OSTROG'S POINT OF VIEW
Graham Ostrog waiting to give a account of his day's stewardship. On previous occasions he had passed over this as as possible, in order to his experiences, but now he to ask quick questions. He was very to take up his forthwith. Ostrog reports of the of abroad. In Paris and Berlin, Graham that he was saying, there had been trouble, not indeed, but proceedings. "After all these years," said Ostrog, when Graham pressed enquiries; "the Commune has its again. That is the nature of the struggle, to be explicit." But order had been in these cities. Graham, the more for the he felt, asked if there had been any fighting. "A little," said Ostrog. "In one only. But the Senegalese of our African police—the Consolidated African Companies have a very well police—was ready, and so were the aeroplanes. We a little trouble in the cities, and in America. But are very in America. They are satisfied with the of the Council. For the time."
"Why should you trouble?" asked Graham abruptly.
"There is a of discontent—social discontent."
"The Labour Department?"
"You are learning," said Ostrog with a touch of surprise. "Yes. It is the with the Labour Department. It was that the of this overthrow—that and your awakening."
"Yes?"
Ostrog smiled. He explicit. "We had to up their discontent, we had to the old of happiness—all men equal—all men happy—no luxury that may not share—ideas that have for two hundred years. You know that? We had to these ideals, as they are—in order to the Council. And now—"
"Well?"
"Our is accomplished, and the Council is overthrown, and people we have up—remain surging. There was fighting…. We promises, of course. It is how and this out-of-date has and spread. We who the even, have been astonished. In Paris, as I say—we have had to call in a little help."
"And here?"
"There is trouble. Multitudes will not go to work. There is a strike. Half the are empty and the people are in the ways. They are talking of a Commune. Men in and have been in the streets. The is all of from you…. Of there is no need for you to trouble. We are setting the Babble Machines to work with in the of law and order. We must keep the tight; that is all."
Graham thought. He a way of himself. But he spoke with restraint.
"Even to the of a police," he said.
"They are useful," said Ostrog. "They are brutes, with no wash of ideas in their heads—such as our has. The Council should have had them as police of the ways, and might have been different. Of course, there is nothing to and wreckage. You can manage your own now, and you can away to Capri if there is any or fuss. We have the of all the great things; the are and rich, the in the world, and so are the of the wind-vanes. We have the air, and the of the air is the of the earth. No one of any ability is against us. They have no leaders—only the of the we your very awakening. Mere and they are and of each other. None of them is man for a figure. The only trouble will be a upheaval. To be frank—that may happen. But it won't your aeronautics. The days when the People make are past."
"I they are," said Graham. "I they are." He mused. "This world of yours has been full of to me. In the old days we of a life, of a time when all men would be equal and happy."
Ostrog looked at him steadfastly. "The day of is past," he said. "Past for ever. That day with the of Creçy, it ended when infantry, when common men in to win the of the world, when cannon, great ironclads, and railways the means of power. To-day is the day of wealth. Wealth now is power as it was power before—it earth and sea and sky. All power is for those who can wealth. On your behalf…. You must accept facts, and these are facts. The world for the Crowd! The Crowd as Ruler! Even in your days that had been and condemned. To-day it has only one believer—a multiplex, one—the man in the Crowd."
Graham did not answer immediately. He in preoccupations.
"No," said Ostrog. "The day of the common man is past. On the open one man is as good as another, or nearly as good. The had a of and audacity. They were tempered—tempered. There were insurrections, duels, riots. The aristocracy, the permanent aristocracy, came in with and armour, and the and bow. But this is the second aristocracy. The one. Those days of and were only an in the stream. The common man now is a unit. In these days we have this great machine of the city, and an his understanding."
"Yet," said Graham, "there is something resists, something you are down—something that and presses."
"You will see," said Ostrog, with a that would these difficult questions aside. "I have not the to myself—trust me."
"I wonder," said Graham.
Ostrog stared.
"Must the world go this way?" said Graham with his at the speaking point. "Must it go in this way? Have all our been vain?"
"What do you mean?" said Ostrog. "Hopes?"
"I come from a age. And I an tyranny!"
"Well,—but you are the tyrant."
Graham his head.
"Well," said Ostrog, "take the question. It is the way that has always travelled. Aristocracy, the of the best—the and of the unfit, and so to things."
