“And that, you think, is a fair way to treat minority stockholders?” Goldfuss asked.
“We were willing at any time to buy them out at the market price,” said Galt. “However, that’s now an academic matter. The Great Midwestern has acquired all that minority interest in Orient & Pacific.”
This was news. There was a stir at the reporters’ table. Several rose and went out to telegraph Galt’s statement to Wall Street, where nobody yet knew how Bullguard & Co. had made peace with him.
So they went from one thing to another. They came to that notorious land transaction on account of which he had been sued.
“We needed that land for an important piece of railroad development,” said Galt. “Some land traders got wind of our plans, formed a syndicate, bought up all the ground around, and then tried to make us buy it through the nose. We simply sat tight until they went broke. Then we took it off their hands. There was more than the Great Midwestern needed because they were hogs. The Great Midwestern took what it wanted and I took the rest. The directors knew all about it.”
“And it was very profitable to you personally, this outcome?”
“Incidentally it was,” said Galt. “Somebody would get it. It fell into my hands. What would you have done?”
“Strike that off the record,—‘What would you have done?’” said Goldfuss. “Counsel is not being examined.”
After lunch he took a new line.
“Mr. Galt,” he asked, “what are you worth?”