Atlas Shrugged – Day 032 – pp. 314-323
Lee Hunsacker. . . Wasn’t that that one guy’s name in the first Lethal Weapon? (imdb? Michael Hunsacker!)
Whatever, this Lee Hunsacker is a fucking nut. First words:
“I never had a chance.”
By now we can always tell where this is going. Just down some variation of the “I’m owed” path. Let’s see which fork Lee takes.
“Nobody ever gave me a chance. I hope they’re satisfied with what they made of me. . . . People are bastards at heart and it’s no use pretending otherwise. Justice? Huh! Look at it!” His arm swwept around him. “A man like me reduced to this!”
To what?
Dusk and dampness seemed soaked into the walls of the kitchen. A pile of breakfast dishes lay in the sink, a pot of stew simmered on the stove; emiting steam with the greasy odor of cheap meat; a dusty typewriter stood among the papers on the table.
“The Twentieth Century Motor Company . . . was one of the most illustrious names in the history of American industry. I was the president of that company. I owned that factory. But they wouldn’t give me a chance.”
During his rant, he mentions Jed Starnes. I can only guess at this point that he was the former owner who . . . died? . . . and left the biz to ??? Anyway, Lee H describe Jed as a “backwoods mechanic” which obviously means he was industrious and knew how to run a business. Bootstrapping himself to success and riches while our Lee:
“My family once belonged to the New York Four Hundred. My gandfather was a member of the national legislature. It’s not my fault that my father couldn’t afford to give me a car of my own when he sent me to school. All the other boys had cars. . .”
Jeez.
“I’m writing my autobiography . . . And what I’m going to tell is plenty. I intend — Oh hell!” he said suddenly remembering something.
He rushed to the stove, lifted the lid off the pot and went throught the motions of stirring the stew, hatefully, paying no attention to his performance.
(How screwed up do you have to be to stir stew hatefully?)
Enough of his version for a second. Apparently he’s busted and two of his “friends” have taken him in. The husband is at work all day running his stationery store while the wife does the household stuff. Oh hell. . . it’s too good. . .
“”She goes out shopping and asks me to watch her damn stew for her. She knows that a writer needs peace and concentration, . . . do you know what she did today? . . . She went to the market and left all the breakfast dishes there and said she’d do them later. I know what she wanted. She expected me to do them. Well, I’ll fool her. I’ll leave the just where they are.”
OK, enough of his ass.
Aside from being comic relief, Lee H plays a role in Rand’s little drama by introducing a far more important character. Mike “Midas” Mulligan. Chairman of the Mulligan Bank in Chicago.
Richest man in the country at the time (weren’t they all?) Anyway, he had a phenomenal track record for business. People would often wonder what his secret was. Things that looked like sure losers would almost always pay him handsomely, while he always seemed to be able to avoid what would bring trouble no matter how sure it looked.
“When an economist referred to him once as an audacious gambler, Mulligan said “The reason why you’ll never get rich is because you think that what I do is gambling.”
In Rand-ese, that explains it all.
So Lee and his group of investors went to Midas for a loan. Midas reviewed their credit worthiness and told them to go piss off. They felt slighted.
“I brought suit against him. . . . the state of Illinois had a very humane, very progressive law under which I could sue him.”
Apparently the law stated that under economic emergencies, it was illegal to discriminate against anyone in a matter involving their livelihood. Apparently it was meant to protect day laborers but you know the creative magic of the law.
Fortunately Judge Narragansett, who presided over the trial…
“instructed the jury to bring in a verdict in favor of Midas Mulligan — and he said some very harsh things about me and my partners.”
They appealed up the ladder though and won at the higher court. Mulligan had three months to comply. But within that three months. . .Mulligan disappeared. Without a trace. His bank paid off every cent it owed (Plus interest) as was left with nothing. Never heard from again.
A couple guys have already left the picture. Dan Conway of the Phoenix-Durango success and McNamara who was the go-to guy rebuilding the Rio Norte line. And our little friend Owen Kellogg. Apparetnly they weren’t the first.
Turns out Judge Narragansett disappeared shortly after he retired as well. . .
Where was I?
Oh yeah, no money for Lee H. Disaster for his company.
What about one owner before? The Starnes heirs.
“Oh, they ran for cover after they’d wrecked the factory . . . Durance, Louisiana.”
Off we go.
“You won’t like having to see them Miss Taggart,” said the chief of police of Durance, Louisiana; he was an elderly man with a slow firm manner and a look of bitterness acquired not in blind resentment, but in fidelity to clear-cut standards. “There’s all sorts of human beings to see in the world, there’s murderers and criminal maniacs — but some how, I think these Starnes persons are what decent people shouldn’t have to see. . . “
Whoa.
One son, Eric, committed suicide. The other son, Gerald she found “in the ward of a flophouse. He lay half-twisted on a cot.” Finally she found the daughter Ivy in an “ill-smelling bungalow on the edge of town.”
“I can’t answer the kinds of questions you’re asking, my girl. . . . My brothers and I lived on a different plane. Our aim was not to produce gadgets, but to do good. We brought a great new plan to the factory. . . Our plan? We put into practice that noble historical precept: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. Every body in the factory from charwomen to president received the same salary — the barest minimum necessary. Twice a year, we all gathered in a mass meeting, where every person presented his claim for what he believed to be his needs. We voted on every claim and the will of the majority established every person’s need and every person’s ability. The income of the facory was distributed accordingly. Rewards were based on need, and penalties on ability. Those whose needs were voted to be the greatest, received the most.. . “
Dagny?
“Dagny heard a bold, implacable voice saying somewhere within her “Remember it — remember it well — it is not often that one cans see pure evil. . .”