"But aristocracy! those people I met—"
"Oh! not those!" said Ostrog. "But for the most part they go to their death. Vice and pleasure! They have no children. That of will die out. If the world to one road, that is, if there is no back. An easy road to excess, Euthanasia for the in the flame, that is the way to the race!"
"Pleasant extinction," said Graham. "Yet—." He for an instant. "There is that other thing—the Crowd, the great of men. Will that die out? That will not die out. And it suffers, its is a that you—"
Ostrog moved impatiently, and when he spoke, he spoke less than before.
"Don't trouble about these things," he said. "Everything will be settled in a days now. The Crowd is a beast. What if it not die out? Even if it not die, it can still be and driven. I have no with men. You those people and two nights ago. They were that song. If you had taken any man there in cold blood and asked why he shouted, he not have told you. They think they are for you, that they are and to you. Just then they were to the Council. To-day—they are already against those who have the Council."
"No, no," said Graham. "They their were dreary, without or pride, and in me—in me—they hoped."
"And what was their hope? What is their hope? What right have they to hope? They work and they want the of those who work well. The of mankind—what is it? That some day the Over-man may come, that some day the inferior, the weak and the may be or eliminated. Subdued if not eliminated. The world is no place for the bad, the stupid, the enervated. Their duty—it's a too!—is to die. The death of the failure! That is the path by which the rose to manhood, by which man goes on to higher things."
Ostrog took a pace, to think, and on Graham. "I can how this great world of ours to a Victorian Englishman. You all the old of government—their still the world, the councils, and and all that eighteenth century tomfoolery. You moved against our Pleasure Cities. I might have of that,—had I not been busy. But you will learn better. The people are with envy—they would be in with you. Even in the now, they to the Pleasure Cities. But the Pleasure Cities are the organs of the State, places that year after year together all that is weak and vicious, all that is and lazy, all the easy of the world, to a destruction. They go there, they have their time, they die childless, all the die childless, and is the better. If the people were they would not the rich their way of death. And you would the that we have enslaved, and try to make their easy and again. Just as they have to what they are fit for." He a that Graham oddly. "You will learn better. I know those ideas; in my I read your Shelley and of Liberty. There is no liberty, save and self-control. Liberty is within—not without. It is each man's own affair. Suppose—which is impossible—that these in the upper hand of us, what then? They will only to other masters. So long as there are sheep Nature will on of prey. It would but a hundred years' delay. The of the is and assured. The end will be the Over-man—for all the of humanity. Let them revolt, let them win and kill me and my like. Others will arise—other masters. The end will be the same."
"I wonder," said Graham doggedly.
For a moment he downcast.
"But I must see these for myself," he said, a of mastery. "Only by can I understand. I must learn. That is what I want to tell you, Ostrog. I do not want to be King in a Pleasure City; that is not my pleasure. I have time with aeronautics—and those other things. I must learn how people live now, how the common life has developed. Then I shall these better. I must learn how common people live—the people more especially—how they work, marry, children, die—"
"You that from our novelists," Ostrog, preoccupied.
"I want reality," said Graham.
"There are difficulties," said Ostrog, and thought. "On the whole—"
"I did not expect—"
"I had thought—. And yet perhaps—. You say you want to go through the of the city and see the common people."
Suddenly he came to some conclusion. "You would need to go disguised," he said. "The city is excited, and the of your presence among them might create a tumult. Still this wish of yours to go into this city—this idea of yours—. Yes, now I think the thing over, it to me not altogether—. It can be contrived. If you would an in that! You are, of course, Master. You can go soon if you like. A Asano will be able to manage. He would go with you. After all it is not a idea of yours."
"You will not want to me in any matter?" asked Graham suddenly, by an odd suspicion.
"Oh, dear no! No! I think you may trust to me for a time, at any rate," said Ostrog, smiling. "Even if we differ—"
Graham at him sharply.
"There is no likely to soon?" he asked abruptly.
"Certainly not."
"I have been about these negroes. I don't the people any to me, and, after all, I am the Master. I do not want any to London. It is an perhaps, but I have about Europeans and the races. Even about Paris—"
Ostrog him from under his brows. "I am not to London," he said slowly. "But if—"
"You are not to to London, happens," said
Graham. "In that I am decided."
Ostrog not to speak, and deferentially.
