nodded, and Vanderlin said, "That's about it."
Jim Luckman looked at Sam Bending in open admiration. "Wow," he saidsoftly. "You're quite a genius, Sam."
"Very well, gentlemen," Condley continued, "we know what this devicewill do on a physical level. Now we must consider what it will do on aneconomic level. Have you considered what would happen if you put theConverter on the market, Mr. Bending?"
"Certainly," Bending said, with an angry glance at Olcott. "The PowerUtilities would lose their pants. So what? I figure that any companywhich tries to steal and suppress inventions deserves a licking."
Secretary Condley glanced at Olcott as though he were trying to holdback a smile, then returned his gaze to Bending. "We won't quibble overthe ethics of the situation, Mr. Bending. You are correct in saying thatPower Utilities would be bankrupt. They couldn't stand the competitionof what amounts to almost unlimited free power. And then what wouldhappen, with every power company in the United States suddenly put outof business?"
Sam looked puzzled. "What difference would it make? People would just begetting their power from another source, that's all."
Richard Olcott leaned forward earnestly. "May I interject somethinghere? I know you are angry with me, Mr. Bending--perhaps with goodreason. But I'd like to point out something that you might not haverecognized. Public Utilities and its co-operative independent companiesare not owned by individuals. Much of the stock is owned by smallshare-holders who have only a few shares each. The several billiondollars that these companies are worth is spread out over the nation,not just centered with a few wealthy men. In addition, a great manyshares are held by insurance companies and banks. Literally millions ofpeople would lose money--just as surely as if it had been stolen fromthem--if this device went on the market."
Bending frowned. He hadn't thought of it in exactly that way. "Still,"he said tentatively, "didn't blacksmiths and buggy-whip manufacturersand horse-breeders lose money after World War I?"
"Not to this extent," Olcott said, shaking his head. "This is not 1918,Mr. Bending. Sixty years ago, our economy was based on gold, not, as itis today on production and manpower, centered in the vast interlockingweb of American industry."
Condley said: "Mr. Olcott said a moment ago that millions of peoplewould lose money just as surely as if it had been stolen from them. Ithink it would be more proper to say that the money will be destroyed,not stolen. A thief, after all, does put money back into circulationafter he steals it. But when vast amounts of wealth are suddenly removedfrom circulation completely, the economic balance is disastrouslyupset."
* * * * *
Sam Bending was still frowning. His grandfather had been a smallbusinessman in 1929--not fabulously wealthy, but certainly well off bythe social standards of the day. Two years later, in 1931, he was broke,wiped out completely, happy and eager to accept any odd job he could getto support his family.
Sam's father had had to leave school during the Thirties and go to workin order to bring in enough money to keep the family going. GrandfatherBending, weakened by long hours of labor that he was physically unfitfor, had become an invalid, and the entire support of the family haddevolved upon Sam's father.
He could remember his dad talking about the breadlines and the free-soupkitchens. He could remember his grandmother, her hands crippled byarthritis, aggravated by long hours at a commercial sewing machine in aclothing center sweat-shop, just so she could bring in that little extramoney that meant so much to her children and her invalid husband.
Could one invention bring all that back again? Could his ownharmless-looking Converter plunge millions back into that kind ofmisery? It seemed hardly possible, but Sam couldn't banish the specterof the Great Depression from his mind.
"Just how far-reaching would this economic upset be?" he asked Condley.
Condley had taken out his gold fountain pen again and was rolling itbetween his palms. "Well, that's a question with a long answer, Mr.Bending. Let's begin small and watch it spread.
"Banks are pretty safe today, aren't they? The Federal Deposit InsuranceCorporation insures all depositors for deposits up to twenty thousanddollars now. A bank is hedged in by so many legal fences that it isalmost impossible for one to fail in the same way that they failed allover the country in the early Thirties. Even if one does fail, throughthe gross mismanagement or illegal activities of its governing board,the depositors don't get excited; they know they're covered. Therehasn't been a really disastrous run on a bank for more than thirtyyears.
"But banks don't just keep their money in vaults; they invest it. And asignificantly large percentage of that money is invested in powercompanies all over the nation. In an attempt to keep their heads abovewater, those banks would be forced to make up tremendous losses if PowerUtilities failed overnight. It would force them to draw in outstandingloans for ready cash. It would mean turning in United States SavingsBonds, which would put a tremendous strain on the Government.
"In spite of that, most banks won't be able to stay solvent becausetheir other capital investments will be dropping rapidly in value. AsMr. Olcott said, our monetary system isn't based on gold, but onproduction and goods. If Power Utilities and its members fail, you andyour machine will have destroyed--made worthless--several billiondollars worth of machinery and equipment. You will have thrown tens ofthousands of people out of work. You will have cut the underpinningsfrom beneath the American dollar.
"And it won't stop there. What will happen to the companies that buildthe dynamos and the boilers and the atomic plants for the powercompanies? What will happen to the copper industry when the need formillions of miles of copper wire vanishes? They will all suffertremendous setbacks, throwing tens of thousands more out of work andlowering the value of their stock drastically.
"The banks, then, will find their investments suddenly worth only afraction of their former value. They'll fail wholesale. And you can seewhat that will do to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and otherinsurance companies."
Sam Bending nodded slowly. He could see that. Insurance companies basetheir business on the prediction that a certain event--death, accident,or the failure of a bank--will happen to a certain percentage of theircovered clients, and they adjust their rates accordingly. But somethingthat would change a five-percent-failure rate to a fifty-percent-failurerate would break the company.
And the unemployment rate would go up even higher. And Sam thought ofsomething the Secretary hadn't even mentioned. State and FederalUnemployment Insurance. What would that drain do to the treasuries ofthe various governments involved?
Sam Bending felt as if the thing were snowballing on him. Where wouldthe State and Federal Governments get that money? Taxes? Don't be silly.How can you collect sales taxes when sales are dropping off because ofunemployment? How can you get income taxes from depleted incomes? Howcan you charge luxury taxes when no one is buying luxuries?
Certainly essentials like food, rent, and clothing couldn't be taxed.People would buy as cheaply as possible, which would force down prices.Which would--
* * * * *
"Where would it go from there?" Sam asked Condley in a shaken voice.
Condley glanced over at the Russian. "I believe Dr. Artomonov can answerthat one for you."
Artomonov was a red-faced, fleshy man with almost no hair and a huge,bristling, gray mustache. His eyes were a startling blue. "Mr. Bending,"he said in excellent English, "you may recall that your depression ofthe Thirties was not confined to America. All of Europe became involved.The same will happen again, to a greater degree, if your machine isreleased to the world at this time." He brushed at his mustache with afingertip.
"You may wonder what I am doing here, Mr. Bending. You might think thatthe traditional rivalry which has existed between our countries for somany decades would preclude my being admitted to such a secret sessionas this one. I might have thought so, too, fifteen years ago. But whensomething threatens _both_ our countries
, the picture changes. We foughttogether during the Motherland War--what you call World War II--becauseof the common threat of German Nazi terrorism. We co-operated tosuppress the brush-fires that threatened us in Europe and the MiddleEast during the so-called Tense War. In big things we must co-operate.
"Again we are both threatened by a common source, Mr. Bending, and againwe must co-operate."
Sam Bending felt a chill. The thought that he and his machine were athreat as great as that, a threat to the two greatest nations of Earth,was appalling.
"I am not a scientist, Mr. Bending," the Russian went on. "My titlecomes from a degree in economics and political science, not in physicalscience. As soon as this machine was demonstrated to me,