CHAPTER VIIIThe Clyde Valley
Hithertomy narrative has had a certain unity; for I have been describing a chain of events, each of which followed naturally from its fore-runners; but now comes a bifurcation. I have explained how the Clyde Valley had been isolated, step by step, from the rest of the country; and when the last food-stores and troops had been brought into the Nitrogen Area, communications between the two districts ceased. From that moment, the two regions had different histories; and I cannot deal with them in an intertwined chronological sequence. I shall therefore continue my account of the Clyde Valley experiment now; and shall deal later with the collapse of civilisation in England.
When planning his colony, Nordenholt decided to occupy a belt of country between the Forth and Clyde which contained all the required materials in the form of coal and iron. Other things, such as copper, he brought into the region in quantities which he believed would suffice for months.
The frontier included something like a thousand square miles of territory; and within the boundary lay the whole industrial tract of mid-Scotland with its countless pits, mines, foundries, factories, ship-building yards and other resources.
Under Congleton’s arrangements, as many ships as possible had been brought into the Clyde and Forth at the last moment; and thereafter the Navy blocked theentrances with mine-fields upon an enormous scale. Nothing, either surface craft or submarine, could have penetrated either estuary.
Aerial defence was a secondary matter. No invasion in force would come by that road; and the destruction of the aerodromes had disposed of any early attempts at mere malicious damage. Defences were established, however, around the central area; and to accommodate the aeroplanes and airships which had been brought North, immense flying-grounds were laid out on the level reaches of the lower Clyde.
The storage of the food-supplies cost much thought; but by utilising every spare corner, including railway and tramway depots, it had been possible to get them all under cover and under guard. A strict rationing system was put in force, though the allowance was quite up to normal quantities. The main trouble was, as Nordenholt had anticipated, a shortage of vegetables; and there was also a considerable deficit in the meat-supply. However, after a complete census had been taken, it seemed likely that we should be able to hold out without much difficulty.
These material factors had given little trouble in our arrangements; but when the human counters came into the question, the resulting complications were much greater than appeared at first sight. Taking the problem at its simplest, we had coal at the one end and manufactured nitrogenous products at the other; and the quantity of the latter depended roughly on the amount of the former, since coal represented our source of energy and also part of our raw material in certain of the processes employed. But, in addition, we needed coal for lighting, either by gas or electricity, and also for heating; so that our actual coal output had to be larger than that required for the mere fixation of nitrogen. Then the number of miners had to be adjusted in proportion to those of the remainingworkmen in each stage of the process; for it was wasteful to feed men who were employed in producing a superfluity which could not be utilised. Again, the problem was complicated by the fact that the coal could not immediately be used as it was hewn. Time had to be allowed for the construction and erection of the machinery whereby the atmospheric nitrogen was to be fixed; and this introduced further complications into the calculations. Finally, to omit intermediate details, the number of labourers required for spreading the nitrogenous manure upon the soil was governed by the quantities of this material which could be prepared.
But even when calculations had been made which covered all this ground, a further factor entered into the problem. In dealing with a million workers, death, disease and accidents have to be taken into account, since in their effects they touch large numbers of individuals. The incidence of these factors is not uniform in all trades; and hence corrections had to be introduced to bring the various groups into proportion.
The whole of these calculations had, of course, been made during the period of enrolment; and the reason I lay stress upon them at this stage is to show how accurately each section of the machine was dovetailed into the neighbouring parts. It was impossible to foresee everything: in fact what happened showed that some factors are beyond calculation. But when the Nitrogen Area started as a going concern, everything possible had been provided for, as far as could be seen. It was no fault of Nordenholt’s that things went as they did in the end.
With the segregation of the Nitrogen Area from the rest of the Kingdom, and the transference of Parliament to Glasgow, a problem arose which required instant settlement. A dual control in the district might have beenfraught with all manner of evil possibilities; and it was essential, once for all, to decide where the ultimate power lay. Nordenholt allowed no time to be wasted in the matter. At the first meeting of the House of Commons after the Area was definitely closed, he took his seat as a Member and moved the adjournment of the House on a matter of urgent public importance. His speech, as reported officially, was very short.
