Meeting of the Board | Page 4

door coming home."
Pendleton sighed. "You're sure you didn't let them suspect anything,
Walter? They wouldn't be watching the house?"

"I don't think so. And you all came alone, at different times." He
nodded to the window guard, and turned back to the lawyer. "So we
can't be sure of the legal end. You'd have to be on your toes."
"I still don't see how we could work it," Hendricks objected. His heavy
face was wrinkled with worry. "Torkleson is no fool, and he has a lot of
power in the National Association of Union Stockholders. All he'd need
to do is ask for managers, and a dozen companies would throw them to
him on loan. They'd be able to figure out the machine system and take
over without losing a day."
"Not quite." Walter was grinning. "That's why I spoke of a lock-in.
Before we leave, we throw the machines into feedback, every one of
them. Lock them into reverberating circuits with a code sequence key.
Then all they'll do is buzz and sputter until the feedback is broken with
the key. And the key is our secret. It'll tie the Robling office into
granny knots, and scabs won't be able to get any more data out of the
machines than Torkleson could. With a lawyer to handle injunctions,
we've got them strapped."
"For what?" asked the lawyer.
Walter turned on him sharply. "For new contracts. Contracts to let us
manage the company the way it should be managed. If they won't do it,
they won't get another Titanium product off their production lines for
the rest of the year, and their dividends will really take a nosedive."
"That means you'll have to beat Torkleson," said Bates. "He'll never go
along."
"Then he'll be left behind."
Hendricks stood up, brushing off his dungarees. "I'm with you, Walter.
I've taken all of Torkleson that I want to. And I'm sick of the junk
we've been trying to sell people."
The others nodded. Walter rubbed his hands together. "All right.
Tomorrow we work as usual, until the noon whistle. When we go off

for lunch, we throw the machines into lock-step. Then we just don't
come back. But the big thing is to keep it quiet until the noon whistle."
He turned to the lawyer. "Are you with us, Jeff?"
Jeff Bates shook his head sadly. "I'm with you. I don't know why, you
haven't got a leg to stand on. But if you want to commit suicide, that's
all right with me." He picked up his briefcase, and started for the door.
"I'll have your contract demands by tomorrow," he grinned. "See you at
the lynching."
They got down to the details of planning.
* * * * *
The news hit the afternoon telecasts the following day. Headlines
screamed:
MANAGEMENT SABOTAGES ROBLING MACHINES OFFICE
STRIKERS THREATEN LABOR ECONOMY ROBLING LOCK-IN
CREATES PANDEMONIUM
There was a long, indignant statement from Daniel P. Torkleson,
condemning Towne and his followers for "flagrant violation of
management contracts and illegal fouling of managerial processes."
Ben Starkey, President of the Board of American Steel, expressed
"shock and regret"; the Amalgamated Buttonhole Makers held a mass
meeting in protest, demanding that "the instigators of this
unprecedented crime be permanently barred from positions in
American Industry."
In Washington, the nation's economists were more cautious in their
views. Yes, it was an unprecedented action. Yes, there would
undoubtedly be repercussions--many industries were having managerial
troubles; but as for long term effects, it was difficult to say just at
present.
On the Robling production lines the workmen blinked at each other,
and at their machines, and wondered vaguely what it was all about.

Yet in all the upheaval, there was very little expression of surprise. Step
by step, through the years, economists had been watching with wary
eyes the growing movement toward union, control of industry. Even as
far back as the '40's and '50's unions, finding themselves oppressed with
the administration of growing sums of money--pension funds, welfare
funds, medical insurance funds, accruing union dues--had begun
investing in corporate stock. It was no news to them that money could
make money. And what stock more logical to buy than stock in their
own companies?
At first it had been a quiet movement. One by one the smaller firms had
tottered, bled drier and drier by increasing production costs, increasing
labor demands, and an ever-dwindling margin of profit. One by one
they had seen their stocks tottering as they faced bankruptcy, only to be
gobbled up by the one ready buyer with plenty of funds to buy with. At
first, changes had been small and insignificant: boards of directors
shifted; the men were paid higher wages and worked shorter hours;
there were tighter management policies; and a little less money was
spent