With this grave hint as to what is occupying the
minds of all thinking men- in the world just now, Mr. Baldwin turned to some. very delightful reminiscences, which included the distinguished guest of the bankers, Mr: Mellon, the Secretary to the Treasury of the United States, and one of the . greatest bankers in the world. Mr. Baldwin looked back, as he has every- right to do, with pride and. pleasure to his - association with Mr. Mellon in that great. and beneficent transaction, the funding of the American debt. Their success, he humor- ously remarked, , was due .to the fact that neither the Governor of the Bank of England, nor he, nor Mr. Mellon, had ever at -any- stage .of their lives been members of the legal profession, and that they were all three of them far more business, men than • they were politicians or statesmen. That, of course, means that none of them wanted to make the Debt . settlement the last transaction between them, that all of thernrealized that " beggar-my-neighbour" is the poorest of games, and that, though men naturally want to be paid, they know that it is . no good to ask for the pound of flesh. Remember that if America. had asked for all that was nominated in the bond, the burden placed on us would be nearly double what it now actually is.
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