Atlas Shrugged, Part 1 Chapter 10: Wyatt's Torch

Posted by nsnelson 9 years, 9 months ago to Books
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Summary: Dagny and Rearden investigated the 20th Century Motor Company. Mark Yonts with The People’s Mortgage Company of Rome, Wisconsin sold it to more than one buyer. Yonts bought it from Mayor Bascom of Rome. Mayor Bascom bought it in a bankruptcy sale from Eugene Lawson of the Community National Bank of Madison. Upon learning this, they were called back to work because the railroad Unions were demanding limits on the size and speed of cars, the politician looters were pushing for the Preservation of Livelihood Law, Fair Share Law, and the Public Stability Law. Dagny confronted James, who had no answer. Larkin failed to deliver ore to Rearden, which he needed. Lillian came in to discuss Hank’s self-sacrifice. Lawson said the 20th Century Motor Company was run by Lee Hunsacker of Amalgamated Service, in Grangeville, Oregon. Hunsacker took it over after “the heirs of Jed Starnes had run it into the ground,” but he failed because he could not get a loan from Midas Mulligan. She found the Starnes heirs, who led them to Mrs. William Hastins, who pointed them to Mr. Hastings’ young assistant John Galt (age 26 when he left the company) at the Akston Diner. Dagny conversed with Hugh Akston, who challenged her thinking, but refused to give direct help. Then Dagny learned that Mouch had passed the Directives described above, and then saw that Ellis Wyatt had quit.

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Atlas Shrugged was written by Ayn Rand in 1957.

My idea for this post is discussed here:

http://www.galtsgulchonline.com/posts...

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  • Posted by nsnelson 9 years, 9 months ago
    Lillian Rearden to Hank: “It’s really very simple. If you tell a beautiful woman that she is beautiful, what have you given her? It’s no more than a fact and it has cost you nothing. But if you tell an ugly woman that she is beautiful, you offer her the great homage of corrupting the concept of beauty. To love a woman for her virtues is meaningless. She’s earned it, it’s a payment, not a gift. But to love her for her vices is a real gift, unearned and undeserved. To love her for her vices is to defile all virtue for her sake – and that is a real tribute of love, because you sacrifice your conscience, your reason, your integrity and your invaluable self-esteem… What’s love, darling, if it’s not self-sacrifice?” she went on lightly, in the tone of a drawing-room discussion. “What’s self-sacrifice, unless one sacrifices that which is one’s most precious and most important?”
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  • Posted by nsnelson 9 years, 9 months ago
    Rearden thinking: “There’s no other course open, thought Rearden, as he had thought through days and nights. He knew no weapons but to pay for what he wanted, to give value for value, to ask nothing of nature without trading his effort in return, to ask nothing of men without trading the product of his effort. What were the weapons, he thought, if values were not a weapon any longer?”
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  • Posted by nsnelson 9 years, 9 months ago
    Rearden thinking: “Rearden had to decide how much he could risk to invest upon the sole evidence of a man’s face, manner and tone of voice, hating the state of having to hope for honesty as for a favor.”
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  • Posted by nsnelson 9 years, 9 months ago
    Dagny thinking: “She could not descend to an existence where her brain would explode under the pressure of forcing itself not to outdistance incompetence. She could not function to the rule of: Pipe down – keep down – slow down – don’t do your best, it is not wanted!”
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  • Posted by nsnelson 9 years, 9 months ago
    Dagny thinking: “There was no action she could take against the men of undefined thought, of unnamed motives, of unstated purposes, of unspecified morality. There was nothing she could say to them – nothing would be heard or answered. What were the weapons, she thought, in a realm where reason was not a weapon any longer?”
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  • Posted by nsnelson 9 years, 9 months ago
    James Taggart to Dagny: “You have always been opposed to every progressive social measure. I seem to remember that you predicted disaster when we passed the Anti-god-eat-god rule – but the disaster has not come.”
    “Because I saved you, you rotten fools! I won’t be able to save you this time!” He had shrugged, not looking at her. “And if I don’t, who will?” He had not answered.
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  • Posted by nsnelson 9 years, 9 months ago
    Dagny to Rearden: “Don’t ever get angry at a man for stating the truth.”
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  • Posted by nsnelson 9 years, 9 months ago
    Mayor Bascom: “In this world, either you’re virtuous or you enjoy yourself. Not both, lady, not both.”
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  • Posted by nsnelson 9 years, 9 months ago
    Mayor Bascom: “There’s plenty of laws that’s sort of made of rubber, and a mayor’s in a position to stretch them a bit for a friend. Well, what the hell? That’s the only way anybody ever gets rich in this world” – he glanced at the luxurious black car – “as you ought to know.”
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