, perhaps, the most important
department of all for him, but he will also study the freight and
passenger departments, and learn why the business increases and
decreases, and the remedy for a falling off. There are a hundred and
one things to learn, and he couldn’t learn them in any other way. It
will, of course, take a long time, perhaps fourteen or fifteen years,
but he has a great deal of grit and perseverance, and I believe he will
stick to it until he has thoroughly mastered the business.
“He will, in all likelihood, be the next member of the family to enter
into the active management of the road. His brothers and cousins
may eventually go through the same training, but Cornelius, Jr., is
destined to be the most active in the management. I may not live to see
it, but if his health holds out, and he is allowed to pursue his own
course, he will perpetuate the name and fame of the Vanderbilts for
another century.”
“He is a chip of the old block, indeed,” said another friend of the
Vanderbilt family, “and his industry brings to mind the push and
energy of the first Cornelius Vanderbilt in the early part of his
career. The Commodore was never ashamed of any kind of honest work, and
Cornelius is not. He will always be a worker, and his success in life
is therefore assured, whether his father disinherits him or not. It
is not believed, however, that Cornelius Vanderbilt will deprive his
son of his fair share in the estate. On the contrary, however strong
the feeling of displeasure the father may have entertained toward
Cornelius, it is thought by friends of the family that he will treat
his son and namesake fairly and even liberally.”