Rich Man, Poor Girl (1938)

Lew Ayres: Henry Thayer

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Quotes 

• Bill Harrison : Those industrial accident statistics you quoted last night, are they on the level?

  Henry Thayer : Absolutely.

  Bill Harrison : Oh, thank you, Ma.

  Henry Thayer : Why you take hospitalization alone...

  Ma : You let Bill eat his breakfast, Henry.

  Bill Harrison : That's alright, Ma.

  Henry Thayer : Just to show you the injustice: you take a millionaire's appendix. It goes wrong; what happens? They take him to the hospital, cut it out, charge him five, ten, fifteen thousand dollars for the job and he never even feels it.

  Bill Harrison : Never feels it?

  Henry Thayer : Paying the bill, I mean.

  Bill Harrison : Oh.

  Henry Thayer : Now then, you take your poor labourer's appendix that starts acting up. He goes to a clinic. The same surgeon operates on him but doesn't charge him a dime. So he doesn't feel it either, does he?

  Bill Harrison : uh-uh.

  Henry Thayer : But, get between them. Look at the other 80% of the population, me for instance, the great middle class. Let's assume that my appendix goes haywire; sooner or later, I've got to come across with five hundred smackers. And before I've paid it, I've gone without clothes and starved myself to death for a year. Is that fair?

  Bill Harrison : No.