_ CHAPTER XVII. Relating to the Disposition of the Captives
It was not later than the next day but one, that I met Giddings, alert, ingratiating, and natty as ever.
"When am I to have the third stanza?" I inquired, "the one that's 'the best of all.'"
This question he seemed to take as a rebuke; for he reddened, while he tried to laugh.
"Barslow," said he, "there isn't any use in our discussing this thing. You couldn't understand it. A man like you, who can calculate to a hair just how far he is going and just where to turn back, and--Oh, damn! There's no use!"
I sympathize with Giddings, at this present moment, in his despair of making people understand; for I doubt, sometimes, whether it is possible for me to make the reader understand the conditions with us in Lattimore at the time when poor Trescott lay there in his fine house, fighting for life, and for many things more important, and while the wedding preparations were going forward at the General's house.
To the steady-going, stationary, passionless community these conditions approach the incomprehensible. No one seemed to doubt the city's future now. Sometimes the abnormal basis upon which our great new industries had been established struck the stranger with distrust, if he happened to have the insight to notice it; but the concerns
were there most undeniably, and had shifted population in their coming, and were turning out products for the markets of the world.
That they had been evolved magically, and set in operation, not by any slow process of meeting a felt want, but for this sole purpose of shifting population, might be, and undoubtedly was, unusual; but given the natural facilities for carrying the business on, and how did this forced genesis adversely affect their prospects?
I, for one, could see no reason for apprehension. Yet when the story of Trescott's maudlin plunging came to our ears, and the effect of his possible failure received consideration, or I thought of the business explosion which would follow any open breach between Jim and Cornish (though this seemed too remote for serious consideration), I began to ponder on the enormously complex system of credits we had built up.
Besides the regular line of bonds and mortgages growing out of debts due us on our real-estate sales, and against which we had issued the debentures and the guaranteed rediscounts of the Grain Belt Trust Company, the factories, stock yards, terminals, street-car system, and most of our other properties were pretty heavily bonded. Some of them were temporarily unproductive, and funds had from time to time to be provided, from sources other than their own earnings, for the payment of their interest-charges. On the whole, however, we had been able to carry the entire line forward from position to position with such success that the people were kept in a fever, and accessions to our population kept pouring in which, of their own force, added fuel to the fire of expectancy.
This one thing began to make me uneasy--there was no place to stop. A failure among us would quench this expectancy, and values would no longer increase. And everything was organized on the basis of the continued crescendo. That was the reason why every uplift in prices had been followed by a new and strenuous effort on our part to hoist them still higher. For that reason, we, who had become richer than we had ever hoped to be, kept toiling on to rear to greater and greater heights an edifice which the eternal forces of nature itself clutched, to drag down.
I was the first to suggest this feature in conference. The Trescott scare had made me more thoughtful. True, outwardly things were more than ever booming. The very signs on the streets spoke of the boom. It was "Lumber, Coal, and Real Estate"; "Burbank's Livery, Feed, and Sale Stable. Office of Burbank Realty Co."; or "Thronson & Larson, Grocers. Choice Lots in Thronson's Addition." Even Giddings had platted the "
Herald Addition," and was offering a choice quarter-block as a prize to the person who could guess nearest to the average monthly increase in values in the addition, as shown by the record of sales. Real estate appeared as a part of the business of hardware stores and milliners' shops, so that one was constantly reminded of the heterogeneous announcements on the signboard of Mr. Wegg. But while all this went on, and transactions "in dirt" were larger than ever, one could see indications that there was in them a larger and larger element of credit, and less and less cash. So one day, at a syndicate conference, I sought to ease my mind by asking where this thing was to stop, and when we could hope for a time when the town would not have to be held up by main strength.
"Why, that's a very remarkable question!" said Mr. Hinckley. "We surely haven't reached the point where we can think of stopping. Why, with the history before us of the cities of America which, without half our natural advantages, have grown to so many times the size of this, I'm surprised that such a thing should be thought of! Just think of what Chicago was in '54 when I came through. A village without a harbor, built along the ditches of a frog-pond! And see it now; see it now!"
There was a little quiver in Mr. Hinckley's voice, a little infirmity of his chin, which told of advancing years. His ideas were becoming more fixed. It was plain that the notion of Lattimore's continued and uninterrupted progress was one to which he would cling with the mild and unreasoning stubbornness of gentlemanly senility. But Cornish welcomed the discussion with something like eagerness.
"I'm glad the matter has come up," said he. "We've had a few good years here; but, in the nature of things, won't the time come when things will be--slower? We've got our first plans pretty well worked out. The mills, factories, and live-stock industries are supporting population, and making tonnage which the railroad is carrying. But what next? We can't expect to build any more railroads soon. No line of less than five hundred miles will do any good, strategically speaking, and sending out stubs just to annex territory for our shippers is too slow and expensive business for this crowd. Things are booming along now; but the Eastern banks are getting finicky about paper, and--I think things are going to be--slower--and that we ought to act accordingly."
