[The following dialogue between a businessman and Francisco was cut from an early draft of the party scene.
]
“I mean, is it necessary to hurt anybody’s feelings? There’s some truth to whatever it is you said. On the other hand, there’s some truth to what Jim Taggart says. Jim’s got a pretty decent record of public spirit and service. What I say is, do we have to go to extremes?”
“To extremes of what?”
“Of anything.”
“No, we don’t have to. They’ll come to us.”
“Who?”
“The extremes.”
He walked off, leaving the businessman staring after him.
October 30, 1948
To think over:
Ragnar Danneskjöld—doesn’t he impede plot? Is he useless to plot—or can he be integrated better?
Direct line from beginning to
—
destruction of Ellis Wyatt—destruction of Ken Danagger—destruction of Rearden.
Will the “rations on Rearden Metal” and the “Miracle Metal” law clash—as repetitions?
[Added later:] No.
Will the closing of the John Galt Line clash with the closing of the Minnesota Line?
[Added later:
]
No.
Make economic outline of story line.
(Plot key points of destruction—key figures vanishing and the effect it has.)
Decide on new role for Ragnar Danneskjöld.
[Note added the next day:]
The Robin Hood who robs the humanitarians and gives to the rich.
January 11, 1949
Key Points of Personal Story Part I
Dagny-Rearden romance.
His discovery of the nature of sex, the relation between body and spirit.
Rearden-Lillian
(and
Rearden-parasites
): his helplessness without a sense of moral sanction, his vulnerability when he accepts any part of the parasites’ code.
The rise of Wesley Mouch.
Francisco’s speech on “money is the root of all good.” (Rearden-Francisco)
The finding of Galt’s engine—Dagny’s quest—Hugh Akston
in the diner and the dollar-sign cigarette.
Dagny sees the flaming oil fields as
Wyatt quits.
Dagny waits in anteroom while “some man” is in Ken Danagger’s office.
Danagger quits
—his talk about excursion trip around Manhattan Island.
The actions of Ragnar Danneskjöld.
Colorado division parasite (later responsible for tunnel catastrophe) getting position as result of minor Taggart-Boyle-Mouch
deal-after
good superintendent quits.
Another major loss by d‘Anconia Copper.
Lillian Rearden learns of Rearden’s infidelity
—the subtle torture that follows.
Francisco learns of Dagny-Rearden romance.
Dagny quits
[because of] “moratorium on brains” and escapes to the country.
Dr. Stadler and Dr. Floyd Ferris.
Rearden and “Miracle Metal.
”
The scene with [Rearden and] Francisco at night—saving the furnace.
Dan Conway (when Dagny needs him).
Rearden-Ragnar Danneskjöld.
Eddie Willers and the worker: Eddie mentions Dagny’s hide-out.
Dagny-Francisco in the country, news of tunnel catastrophe. (Tie reasons for rush of train to the parasites—their “deals” and their inability to take the initiative on anything, their evasion of responsibility and following of routine.)
Rearden-Francisco: the slap in the face.
Dagny’s last attempts to save TT—news of car manufacturer quitting—she has to go after him.
Rearden-Mrs. Rearden when she discovers his affair with Dagny.
Dagny packing; Eddie sees Rearden’s dressing-gown.
Eddie and the worker: Eddie betrays the purpose of Dagny’s trip and her affair with Rearden.
The “frozen train ride”—Dagny and Owen Kellogg—her flight after car manufacturer—the crash.
The valley. Dagny and Galt. Dagny and Hugh Akston, Richard Halley, Midas Mulligan, the judge, and all the others.
Dagny’s break with Rearden.
Dagny’s search for Gait—the empty valley. (?)
The blackmail of Rearden by the bureaucrats—Dagny discovers it.
The affair: James Taggart-Lillian Rearden. Cherryl’s suicide.
Francisco loses the last of the d‘Anconia fortune.
Rearden-parasites, Rearden-family. He quits.
Dagny-John Galt in the terminal tunnels.
The broadcast—Gait’s speech.
The temptation of Galt: through love—Dagny. She betrays him, his arrest. Further temptations: through pity—(Eddie Willers?); through fear—Dr. Stadler; through “ambition”—Mr. Thompson; through vanity—the banquet.
Dagny quits—joins Francisco on street comer, then Ragnar
Danneskjöld; plan to save Galt.
The torture of Galt. Taggart’s realization.
The collapse of the Taggart Bridge. (And the death of Dr. Stadler.)
The rescue of Galt, the flight over New York as the lights go out, the world in ruins.
Eddie Willers and the last ride of The Comet.
The valley—the rebirth—“We’re going back.”
Destruction of Ellis Wyatt. (No transportation. Dagny limited on trains and speed. Rearden limited on production—and ordered to “give a fair share to everybody.” No pipe line for Wyatt—and no other railroad.)
Destruction of Ken Danagger. (No oil for his power plants. No Rearden Metal girders.)
Destruction of N.Y. utility man—no coal, oil, or copper wires. Another d‘Anconia disaster.
Death of Colorado and closing of John Galt Line.
The moratorium on brains (“Miracle Metal” and Slave Labor law).
Total controls and enslavement of ability. (Rearden Metal is taken over because “Rearden was not able to supply everybody’s need.”) The tunnel catastrophe.
Car manufacturer quits.
(Show, each time before a key figure quits, that the burden of impossible conditions is switched to
him.)
II
Freights cars sent to “soybean project” (Cuffy Meigs and Wesley Mouch). “Transportation pull.”
[Added
later:
] Project X.
Destruction of Minnesota farmers; Rearden’s losses.
The end of d‘Anconia Copper (indirectly caused by Rearden?).
Destruction of Rearden. (Rearden is asked to sell steel as cheaply as
Boyle does—and Boyle has government subsidy. The squeeze—and he quits.)
