toast with great seriousness and dignity – and got bubbles up her nose and gagged
and coughed and had to be consoled.
I did not know then and do not know now whether or not Theodore granted my second
daughter the boon she craved.
All I can say is that I gave them every opportunity. But with Theodore (stubborn,
difficult man!) one never knows.
On Saturday afternoon there was a rump session of the trustees of the Ira Howard
Foundation, Judge Sperling having come all the way from Toledo for that purpose:
Judge Sperling, Mr Arthur J. Chapman, Justin Weatheral, Brian Smith (by unanimous
consent), Sergeant Theodore… and me. And Eleanor.
When judge Sperling cleared his throat, I understood the signal and started to
withdraw. Whereupon Theodore stood up to leave with me.
There was some backing and filling, but the result was that I stayed and Eleanor
stayed because Theodore headed for the door when we did. He did explain that the
Howard Families, in their permanent organisation, used absolute equality of the
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sexes… and, as Howard Chairman in his own time, attending this meeting as a
courtesy to the twentieth century Howard organisation, he could not in conscience
take part in any Howard meeting from which women were excluded.
Once they got past that hurdle, the meeting simply consisted of Theodore’s repeating
his prediction of 11 November 1918 as the day the War would end, followed by his
prediction of Black Tuesday, 29 October 1929. On being questioned he embellished
this latter, with mention of devaluation of the dollar, from twenty dollars to the
ounce down to thirty-five dollars to the ounce. ‘President Roosevelt will do this by
what amounts to decree, although Congress will ratify it… but this doesn’t happen
until early in 1933.’
‘Just a moment, Sergeant Bronson, or Captain Long, or whatever you call yourself,
are you saying that Colonel Roosevelt makes a comeback? I find that hard to swallow.
In 1933 he will be, uh -‘ Mr Chapman stopped to think.
‘Seventy-Five years old,’ Judge Sperling put it. ‘What’s so unusual about that,
Arthur? I’m older than that, but I have no intention of retiring anytime soon.’
Theodore said, ‘No, gentlemen, no. Not Teddy Roosevelt. Franklin Roosevelt. Now
assistant secretary to Mr Josephus Daniels.’
Mr Chapman shook his head. ‘I find that even harder to believe.’
Theodore answered rather testily, `It does not matter what you believe, Counsellor;
Mr Roosevelt will be inaugurated in 1933 and shortly after that he will close all
the banks and call in all gold and gold certificates and devalue the dollar. The
dollar never does regain its present value. Fifty years later an ounce of gold will
fluctuate wildly, from around a hundred dollars an ounce to around a thousand
dollars an ounce.’
‘Young man,’ Mr Chapman pronounced, ‘what you describe is anarchy.’
‘Not quite. It gets worse. Much worse. Most historians call the second half of this
century “The Crazy Years”. Socially the Crazy Years start at the end of the next
World War. But from m a standpoint of the economy the Crazy Years start on Black
Tuesday, 29 October 1929. For the rest of this century you can lose your shirt if
you don’t maintain a strong cash position. But it is a century of great opportunity,
too, in almost every field.’
Mr Chapman closed down his face. I could see that he had made up his mind not to
believe anything. But Justin and Judge Sperling exchanged some side remarks, then
the judge said, `Captain Long, can you tell us what some of these great
opportunities will be?’
`I’ll try. Commercial aviation both for passengers and for freight. Railroads will
be in deep trouble and will not recover. The present picture shows will add sound –
talking pictures. Television. Stereovision. Space travel. Atomic power. Lasers.
Computers. Electronics of every sort. Mining on the Moon. Asteroid mining. Rolling
roadways. Cryonics. Artificial manipulation of genetics. Personal body armour.
Sunpower screens. Frozen foods. Hydroponics. Microwave cooking. Do any of you know
D. D. Harriman?’
Chapman stood up. `Judge, I move we adjourn.’
‘Sit down, Arthur, and behave yourself. Captain, you realise how shocking your