“Mr. Speaker—Sir, I have watched the proceedings in this House closely during the last weeks; and I have noted that a certain number of members seem animated by a spirit of factious opposition to the Government measures. I call the attention of the House to the state of grave peril in which we all stand; and I ask them if this conduct has their support. I have no wish to complicate matters. We have all of us more responsibility on our shoulders than we can bear; and I have no sympathy with these methods. Those who think with me in this matter will vote with me in the lobby. I move that this House do now adjourn.”
The motion was seconded and the question put without further debate. About forty members went into the lobby against Nordenholt. While they were still there, he drew a whistle from his pocket and blew three shrill blasts. A picket of the Labour Defence Force entered the House in response to the signal and arrested the malcontent members, whom they removed in custody. When the remainder of the Members returned to the Chamber, Nordenholt took his stand before the Mace.
“Gentlemen”—he dropped the usual ceremonial form of address—“I wished to allow these members who do not agree with me to select themselves; and I adopted the simplest and most convincing method of doing so, though I could have laid my hand on every one of them without this demonstration. These gentlemen, it appears,are not satisfied with the manner in which things are being done here. I would point out to you that the creation of the Nitrogen Area has been mine from the start; and that the machinery of it is controlled by me now. There is no room for dual control in an enterprise of this magnitude. I offer you all positions in which you can help the remnant of the nation in saving itself; but there are no such positions in this House. Do you agree?”
For a moment there was silence, then an angry murmur ran from bench to bench. Nordenholt continued:
“Those members who were removed from the House will to-night be embarked on airships; and by this time to-morrow I trust that they will all be safely landed, each in the constituency which he represents. Since they do not wish to aid us in the Nitrogen Area, it is fitting that they should go back to their constituents and assist them in the troubles which are about to break upon them. Are you content?”
Again there was a murmur, but this time less defiant.
“Finally, gentlemen, as I hear some whispers of constitutionalism, I have here a Proclamation by the King. He has dissolved Parliament. You are no longer clothed with even the semblance of authority.”
The assembly was thunderstruck; for there seemed to be no reply to this.
“I may say,” continued Nordenholt, “that some of you are of no personal value in this enterprise. These gentlemen also will be returned to their proper residences immediately. The remainder, whom I can trust, will be so good as to apply at my offices to-morrow, when their work will be explained to them. There is only one ultimate authority here now—myself.”
It was a sadly diminished assembly that appeared on the morrow. Neither the Prime Minister nor the Colonial Secretary was found among its numbers.
With the working men who formed the majority of the Nitrogen Volunteers, Nordenholt’s methods were entirely different. Here he had in the first stages to conciliate those with whom he dealt and to educate them gradually into an understanding of the task before them. In the beginning, no man worked more than eight hours per day or five days a week; and the general run of the workmen had a thirty-five hour week. Nordenholt’s object in this was two-fold. In the first place, he instilled into the men that he was an easy task-master; and secondly, he was able, by keeping check of the output, to place his finger upon those men who even under those easy conditions were not doing their full share. These workers he proposed to eliminate at a later period; but he wished to allow them to condemn themselves.
Next he set going various newspapers. The contents of these, of course, dealt entirely with doings within the Nitrogen Area; but their readers soon grew accustomed to this: and as the main object of the journals was propaganda, the less actual news there was in them, the more likely it became that the propaganda would be read for want of something better.
Through these papers, he began to explain very clearly the necessity for the work upon which they were engaged, handling the subject in all manner of ways and making it seem almost new each time by the fresh treatment which it received from day to day. During this period no hint of the underlying purpose of the Nitrogen Area was given, beyond the suggestion that it was a convenient spot, in view of its natural resources.
In order to alleviate any grievances which they might feel, he devised a system of workmen’s committees, one for each trade; and the members of these bodies were elected separately by the married and unmarried men in proportion to their numbers. In this way he secured a majority of themore responsible men upon each committee, although no fault could be found with the method of election. Whatever grievances were ventilated by these committees were met immediately or the reasons against compliance with the demands were clearly and courteously explained.
In fact, throughout this stage of the Nitrogen Area history, Nordenholt’s main object was to show himself in the light of a comrade rather than a task-master. He was building up a fund of popularity, even at considerable cost, in order that he might draw upon it later. It was a difficult game to play; for he could not afford to drive with an altogether loose rein in view of the necessity for haste; but, as he himself said, he understood men; and he was perhaps able to gain their confidence at a cheaper rate than most people in his position could have done. Like myself, he believed that fundamentally the working man is a sound man, provided that he is dealt with openly and is not made suspicious.
