Rich Man, Poor Girl

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.