Gold Bricks
Ivar Kreuger. 13y George Soloveytchik. (Peter Davies. 5s.)
CONSIDER the Financier : at school apt for sharp practice ; in love secretive and promiscuous ; diffident and charming to his guests, blushing often (only at the end of his life are the blushes regarded as something less than a mark of modesty) ; he has a sweet tooth and a craving for mystery (at the office there is a -" silent room," and at the theatre he takes three seats for himself in the stalls, sitting alone, mysterious and not inconspicuous). He is so used to juggling with astronomical figures (even at school he spoke in non-existent millions), that he buys even his underclothes wholesale ; has enough shirts and vest; to stock a shop ; buys walking sticks, cameras, snapshot albums by the dozen, and this because he is not an ordinary man ; he is a Great Man, a Napoleon of finance. His Gold Bricks are not ordinary gold bricks, but he takes your money just the same, and presently he is a little less than ordinary, lying on his bed with a bullet through the heart." There is generally forgery before the end ; in this particular case 25 million pounds of Italian 8 per cent. Treasury Bills. The figures are astronomical to the last, for this man is Ivar Kreuger, though he might almost as well be Whitaker Wright or even Uncle Ponderevo.
Mr. -Soloveytchik tells the story well ; it can never fail to be exciting, this curve up to success and down to death. The figures in the case of lireuger were more than usually astro- nomical. The mind can grasp them no more easily than the- position of a new star a few more light years further away. This man lent money to half the governments of Europe. Less than five years before his suicide, and when his swindles were well advanced, he lent 75 million dollars to the French Gbvernment and his credit stood five points higher than the credit of the Republic. Less than three years before his death he arranged to lend 125 million dollars to the German Govern- ment, and no one questioned his ability to raise the money. Mr. Soloveytchik guides one through this jungle of figures and ambitions and chicaneries with great skill. As it is generally a business man who buys the gold- brick in a public- house, so it was one of the greatest American trusts, the I.T.T., closely connected with J. P. Morgan's, which was finally swindled by Kreuger, and there is some ironic pleasure in the sight of these hard-bitten men paying 11 million dollars in cash for shares in a company whose books they did not properly examine until after the deal.
A great deal has been read into Kreuger's face. Since his death it has been described- as that of " a reptile with sunken and stinging eyes." To me the smooth, bald face of the fron- tispiece seems peculiar only in its anonymity. There is as little to distinguish him in feature from other men as there is little, except the extent of the ruin he left behind, to distin- guish his swindles: His fall had the usual superficial pathos ; he was hounded by people asking questions ; his nerves gave way and he was found weeping at his desk. It has all hap- pened so many times before. One remembers the " little old world-worn- swindler Uncle Ponderevo " They asked me questions. 'They kep' asking me questions, George . . . "
GRAHAM GREENE.
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