Within a fortnight, in one way and another, practically every man in the Area understood the importance of his work. I question whether this was not the greatest of Nordenholt’s triumphs, though perhaps in perspective it may seem a small affair in comparison with other events. But the generation of enthusiasm is a difficult matter, much more difficult than feats which produce immediate effects.
In one respect Nordenholt gauged the psychology of the masses accurately. He did not make himself cheap. Except at a few mass meetings which he addressed, none of the rank and file ever saw him at all. He knew the value of aloofness and a touch of mystery.
But he did not confine himself to moves made openly upon the board. Behind the scenes he had collected an Intelligence Division, the existence of which was known only to a few; and by means of it he was able to put his finger on a weak spot or a centre of disaffection with extraordinarypromptitude. Grievances were often remedied long before the appropriate committee had been able to cast their statement of them into a definite form. Nor, as I shall have to tell later, did this Intelligence Division confine its operations to the Nitrogen Area itself; for its network spread over the whole Kingdom.
As soon as the machinery of the Area was working satisfactorily, Nordenholt took a step in advance. The Workmen’s Committees were supplied with the actual statistics of production and it was explained to them that speeding-up must begin. The ultimate object was still concealed; but sufficient information was laid before them to show that at their present rate of output the nitrogenous materials prepared by the end of the twelve months would be totally insufficient to yield food enough for even the population of the Area itself, without taking the outer regions into account. They were then asked to suggest means by which output might be raised; and time was given them to think the matter out in all its bearings. Without hesitation they agreed that there must be an increase in productivity.
To raise the output and also to check the points where any loss was occurring, Nordenholt introduced a series of statistical charts and at the same time divided the workmen in each trade into gangs of a definite number. At the end of each week, these charts were submitted to the Trade Committee and the gangs which were failing to do their share were indicated. By pointing out that a fixed quantity of material must be obtained per week unless disaster were to ensue, Nordenholt was able to make it clear to the Committees that slackness in one gang entailed extra exertions on the rest. There was no question of an employer trying to force up the standard of work: it was simply a question whether they wished to starve or live.
The effect of this was striking; and certainly it was a novelty in working conditions. Every man became a policemanfor his neighbours, since he knew that slackness on their part would demand greater exertions upon his own. The Committees instituted a system of inspectors, nominated by themselves, to see that work was properly carried out; and these inspectors reported both to the Committees and to Nordenholt himself, through special officials. Before long, both the Committees and Nordenholt had an extensive black list of inefficient workers; and the stage was being set for another drastic lesson.
For three days the Area newspapers contained full accounts of the state into which things had drifted; and it was made obvious even to the most ignorant what the inevitable result would be if the output were not raised. Then, having thus prepared his ground, Nordenholt summoned a meeting of workmen delegates. It was the first time that most of those present had seen him; and I think he counted upon making his personality tell. He had no chairman or any of the usual machinery of a meeting; everything was concentrated upon the tall dark figure, alone upon the platform.
It was a short speech which he made; but he delivered it very slowly, making every point tell as he went along and leaving time for each statement to sink well home into the minds of his audience. He began by a clear account of the objects for which they were working—and he had the gift of lucid exposition. He handled the statistical side of the matter in detail, and yet so simply that even the dullest could understand him. When he had completed his survey, every man present saw the state of affairs in all its bearings.
Then, for the first time, he explained to them that those in the Nitrogen Area were all that could be saved; and that their salvation could be accomplished only at the cost of labour far in excess of anything they had anticipated.
“Now, men,” he continued, “remember that I am not your task-master. I am merely striving, like yourselves, to avert this calamity; and I think I have already shown youthat I have spent my best efforts in our common cause. I have no wish to dictate to you. I leave the decision in your own hands. Those of you who wish to starve may do so. It is your own decision; even though it involves your wives and families, I will not interfere. I ask no man to work harder than he thinks necessary.
“But I put this point before you. Is it right that a man who will not strain himself in the common service should reap where he has not sown? Is it right that any man should batten upon the labour of you all while refusing to do his utmost? Will you permit wilful inefficiency to rob you and your children of their proper share in the means of safety? Or do you believe that this community should rid itself of parasites?