There was a long silence, broken only by a dry laugh from Hinckley, and the remark that Barslow and Cornish must be getting dyspeptic from high living.
"Well," said Elkins at last, ignoring Hinckley and facing Cornish, "get down to brass nails! What policy would you adopt?"
"Oh, our present policy is all right," answered he of the Van Dyke beard--
"Yes, yes!" interjected Hinckley. "My view exactly. A wonderfully successful policy!"
"--and," Cornish continued, "I would only suggest that we cease spreading out--not cease talking it, but only just sort of stop doing it--and begin to realize more rapidly on our holdings. Not so as to break the market, you understand; but so as to keep the demand fairly well satisfied."
Mr. Elkins was slow in replying, and when the reply came it was of the sort which does not answer.
"A most important, not to say momentous question," said he. "Let's figure the thing over and take it up again soon. We'll not begin to disagree at this late day. Mr. Hinckley has warned us that he has an engagement in thirty minutes. It seems to me we ought to dispose of the matter of the appropriation for the interest on those Belt Lines bonds. Wade's mash on 'Atkins, Corning & Co.' won't last long in the face of a default."
Mr. Hinckley staid his thirty minutes and withdrew. Mr. Cornish went to the telephone and ordered his dog-cart.
"Immediately," he instructed, "over here at the Grain Belt Trust Building."
"Make it in half an hour, can't you, Cornish?" said Jim. "There are some more things we ought to go over."
"Say!" shouted Cornish into the transmitter. "Make that in half an hour instead of at once."
He hung up the telephone, and turned to Elkins inquiringly. Jim was walking up and down on the rug, his hands clasped behind him.
"Since we've spread out into that string of banks," said he, still keeping up his walk, "and made Mr. Hinckley the president of each of 'em, he's reverting to his old banker's timidity. Which consists, in all cases, in an aversion to any change in conditions. To suggest any change, even from an old, dangerous policy to a new safe one, startles a 'conservative' banker. If we had gone on a little longer with our talk about shutting off steam and taking the nigger off the safety-valve, you'd have seen him scared into a numbness. But, now that the question has been brought up, let's talk it over. What's your notion about it, anyhow, Al?"
"I'm seeking light," said I. "The people are rushing in, and the town's doing splendidly. But prices, there's no denying it, are beginning to sort of strangle things. They prevent doing, any more, what we did at first. Kreuger Brothers' failure yesterday was small; but it's a clear case of a retailer's being eaten up with fixed charges--or so Macdonald told me this morning; and I know that frontage on Main Street is demanding fully as much as the traffic will bear. And then our fright over Trescott's gambling gave me some bad dreams over our securities. It has bothered me to see how to adjust our affairs to a stationary condition of things; that's all."
"Of course," said Cornish, "we must keep boosting. Fortunately society here is now thoroughly organized on the principle of whooping it up for Lattimore. I could get up a successful lynching-party any time to attend to the case of any miscreant who should suggest that property is too high, or rents unreasonable, or anything but a steady up-grade before us. But I think we ought to stop buying--except among ourselves, and keep the transfers from falling off--and begin salting down."
"If you can suggest any way to do that, and still take care of our paper," said Jim, "I shall be with you."
"I've never anticipated," said Cornish, "that such a mass of business could be carried through without some losses. Investors can't expect it."
"The first loss in the East through our paper," said Jim, "means a taking up of the Grain Belt securities everywhere, and no market for more. And you know what that spells."
"It mustn't be allowed to happen--yet awhile," answered Cornish. "As I just now said, we must keep on boosting."
"You know where the Grain Belt debentures and other obligations are mostly held, of course?" asked Mr. Elkins.
"When a bond or mortgage is sold," was the answer, "my interest in it ceases. I conclusively presume that the purchaser himself personally looked to the security, or accepted the guaranty of the negotiating trust company.
Caveat emptor is my rule."
Mr. Elkins looked out of the window, as if he had forgotten us.
"We should push the sale of the Lattimore & Great Western," said he, "and the Belt Line System."
"I concur," said Cornish. "Our interest in those properties is a two-million-dollar cash item."
"It wouldn't be two million cents," said Jim, "if our friends on Wall Street could hear this talk. They'd wait to buy at receiver's sale after some Black Friday. Of course, that's what Pendleton and Wade have been counting on from the first."
"You ought to see Halliday and Pendleton at once," said I.
"Yes, I think so, too," he rejoined. "Pendleton'll pay us more than our price, rather than see the Halliday system get the properties. They're deep ones; but we ought to be able to play them off against each other, so long as we can keep strong at home. I'll begin the flirtation at once."
Cornish, assuming that Jim had fully concurred in his views, bade us a pleasant good-day, and went out.
"My boy," said Jim, "cheer up. If gloom takes hold of you like this while we're still running before a favoring wind, it'll bother you to keep feeling worse and worse, as you ought, as we approach the real thing. Cheer up!"
