Atlas Shrugged – Day 017 – pp. 164-173
Gittin’ ‘er done…
Let’s see, the new contractor Ben Nealy’s an oaf… (Jeez, even I’m not this cynical…)
“I couldn’t help it Miss Taggart,… You know how fast drill heads wear out. I had them on order, but Incorporated Tools ran into a little trouble, they couldn’t help it either, Associated Steel was delayed in delivering the steel to them, so there’s nothing we can do but wait. It’s no use getting upset, Miss Taggart. I’m doing my best.”
“I’ve hired you to do a job, not to do your best — whatever that is.”
“That’s a funny thing to say. That’s an unpopular attitude, Miss Taggart, mighty unpopular.”
Need drill heads?
“She had telephoned Rearden. He had found an abandoned tool plant, long since out of business. Within an hour, he had purchased it from the relatives of its last owner. Within a day, the plant had been reopened. Withing a week, drill heads of Rearden Metal had been delivered to the bridge in Colorado.”
Oh, come on!!!
And now Dagny ponders the bridge. A relic of a span that was built in the days of Nat Taggart’s son. Rickety and ready to fall apart. She dreams of a new bridge made of Rearden Metal…
Strange way to fantasize about a married man. I mean really strange…
Ellis Wyatt approaches. They shake hands (no fantasies of oil rigs going off in her head..) They have buried the hatchet from their previous meeting. Ellis now is sure that Dagny will succeed and he’s even going to do what he can to assist.
Now a 2 hour meeting to cover details with the great oaf Nealy and when she comes out of her train car, who is standing there? Rearden Metal himself.
“She noticed suddenly that she was running toward him, she had lost all trace of exhaustion. Then she remembered that she had not seen himn since the party. She stopped.”
“He saw her, he waved to her in a gesture of pleased, astonished greeting. And he walked forward to meet her.”
Some freindly banter about jobs… If Dagny should ever quit the rail business, there’s a job wating at Rearden Steel. Of course there is. This is the way C-level types flirt.
You’d like that ordering me around. Well don’t you quit the steel biz cause there wouldn’t be ajob for you…
“He laughed, “Don’t try it.”
“What”
“To win any battle where I set the terms.”
She did not answer. She was struck by what the words made her feel. It was not an emotion, but a physical sensation of pleasure, which she could not name or understand.”
JEEEEESUS!
OK what about the bridge Hank? Seems he has a design for a new bridge all the idiot Taggart engineers are too dim to design. And it’ll cost 60% less than the estimates of her weak minded little design elves.
So what’s he doing in CO anyway? Looking at properties. Needs a couple copper mines for his Rearden Metal.
Both are heading back east. Dagny asks if she can go with him on his plane. He begs off that he’s headed to Minnesota.
Later at the airport, Dagny discovers he was in fact headed home. Ooooooo.
SECTION!!!
Dagny and James are on their way to a meeting of the NY Business Council. They promised Jim a speaking slot but he’s gotten Dagny to agree to do it “because you can do it so much better than I.”
Anything this guy won’t avoid?
Apparently, the National Council of Metal Industries has written a report that is circumstantially damning of Rearden Metal…
And who is the president of the NCMI? Orren Boyle.
Go figure.
And the reports out of Detroit… Contractors who are deliberating whether to let their workers work with Rearden Metal…