Blind public sentiment and clear business will

Atlas Shrugged – Day 023 – pp. 224-233

Hank envisions Paul Larkin as a young man of 18. . .

“And he saw what Paul Larkin must have been at that time — a youth with an aged baby’s face, smiling ingratiatingly, joylessly, begging to be spared, pleading with the universe to give him a chance. If someone had shown that youth to the Hank Rearden of that time and told him that this was to be the goal of his steps, the collector of the energy of his aching tendons, what would he have–
Rearden knew what the boy he had been would have felt: a desire to step on the obscene thing which was Larkin and grind every wet bit of it out of existence. . .

“He had never experienced an emotion of this kind. It took him a few moments to realize that this was what men called hatred.”

Hank has made a new friend. Hate. This could make things interesting.

He thinks about when he signed his coal mines over the Ken Danagger. Danagger who grew up out of the mining industry, was a self-made man. Someone worthy to take the reins of what Hank built.

But not Larkin…

In the meantime Mouch has resurfaced. Rearden received a two sentence letter informing him of his resignation from Hank’s employ. Two weeks later Wesley Mouch had been appointed Assistant Coordinator of the Bureau of Economic Planning and National Resources.

Hank decides not to dwell on it.

Later he places a call to Eddie Willers. Asks for a breakfast meeting.

As Eddie sits down, Hank reminds him the first payment on the Rearden Metal rail is due next week. How’re finances?

In the tank.

Well how about this. . .

“Let’s agree on a moratorium. I’m going to give you an extension — you won’t have to pay me anything until six months after the opening of the John Galt Line.”

Eddie Willers does a spit take. This is a huge break for Taggart Trans. But why?

“I’m not doing it for Taggart Transcontinental. It’s a simple, practical, selfish matter on my part. Why should I collect my money from you now, when it might prove to be the death blow to your company? If your company were no good, I’d collect, and fast. I don’t engage in charity and I don’t gamble on incompetents. But you’re still the best railroad in the country. When the John Galt Line is completed, you’ll be the soundest one financially. So I have good reason to wait.”

Plus he called Eddie because he didn’t want to deal with Jim.

“I don’t like to deal with Jim. He’d waste two hours trying to make himself believe that he’s made me believe that he’s doing me a favor by accepting.”

Now we’re shifting gears once again. Public Sentiment…

It’s June according to the big calendar (now I understand. . .) Time is growing short for the John Galt Line. The Phoenix Durango is out of business July 25.

The public has begun a cry in unison.

“It won’t stand. . . when they run the first train on the John Galt Line, the rail will split. They’ll never get to the birdge. If they do, the bridge will collapse under the engine.”

Good thing Dagny doen’st listen to public opinion. (Which says something about public opinion. The importance and the meaningless-ness.)

The public opinion continues. . .

“Hank Rearden is a greedy monster. . .” “The Taggarts have been a band of vultures for generations. . .”

“People said it because other people said it. They did not know why it was being said and heard everwhere. They did not give or ask for reasons.”

And the continued encouragement of a lack of any critical thought or verification. . .

“Reason,” Dr. Prichett had told them, “is the most naive of all superstitions.”

“The source of public opinion?” said Claide Slagenhop in a radio speech. “There is no source of public opinion.  It is spontaneously general. It is a reflex of the collective instinct of the collective mind.

Combined with the forced fear. . .

“Orren Boyle. . .”One should not, it sems to me, use human beings as guinea pigs. . . Associated Steel. . . if I had any children, I wouldn’t let them ride on the first train that’s going to cross that bridge. . . Brertram Scudder: what protection does society have against the arrogance, selfishness and greed of two unbridled individualists, whose records are conspicuously devoid of any public-spirited action?”

No space was given by the newspapers to the progress of the construction of the John Galt Line. No reporter was sent to look at the scene. The general policy of the press had been stated by a famous, editor five years ago. “There are no objective facts. Every report on facts is only somebody’s opinion. It is, therefore, useless to write about facts.”

Keeps the propaganda engine revving…

Still, while those at the front are stirring the pot, on the fringes there are signs of hopefulness.

“They were the very young who felt that it was the kind of event they longed to see happening  in the world — or the very old who had seen a world in which such events did happen. They did not care about railroads, they knew nothing about business, they knew only that someone was fighting against great odds and winning.”

Society through Rand’s lens.

But let’s move to less philosophical and more fun stuff. Unions. (This section is really good so I’m just gonna type.)

The Phoenix -Durange Railroad was to close on July 25. The first train of the John Galt Line was to run on July 22.

“Well it’s like this Miss Taggart,” said the delegate of the Union of Locomotive Engineers. “I don’t think we’re going to allow you to run that train.”

Dagny sat at her battered desk, against the blotched wall of her office. She said, without moving, “Get out of here.”

It was a sentence the man had never heard in the polished offices of railroad executives. He looked bewildered. “I came to tell you–”

“If you have anything to say to me, start over again.”

What?”

“Don’t tell me what your going to allow me to do.”

“Well, I meant we’re not going to allow our men to run you train.”

“That’s different.”

“Well that’s what we’ve decided.”

“Who’s decided it?”

The commitee. What your doing is a violation of human rights. You can’t force men to go out to get killed — when that bridge collapses — just to make money for you.”

She reached for a sheet of blank paper and handed it to him “Put it down in writing.” she said, ” and we’ll sign a contract to that effect.”

“What contract?”

“That no member of your union will ever be employed to run an engine on the John Galt Line.”

“Why . . . wait a minute . . I haven’t said–”

“You don’t want to sign such a contract?”

“No, I–”

“Why not, since you know that the bridge is going to collapse”

“I only want–“

“I know what you want. You want a stranglehold on your men by means of the jobs which I give them — and on me by means of your men. You want me to provide the jobs and you want to make it impossible for me to have any jobs to provide.

She won’t force anyone to run on the John Galt Line. Just a notice for volunteers in all the Taggart roundhouses.

SRO at the volunteer turnout.

And now, just days from the launch, Dagny is preparing for a press conference….