CAL. A message from a delegation from the National Unemployment Conference. They are to call tomorrow morning.
HAGEN. Ah, yes. Make a note, please... I sympathize with their purpose, and contribute half a million. [To GERALD, who enters, left.] Hello, Gerald... how are you? Make yourself at home. [To CALKINS.] I attribute the present desperate situation to the anarchical struggles of rival financial interests. I am assuming control, and straightening out the tangle as rapidly as I can. The worst of the crisis is over... the opposition is capitulating, and I expect soon to order a general resumption of industry. Prepare me an address of five hundred words... sharp and snappy. Then see the head of the delegation, and have it understood that the affair is not to occupy more than fifteen minutes.
CAL. Very good, sir.
HAGEN. And stir up our Press Bureau. We must have strong, conservative editorials this week... It's the crucial period. Our institutions are at stake... the national honor is imperilled... order must be preserved at any hazard... all that sort of thing.
CAL. Yes, sir... I understand.
HAGEN. Very good. That will be all.
CAL. Yes, sir.
[Exit, right.]
GER. You're putting the screws on, are you?
HAGEN. Humph! Yes. It's funny to hear these financial men... their one idea in life has been to dominate... and now they cry out against tyranny!