If they figured out he might be in trouble, they might have a clue by following the route of the last Comet until at last they happened upon it, and Eddie. But how long do you think it would take for either of them to figure out that Eddie is out in the high desert outside Flagstaff, Arizona, and slowly shriveling up like a prune?

The writer indicates Henry and Dagny can rescue him.

Lillian Rearden's manner.

The writer determines.

I don't think she expected to be destroyed. She fought to keep Taggert Transcontinental going. Could a critic of the book claim that Dagny wasn't that strong and that she benefited from the deals James made?

She certainly did not benefit from anything her brother did; that would only be a statist perspective.
No need to look for any criticism....

and James would probably have folded like a cheap chaise. -- j
.

She only had two choices...quit or be destroyed by the very people she was working for.

It's as simple as that. I'm surprised that a "Gulcher" even asked the question.

A real life Dagny would have gone Nat Taggert on him at some point.

True. He damaged the entire economy thinking he was helping the railroad. Eventually sank everyone.

There were probably too many laws and regulations
that would have prevented it. Anyway,"she was
armed with the knowledge that Jim was not smart
enough to harm the railroad too much and she
would always be there to correct whatever damage he caused." At least, that's what she
thought.

An excellent thought. It could be argued James would have crushed her before she got started.

The Sheriff Joe you think you know about is not the one I think I know about.

there is a kinda tall entry barrier in the railroad business,
but she probably could have ... ahem ... had James removed
in some creative manner ... and taken over TT. -- j
.

Dagny had to realise that she was allowing the looters and moochers to continue. She thought she was saving her way of life, but in reality she was shoring up the socialist policies of her enemies. So if she were to create another railroad, she wouldn't be any further ahead of the game, because that railroad would have become the Taggert Transcontinental Railroad in spirit, if not, in reality. They (looters and moochers) were constantly creating problems with their policies, and relying on Dagny (and others like her) to fix them. If she quit, she had to quit entirely and not try to build a better railroad in order to see her world rebuilt in its glory. She had to realise that they needed to live in the world they had created without the safety net of the Men of the Mind there to catch them.

Don't forget that if she started up her own railroad she would have to deal with the Anti-Dog Eat Dog rule, designed specifically to give an advantage to Taggart.

Just a thought.

It would be self sacrifice to just quit unless one could go to something better. Living in a tent in the cold is not something that I would really go for....

Excellent point. I am liking my situation less but have no plans of quitting.

It was a novel designed to show how fighting the system while staying in it was doomed to failure. Galt was a bit of a difficult character to identify with, but most of us are doing the Dagny/Rearden thing to keep our lives going inside of a crooked and bankrupt system. I do it- but I definitely am likiing it less

I'm thinking she would tell me I ask too many questions and to shut up. Ayn Rand was never shy about speaking her mind. If a critic of Atlas Shrugged asked this question I was wondering how I would respond.

I fine it interesting that some people seem to want to rewrite the book versus just accepting it as it was written. I can only imagine Ayn Rand dismissing the conversation.

I'm wondering if it's a valid criticism to say Dagny benefited from her brothers dealings and if she was as tough and independent as written why not get away from him or try to force him out?

I wasn't specifically referring to James Taggart as being abusive of Dagny, but the analogy to Hillary going back to Bill is more apt than I expected. In Hillary's eyes, Bill had a lot of reasons to make Hillary want to come back (or stick with him), and yet ... he also had reasons to make her not want to come back.

Right. Unthinkable.

She took a leave of absence to do the John Galt line. I had wondered why she didn't try to get full control of the railroad but that probably would have been too unusual in 1957.