The death of John Galt

Atlas Shrugged – Day 052 – pp. 509-518

High drama. In the movies I think there’s a name for this. Of course I don’t know what it is.  The board wants Dagny to recommend dismantling the only profitable line in the Taggart Trans system. The line she built…

“I do not know by what sort of self-fraud you expect to feel that if it’s I who name the decision that you intend to make, it will be I who’ll bear the responsibility for it. . . . I cannot conceive what it is you think you can accomplish by a pretense of this kind, and I will not help you state it. The final blow will be delivered by you, as all the others.

She’s taking the Hank road. Don’t give them the moral high road. Let ’em do their own dirty work. And take responsibility for their own actions.

With no other options, the board mans-up and votes to close the John Galt Line…

When suddenly Mr W is heard from.

“Wait a minute boys. Do you happen to remember that you need to obtain permission before you can close a branch line? . . . Don’t forget yo’r’e a public service and you’re expected to provide transportation, whether you make money or not.”

Now you’re trying to run what’s left of a railroad without the beneficence of the chief looters. See how you like it.

Jim is up in arms.  Weatherby offers an option.

“Now of course if you gave Wesley something in return, to balance it, if you granted the unions’ wage raises–”

“I can’t! I gave my word to the National Alliance!”

I guess life between the rock and the hard place gets pretty abrasive pretty quickly, huh Jim?

“With everybody going broke and the tax receipts falling, we might — fact being that we hold well over fifty per cent of the Taggart bonds — we might be compelled to call for the payment of railroad bonds within six months.”

“WHAT?” screamed Taggart.

“– or sooner.”

“But you can’t! Oh God, you can’t! It was an understanding that the moratorium was for five years! It was a contract, an obligation! We were counting on it.”

“An obligation? Aren’t you old fashioned, Jim? There aren’t any obligations, except the necessity of the moment. The original owners of those bonds were counting on their payments too.”

Dagny burst out laughing.

Moral of the story: If you ain’t making the rules, you’re screwed eventually.

I guess the propensity to shift one’s focus from one meal ticket to the next depending on where you can skim the best deal is only natural. But I still have to wonder what happens when all the golden eggs run out. (PRINT MONEY!!! — Oh wait, it’s the 50’s.)

So Jim gives in to the business deal of the century. He gets permission to close the only profitable line in his system — to put another on life support — and agrees to bleed that one to death even faster. Six of one — half dozen of the other. You’re dead anyway, Jim. Go down like a man!

Dagny is leaving through the darkened lobby of the Taggart building when she hears…

“Hi Slug.”

“Hi Frisco”

Yes, it’s Francisco. Always turning up at the exact right moment.  (I hope these two kids get back together.  Seriously,  I know that’s got to sound stupid, but I’m just not digging the Hank/Dagny hook up.  Except for the dirty 50’s sex scenes – which are more quaint than dirty.  Anyway. . .)

He knows the JG line is dead. He wanted to see how she’d take it. And gloating is the furthest thing from his mind.

They go out to have a drink.

As they cab to a local watering hole, Francisco starts in with his “veiled reassurances.”

“Look around you, A city is the frozen shape of human courage — the courage of those men who thought for the first time of every bold, rivet and power generator that went to make it. . . Could men such as those on your board of directors have brought them out of the cave and up to this?”

“God, no!”

“Then there’s your proof that another kind of men do exist.”

At the bar she tells the story of Nat Taggart who against all odds and opposition built the bridge that connected the east and west half of the Taggart empire. When things looked darkest, he went out and started working on the bridge himself. Just to get through the night.

Purposeful action.

Would the types on the board of directors be any match for the likes of Nat Taggart?

Of course not.

Then why do they always win?

“They could not have won, if we — he and the rest of us — had not given the world away to them.”

That’s a bit of a tricky one. Certainly Nat Taggart didn’t give over easily. He fought to the death. Kept trying to fight and fight to keep his interests going. To “rage against the machine” if you will. And despite all great men’s efforts to the contrary, they still end up the losers.

So what’s the answer? I think it’s pretty obvious. . .

Francisco has offered some consolation over the JG Line to Dagny.

But she wants to change the subject for a second.

“Francisco, what have you done to Hank Rearden?

“Why”

“He told me once that you were the only man he’d ever liked. But the last time I saw him, he said that he would kill you on sight.”

“He did not tell you why?”

“No.”

“He told you nothing about it?”

“No. I warned him that you would hurt him — when he told me that you were the only man he liked.”

“He was the only man – with one exception – to whom I could have given my life!”

“Who is the exception?”

“The man to whom I have.”

(C’mon with the dialogue already, Ayn. . .)

But no more details for Dagny. As they leave, they notice something carved into the tabletop. “Who is John Galt?”

He chuckled.

“I can answer it. I can tell you who is John Galt.”

“Really?”

“John Galt is Prometheus who changed his mind. After centuries of being torn by vultures in payment for having brought to men the fire of the gods, he broke his chains and he withdrew his fire — until the day when men withdrew their vultures.”

Cut to Colorado. Last day for the JG line.

Dagny and Hank are there to buy what machinery is left in the closed factories of a once booming town. (Kind of sad imagery that Rand paints in this scene.)

And when the JG Line was condemned to death, another death was all but assured. . .