Posted on 05/16/2009 7:40:33 AM PDT by Publius
Synopsis
Dagny spends her time at the cabin in the Berkshires depressurizing, but also building a footpath because she can’t relax. On occasion she drives into Woodstock, an isolated and depressing hamlet. Finding that kerosene is not available because of a road washout, she asks why the road is never fixed. “It’s always been that way,” is the response. She can’t take her mind off what may be happening back in the world, and she yearns for Hank.
Then Francisco shows up unannounced, and Dagny could swear he’s whistling the theme from Halley’s Fifth Concerto. Francisco takes Dagny in his arms and kisses her, but Dagny backs off. Francisco tells her that he can now explain everything. He should have intercepted her when she quit and spared her the past month in seclusion.
Dagny wishes that The Destroyer had come for her, and she was surprised that he didn’t; now she thinks he doesn’t exist. Francisco reminds her of that night, twelve years ago, when he warned her in agony about what was going to happen that he couldn’t talk about; that was the night he gave up d’Anconia Copper. Now he is destroying it to keep it from the looters, but in such a way that they cannot detect it and seize it to stop him. He was the first of the industrialists to quit, but he stayed in place. The worst part was what he knew it did to Dagny.
He and Dagny charged too little for their accomplishments, and their error went all the way back to Sebasian d’Anconia and Nat Taggart, who created the wealth of the world, but let their enemies write the moral code. He and Dagny lived by their own standards but paid ransom to the looters to survive. Dagny perceives, and just as the recruitment of Dagny Taggart by Francisco d’Anconia approaches a successful consummation, the radio broadcast of a symphony is interrupted by a news bulletin about a train wreck in the tunnel in Colorado. All of Francisco’s hard work retreats into insignificance as the horror hits Dagny with full force.
As we left the Comet in the last chapter, it had entered the tunnel pulled by a coal burning steam locomotive. Three miles into the eight mile bore, the crew felt the effect of the fumes, and the engineer, that alcoholic friend of Fred Kinnan, threw the throttle wide open to gain enough speed to surmount the heavy grade. As the passengers felt the effect of the fumes, one panicked and pulled the emergency stop cord, breaking the locomotive’s air hose and stopping the train almost midway through the tunnel. The fireman fled through the tube, reaching the western portal when he was flattened by the blast of a explosion behind him. Apparently, the Army munitions train had been cleared to proceed because the tunnel’s signaling system was defective, and it plowed into the Comet, setting off an explosion that demolished the tunnel and most of the mountain with it.
Dagny screams and flees, and Francisco begs her not to go back, but to no avail.
Jim Taggart stares at the letter of resignation he hopes to avoid signing. Clifton Locey is hiding behind his doctor’s statement that he has a heart condition, and most company officers are playing hooky. Jim decides to hide in his office; even Wesley Mouch knows better than to call him.
But finally galvanized into action, Jim accosts Eddie Willers and demands to know where Dagny is; Eddie won’t answer. Jim tries to intimidate Eddie, accusing him of treason, but Eddie won’t budge. Then Dagny walks in. Jim screams that the disaster is all her fault, but Dagny ignores him and gives orders to Eddie. She quickly discovers that key personnel on the railroad have quit and disappeared. While Jim slinks off to shred his letter of resignation, Dagny asks what has been done since the disaster. Nothing, says Eddie, because the first person to act would have set himself up for the Unification Board. The entire Taggart system is in chaos.
Dagny opens up a rail map and tells Eddie to route trains over the tracks of other railroads, even to buy abandoned railroads and put them back into service. To fill gaps in the map, she tells Eddie to hire local crews to build new rail lines; bribe the Unification Board goons if necessary. Then she tells him to get the pre-tunnel system map out of the archives to see how they can reclaim the old route through the Rockies.
Eddie updates Dagny: Hank has signed the Gift Certificate, Quentin Daniels hasn’t been heard from, and trains have been abandoned on the system with the crews disappearing into the night.
