The Studs Lonigan Trilogy - James T. Farrell [381]
“Gee, it’s tough, all right.”
“And I got to tell the Trents to go. I can’t let them stay on any longer as long as they can’t pay their rent. I just can’t. I know it’s a bad blow, a disgrace to an honest man to be thrown out of his home into the streets like a pauper, and I hate to do it. But I got to. And I tell you we’re lucky we’re not following them. That mortgage payment on the building has got to be paid next month, and they won’t be stalled off on it. I just about got enough in the bank to cover it, too. I guess I better knock on wood. But if I didn’t, well, we’d be on the street ourselves.”
Studs nodded.
“The city is busted. Why, Barney was telling me today there’s plenty of people working for the city, besides the school teachers, who aren’t getting their pay. Bailiffs and clerks and people like that.”
“Gee, Red Kelly won’t like that.”
“No, I suppose Red isn’t getting his pay, either.”
“I just know how he’ll like it,” Studs said.
“Well, that’s what we get for letting the Jew international bankers get control of our country. You know what we need? We need a man like Mussolini here in America. A strong man to take things out of the hands of the Jew international bankers and the gangsters. If we had a man like Mussolini over here for two months, he’d straighten out a lot of people and put them where they belong, behind the bars or against a wall.”
“Maybe there’s a lot to what you say.”
“No maybe about it. What does Father Moylan say? He tells what the bankers are doing. Loaning American money to Europe. If they had kept American money in America where it belongs, there wouldn’t be any depression.”
“Say, there’s something in that.”
“Then Hoover comes along and what does he do? This moratorium business. Telling Europe, no, they don’t have to pay us. If Europe paid us and we kept undesirable aliens out of our country, so that there could be jobs and money for Americans, we wouldn’t be having these hard times,” Lonigan proclaimed with growing indignation, and Studs nodded agreement. “America was a fine country. And all these foreigners came here to take jobs away from Americans who have a right to them. And now we got too many men for the jobs we got. Well, I know what we ought to do. Put all the foreigners we got taking jobs away from Americans, pack them in boats, and say to them, `Now, see here, America be-longs to Americans. You go back where you belong.’ And if we did that, we wouldn’t have these Reds here agitating to overthrow the government. Say, you know what those dirty Reds are doing now? They’re exciting the niggers down in the Black Belt, telling them they’re as good as white men and they can have white women. I tell you, Bill, some day the American people have got to wake up and take things into their own hands.”
“It’s only right. America is America, and it should be for Americans,” Studs said.
“You’re damn right it should be. And you know who’s going to wake Americans up? It’s men like Father Moylan who speaks on the radio every Sunday. He tells ‘em, and he talks straight. Men like him have got to wake the country up.”
“And he’s a Catholic, too,” Studs said proudly.
“He’s one of the finest and smartest men in America, and he tells the people what’s what. He lays into the bankers, too, and by God, they’ve got it coming to them.”
“I got to listen to him more often.”
“Yes, Bill, you should. He’s a brainy man and you learn what’s going on from him,” Lonigan said, and he chuckled. “Say, the way he gives hell to Hoover, it’s a treat.”
“If it wasn’t for bigots, Al Smith would have been elected,” Studs said regretfully.
“I know. They played Al dirt,” yawning and arising. “I guess I better be getting cleaned up and shaved.”
Lonigan picked up his newspaper and resumed reading.
III
Catherine kissed him lackadaisically. There were no sounds around them, only the pleasing darkness, and they sat locked in each other’s arms, their breathing tired, their clothing mussed and askew. Catherine looked away from