U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [396]
-198-restaurant. Their faces were stil tingling from the cold when they had sat down and were studying the menucards.
"Do you know," Benton said, "I've got an idea you boys stand in the way of making a little money out there."
"It's sure been a job gettin' her started," said Charley as he put his spoon into a plate of peasoup. He was hungry.
"Every time you turn your back somethin' breaks down and everythin' goes cockeyed. But now I've got a wonder-ful guy for a foreman. He's a Heinie used to work for the Fokker outfit."
Nat Benton was eating rawroastbeef sandwiches and
buttermilk. "I've got no more digestion than . . .""Than John D. Rockefel er," put in. Charley. They laughed. Benton started talking again. "But as I was saying, I don't know anything about manufacturing but it's always been my idea that the secret of moneymaking in that line of business was discovering proper people to work for you. They work for you or you work for them. That's about the size of it. After al you fel ers turn out the product out there in Long Island City, but if you want to make the money you've got to come down here to make it. . . . Isn't that true?"
Charley looked up from the juicy sirloin he was just about to cut. He burst out laughing. "I guess," he said.
"A man'ud be a damn fool to keep his nose on his draftin'-board al his life." They talked about golf for a while, then when they were having their coffee, Nat Benton said,
"Charley, I just wanted to pass the word along, on account of you being a friend of old Ol ie's and the Humphries and al that sort of thing . . . don't you boys sel any of your stock. If I were you I'd scrape up al the cash you could get ahold of for a margin and buy up any that's around loose. You'l have the chance soon."
"You think she'l keep on risin'?"
"Now you keep this under your hat . . . Merritt and that crowd are worried. They're sel ing, so you can expect
-199-a drop. That's what these Tern people in Detroit are wait-ing for to get in cheap, see, they like the looks of your little concern. . . . They think your engine is a whiz.
. . . If it's agreeable to you I'd like to handle your brok-erage account, just for old times'
sake, you understand." Charley laughed. "Gosh, I hadn't pictured myself with a brokerage account . . . but by heck, you may be right."
"I wouldn't like to see you wake up one morning and find yourself out on the cold cold pavement, see, Charley." After they'd eaten Nat Benton asked Charley if he'd ever seen the stockexchange operating. "It's interesting to see if a fel er's never seen it," he said and led Charley across Broadway where the lashing wind cut their faces and down a narrow street shaded by tal buildings into a crowded vestibule. "My, that cold nips your ears," he said.
"You ought to see it out where I come from," said Char-ley. They went up in an elevator and came out in a little room where some elderly parties in uniform greeted Mr. Benton with considerable respect. Nat signed in a book and they were let out through a smal door into the visitors'
gal ery and stood a minute looking down into a great greenish hal like a railroadstation onto the heads of a crowd of men, some in uniform, some with white badges, slowly churning around the tradingposts. Sometimes the crowd knotted and thickened at one booth and sometimes at another. The air was ful of shuffle and low clicking machinesounds in which voices were lost. "Don't look like much," said Nat, "but that's where it al changes hands." Nat pointed out the booths where different classes of stocks were traded. "I guess they don't think much about avia-tion stocks," said Charley. "No, it's al steel and oil and the automotive industries," said Nat. "We'l give 'em a few years . . . what do you say, Nat?" said Charley bois-terously. Charley went uptown on the Second Avenue el and out across the Queensboro Bridge. At Queens Plaza he got off
-200-and walked over to the garage where he kept his car, a Stutz roadster he'd bought secondhand. The traffic was heavy and he was tired and peevish before he got out to the plant. The sky had become overcast and dry snow drove on the wind. He turned in and jammed on his