Dagny and Rearden: their secret affair. His sense of guilt, her simple acceptance. (His guilt undermines him in his fight against the parasites, makes him accept them.) Dr. Stadler and Dr. Ferris: the book.
XIII: The Aristocracy of Pull*
[Original:]
Loss of priceless freight needed by Rearden for coal man’s order. Dagny and Ragnar Danneskjöld: his refusal [to help her]. When she comes back, coal man quits. (Night of Dagny alone in the office—the shadow of a man outside.)
[Revised:]
Taggart marries Cherryl. Rearden and Danagger make illegal deal. The d‘Anconia copper stock crash. (Dagny learns that cigarette is “made nowhere.”)
XIV: By Your Guilt
*
[
Original:
] Taggart agrees to get rid of Colorado Division parasite, but Dagny’s choice for the position quits; the parasite stays. Taggart marries Cherryl. (Taggart and the priest.) Mrs. Rearden learns of Rearden’s infidelity—her enjoyment of it, which Rearden cannot understand. The subtle torture that follows. (Dagny and the young engineer at the employment board.) (The young playwright and Stacey Rearden’s peculiar attitude toward his struggle and career.)
[Revised:]
Eddie tells the TT worker about the importance of the coal man. Mrs. Rearden learns of Rearden’s infidelity—her enjoyment of it, which Rearden cannot understand. The subtle torture that follows. Rearden and Dr. Ferris: the attempted blackmail. Danagger quits. Rearden and Francisco : the furnace.
XV: The Sanction of the Victim
*
[Original:]
The N.Y. utility man—caught between the failures of the oil and coal [industries], and the failures of TT. Dagny comes to see him—too late—he quits. (She waits in anteroom while Galt is in the office.) Taggart is forced to close Colorado line. The death of a section. The young man who quits.
[Revised:]
Rearden’s trial and victory—“the moral sanction.” Rearden and Francisco: the loss of d‘Anconia copper at sea.
XVI: Account Overdrawn
*
[This chapter is added in the revised version:
] Taggart is forced to close Colorado line. The death of a section. Lillian discovers Rearden’s mistress is Dagny.
XVII: Miracle Metal*
[
Original:
] The buck passing spreads. The rush of people toward demotion and obscurity. The law freezing the economy. Dagny quits and goes to mountain cabin. (Last Galt legend—the factory.)
[Revised:]
The law freezing the economy. Dagny quits and goes to mountain cabin. Rearden forced to give away patent [for Rearden Metal].
XVIII: The Moratorium on Brains
*
[
Original:
] Rearden forced to give away patent [for Rearden Metal]. Taggart closes his research laboratory. Taggart overrides Dagny’s policies and orders, particularly in regard to locomotives. Eddie Willers and the worker: scene in which Eddie mentions Dagny’s hide-out. The tunnel catastrophe.
[Revised:]
Taggart closes his research laboratory. (“We can save money since we have no fear of competition.”) Taggart overrides Dagny’s policies and orders, particularly in regard to locomotives. The young man who temporarily replaces Dagny—his idea that his aim is to please Taggart,
not
to do a good job. Eddie Willers and the worker: scene in which Eddie mentions Dagny’s hide-out. The tunnel catastrophe.
XIX: By Our Love*
Dagny in the country—her restlessness. Dagny and Francisco d‘An conia. News of catastrophe over the radio. Dagny goes back. Some parasites have quit. Taggart was considering quitting, but stays when Dagny returns. Dagny’s intention to rebuild the line to “pre-tunnel” days. Her appeal to Rearden for all the rails he can deliver.
[In the revised version, the last sentence is crossed out and the following is added:
] Dagny-Rearden-Francisco scene. Dagny hurries after young scientist. Eddie tells worker where she has gone and about her affair with Rearden.
XX
[
Original:
] Rearden goes to the West Coast to arrange for temporary transportation. Dagny joins him later. The opening night of the playwright’s play; Rearden goes with Dagny to the theater. Mrs. Rearden [sees them and] guesses the truth. Sensation of play; the playwright leaves “with some man.” That night, after the show, the violent scene between Rearden and his wife. Her ultimatum. He promises to let her know when she returns.
[This chapter was eliminated in the revised outline.]
XXI
[
Original:
] The next morning, the young playwright asks Dagny for his job back, “after a month’s vacation.” Dagny gets wire from car manufacturer—he can’t fill her order. She has to hurry to him at once. At last moment, she gets wire from Rearden, asking her to come as soon as possible. While she is packing, Eddie Willers sees Rearden’s dressing-gown in her apartment and guesses the truth. She leaves. Scene of Eddie Willers and the worker in the restaurant, in which Eddie betrays the purpose of Dagny’s trip and her affair with Rearden.
