Atlas Shrugged – Day 062 – pp. 679-688 (doubling up to get back on track. . . so to speak)
As they’re walking, Dagny has a bit of a crisis about Nat Taggart. Apparently his memory is sullied in history as having made his fortune by exploiting others. By keeping them down.
Owen tells her he was actually a liberator. People these days just don’t understand.
True, you can’t build an empire on a foundation of morons.
Anyway they walk and make some small talk. What’s he been up to? He’s been working on “special assignments” lately. — That’s a strange turn of a phrase. Marketing. Ask a shit shoveler what he does for a living? “I take care of special assignments.” All about the positioning…
Why won’t he work for Taggart?
Because she wouldn’t give him the job he wanted.
What?!?! She’d give him whatever he wanted.
He wants to be a Track Walker. A Section Hand. An Engine Wiper.
I don’t know what any of those are, but they don’t sound too important.
And they’re not. What Dagny needs is his brain and he tells her it ain’t on the market. Then a spark of realization.
“You’re one of them aren’t you?”
“Of whom?”
Yeah, I guess he is.
This trip he’s off for a months vacation with friends. A “vacation” that’s more important to him than anything on earth.
Anyway, they come to the first phone. Out of order. They press on.
Along the way, Owen reaches in his pocket for a smoke. He offers one to Dagny. As she goes to take it, she grabs the pack from his hand. A plain white pack with the sign of the dollar.
“Where did you get this?” she asked.
He was smiling. “If you know enough to ask that, Miss Taggart, you should know that I won’t answer.”
Yeah, he’s one of ’em.
“I know this stands for something.”
“The dollar sign? It stands . . . on the vest of every pig-like figure in every cartoon, for the purpose of denoting a crook. . . as the money of a free country — for achievement, for success for ability. . . stamped on the forehead of a man like Hank Rearden, as a mark of damnation. . . It stands for the initials of the United States.”
I did not know that. Let’s check the interweb.
According to the all-knowing Wikipedia, the monogram was printed on money bags from the US mint and overlaid the U and S with the bottom of the U disappearing into the bottom of the S creating the symbol. BUT. . . there’s a flaw. “This theory does not consider the fact that the symbol was already in use before the formation of the United States.”
Still, it’s a good story.
And the rest of it is spot on. How many times have we seen the dollar sign used as a derogatory symbol? It’s our currency, for crying out loud. Why is it so often used, as Kellogg comments, “as a symbol of depravity.” We have a bad attitude my friends.
She wants to buy the pack. He says she can’t afford it.
How much? Five cents.
Five cents?!?! In gold.
Ah ha! Paper money’s out where they’re from. But he gives her the pack because he says she’s earned it.
Anyway, they’re still walking. And finally they get to a working phone. She gets on with the night dispatcher.
It’s an amusing dialogue.
“Send another crew out to us at once.”
“A full passenger train crew?”
“Of course.”
“Now?”
“Yes.”
“The rules don’t say anything about that.”
“Get me the chief dispatcher,”
“He’s away on his vacation.”
“Get the division superintendent.”
“He’s gone down to Laurel for a couple of days.”
“Get me somebody who’s in charge.”
“I’m in charge.” (rim shot!)
It’s amazing someone of this guys ambition would even read the rules.
Night dispatcher boy is looking to avoid any kind of blame in the situation. Finally Dagny has enough and leans hard.
“Do you know who I am?”
That was all it took. Obeying the expectation of obedience.
And as she’s talking, she notices a beacon off in the distance. But she can’t make out what it is.
She gets things sorted with night dispatcher boy. But before she hangs up, she asks. . .
“Say,– what’s that beacon, about half a mile from here?”
Find out tomorrow. . .