He knew only too well that out of sentiment came nothing that was sufficient in any crisis to warrant its preservation.
If life had taught him anything, it had taught him that.
And he was not one to turn from his most relentlessly cruel and yet constructive teacher.
Chapter 31
Although it had been agreed that no information of any kind in connection with the transfer of the Charing Cross line was at present to be furnished to the press, the news somehow leaked out, possibly due to gossip emanating from Rider, Calthorpe, and Delafield.
Having been shareholders as well as officers of Traffic Electrical Company before its property was thus transferred, they feared for their future and were inclined to discuss the matter.
So that it was not long before financial as well as news reporters appeared, asking Cowperwood for confirmation of the fact.
Cowperwood informed them frankly that such a transfer was now in process, and that, in due time, a certificate of registration would be filed.
Also, that originally he had not come to London to buy anything, seeing that his American interests still required so much of his time, but that certain representatives of London underground ventures had called upon him to urge his managerial as well as financial consideration of routes in which they were interested.
The purchase of the Charing Cross had been the result of these overtures, and there were other ventures to which he had promised to give his attention.
Whether this would result in a unified system which he would care to build depended on what his coming investigations would reveal.
In Chicago, the editorial comments following this announcement were little more than snarls of rage.
That such a ruthless trickster, so recently ejected from that city, should proceed to London, and there, by reason of his wealth, cunning, and general effrontery, be able to cajole the powers of that great city into looking to him for the possible solution of their transit needs, was too much!
Plainly, the British had not troubled to inquire into his highly sinister record.
But once that was uncovered, as it presently would be, he would be as unwelcome there as he was to this hour and for years past had been in Chicago!
There were equally unfavorable comments in the newspapers of a number of other American cities, the editors and publishers of which had taken their mood from that of Chicago.
On the other hand, in the London press, and not strange to relate—since its social, financial, and political opinions were highly realistic and never likely to be based on popular complaint—the reaction toward Cowperwood was most favorable.
The Daily Mail ventured the opinion that such ability as his might not disadvantageously be centered upon the laggard London underground field, which for years had toddled far behind public necessity.
The Chronicle deplored the inactivity of English capital and expressed the pious hope that if an American, in so distant a place as Chicago, could discern what London needed, perhaps the traction leaders of London would now awaken and go forward themselves.
There were similar comments in the Times, Express, and other journals.
These comments were, from a financial point of view, as Cowperwood saw it, unfortunate.
They were likely to concentrate not only English but American financial ambition on his own purpose and awaken obstructive activity, and in this he was certainly not wrong.
For no sooner were the notices of the sale of the line confirmed, and his admission as to other offers and his possible future interest in the London transit problem made public, than the chief stockholders of both the District and the Metropolitan, the two lines most impugned, were in a fury of indignation, and in so far as the future was concerned, most certain to oppose him.
“Cowperwood!
Cowperwood!” sniffed Lord Colvay, shareholder and one of the twelve directors of the Metropolitan, as well as of the new City and South London. He was having his breakfast, with the Times to the right of him, for reasons of mental dignity principally, but at the moment was reading the Daily Mail, his favorite paper.
“And who the devil is this Cowperwood?
One of those mushroom Americans, gadding round the world, telling people what to do!
I wonder who his so-called advisers are—Scarr, maybe, with that Baker Street and Waterloo scheme of his, and Wyndham Willets, with his Deptford and Bromley route.
And, of course, Greaves and Henshaw, looking for contracts.
And the Traffic Electrical anxious to clear out.”
Equally annoyed was Sir Hudspeth Dighton, director of the District and a shareholder in the Metropolitan.
He was already seventy-five years of age, ultraconservative and not at all interested to enter upon radical railway changes, particularly when they represented large expenditures, the profit outcome of which could not definitely be foretold.
He had arisen at five-thirty, and after having his tea and reading his paper, was walking among the flowers on his estate at Brentford, pondering the problem of these Americans, with their newfangled notions about everything.
To be sure, the undergrounds were not doing so well as they might, and the equipment might be modernized to advantage.
But why should the Times and the Mail be pointing out the fact, and particularly in connection with the arrival of an American who certainly could do no better than any of a score of Englishmen when put to it?
It was no more and no less than belittling British ability, which was nonsense.
England ruled, and would continue to rule, the world.
It certainly needed no outside help.
And from that moment on, he was prepared to argue against any foreign interference in connection with the development of London underground transit.
So, too, with Sir Wilmington Jeems, whose residence was in the region of Wimbley Park.
He was also a director of the District. He was willing to admit that modernization and extension were desirable.
But why an American?
When the proper time came, that could be arranged by Englishmen.
And something related to the opinions of these three men constituted the majority reaction of the directors and largest shareholders of both the Metropolitan and the District, as well as those of the other underground railways of London.
But it was Colvay, the most aggressive and dynamic of the three, who was finally roused to defensive action.
That same day he proceeded to consult the other directors, Stane first of all, as to what action should be taken in the matter.
But by then Stane had been sufficiently impressed by Johnson’s account of Cowperwood, and what he had read in the papers, to answer Colvay very cautiously.
He stated that this proposal of Cowperwood’s was a natural development.
It was something which anyone apart from the older directors of both companies could see as necessary.
Certainly, the obvious thing, now that a rival system was proposed, was to call a meeting of the directors of the Metropolitan and the District, and both groups should confer as to a proper course.