Take your pick.
GEORGE
Just a minute –– just a minute. Now, hold on,
Mr. Potter. You're right when you say my father was no
business man. I know that. Why he ever started this cheap,
penny-ante Building and Loan, I'll never know. But neither you
nor anybody else can say anything against his character,
because his whole life was . . .Why, in the twenty-five years
since he and Uncle Billy started this thing, he never once
thought of himself. Isn't that right, Uncle Billy? He didn't save
enough money to send Harry to school, let alone me. But he did
help a few people get out of your slums, Mr. Potter. And what's
wrong with that? Why . . . Here, you're all businessmen here.
Doesn't it make them better citizens?
Doesn't it make them better customers? You . . . you said . . .
What'd you say just a minute ago? . . . They had to wait and save
their money before they even ought to think of a decent home.
Wait! Wait for what? Until their children grow up and leave them?
Until they're so old and broken-down that they . . .
Do you know how long it takes a working man to save five
thousand dollars? Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble
you're talking about . . . they do most of the working and paying
and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have
them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and
a bath? Anyway, my father didn't think so. People were human beings to
him, but to you, a warped, frustrated old man, they're cattle.
Well, in my book he died a much richer man than you'll ever be!
GEORGE
Tom! Tom! Randall! Now wait . . . now listen . . . now listen to me.
I beg of you not to do this thing. If Potter gets hold of this Building
and Loan there'll never be another decent house built in this town.
He's already got charge of the bank. He's got the bus line. He's got
the department stores. And now he's after us. Why? Well, it's very simple.
Because we're cutting in on his business, that's why. And because he wants
to keep you living in his slums and paying the kind of rent he decides. Joe,
you lived in one of his houses, didn't you? Well, have you forgotten?
Have you forgotten what he charged you for that broken-down shack?
(to Ed)
Here, Ed. You know, you remember last year when things weren't going so well,
and you couldn't make your payments. You didn't lose your house, did you?
Do you think Potter would have let you keep it?
(turns to address the room again)
Can't you understand what's happening here? Don't you see what's happening?
Potter isn't selling. Potter's buying! And why? Because we're panicky and he's not.
That's why. He's picking up some bargains. Now, we can get through this thing all right.
We've got to stick together, though.
We've got to have faith in each other.
GEORGE
No . . . no . . . no . . . no, now wait a minute, here! I don't
have to talk to anybody! I know right now, and the answer is no!
NO! Doggone it!
(getting madder all the time)
You sit around here and you spin your little webs and you think
the whole world revolves around you and your money. Well, it
doesn't, Mr. Potter! In the . . . in the whole vast configuration of things,
I'd say you were nothing but a scurvy little spider. You . . .
He turns and shouts at the goon, impassive as ever beside Potter's wheelchair.
GEORGE
. . . And that goes for you too!
As George opens the office door to exit, he shouts at Mr. Potter's secretary in the outer office:
GEORGE
And it goes for you too!
-Thanks-
