“I doubt it.”
“And half a dozen who own over a hundred. The Waldorf family certainly do. Mr. Angus Campbell, of Pittsburg, is said to have three hundred. Your friend, Mr. William Mellen, of the International Distributing Syndicate, is supposed to have five hundred at least. Why should a fortune of even a billion dollars raise a rumpus these days? It was inconceivable a few years ago, but it does not seem out of the way now. I realize perfectly how the sudden increase in the gold supply of this country could produce an inflation that might, in the end, prove highly detrimental to general business. As I understand it, certain financial laws cannot be disturbed with impunity, however praiseworthy the financial law-breaker’s motives may be. But a billion dollars would not make such an awful lot, especially if it should be turned into circulation gradually.”
“It would mean an increase per capita of forty per cent. It would be terrific,” said the president earnestly. “Your argument is utterly unsound unless by ‘gradually’ you mean fifty years.”
“I certainly don’t mean any such thing. Supposing new and enormously rich goldfields were discovered, would that upset the financial equilibrium of the world?”
“It is conceivable that it could easily do so.”
“I think that the world would adjust itself to the new conditions very quickly. Just now, the South African mines are not producing. Suppose that a new source of supply should yield one to two hundred millions a year? Or, five hundred, if it were distributed among all the civilized countries? I’d be the last man to make gold as cheap as pig-iron, I can assure you. But—”
The president’s face was livid. Dark rings had appeared, as by a stage trick, suddenly under his eyes. Wrinkles showed about his nostrils, like those seen in invalids after prolonged pain.
“Mr. Dawson, are you ill?” asked Grin-nell anxiously.
“No, no,” said the president, with a pale smile. “Your views are—er—I mean no offence, Mr. Grinnell, but they show that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.”
“I have been studying this matter for some weeks, Mr. Dawson,” Grinnell said, with a complacency that almost made the president shudder. There was no telling what the young man might not do in his ignorance.