“That’s the point that bothers me,” said Smith. “It’s all right for the government to issue money, but it ought to be backed by something-gold, or government bonds.”
“Why, in the Name of the Egg, should a symbol represent anything but the thing it is supposed to accomplish?”
“But you talk as if money was simply an abstract symbol.”
“What else is it?”
Smith did not answer at once. They had reached an impasse of different concepts, totally different orientations. When he did speak it was to another point. “But the government simply gives away all this new money. That’s rank charity. It’s demoralizing. A man should work for what he gets. But forgetting that aspect for a moment, you can’t run a government that way. A government is just like a business. It can’t be all outgo and no income.”
“Why can’t it?’ There’s no parallel between a government and a business. They are for entirely different purposes.”
“But it’s not sound. It leads to bankruptcy. Read Adam Smith.”
“I don’t know this Adam Smith. Relative of yours?”
“No, he’s a — Oh, Lord!”
“Crave pardon?”
“It’s no use,” Smith said. “We don’t speak the same lingo.”
“I am afraid that is the trouble, really. I think perhaps you should go to see a corrective semantician.”
“Anyhow,” Smith said, one drink later, “I didn’t come here to ask you to explain finance to me. I came for another purpose.”
“Yes?”
“Well, you see I had already decided that I couldn’t go into finance. But I want to get to work, make some money. Everybody here is rich-except me.”
“Rich?”
“They look rich to me. Everybody is expensively dressed. Everybody eats well-Hell! They give food away-it’s preposterous.”
“Why don’t you live on the dividend? Why worry about money?”
“I could, of course, but, shucks, I’m a working man. There are business chances all around. It drives me nuts not to do something about them. But I can’t-I don’t know the ropes. Look-there is just one thing else besides finance that I know well. I thought you might be able to show me how to capitalize on it.”
“What is it?”
“Football.”
“Football?”
“Football. I’m told that you are the big man in games. Games ‘tycoon’ they called you.” Hamilton conceded it wordlessly. “Now football is a game. There ought to be money in it, handled right.”
“What sort of a game? Tell me about it.”
Smith went into a long description of the sport. He drew diagrams of plays, describing tackling, blocking, forward passing. He described the crowds and spoke of gate receipts. “It sounds very colorful,” Hamilton admitted. “How many men get killed in an engagement?”
“Killed? You don’t hurt anybody-barring a broken collar bone, or so.”
“We can change that. Wouldn’t it be better if the men defending the ball handlers were armored? Otherwise we would have to replace them with every maneuver.”
“No, you don’t understand. It’s-well…”
“I suppose I don’t,” Hamilton agreed, “I’ve never seen the game played. It’s a little out of my line. My games are usually mechanicals-wagering machines.”
“Then you aren’t interested?”
Hamilton was not, very. But he looked at the youth’s disappointed face and decided to stretch a point. “I’m interested, but it isn’t my line. I’ll put you in touch with my agent. I think he could work something out of it. I’ll talk with him first.”
“Say, that’s white of you!”
“I take it that means approval. It’s no trouble to me, really.”
The annunciator warned of a visitor-Monroe-Alpha. Hamilton let him in, and warned him, sotto voce, to treat Smith as an armed equal. Some time was consumed in polite formalities, before Monroe-Alpha got around to his enthusiasm. “I understand that your background is urban industrial, sir.”
“I was mostly a city boy, if that’s what you, mean.”
“Yes, that was the implication. I was hoping that you would be able to tell me something of the brave simple life that was just dying out in your period.”
“What do you mean? Country life?”
Monroe-Alpha sketched a short glowing account of his notion of rustic paradise. Smith looked exceedingly puzzled. “Mr. Monroe,” he said, “somebody has been feeding you a lot of cock-and-bull, or else I’m very much mistaken. I don’t recognize anything familiar in the picture.”