Page:Stewart Edward White--The Rose Dawn.djvu/285

Rh the security would undoubtedly be land. There you have the elements of the problem in which Boyd saw danger.

He held a comparatively small block of bank stock, but from this moment he became the storm centre on the board of directors. His policy was simple, and he stuck to it through thick and thin. It was that all land loans should be based on the old valuation before the boom; not one cent more.

There were wild scenes, at times, over this. Men lost their temper in open meeting. They called him reactionary, a coward, a detriment to the county's prosperity, and some more bitter names; but he sat four-square, smiling, unmoved.

"Gentlemen," he would say, "you will do as you please. Your voting power is much in excess of mine. But, remember, it is also your responsibility. You know the value of this land in normal times. I agree that it has probably increased somewhat; but no man can say yet what that increase actually amounts to in permanent value. Until we find out, let's play safe on the old figures. A bank should play safe. In case of necessity a bank must take over the land on which it has lent money. Nothing is more unproductive than land in a bank's hands. We have too much already."

In spite of protest, within and without, this view prevailed. Nobody on the directorate, with the possible exception of Oliver Mills, believed fully with Boyd. Of course a great many of these prices were absurd, still—it must be acknowledged—that the county had gone ahead But against Boyd's solemn warnings of responsibility they did not quite dare go. Boyd acquired thus a position of great power. He easily took the lead in banking matters: so that his opinion in all things came to prevail with almost the force of command. And since it was felt that in Boyd rested the power of local credit, he was sought after and kow-towed to and hated and cursed—behind his back—until he was thrust by the very upheaval of conflicting forces to a place of towering prominence.

A place of prominence meant more than the possession of money. Everyone had become a capitalist. A million was the unit of measurement. Why not? A man's wealth is the value of his possessions. City lots had risen to fifty and seventy-five