“I leave myself entirely in your hands in the matter. I take no decision without your consent. If you choose to toil in order that they may take bread from your children’s mouths, it is no affair of mine. I will do my best for you all, in any case. But I would be neglecting my duty did I not warn you that there is no bread to spare. Every mouthful has been counted; and even at the best we shall just struggle through.
“These are the facts. Do you wish to retain these inefficients among you? Without your consent, I can make no move. I ask you here and now for your decision.”
He held the meeting in the hollow of his hand. Cries of “No. Away with them. No spongers,” and the like were heard on all sides. Nordenholt held up his hand, and silence came at once. The meeting hung on his words.
“Those in favour of allowing this inefficiency to continue, stand up.”
No one rose.
“Very good, men. I will carry out your decision. This meeting is at an end.”
The morning papers contained a full report of hisspeech; but before they were in the hands of the populace, Nordenholt had acted. All the ca’ canny workmen had been arrested during the night, along with their families, and removed to the southern boundary, where they were placed on trains and motors ready for transport to the Border. The thing was done with absolute silence and with such efficiency that it seemed more like kidnapping than an ordinary process of arrest. Nordenholt knew the advantage of mystery; and he proposed to make these disappearances strike home on the public mind. The inefficients vanished without leaving a clue behind.
At the Border, each of them was supplied with provisions exactly equivalent to the rations remaining in the outer world; and they were then abandoned as they stood. Nothing was ever known of their fate. When the works opened again in the morning, their fellows missed them from the gangs and time enough was allowed for their disappearance to sink in; after which a redistribution took place which closed up the gaps. But the very mystery served to heighten the effect of the lesson. For the first time, Fear in more than one form had entered the Nitrogen Area.
I remembered what Nordenholt had said to me some weeks earlier: “I shall deal with them—and I shall do it by the hand of their own fellows.”
So you can understand the roaring tide of industry which mounted day by day in the Area. This sudden stroke had done more than anything else to convince the people of the seriousness of the situation. Ten thousand men had been condemned and had vanished on an instant—Nordenholt made no secret of the number; and the remainder realised that things must indeed be grave when a step of this kind had been necessary. He had given no time for amendment: condemnation had been followed by the execution of the sentence: and it was they themselves who had pronouncedthe decree. They could not lay it upon his shoulders. And the veil of mystery which enwrapped the fate of the convicted ones had its value in more than one direction. Had Nordenholt caused them to be shot, public sympathy would have been aroused. But this impenetrable secrecy baffled speculation and prevented men from forming any concrete picture which might arouse compassion.
Choosing his moment, Nordenholt announced that, in future, the factories would be run continuously, shift after shift, throughout the twenty-four hours. For a time he called a halt to the newspaper campaign for increased output. He would need this form of publicity later; and he did not wish it to become staled by constant repetition.
For the present he was satisfied. Everything was now in train and he was into his stride all along the line. At last statistics were accumulating which would enable him to gauge exactly how the machinery was running; and he held his hand until a balance-sheet could be drawn with accuracy.
At this point in my narrative I am trying to produce a conspectus of the Nitrogen Area as it was during that period in its career. I leave to the imagination of my readers the task of picturing that gigantic concentration of human effort: the eternal smoke-cloud from a thousand chimney-stalks lying ever between us and the sun; the murky twilight of the streets at noon; the whir of dynamos and the roar of the great electric arcs; the unintermittent thunder of trains pouring coal into the city; and, above all, the half-naked figures in the factories, toiling, toiling, shift after shift in one incessant strain through the four-and-twenty hours. No one can ever depict the details of that panorama.
But alongside this vast outpouring of physical energy there lay another world, calm, orderly and almost silent,yet equally important to the end in view: the world of the scientific experts in their laboratories and research stations. To pass from one region to the other was like a transition from pandemonium to a cloister.
Nordenholt had grouped his experts into three main classes, though of course these groups by no means included all the investigators he controlled. It was here that the Nordenholt Gang were strongest, for the path of the scientific man is one which offered the greatest chances to Nordenholt’s scheme for the furthering of youth.
In the first place came the group of chemists and electricians who were engaged upon the improvement of nitrogen fixation methods; and between this section and the factories there was a constantliaison; so that each new plant which was erected might contain the very latest improvements devised by the experts.
The second group contained the bacteriologists, whose task it was to investigate the habits ofB. diazotans, to determine whether it could be exterminated in any practical manner and to discover what methods could be employed to prevent its ravaging the new crops when they were obtainable.
