Atlas Shrugged – Day 003 – pp. 23-32
Anyway, Dagny closes the deal on Jim who accepts the decision with a running theme thus far…
“Well” she asked
“Are you taking responsibility for it?”
“I am”
The indisputable force and order she brings to the company is evidenced by how Rand describes Eddie Willers feelings when she’s around…
“Whenever she returned, he felt as if the world became clear, simple, easy to face — and he forgot his moments of shapeless apprehension.”
Now we pause to call the Ayers music publishing company and find out if Richard Halley has written a fifth concerto. No he hasn’t. (This theme is still a bit mysterious to me….)
And Dagny call’s the young upstart Owen Kellogg in to offer him the promotion to super of the Ohio Division. But he’s requested a meeting first…
Owen enters and submits his resignation to Dagny. She tries to counter offer with anything (though he won’t say why he’s leaving or where he’s going.) What it’s left her with is one less person she can rely on.
“Perhaps I am being unfair by coming here to tell you that I’m quitting, Miss Taggart. I know that you asked me to tell you because you wanted to have a chance to make me a counter-offer. So if I came it looks as if I’m open to a deal. But I’m not. I came only because I … I wanted to keep my word to you.”
Another good man gone…
Chapter II – The Chain… (cue the Fleetwood Mac music…)
The chapter in which we are introduced to Henry Rearden – Steel and Iron baron, engineering and metallurgic whiz.
Rand sets the intro nicely with the description of a Taggart train rolling past the Rearden Plant with some chat from the train:
“A passenger who was a professor of economics, remarked to his companion “Of what importance in an individual in the titanic collective achievements of our industrial age” Another who was a journalist made a note for future use in his column: “Hank Rearden is the kind of man who sticks his name on everything he touches. You may, from this, form your own opinion about the character of Hank Rearden.”
Clearly not a fan favorite.
Apparently this evening they’re pouring the first “heat” of Rearden Metal. A creation of Hank Rearden that is lighter, stronger, longer-lasting and I would imagine cheaper than steel.
It has been a formula he has been working on nonstop for a decade.
He stayed until late at the mill to oversee the first pouring.
On his way home he feels a small chain in his pocket. A bracelet for his wife. The first thing ever made of Rearden Metal. While he walks he reminisces about his life leading to this point. He began work in the iron mines of MN at age 14, worked sacrificed, never let himself coast. A short time later he saw himself looking at the “grimy wasteland of structures that had been a steel plant” which he had just bought and was destined to become Rearden Steel.
The press wrote about him even then…
“The historical cycle of steel-making in Pennsylvania is obviously running down… and experts agree that Henry Rearden’s venture into steel is hopeless. You may soon witness the sensational end of the sensational Henry Rearden.
But his determination and willingness to do what had to be done led to enterprises around the country: Rearden Ore, Rearden Coal, Rearden Limestone…
Interesting to contrast that statement to the earlier one. The press predicted his demise more than a decade before, and now were still unwilling to acknowledge his success against all odds. Kinda sums up society of the time.
(Is this universal?)
In short he’s a solitary man, who is well aware of his accomplishments and yet somehow seems just a bit uneasy about them.
He finally arrives home…