Posted on 01/17/2009 11:27:40 AM PST by Publius
Synopsis
“Who is John Galt?” The words come from the mouth of a bum to Eddie Willers, as he walks down the streets of New York. Willers notes the un-maintained spire of a building, whose gold leaf has pealed off and never been fixed. It’s September 2.
Eddie enters the office of Jim Taggart, president of the Taggart Transcontinental Railroad (“From ocean to ocean!”) to inform him that there has been another wreck on the Rio Norte Line. The track is shot, and people are giving up on using the line. Jim says that eventually there will be new track. “It’s a...temporary national condition.” Eddie points out that Orren Boyle of Associated Steel has failed to deliver rail for the past thirteen months. Jim forbids Eddie to approach Rearden Steel. The Phoenix-Durango Railroad is eating Taggart’s lunch, and Taggart is failing to serve Wyatt Oil, which has brought the Colorado oil fields back to life. Jim is furious that all Wyatt cares about is money and that his oil has “dislocated the economy of the entire country...How can we have any security or plan anything if everything changes all the time?”
As Eddie leaves Jim’s office, he notes that Pop Harper’s typewriter is broken and has not been fixed. Pop won’t requisition a new one because they’re substandard, and he recites a litany of bankruptcies and mechanical failures in New York. Pop doesn’t care any longer.
We first meet Dagny Taggart in the coach section of the Taggart Comet, not the sleeper section. (The description of Dagny no doubt matches what Ayn Rand wanted to look like; it’s the description of a movie star.) Dagny hears a brakeman whistling a tune that she recognizes immediately as something by Richard Halley, but a piece she hasn’t heard before. The brakeman mentions that it’s Halley Fifth Concerto. Dagny informs him that Halley has only written four concertos. (This is a significant plot point.)
After dozing restlessly, Dagny awakes to discover that the train has been shunted onto a siding at a red block signal for about an hour. The Comet has never been late before, but the crew doesn’t care. Their sole intent is to avoid blame for anything, and they want to wait for somebody else to take responsibility. Dagny orders them to move to the next block signal and stop at the next open office. At the crew’s insistence she agrees to take responsibility.
Arriving in New York, Dagny, with Eddie in attendance, tells Jim that she has ordered from Rearden, not Boyle, to rebuild the Rio Norte Line. Jim is furious but will not take the responsibility for canceling the Rearden order. He whines that it’s unfair to give all the railroad’s business to Rearden just because he produces on schedule. He is horrified when Dagny tell him that the order is for Rearden Metal, not conventional steel. “But...but...but nobody’s ever used it before!” Dagny then turns to Jim’s noble experiment of the San Sebastian Line which Dagny states will be nationalized shortly by People’s State of Mexico. Jim comes unglued. It’s more moral to spend money on an underprivileged nation that never had a chance than to spend it on Ellis Wyatt, who simply wants to make money. “Selfish greed for profit is a thing of the past.”
Dagny interviews Owen Kellogg of the Taggart Terminal Division in order to give him the top spot at the Ohio Division, replacing an incompetent who is a personal friend of Jim’s. But Kellogg won’t take the job, resigns from Taggart Transcontinental and nothing Dagny says can keep him on the railroad. When Dagny asks why, Kellogg answers, “Who is John Galt?” Thus the plot is set in motion.
New York and the Railroads
New York was a railroader’s nightmare in the19th Century. The Hudson River was an insurmountable barrier. Approaching from the west, the Pennsylvania, Reading, Baltimore & Ohio, Jersey Central, Erie, Lackawanna and Lehigh Valley railroads all terminated at Jersey City or Hoboken, and each railroad operated its own private navy to get people across the Hudson to downtown Manhattan. From the east, the Long Island Railroad ended at Brooklyn, and passengers for Manhattan took a ferry across the East River. Only the New York Central and the New Haven had direct access to New York into midtown’s Grand Central Station, a wooden structure built in 1871.