Wesley Mouch calls Dagny, making the official excuse that her health was the reason for her absence. She sloughs Mouch off and demands to talk to Clem Weatherby. She tells the rail czar that Mouch is never to call her again; she will deal exclusively with him. Weatherby balks until he realizes that Dagny is handing him preferment, the right to use her as an item of “pull”. She tells him that she is going to start breaking laws immediately, and Weatherby tells her the laws are certainly flexible in such a situation. Finishing the call, she looks at Clifton Locey’s collection of liberal magazines and sweeps them off the coffee table in one stroke.
After giving the orders that will put the railroad back in working order, Dagny calls Hank. He tells her to start handing out bribes so that he can pour the steel – any kind of steel – to make her railroad whole again. He agrees to come over that night.
Railroads, Eminent Domain and Reciprocal Use
During the 19th Century, many states granted railroads the right of eminent domain. Railroads used that provision to claim the land for rail lines just as states used eminent domain to build highways. The provision was last used wholesale during the Twenties when America saw its last great period of railroad building.
Railroads often purchase trackage rights from other railroads to gain access to certain areas. In the event of an emergency, railroads are also quick to grant competitors the rights to their track because one day the shoe may be on the other foot. These emergency rights will be paid for, as will diesel fuel consumed at the host railroad’s depots.
The railroad world has changed since the book was published. Back then it was rare to see the locomotive of one railroad running on a different railroad unless there was an agreement or an emergency. In the 21st Century, however, high priority freight trains changing domain at Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis and New Orleans change crews but not locomotives. For high priority freights time lost at a rail yard is money; that is why it is now common to see locomotives in Union Pacific livery popping up in New York and vice versa.
Discussion Topics
“a good local microbrewed beer or ale.”
I’ve been a good teetotalling protestant all my life, but recently I heard an episode of The Survival Podcast about brewing that actually had my mouth watering. So being an info junkie I ordered the brewer’s bible, and have assembled plans for a still. We’ve got tons of heritage apples out in the country, and can only process so many. I’m thinking aple jack and brandy will have some serious barter value in the coming medieval economy.
Jesus made (and even drank) wine, you know. It’s drunkenness you have to avoid.
Sorry, my last post was a little blunt. I really shouldn’t dismiss others’ religious convictions, well, dismissively i guess. Still, I am curious. What’s the doctrinal foundation?
I have pretty much come around to the point of your previous post. no need to apologize for forthright communication. I think Baptists et al simply made it up, IMHO. (Scripture is unambiguously clear about the acceptability of consuming alcohol in moderation, but many protestants have deluded themselves into thinking it means something different in the Bible. My mother-in-law is strictly Biblical in all things, but believes the wine in the Bible is simply unfermented grape juice) I found out shortly before my dad died that when he went into full time pastoral ministry (Baptist), he gave up wine so his behavior would “never be a stumbling block to someone else.” Sad.
Personally I simply have not ever found any wine that tasted any better than gasoline. I have not tried that many beers or ales, but the heavy dark ones sure smell good. Jack Daniels is little better than paint remover IMHO, but a good cognac is another matter all together. I’m just not much of an imbiber.
My younger brother who is as devout and politically libertarian/conservative as I, declared long ago that when his kids left home he was gonna take up whiskey and cigars, and darned if he hasn’t. Of course it helps that my nephew is dating a girl from the Bahamas so my brother has a steady supply of primo Cuban cigars.
The frontier was on the Alcohol Standard, which was why the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794 was such a big deal. You've made good choices.
No, now that I can actually see. A practical issue in which consumption of alcohol inhibits you from completing your ministry. Kind of like how Paul said that he would abstain from things which weren't actually wrong if they might stumble others.
Personally I simply have not ever found any wine that tasted any better than gasoline. I have not tried that many beers or ales, but the heavy dark ones sure smell good. Jack Daniels is little better than paint remover IMHO, but a good cognac is another matter all together.
Well, if you're taking the "wine" literally, I can't drink it either. A lot of them taste good, even very good, but I think I'm alergic to the sulfites they put in them and I'll get a splitting headache. Sometimes I can get away with a glass, sometimes not even that. I was talking about beer/ale, and mixed drinks, or straight spirits.
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