Finally, the experts in agriculture overlapped with the chemical group, since many of the questions before them were concerned with the chemistry of the soil. I have already mentioned how the action ofB. diazotansdisintegrated the upper strata of the land and reduced the soil to a friable material. This formed one of the most troublesome features in the cultivation problem, since the porosity of the ground allowed water to sink through, and thus plants sown in the affected fields were left without any liquid upon which they could draw for sustenance. It was J. F. Hope, I believe, who finally suggested a solution of the matter. His process consisted in mixing colloid minerals such as clays with the soil and thus forming less permeablebeds; and the agricultural experts were able to establish the minimum percentages of clay which were required in order to make crops grow.
I have mentioned these points in order to show how much we in the Area depended upon the pure scientists for help. But it must not be supposed that only those lines of scientific investigation capable of immediate application were kept in view by Nordenholt. I learned later, as I shall tell in its proper place, that he had cast further afield than that.
I cannot give details of the work on the scientific side, because I have no intimate acquaintance with them; but I met the results on every hand in the course of my own department’s affairs. From day to day a new machine would be passed for service and put into operation, some fresh catalyst would be sent down for trial on a large scale after having been tested in the laboratory, or there might be a slight variation in the relative quantities of the ingredients in some of our factory processes. There was a constant touch between research and large-scale operations.
In the course of this I used often to have to visit the Research Section; and in some ways I found it a mental anodyne in my perplexities. These long, airy laboratories, with their spotless cleanliness and delicate apparatus, formed a pleasant contrast to the grimy factories and gigantic machines among which part of my days were passed. And I found that the popular conception of the scientific man as a dry-as-dust creature was strangely wide of the mark. It may be that Nordenholt’s picked men differed from others of their class; but I found in them a directness in speech and a sense of humour which I had not anticipated. After the hurry and confusion of the improvisation which marked the opening of the Nitrogen Area, the quiet certainty of the work in the Research Section seemed like a glimpse of another world. I do not mean that they talked like super-men or that the investigations were always successful;but over it all there was an atmosphere of clockwork precision which somehow gave one confidence. These men, it struck me for the first time, had always been contending with Nature in their struggle to wrest her secrets from her; while we in the other world had been sparring against our fellows with Nature standing above us in the conflict, so great and so remote that we had never understood even that she was there. Now, under the new conditions, all was changed for us; while to these scientific experts it was merely the opening of a fresh field in their long-drawn-out contest.
During the inception of Nordenholt’s scheme, my own work had dealt with varied lines of activity which brought me into contact with diverse departments of the machine; but when the transfer to the Clyde Valley took place, I settled down into more definite duties. Nordenholt had picked me out, I believe, on the strength of my knowledge of factory organisation; and my first post in the North dealt with this branch. Thus in the earlier days, my work took me into the machine-shops and yards where the heavy machinery was being built or remodelled; and so I came into direct contact with the human element.
But as time went on, the range of my control increased; and as my work extended I had to delegate this section more and more to my subordinates. I became, through a gradual series of transitions, the checker of efficiency over most of the Area activities.
The under-current of all my memories of that time is a series of curves. Graphs of coal-supply from each pit, so that the fluctuation of output might be controlled and investigated; graphs of furnace-production from day to day, whereby all might be kept up to concert-pitch; graphs comparing one process with another in terms of power and efficiency; graphs of workmen’s ages and effectiveness;graphs of total power-consumption; graphs of remaining food-supplies extrapolated to show probable consumption under various scales; graphs of population changes; graphs of health-statistics: all these passed through my hands in their final form until I began to lose touch with the real world about me and to look upon disasters costing many lives merely as something which produced a point of inflexion in my curves.
Nordenholt had established his central offices in the University and had cleared the benches from all the classrooms to make room for his staff. It was probably the best choice he could have made; since it provided within a limited area sufficient office-room to house everyone whom he might wish to call into consultation at a moment’s notice at any time; and it had the further advantage that all the scientific experts had been given the University laboratories to work in, so that they also were within easy call. He himself had chosen as his private office the old Senate Room. The Randolph Hall had been fitted up as a kind of card-index library wherein were stored all the facts of which he might be in need at any time; and the Court Room was converted into his secretary’s office and connected with the Senate Room by a door driven through the wall.