After the War Between the States, the Pennsylvania made two attempts to bridge the Hudson, one killed by the Army Corps of Engineers and the other by its exorbitant cost. A tunnel project was impossible using the technology available at the time. A coal-fired steam locomotive hauling a passenger train under the Hudson from New Jersey would arrive in New York with its passengers and crew dead from asphyxiation. This could cause problems with return business.
In 1899, Pennsylvania Railroad president Alexander Cassatt visited Paris to see his sister, the famous impressionist artist Mary Cassatt, and while in Paris he dropped by the newly opened Gare du Quai Dorsai. This station had been built for electric railroading with an approach via a tunnel under the Seine. Cassatt saw the solution to his Hudson River problem.
Unlike the New York Central and the Great Northern, two railroads that were run under a cult of personality, the Pennsylvania Railroad was an arch-conservative company run by faceless gray men in Philadelphia who just happened to know how to run a railroad. It was the most financially successful railroad in America, and its bonds were as good as gold. The Pennsy never did anything without a lot of planning and advance work; the quality of the accountants in its Planning Department was legendary. In 1900, Cassatt acquired the Long Island Railroad, put the main stem on Brooklyn’s Atlantic Avenue underground and electrified most of the system, causing its ridership to double.
In 1906, Cassatt announced that the Pennsylvania Railroad would build two tubes suspended in the Hudson River silt. These tunnels would carry electric trains powered by DC third rail, which would run from a location in the New Jersey meadowlands (Manhattan Transfer) into the new Pennsylvania Station in midtown Manhattan. This station would be designed by the architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White and would be modeled on the Basilica of Constantine and the Baths of Caracalla in Rome, creating a true temple of the American railroad. This architectural monument opened in 1910 and was one of America’s great railroad stations until its demolition in 1963. Its replacement, Penn Station, is an underground warren sitting under the latest version of Madison Square Garden. The destruction of Pennsylvania Station created an uproar, was considered an act of corporate vandalism and was directly responsible for the movement to preserve America’s great railway stations.
With the opening of Pennsylvania Station, the railroad hooked the Long Island Railroad in by tunneling under the East River and also provided a connection to the New Haven Railroad via a high-rise bridge over the Hell Gate in Queens.
The Pennsy’s arch-rival, the New York Central, had a terrible accident in 1902 when two steam trains collided in the Park Avenue Cut, killing many. New York City banned steam trains on the island of Manhattan, and the New York Central was dragged kicking and screaming into the electric age, along with its partner, the New Haven.
Upset by the presence of a greater temple of railroading, the New York Central built a station to replace the 1871 wooden structure, which had become rather dowdy with age. Atop two levels of underground tracks would stand the New York Central’s temple of railroading, Grand Central Terminal, which opened in 1913. (Corporate egos!)
In Rand’s book, there is only one great railroad station in New York, Taggart Terminal, which has characteristics of both Pennsylvania and Grand Central. As a combination of the Pennsylvania and New York Central railroads, it’s as though Nat Taggart created the Penn Central a century before 1968.
America and the Railroads
Today there are seven Class I railroads in North America: Union Pacific, Burlington Northern Santa Fe, Kansas City Southern, CSX, Norfolk Southern, Canadian National and Canadian Pacific. Only the Canadian National is truly transcontinental, although the Canadian Pacific has achieved a degree of transcontinental status by purchasing trackage rights on the CSX in the US. The Kansas City Southern is more Mexican than American, and the remainder are large regional carriers. All were created by a series of mergers and acquisitions spanning nearly 150 years.
At the time of Rand’s book there were a vast number of Class I railroads, but none were transcontinental.
In Atlas Shrugged, there are two transcontinental railroads: Taggart Transcontinental dominates the northern half of the US and the Atlantic Southern dominates the south.
Railroad baron Nat Taggart founded his railroad in the 19th Century, and it was transcontinental in scope from the very beginning, not achieving that status by a process of slow merger and acquisition. This is a serious departure from railroad history. It would appear that after creating the Penn Central and buying a whole slew of other lines, Taggart created his own version of the Union Pacific to go transcontinental. Taggart did not rely on Lincoln’s government land grants for financing but did it the hard way, which makes his model the real life James Jerome Hill, the man who built the Great Northern. Like Hill, Taggart worked his way up from the bottom in railroading and was not a financial operator.