[This chapter was eliminated in the revised outline.]
XX: The Sign of the Dollar
*
[
Original:
] The “frozen train ride.” Dagny and the young playwright. Their walk at night down the track to a telephone. Dagny gives orders to save the train, gets a plane, flies to car manufacturer’s town, sees his plane leaving, follows him. The mountains. The crash.
[
Revised:
] The “frozen train ride.” Dagny and Owen Kellogg. Their walk at night down the track to a telephone. Dagny gives orders to save the train, gets a plane, flies to young scientist’s town, sees his plane leaving, follows him. The mountains. The crash. Her last thought, before she crashed, was burning in her mind, as her mockery of life, as her cry of defiance, the words she hated—the words of hopelessness, of despair, and of a plea for help: “Oh, hell! Who is John Galt?”
Part II: The Beginning
I: Atlantis
The valley—John Galt.
II
Rearden’s decision about Dagny. His looking for her. (His loans to a farm-tool company for the Minnesota harvest.)
[Added later:
] Dr. Stadler and the unveiling of Project X. The open rise of the brute.
III
Dagny’s return to New York. Taggart has hired Cuffy Meigs. The freight cars have gone to southern “soybean project.” Dagny’s break with Rearden—she tells him she loves another man. [Added
later:
] He tells her that he loves her. Dagny and Lillian; Dagny’s broadcast.
IV
The disaster resulting from the “transportation pull deal.” The collapse of the farming district of Minnesota. Rearden’s heavy losses on his credits. Mrs. Rearden’s attempt to make him help mine parasite—his first anger at her.
V
Taggart’s married life—he crushes Cherryl’s efforts to rise. Cherryl’s “drowning plea” to Dagny.
([Added later:
] Cherryl’s suicide.)
[The next two sentences were crossed out:
] Rearden realizes that Dagny is his real love—he tells her so. Dagny’s search for Galt; Francisco d‘Anconia, the empty valley.
VI
[
Original:
] The affair: Taggart and Mrs. Rearden. Taggart confesses it to the priest. The priest forgives him. The rebellion of Rearden’s secretary against her family—her decision to quit and marry.
[
Revised:
] The affair: Taggart and Mrs. Rearden. Francisco saves Rearden in a situation where Rearden sees, at last, who is on whose side. The “wet nurse.”
[This is the only reference to the “wet nurse ” in AR ’s journals, and it was added to the outline years later. After completing the novel, AR described the “wet nurse” as “an exception in my writing career, a character that started without my intention and wrote himself.
”]
VII: Atlas Shrugged
*
The scheming of Taggart and the mine parasite to save themselves. Rearden discovers Mrs. Rearden’s affair with Taggart. He sees the real nature of his family. The emergency conference: Rearden, Taggart, mine parasite, Wesley Mouch. The rise in TT’s freight rates for ore and in the price of ore; Rearden is not allowed to raise prices, yet rails for TT are expected of him. The squeeze play. “You’ll do something.” Rearden walks out of office—the scene with his secretary in his office—he sees the similarity of their tragedy. “A man waiting to see him.”
VIII
News that Rearden has quit. His wife begs him to stay—his implacable coldness. He goes away (to the valley). Scene where lawyer reads Rearden’s deed to “the collective”—their panic. Rearden’s brother and factory superintendent. Superintendent quits—and half the workers are gone. “The collective” hires a friend of Cuffy Meigs, who promptly loots the place. The collapse of Rearden Steel.
IX
The final emergency of TT—the decision to close the Michigan line, against Dagny’s violent protest. When Dagny returns to the office, she is called to the terminal tunnels—the breakdown of the signal system. John Galt. Dagny escapes, sits sobbing in the terminal waiting room. (The bum who consoles her: “Oh well, who is John Galt?”) Hours later, she returns to the tunnels. Galt was expecting her to return. The affair underground. Then he tells her of his past love. She breaks with him, declaring that they
are
enemies. (She learns that Galt is both the ideal, the man she wanted-and her worst enemy; that he loves her—and that he is destroying her railroad.)
X
The closing of the ore line is announced: the riots, the general panic. The announced broadcast of Mr. Thompson.
XI: This Is John Galt Speaking
The broadcast (Mr. Thompson, Dagny, James Taggart, and others in the studio). John Galt’s speech.
