第122章

What I did not then comprehend was that he was the American Principle personified,the supreme individual assertion of the conviction that government should remain modestly in the background while the efficient acquired the supremacy that was theirs by natural right;nor had Igrasped at that time the crowning achievement of a unity that fused Christianity with those acquisitive dispositions said to be inherent in humanity.In him the Lion and the Lamb,the Eagle and the Dove dwelt together in amity and power.

New York,always a congenial place to gentlemen of vitality and means and influential connections,had never appeared to me more sparkling,more inspiring.Winter had relented,spring had not as yet begun.And as Isat in a corner of the dining-room of my hotel looking out on the sunlit avenue I was conscious of partaking of the vigour and confidence of the well-dressed,clear-eyed people who walked or drove past my window with the air of a conquering race.What else was there in the world more worth having than this conquering sense?Religion might offer charms to the weak.Yet here religion itself became sensible,and wore the garb of prosperity.The stonework of the tall church on the corner was all lace;and the very saints in their niches,who had known martyrdom and poverty,seemed to have renounced these as foolish,and to look down complacently on the procession of wealth and power..Across the street,behind a sheet of glass,was a carrosserie where were displayed the shining yellow and black panels of a closed automobile,the cost of which would have built a farm-house and stocked a barn.

At eleven o'clock,the appointed hour,I was in Wall Street.Sending in my name,I was speedily ushered into a room containing a table,around which were several men;but my eyes were drawn at once to the figure of the great banker who sat,massive and preponderant,at one end,smoking a cigar,and listening in silence to the conversation I had interrupted.

He rose courteously and gave me his hand,and a glance that is unforgettable.

"It is good of you to come,Mr.Paret,"he said simply,as though his summons had not been a command."Perhaps you know some of these gentlemen."One of them was our United States Senator,Theodore Watling.He,as it turned out,had been summoned from Washington.Of course I saw him frequently,having from time to time to go to Washington on various errands connected with legislation.Though spruce and debonnair as ever,in the black morning coat he invariably wore,he appeared older than he had on the day when I had entered his office.He greeted me warmly,as always.

"Hugh,I'm glad to see you here,"he said,with a slight emphasis on the last word.My legal career was reaching its logical climax,the climax he had foreseen.And he added,to the banker,that he had brought me up.

"Then he was trained in a good school,"remarked that personage,affably.

Mr.Barbour,the president of our Railroad,was present,and nodded to me kindly;also a president of a smaller road.In addition,there were two New York attorneys of great prominence,whom I had met.The banker's own special lieutenant of the law,Mr.Clement T.Grolier,for whom I looked,was absent;but it was forthwith explained that he was offering,that morning,a resolution of some importance in the Convention of his Church,but that he would be present after lunch.

"I have asked you to come here,Mr.Paret,"said the banker,"not only because I know something personally of your legal ability,but because Ihave been told by Mr.Scherer and Mr.Barbour that you happen to have considerable knowledge of the situation we are discussing,as well as some experience with cases involving that statute somewhat hazy to lay minds,the Sherman anti-trust law."A smile went around the table.Mr.Watling winked at me;I nodded,but said nothing.The banker was not a man to listen to superfluous words.

The keynote of his character was despatch....

The subject of the conference,like many questions bitterly debated and fought over in their time,has in the year I write these words come to be of merely academic interest.Indeed,the very situation we discussed that day has been cited in some of our modern text-books as a classic consequence of that archaic school of economics to which the name of Manchester is attached.Some half dozen or so of the railroads running through the anthracite coal region had pooled their interests,--an extremely profitable proceeding.The public paid.We deemed it quite logical that the public should pay--having been created largely for that purpose;and very naturally we resented the fact that the meddling Person who had got into the White House without asking anybody's leave,--who apparently did not believe in the infallibility of our legal Bible,the Constitution,--should maintain that the anthracite roads had formed a combination in restraint of trade,should lay down the preposterous doctrine--so subversive of the Rights of Man--that railroads should not own coal mines.Congress had passed a law to meet this contention,suit had been brought,and in the lower court the government had won.

As the day wore on our numbers increased,we were joined by other lawyers of renown,not the least of whom was Mr.Grolier himself,fresh from his triumph over religious heresy in his Church Convention.The note of the conference became tinged with exasperation,and certain gentlemen seized the opportunity to relieve their pent-up feelings on the subject of the President and his slavish advisers,--some of whom,before they came under the spell of his sorcery,had once been sound lawyers and sensible men.