These opportunities, which were, of course, connected with the manufacturing, industrial, and technical development of the country, demanded under American conditions a very special type of man--the man who would bring to his task not merely energy, but unscrupulous devotion, originality, daring, and in the course of time a large fund of instructive experience.

The early American industrial conditions differed from those of Europe in that they were fluid, and as a result of this instability, extremely precarious.

Rapid changes in markets, business methods, and industrial machinery made it very difficult to build up a safe business.

A manufacturer or a merchant could not secure his business salvation, as in Europe, merely by the adoption of sound conservative methods.

The American business man had greater opportunities and a freer hand than his European prototype; but he was also beset by more severe, more unscrupulous, and more dangerous competition.