XII
When Dagny returns to her office, Galt is waiting for her there. He offers her a last chance—she refuses. He tells her he will stand by and gives her his address. The panic—the country is falling apart. The government attempts to negotiate with Galt by radio—he refuses. The search for him. (“We do not recognize your right to negotiate”—or—desperate blind appeals into space, and no answer.)
XIII
Galt and the priest in the restaurant. The appeal through pity. Dagny comes to his garret. The appeal through love. He refuses. She warns him-he hands her the phone. When she comes back with officials, he is still there.
[Later, the preceding two sentences were crossed out and replaced by the sentence:
] The officials had followed Dagny—they come in. The search and destruction of his laboratory. His “polite” arrest.
XIV
Galt in a luxurious hotel room. The attempted bargaining by Mr. Thompson—he refuses. Dr. Stadler. Dagny and Rearden: she tells him that she loves Galt and that she betrayed him. The banquet: the appeal through flattery. “Get the hell out of my way.”
XV
Dr. Stadler and the explosion of Project X, collapse of the Taggart Bridge. The scene in a bare hotel room: Taggart, the mine parasite, Wesley Mouch, Cuffy Meigs, Dagny. The “quiet hysteria.” Dagny understands and walks out. She goes to her office, starts destroying papers. (Call from Eddie Willers; she tells him to give up, but he can’t.) A man rushes in with news about Taggart Bridge. Her moment of temptation—then: “We don’t know what to do!” and her answer: “I don’t either.” She leaves the office, calls Francisco d‘Anconia, meets him and Ragnar Danneskjöld on a street corner.
XVI: The Generator
The torture of Galt. The broken generator—the escape of the mechanic. A man rushes in [and announces that] the Taggart Bridge has collapsed. Galt’s single moment of temptation—but he keeps silent. They all escape, leaving him tied.
XVII
Taggart and the priest. The confession of total evil. “I have nothing to say, James. I’m on strike.” The rescue of Galt by Dagny, d‘Anconia, and Danneskjöld. (Brute force against mind and force.) “We never had to take any of it seriously, did we?” “No, we never had to.”
XVIII: In the Name of the Best Within Us
The flight to the valley—Galt, Dagny, d‘Anconia, Danneskjöld, New
Y
ork City without electrical power. The sight of a world in ruins. Eddie Willers and the last ride of the Comet. The music of the Concerto filling the valley. The strikers talk of future plans—a new beginning. (Rearden says: “John will run the railroad from New York to Philadelphia.”) Galt and Dagny on the rocks above the valley, looking at the wrecked road and the stubborn fire of Wyatt’s torch in the distance. Galt says: “The road is cleared. We are going back.” The sign of the dollar.
[The above outline contains AR’s last references to the priest. Years after completing the novel, she explained the meaning of the character and
why
she decided to eliminate him.
I wanted to illustrate the evil of the morality of forgiveness. Also, I wanted to illustrate that the power of religion consists of the power of morality, the power of setting values and ideals, and that is what holds people to religion—and that this is what belongs to philosophy, not to religion. As a type, I wanted [the priest] to be my most glamorized projection of a Thomist philosopher, of a man who thought he could combine reason with religion. Through his relationship with James Taggart I wanted to show the way in which he realized that he was sanctioning evil. And the drama of him refusing to sanction Taggart at the end appealed to me very much.
But it did not take me very long to realize that it would be an impossible confusion. Since all the other strikers in the story can be taken literally, [since] they are all representatives of rational, valuable professions, to include a priest among them would be to sanction religion.]
August 26, 1946
Questions
Trouble for stalled locomotive, for Dagny to correct?
Who would be in charge of the tunnel and the bridge?
What would be the specific position of the young engineer who quits?
What is the usual period of time before the placing of a new steel alloy on the market and the actual orders for it, particularly by railroads? Is there any special procedure about this?
Specific troubles that would cripple ore mines?
What would happen (to track and equipment) in a case such as Taggart taking over Colorado competitor?
Problems of rebuilding new Colorado line?
The wage rates
(in connection with Colorado line issue)?
Possible cause of freight snarl and loss of freight?
Vital item which could have been lost?
Who appoints division heads and similar regional executives?
Ask details about automatic signal systems?
If branch line is closed, how soon after decision do trains stop running?
Would “pre-tunnel days” rails be rotted by time of the story? (What is the time element for such rails?)
Are telephones on poles? Whom would Dagny call?
Time element for [the order] of Rearden rails?
Breakdown of N.Y. terminal signal system?
The kind of generator for torture scene? And what goes wrong with it?
What goes wrong with locomotive on the Comet’s last ride?
What would be Dagny’s official title at TT? Also—Taggart’s title?
Sizes and duties of division, districts, and regions?