(After Rearden quits—“temporary nationalization” of everything, for “emergency.”)
Decision to close Michigan Line—panic—riots.
The broadcast—John Galt’s speech. (Here—proof of why “planning” won’t work with “good” men—
good
men don’t work that way.)
Galt’s arrest and torture—and liberation.
The collapse of the Taggart Bridge.
The end of New York.
The last ride of The Comet.
The valley—and the rebirth.
Things to integrate into the main story:
The romance and marriage of Taggart and shop girl (later, her suicide).
The progression of Dr.
Stadler
toward the destruction of the mind. (And the climax of Dr. Stadler’s course.)
Ragnar Danneskjöld
(“I do not accept your morality, nor loan you parts of mine.”)
The rise of
Wesley Mouch
—then of
Cuffy Meigs.
More participation of
Francisco d‘Anconia
in the events of destruction. The absence of
Hugh Akston
and its effect on the despair of good men like Eddie Willers—the gray, stagnant, flameless mood of people—the confusion and hopelessness. (Specific illustration.)
January 13, 1949
From Chapter XI:
Rearden cannot deal successfully with the parasites—he is disarmed by his guilt. He thinks: “They’re evil—but so am I. Who am I to cast the first stone? ... Don’t think of it. Just work. Work harder. Don’t look around you.” (If he were certain of their total, inexcusable evil—and of his own righteousness—he would have smashed them, or died in the attempt; and he would have won.)
February 21, 1949
Dagny-Rearden Vacation
They stop at small hotels or sleep in the woods. They talk little. But they drive in silence and can talk to each other in the middle of a train of thought—“gloating” about the John Galt Line, or plans for the future. They are enjoying, “assimilating” their achievement—and “getting charged” for new journeys (“because joy is one’s fuel”). Rearden’s self-centered enjoyment: the way he carries her across a stream, the way he breaks a branch out of their path, the way he makes a fire. The emphasis is not on the views they see, but on
their
seeing it. The point is their active estimate of value; if a tourist sees something without a judgment of value and an emotional reaction of his own—what’s the point of gazing at things? People are willing to be mirrors or blotters; but not Rearden—
he
is a ray of light, bringing things into sight and meaning. His manner of comment is always what can be done—or what one can learn from what has been done—always the
active,
purposeful reaction.
They sleep together in a ravine, under the remnant of a trestle. She thinks that this is an
underground
honeymoon, and wonders why it has to be “underground.” No, it is not an accident of his being a married man, of his having first chosen the wrong woman—she senses dimly some connection between their secret wandering and the desolation of the country around them.
The slovenly auto court landlady—who sneers at them because she knows that they enjoy sex (that they are held together by nothing but pleasure) and because they have a good, expensive car. The denunciation of sex, of pleasure, of
self
-indulgence—and of the rich and the industrialists at the same time. Both have a common root.
Dagny realizes (in indifferent wonder) that she and Rearden are expected to feel guilty. People look at them as at enemies.
March 10, 1949
History of the “Twentieth Century Motor Corporation ”
The purpose of every step of this history is to show the futility of men possessing material means, if they do not have the mind to know how to use them.
(This is the answer to the whining attitude of: “If I only had the money, or the factory, or the movie studio, etc.” or “It isn’t fair that one guy inherits a factory—nobody gave
me
a factory ... etc.”)
The parasites (the second-handers incapable of independent judgment, of new rational connections) own an inexhaustible means of wealth in the Motor Company—
Galt’s motor
—but they do not know what to do with it, and so it doesn’t do them any good. With the means—property and equipment—of the best motor company in existence, the parasites can achieve nothing but ruin. This answers the fools who think that they’d do wonders if only somebody would hand them the tools of achievement. It is not the
tools
that achieve. And the man with the mind capable of using the tools will earn his own tools.
While showing the above, in the history of the motor company, show also the kind of motives, morals, ideas, and human characters who make the “something-for-nothing, give-me-a-chance” attitude (and actions) possible.
Also:
show the savage, “range-of-the-moment” irresponsiblity of those who think that making money is a matter of speculation, of putting something over on somebody, of exchange without production—the parasites who think that wealth is a matter of grabbing a material possession and palming it off on somebody fast, not realizing that the profit they thus make (on the re-sale of the factory, for instance) is made possible only by someone being a
producer.
When there are no producers, the material wealth is worthless. The “short-range” savage may think: what the hell, he got away with it—but did he? And can we have a society geared to giving a chance to these parasites? Will such a society remain productive long? (In a
free
economy, the Reardens sweep these types out, just as productive citizens eliminate criminals who are then only “marginal”; a controlled economy eliminates the Reardens and breeds the “short-range” savages or speculators of the moment.)
(A proper trader is one who performs a real service of distribution of goods, a service
needed by the producers
of the goods. Such a trader takes intelligent risks [based on] his knowledge and long-range judgment. A speculator functions on the confusion or trouble of the moment, without plan. No, they cannot be differentiated by any law. The objective reality of their performance, in a free economy, builds up the first and destroys the second. The trader creates his own function where his services are needed, where no one else is doing this particular job. A speculator functions when proper exchange and proper traders are restricted by force. As example: a blockade-runner is a trader; a black-marketeer who pays off the bureaucrats, who is their representative or partner, is a speculator.)
March 25, 1949
Notes Regarding the Welfare State
(For the scene with Dagny and the old worker from the Twentieth Century Motor Corporation, and for the general theme.)
Under capitalism, the motive and basic principle throughout the whole system is
the positive good,
and human ability. A worker works so that he himself will make a profit, the boss will make a profit, and the customers who have earned the price of the product will buy it. The motive throughout is reward (satisfaction), an
earned
reward, and the standard of value is
ability.