“It requires no strain of character, no vacillation?”
“For twenty-five years,” answered Mr. Depew, “I was on all occasions to the front in political battles, and I never found that political opinions or activity made it necessary to break friendships or make them.”
Mr. Depew’s political career is already so well known that it need not be reviewed here.
After three years of service as vice-president of the New York Central Railroad, he was elevated, in 1885, to the presidency. While thus given a position of great influence in the business world, his growing reputation made him eligible for greater political honors than any for which he had yet been named. In 1888 he was the presidential candidate of the Republicans of New York state, at the national convention of the party, and received the solid vote of his state delegation, but withdrew his name. President Harrison offered him the position of secretary of state, to succeed Mr. Blaine, but he declined.
OPPORTUNITIES OF TO-DAY.
“What do you think of the opportunities to-day? Has the recent war aided us?”
“It is the best thing for the young men of to-day that could have happened! The new possessions mean everything to young men, who are going to be old men by and by. We, as a nation, are going to find, by the wise utilization of the conditions forced upon us, how to add incalculably to American enterprise and opportunity by becoming masters of the sea, and entering with the surplus of our manufactures the markets of the world. The solid merchants are to undertake the extension of American trade, but the young men will be called in to do the work under their guidance. The young man who is ready is naturally the one chosen.”
“You think a tide of prosperity waits for every young American?”
“It may not exactly wait, but he can catch it easily.”