In Nordenholt’s office a huge graph extended right across the wall over the fireplace. It was an enormous diagram, covering the period from the starting of the Nitrogen Area and extending, as far as its numbered abscissæ were concerned, beyond the harvest-time in the next year. Each morning, before Nordenholt came to his office, the new daily points were inserted on it and joined up with the preceding curves. One line, in red, expressed the amount of food remaining; another, in green, showed the quantity of nitrogenous material synthesised up to date; whilst the third curve, in purple, indicated approximately the cropwhich might be expected from the nitrogenous manure in hand. Of all the sights in the Nitrogen Area, I think that series of curves made the deepest impression upon me. It was so impersonal, a cold record of our position and our prospects, untinged by any human factor. The slow rise of the green curve; the steady fall of the red line—our whole future was locked up in these relative trends.
I remember one morning in Nordenholt’s office, where I had gone to consult him on some point or other. We had discussed the matter in hand; and I was about to leave him when he called me back.
“I haven’t seen much of you lately, Flint,” he said. “Sit down for a few minutes, will you? I want a rest from all this for a short time; and I think it would do you good to get clear of things for a while also. What do you do with yourself at nights?”
I told him that I usually worked rather late.
“That won’t do as a steady thing. I know the work has to be done; and I know you have to work till midnight, and after it often, to keep abreast of things. But if you do it without a break now and again you’ll simply get stale and lose grip. You may keep on working long hours; but what you do in the end won’t be so efficient. Take to-night off. Come to dinner with me and we’ll try to shake loose from Nitrogen for a while. I’ve asked Henley-Davenport also.”
I accepted eagerly enough, though with a somewhat rueful feeling that it meant harder work on the following day if I was to overtake arrears. But I wanted to meet Henley-Davenport. As I mentioned at the beginning of this narrative, before the irruption ofB. diazotansinto the world, he had been engaged upon radioactivity investigations; and I was anxious to hear what he was doing. I knew that Nordenholt set great store by his work—he was one of the Nordenholt young men—and I was interested. But mymain reason for accepting was, of course, Nordenholt himself. As time went on, he fascinated me more and more; and I grasped at every opportunity of studying his complex personality. I doubt if I have been able to throw light upon it in these pages. I have given vignettes here and there to the best of my ability; but I know that I have failed to set down clearly the feeling which he always gave me, the distinction between the surface personality and the greater forces moving behind that screen. The superficial part is easy to describe; but the noumenon of Nordenholt is a thing beyond me. I only felt it; I never saw it: and I doubt if any man ever saw it fully revealed.
Just then the door of the secretary’s room opened and someone came in. Curiously enough, I had never seen Nordenholt’s secretary before. She seemed to be about twenty-four, fair-haired and slim, dressed like any other business girl; but it was her face which struck me most. She looked fragile and at the corners of the sensitive mouth I thought I saw evidences of strain. Somehow she seemed out of place amid all this grimness: her world should have been one of ease and happiness.
“These are the figures you wanted with regard to A. 323, Uncle Stanley,” she said, as she handed over a card.
“Thanks, Elsa. By the way, this is Mr. Flint. You’ve heard me speak of him often. My ward, Miss Huntingtower, Flint. She acts as my secretary.”
We exchanged the commonplaces usual to the situation. I noticed that Nordenholt’s voice changed as he spoke to her: a ring of cheerfulness came into it which was not usually there. In a few minutes he dismissed her and we sat down again.
“Now, Flint, there’s another example of the effect of too hard work. We’re all running things rather fine, nowadays. As for myself, it doesn’t matter. So long as I can see this year through, it’s immaterial to me what theultimate effect may be. I can afford to run things to their end. But you younger people have most of your lives before you. I’m not hinting that you can spare yourselves; but you must try to leave something for the future. When it’s all over, we shall still need directors; and you must manage to combine hard work now with enough reserve force to prevent a collapse in the moment of success.