One story about Jim Hill might give an insight into Nat Taggart. Jay Gould had been using political leverage in DC to prevent Hill from laying tracks across Montana. So Hill charged into the Western Union Building in New York where Gould’s fortress of an office was located, lifted Gould bodily out of his chair and dangled him by the ankles outside his office window six stories above Wall Street until Gould agreed to call off his lobbyists. (They made ‘em tough in those days!)
Dagny Taggart and Richard Halley
Classical musicians and people who are heavily involved in classical music have a technique, called “dittersdorfing”, where they hear a piece with which they are unfamiliar and guess the composer. It is named after Karl von Dittersdorf, a contemporary of Franz Joseph Haydn, whose music sounds a lot like Haydn, but lacks Haydn’s facility with musical architecture.
In the book, there is no indication that Dagny Taggart had ever taken music lessons or that her interest in classical music extended beyond contemporary composer Richard Halley. Yet a brakeman on a train whistles a melody, and Dagny immediately recognizes it as Halley, but unpublished Halley. For an old classical music person like myself, this is a stretch.
Some Discussion Topics
Question for our members: Should this thread go up next Saturday or sooner? Give it some time for thought and get back to me.
Ping to Chapter 1.
A few observations:
RE the oak tree of Eddie's memory - “He felt safe in the oak tree's presence; it was a thing that nothing could change or threaten; it was his greatest symbol of strength.” When lightning struck the tree and he found that the trunk was only an empty shell, he felt deeply shocked and betrayed.
Right after this passage, he arrives at the Taggart Transcontinental building. He smiles at the sight of it and thinks about how it will always be there. Entering the building gives him a sense of relief and security. Could Taggart Transcontinental be his rotted tree? He knows that the rest of the world is falling apart - businesses are closing, things are going wrong and no one seems to care. But he does still have faith in the railroad.
The scene with the train crew (”I don't intend to stick my neck out.”) reminds me of the attitude I see more and more in my own dealings with people. No one wants to take initiative, no one wants to take a risk, no one wants to be held responsible if something goes wrong. I think our increasing concerns about liability and the threat of lawsuits has had a profound effect on how we live our lives. Everyone, from doctors to thrift shop owners, has to worry about covering his butt these days.
The psychological terms “learned helplessness” and “external locus of control” also come to mind. Learned helplessness is when an individual comes to believe through experience that no matter what he does, it will be wrong, or punished, or ineffective - so he gives up and does nothing. When incompetence is rewarded and success is punished, the feeling of “Why bother?” becomes more and more pervasive.
In Atlas Shrugged, as in life, it seems that the producers (and the conservatives) show an internal locus of control - they perceive themselves to be in control of what happens to them and they take responsibility for their own lives and choices. The liberals show an external locus of control - they believe their environment, unseen forces, or other people control their decisions and their lives. The conversation between Dagny and Jim is an excellent example - Jim blames everyone else for his problems, letting his metaphoric canoe drift where the current takes it, while Dagny takes charge and paddles her canoe where she wants it to go.
Why do we seem to be turning into a country of “externals?” Could it be that our educational system discourages risk taking and entrepreneur-ism, while it teaches helplessness? John Taylor Gatto (author of Dumbing Us Down) would say yes. But even in my own homeschool, I struggle with this. My 10 year old came to me this week with an idea to make and sell a product for kids online. All I could think of was the new CPSC bill and lead testing and product liability insurance and it just didn't seem worth the effort and the risk. It made me so sad to have to explain this to my young son, who still sees the world as a place of unlimited possibilities. I want to encourage them to reach for their dreams, but I'm becoming jaded by the direction the country has taken.
This occurs with large corporations in major industry enduring layoff-after-layoff over several years. So many of the best employees are RIF'ed that those left sink into a malaise, partly because of survivor guilt and partly due to foreboding that they may be the next to go.
Concur re: Road.
Possibly the most important book written during the 20th century.
I’ve given away more copies than I can count.
First book I ever loaned Jerry Agar.
