“I don’t know,” said Galt.
“You don’t know how rich you are?”
“No.”
Goldfuss lay back in his chair with an exaggerated air of astonishment.
“But you will admit you are very rich?” he said, having recovered slowly.
“Yes,” said Galt. “I suppose I am.”
“Well, as briefly as possible, will you tell this Committee how you made it?”
“Now you’ve asked me something,” said Galt, leaning forward again. “I’ll tell you. I made it buying things nobody else wanted. I bought Great Midwestern when it was bankrupt and people thought no railroad was worth its weight as junk. When I took charge of the property I bought equipment when it was cheap because nobody else wanted it and the equipment makers were hungry, and rails and ties and materials and labor to improve the road with, until everybody thought I was crazy. When the business came we had a railroad to handle it. I’ve done that same thing with every property I have taken up. No railroad I’ve ever touched has depreciated in value. I’m doing it still. You may know there has been an upset in Wall Street recently, a panic in fact. Everybody is uneasy and business is worried because a financial disturbance has always been followed by commercial depression. There are signs of that already. But we’ll stop it. In the next twelve months the Great Midwestern properties will spend five hundred million dollars for double tracking, grade reductions, new equipment and larger terminals.”
This was news. Again there was a stir at the reporters’ table as several rose to go out and flash Galt’s statement to Wall Street.
“Mr. Galt,” said Goldfuss, “do you realize what it means for one man to say he will spend five hundred millions in a year? That is half the national debt.”