“That’s why I planned amusement for the workers as well as a time schedule for the factories. We aren’t dealing with machines which can be run continuously and not suffer. We have to give the men a change of interest. I suppose some of you thought I was wrong in cumbering ourselves with all these football players, actors and actresses, music-hall artistes and so on, who produce nothing directly towards our object? For all I know you may jib at the sight of the thousands who go down to the Celtic Park every Saturday afternoon to watch a gang of professionals playing Soccer. I don’t. I know that these thousands are getting fresh air and exercising their lungs in yelling applause. I couldn’t get them to do it any other way; and I want them to do it. Then the halls and theatres occupy them in the evenings when they aren’t working; and that keeps them from brooding over their troubles. I don’t want men to accumulate here and there and grouse over the strain I put on them. That’s why I picked out the best of the whole Stage and brought them here. The Labour section is getting better value for its amusement money than it ever got in its life before; and I’m getting what I want too.
“That’s why I cornered tobacco and liquor also. We must remove every scrap of restraint on pleasure, Flint, or we should have trouble at once. They must have their smoke and they must have drink in moderation. You can’t run this kind of colony on narrow lines.
“And there’s another thing, perhaps the most importantof all under the conditions we are in: religion. I’m not talking about creeds or anything of that kind. I’ve studied most of them from the point of view of psychology; and they’re empty things; life left them long ago. But behind all that mass of outworn lumber there’s a real feeling which can’t be neglected if we are to get the best out of things. That’s why I brought all these ministers of the various denominations into the Area. We must have them; and as far as I could, I picked the best of them. But I’ll have no idlers here. They have to do their day’s work with the rest of us and do their teaching afterwards. Every man ought to be able todosomething. After all, Christ was a carpenter before He took up His work. That’s what has been wrong with ninety per cent. of parsons since the Churches started. They don’t know anything practical and they mistake talk for work. What was the average sermon except expanding a text, with illustrations—diluting the Bible with talk, just as a dishonest milkman waters his milk.
“Well, I’ve picked the best I could get; and I’ve given them a free hand. But I wish I were sure where it is all going to lead. It’s the most difficult problem I ever tackled, I know. Our conditions aren’t parallel, but I am half-afraid of reproducing the story of the Anabaptists in Münster. You can’t get heavy physical and mental tension in an unprepared population without seeing some strange things. I introduced these ministers as a brake on that line of development.
“And what a chance they have! It’s when men are most helpless that they turn to religion; and here we are going to have a field in which much might be sown. If only they are equal to the times! But it’s no affair of mine. They must work out their own salvation and perhaps the salvation of their people if they can.
“As for us, Flint, we’ve got enough work of our own inthis world. Take my advice and clear every idea of humanity out of your mind: stick to your curves and graphs and don’t think beyond them. If once you let your imagination stray over the real meaning of them—in toil and pain and death—you’ll never be able to carry on. I can’t help seeing it all; and that’s why I pin myself to the Curve there. I don’t want to look beyond it. I want to keep myself detached from all that as far as possible; for I can’t afford to be biased. It’s difficult; and in a few weeks more it will be still harder, when these unheard cries of agony go up in the South. But what can one do? I must shut my ears as best I can and go forward; or everything will fall to pieces and we shall save nothing out of the wreck. What a prospect, eh?
“Now, Flint,”—he sprang up—“off to work again, both of us. We can’t afford to waste time if we are to have an evening free from worry. I’ll see you at dinner.”
As I reached the door, he called me back and spoke low:
“By the way, Miss Huntingtower doesn’t know all our plans. Keep off the subject of the South. She hasn’t been told anything about that; and I want to keep it from her as long as I can. You understand?”
“Yes, if you wish it. But surely she must have some knowledge of the state of affairs. You can’t have managed to keep her in the dark about the whole thing?”
“It wasn’t difficult. She looks after certain special branches of my correspondence and so on; and nothing except actual Area business passes through her hands, so she has seen nothing beyond that. And once she finishes her work for the day I’ve made it a rule for her that she takes no further interest in the situation. I told her she must get her mind clear of it at night, or she would get stale and be no use to me. That was quite enough. She doesn’t even read the newspapers.”
“But what’s the use of keeping her in the dark? She is bound to know all about it soon enough.”
“There’s a great difference, Flint, between learning of a thing after it is irrevocable and hearing of it while there is time to protest against it. Once a catastrophe is over, itisover; and the shock is lighter than if one feels it coming and struggles against it. I don’t wish Miss Huntingtower to hear anything about the South until the whole thing is at an end down there. She’ll accept it then, since there is nothing else for it. I don’t wish her to be put in the position of feeling that she ought to do all she can to prevent its coming about. You understand?”