Interesting thought. I had thought of the tree as a metaphor for the entire society, but your answer makes me think harder. When you look at the people who work at Taggart Trans, only Dagny, Eddie and Kellogg have any pride in their work and an overriding competence. The rest of the employees have caught the virus, no doubt from Jim.
Even back in '73 I had that attitude about school. A sea of mediocrity, it dared not challenge and woe be upon anyone who dared challenge the status quo (I have learned tenure has a way of doing that to a system). That was my impression of it then, and I bugged out at 15 to come back and take the certification exams at a later time, after learning the skills needed to support myself through other means.
Indifference is projected by leadership and reflected back to it, be it at home, work, or school - and it becomes the norm. Instinct, I believe, is to do no more than is necessary to survive, but that is not enough to maintain our complex societies. So other behaviors must be learned, and it is the personal responsibility of each individual to rise above regardless of the barriers placed before them, and keep trying no matter how many times they fail.
Thank you for an amazing post!
“When you look at the people who work at Taggart Trans, only Dagny, Eddie and Kellogg have any pride in their work and an overriding competence. The rest of the employees have caught the virus, no doubt from Jim.”
I disagree. I don’t want to jump ahead, but we are shown later some employees that still care and want to do a good job. (think: the engineers that volunteer....) However, Dagny is starting to express her disappointment in finding “good men” when she decides to promote Kellogg a year or two early, since there is no one else.
The unions have a lot to do with that, also.
But it also applies to students. One teacher referred to the kindergarten thru senior-in-high-school period as "the sentence". Check out any American public school and American prison, and you wonder what's the difference.
Good point. The virus pervades society, and Taggart Trans is only one more victim of it. This puts Dagny in the position of swimming against the current with a small band of people who still care.
Many of the characters in Atlas Shrugged are painted as either highly moral (Dagny, Hank Rearden, d'Anconia, et al), or highly evil (Jim Taggert, Oren Boyle, Lillian & Philip Rearden, Wesley Mouch, et al), as defined by Rand's objectivist philosophy. There are few characters in the middle.
But then there's Eddie Willers, Dagny's assistant, and lifelong friend. Eddie doesn't have exceptional talent, but moralistically, he's aligned with the "good guys" in the book. He's not a moocher. He plays a significant part in the book, nonetheless.
Who are examples of the Eddie Willers character, in today's world? What is Rand's opinion of people like him? Why is his character necessary?
I noticed that. The book is designed as a morality play. We lack characters trying to find a level of morality. You're either a visionary, a worker or a moocher.
Who are examples of the Eddie Willers character, in today's world?
I've pointed out in a few posts on this thread that every good Commanding Officer has an Executive Officer, someone who helps keep things on track. These people are the managers who do the work the visionary doesn't have time to do because it gets in the way of the vision.
Go into every well run company, and you'll find somebody who absorbs the load of minutiae to keep the visionary from having to worry about the mundane.
What is Rand's opinion of people like him?
You remember what happens to Eddie at the end. Rand didn't grant him admission to Valhalla. Only the visionaries who could make it all work got in, not the Executive Officers of the world.
Why is his character necessary?
Eddie's relationship with Galt is part of the answer because of the way it advances the plot. Eddie is the guy who has no equity stake in things excspt for the salary he draws. He is an honest man and keeps Dagny on the major issues while he handles the minutiae. Sometimes it's a thankless role. But Eddie is more important to the running of Taggart Trans than Jim Taggart is.
Pinging you to Chapter 1.
Thanks!
Looks like I’m a little late to the party, but please add me to the ping list. I’m working on my first read through AS.
Pinging you to Chapter 1.
I haven’t finished the book yet, but I’m guessing that Eddie is important - he is, after all, the first character that we meet. I think of him as representing the audience for whom she is writing the book - he is not one of the movers and shakers, but he is rooting for them, and is not one of the looters, nor is he apathetic as to what is going on.
You think after working in Hollywood, she could’ve managed to bring Eddie and Cheryl together somehow...
And once Dagny replaced Jim at the top, Eddie would have had the operating division running like a well-oiled machine.
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