William Gaddis - J R

— Busy on something else Beamish but… what? I didn’t… oh that’s the way it is yes, yes I knew you people were looking around but that asking price what was it? twelve million? probably a little beyond their… Go right ahead yes I’m listening, fixed assets seven and a half yes push that pad over here will you Bast…? two million one and eighty percent of the difference back on taxes four million three… ninety percent of the inventory two million seven and eighty percent yes… four and a half million cash yes sitting right here he’ll call you back on it Beamish, probably want to discuss it with… whether they’d want to write off your bad debts yes of course I’d advise them to look into the… what? Suppose you could call it wallpaper yes it just happens I know a good deal about this Duncan and Company’s situation right now and the bank acting as… not receivership nothing like that no, no my point’s simply that rather than running around after bad debts Mister Bast’s people here might think about just absorbing the whole… Which one…? Ritz yes yes I remember them, didn’t know you had an interest there too thought the whole thing was… good for a tax loss yes let me get all this together and get back to you with it Beamish, Mister Bast will want a chance to discuss it with his… Tamarack? play up there myself sometimes think I’ll be up there Saturday in fact I’ll look around for you, fine… hang this up there will you Bast? Lawyer for Triangle Paper Products their real book value must be up toward twenty million sounds like a damn clever fellow, he’s got it worked out so you people can pick it up for four and a half cash.

— Four and a half, million?

— Cash yes, wipe out your longterm X–L debt there and pick up a good steady tax loss situation in Ritz Bright Leaf Tobacco didn’t know they controlled it…

— Yes well of course…

— Yes well of course you’ll want to discuss it with your associate and when you do you might mention this Duncan and Company too, a fine old firm even though Beamish there calls their list wallpaper and I didn’t know they’d let their bills for paper stock pile up that way at Triangle, but I might have an inside track for you people there at the bank acting as corporate trustee if you’re interested just give me the go-ahead, might be preferable to running around after bad debts.

— Yes I certainly…

— Might make a lot of sense too if you’re really thinking of picking up Her.

— Who?

— Your man Piscator’s the one who mentioned it to me, take on Duncan and Company too and get all your publications under one roof you might be able to do a lot of cost cutting and bring it around but just let me give you a little advice Bast and I hope you won’t mind.

— No no I’d ap…

— I like to stay out of corporate affairs and the petty infighting that goes on everywhere but this Piscator of yours, I can’t say I take to him.

— Yes I know what you…

— Not our sort Bast just not our sort at all, little too fast on his feet if you follow me, even asked me outright to propose him up at Tamarack, no question of prejudice of course but they’d think he came with a traveling dog troupe if he showed up there in that outfit. But that’s not my point. You take this Her for instance, fine old women’s magazine and all the rest of it but they’ve been losing advertising revenue up there since the day television came in and they’ve been trying to sell off their plant for three years. Look at it as a good dependable tax loss proposition fine but I’ve been around a little longer than you have Bast and it looks to me like you people have about all of that you need, but my point here is since their advertising’s handled by these same Pomerance Associates you people have just taken on to do your PR and this Pomerance is Piscator’s brother changed his name somewhere along the way and I can’t say I blame him, I’d look twice at the whole thing before I held my nose and jumped in.

— Yes well you see Mister Crawley this here whole, I mean this whole thing is…

— Nothing wrong with the basics in this rough prospectus for this stock issue you’re bringing out once he’s got your Jamaica incorporation squared away, can’t even say I find anything to criticize in the way he’s handling your acquisition of this mom and pop funeral home chain but any first year law student could handle that one, eh?

— Well yes I, I didn’t know we…

— Didn’t know the details no, been busy with your music Bast I know that, why I try to keep as many of these little headaches off your shoulders as I can. Wagner the name of it isn’t it? All pretty cut and dried, two brothers built up the chain and the older one just died holding forty percent turns into the same old story, widow and five children controlling the business need cash and the younger brother with his twenty percent wants to plow all the earnings back into expansion but can’t buy them out so you people are pledging the widow and children their share of the book value in cash and giving the others a small downpayment plus installments based on future earnings, I don’t think you’ll miss with it Bast. Younger brother’s a real go-getter and it’s one business you don’t have to worry about dropoff in consumer demand eh? But getting back to your man Piscator here, get into something like this Ray-X situation and you may need more leverage than somebody like him can provide. Looked over that report I sent have you?

— No Mister Crawley and, and listen to tell you the truth about the whole thing I haven’t even…

— Mind getting that right trouserleg again? Feel it slipping down into the, that’s it yes I know you’ve been busy Bast but I’d better give you a little of the background to pass along to your associate there, he didn’t seem very clear about all the ramifications and it’s the devil’s own time anyhow understanding him on the phone you know. More than half a century there Ray-X was a really prosperous toy company you know but when these peace scares started and you had all these mothers marching around boycotting every toy in sight their inventory backed right up, all the usual kiddie toys machineguns carbines pistols grenade launchers bazookas warehouses full of them and they had to come up with a whole line of new products. Fickle kids cured them of toys but things like these battery-run weapons systems had given them a little expertise so they tried pocket radios but couldn’t meet the Japs’ competition and went over into these battery-powered prostheses, hearing aids that kind of thing. Other line they went into was thermocouples, grabbed the market overnight but they’ve been trying to fill twenty-five million in mostly fixed price orders on less than four hundred thousand in working capital, couldn’t get public financing and finally had to cut their executives’ salaries in half as part of a five million dollar loan deal that dried up their new product planning and R and D overnight. Now they’re caught between cost rises and these fixed price contracts and they may rim into more trouble on their thermocouples with this pressure to prohibit rhodium imports from places like Gandia as country of origin because of this confrontation shaping up over there, see what I mean about needing a little more leverage than this Piscator can probably give you when the chips are down.

— Yes I, I certainly do but…

— Of course I might be some help to you on the rhodium situation if it comes to that, people with substantial interests in the Gandia region there in fact I think this man Beaton’s been in touch with you hasn’t he? about these mining claims and power company sites your associate there picked up in that Ace and Alberta and Western collapse?

— Mister Beaton yes I think he called but I…