"Oh, I'm all right!" said I. "I was just trying to make out Cornish's position."
"Let's make out our own," he replied, "that's the first thing. Bear in mind that this is a buccaneering proposition, and you're first mate: remember? Well, Al, we've had the merriest cruise in the books. If any crew ever had doubloons to throw to the birds, we've had 'em. But, you know, we always draw the line somewhere, and I'm about to ask you to join me in drawing the line, and see just what moral level piracy has risen or sunk to."
He still walked back and forth, and, as he spoke of drawing the line, he drew an imaginary one with his fingers on the green baize of the flat-topped desk.
"You remember what those fellows, Dorr and Wickersham, said the other night, about having invested the funds of estates, and savings accounts in our obligations?" he went on. "But I never told you what Wickersham said privately to me. The infernal fool has more of our paper than his bank's whole capital stock, with the surplus added, amounts to! And he calls himself a 'conservative New England banker'! It wouldn't be so bad if the states back East weren't infested with the same sort of idiots--I've had Hinckley make me a report on it since that night. It means that women and children and sweaty breadwinners have furnished the money for all these things we're so proud of having built, including the Mt. Desert cottages and the Wyoming hunting-lodge. It means that we've got to be able to read our book of the Black Art backwards as well as forwards, or the Powers we've conjured up will tear piecemeal both them and us. God! it makes me crawl to think of what would happen!"
He sat down on the flat-topped desk, and I saw the beaded pallor of a fixed and digested anxiety on his brow. He went on, in a lighter way:
"These poor people, scattered from the Missouri to the Atlantic, are our prisoners, Al. I think Cornish is ready to make them walk the plank. But, Al, you know, in our bloodiest days, down on the Spanish Main, we used to spare the women and children! What do you say now, Al?"
The way in which he repeated the old nickname had an irresistible appeal in it; but I hope no appeal was needed. I said, and said truly, that I should never consent to any policy which was not mindful of the interests of which he spoke; and that I knew Hinckley would be with us. So, if Cornish took any other view, there would be three to one against him.
"I knew you'd be with me," he continued. "It would have been a sure-enough case of
et tu, Brute, if you hadn't been. But don't let yourself think for a minute that we can't fight this thing to a finish and come off more than conquerors. We'll look back at this talk some time, and laugh at our fears. The troublous times that come every so often are nearer than they were five years ago, but they're some ways off yet, and forewarned is insured."
"But the hard times always catch people unawares," said I.
"They do," he admitted, "but they never tried to stalk a covey of boom specialists before.... You remember all that rot I used to talk about the mind-force method, and psychological booms? We've been false to that theory, by coming to believe so implicitly in our own preaching. Why, Al, this work we've begun here has got to go on! It must go on! There mustn't be any collapse or failure. When the hard times come, we must be prepared to go right on through, cutting a little narrower swath, but cutting all the same. Stand by the guns with me, and, in spite of all, we'll win, and save Lattimore--and spare the captives, too!"
There was the fire of unconquerable resolution in his eye, and a resonance in his voice that thrilled me. After all he had done, after the victories we had won under his leadership, the admiration and love I felt for him rose to the idolatry of a soldier for his general, as I saw him stiffening his limbs, knotting his muscles, and, with teeth set and nostrils dilated, rising to the load which seemed falling on him alone.
"I'll make the turn with these railroad properties," he went on. "We must make Pendleton and Halliday bid each other up to our figure. And there'll be no 'salting down' done, either--yet awhile. I hope things won't shrink too much in the washing; but the real-estate hot air of the past few years must cause some trouble when the payments deferred begin to make the heart sick. The Trust Company will be called on to make good some of its guaranties--and must do it. The banks must be kept strong; and with two millions to sweeten the pot we shall be with 'em to the finish. Why, they can't beat us! And don't forget that right now is the most prosperous time Lattimore ever saw; and put on a look that will corroborate the statement when you go out of here!"
"Bravo, bravo!" said a voice from near the door. "I don't understand any of it, but the speech sounded awfully telling! Where's papa?"
It was Antonia, who had come in unobserved. She wore a felt hat with one little feather on it, driving-gloves, and a dark cloth dress. She stood, rosy with driving, her blonde curls clustering in airy confusion about her forehead, a tailor-gowned Brunhilde.
"Why, hello, Antonia!" said Jim. "He went away some time ago. Wasn't that a corking good speech? Ah! You never know the value of an old friend until you use him as audience at the dress rehearsal of a speech! Pacers or trotters?"
"Pacers," said she, "Storm and The Friar."
"If you'll let me drive," he stipulated, "I'd like to go home with you."
"Nobody but myself," said she, "ever drives this team. You'd spoil The Friar's temper with that unyielding wrist of yours; but if you are good, you may hold the ends of the lines, and say 'Dap!' occasionally."
And down to the street we went together, our cares dismissed. Jim handed Antonia into the trap, and they spun away toward Lynhurst, apparently the happiest people in Lattimore. _