“Our books are open for examination by any accountant you may send. I'll agree to pay his expenses if he finds anything that does not confirm what's in that paper.” Tommy instantly felt he had spoken hastily. The expert's fee might be utterly beyond his ability to pay. But Thompson had said the experts could be sent. Tommy was betting on Thompson. It was a safe bet, he thought, and he felt easy once more, not knowing that in trusting to his judgment of men he had done the most business-like thing in his business career.
“According to these—er—documents your company expects to make a great deal more than the stockholders will get. You are asking me—I mean the stockholders—to authorize the directors to divide the money which our money makes in any way they see fit.”
“Exactly—after a fair profit is paid to the stockholders, because we believe that by sharing profits with the men who produce and the men who buy the product we are dividing the profits among the people that make the profits possible. If labor, capital, and the public are satisfied, where's the fight going to come from?” Tommy had never before thought of profit-sharing as concretely as this, but he was convinced that his position was not only right, but unanswerable.
“Where did you say your factory is—Utopia?” asked the colonel, with elaborate politeness.
“Dayton, Ohio. I'd like to have you visit us.”
“Thanks, Tommy. To whom else have you talked about this?”
“My father. He thought it was not a very good time to raise money. But you see, sir, I am not here to raise money to carry on our business, but to ask my friends to buy stock that I'd take in a minute if I had the money.”
The more Tommy thought about it, the more he wished Rivington might be a large stockholder in the new company that was going to be the world's model corporation.
“Well, Tommy,” said Colonel Willetts, after a pause, “I'll tell you frankly, your proposition does not appeal to me.”
Tommy's disappointment showed itself in his face, which thereupon became impassive, but unfortunately impassive with a quite obvious effort.