<h2><SPAN name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></SPAN>CHAPTER X<br/> Life in Lo-Tan, the Magnificent</h2>
<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">San-Lan's</span> attitude toward
me underwent a change. He
did not seek my company as he
had done before, and so those
long discussions and mental
duels in which we pitted our philosophies
against each other
came to an end. I was, I suspected,
an unpleasant reminder
to him of things he would rather
forget, and my presence was an
omen of impending doom. That
he did not order my execution
forthwith was due, I believe to a
sort of fascination in me, as the
personification of this (to him)
strange and mysterious race of
super-men who had so magically
developed overnight from
"beasts" of the forest.</p>
<p>But though I saw little of him
after this, I remained a member
of his household, if one may
speak of a "household" where
there is no semblance of house.</p>
<p>The imperial apartments were
located at the very summit of the
Imperial Tower, the topmost pinnacle
of the city, itself clinging
to the sides and peak of the highest
mountain in that section of
the Rockies. There were days
when the city seemed to be built
on a rugged island in the midst
of a sea of fleecy whiteness, for
frequently the cloud level was
below the peak. And on such days
the only visual communications
with the world below was
through the viewplates which
formed nearly all the interior
walls of the thousands of apartments
(for the city was, in fact,
one vast building) and upon
which the tenants could tune in
almost any views they wished
from an elaborate system of public
television and projectoscope
broadcasts.</p>
<p>Every Han city had many
public-view broadcasting stations,
operating on tuning ranges
which did not interfere with other
communication systems. For
slight additional fees a citizen in
Lo-Tan might, if he felt so inclined,
"visit" the seashore, or the
lakes or the forests of any part
of the country, for when such
scene was thrown on the walls of
an apartment, the effect was precisely
the same as if one were
gazing through a vast window
at the scene itself.</p>
<p>It was possible too, for a
slightly higher fee, to make a
mutual connection between
apartments in the same or different
cities, so that a family in Lo-Tan,
for instance, might "visit"
friends in Fis-Ko (San Francisco)
taking their apartment, so to
speak, along with them; being to
all intents and purposes separated
from their "hosts" only by a
big glass wall which interfered
neither with vision nor conversation.</p>
<p>These public view and visitation
projectoscopes explain that
utter depth of laziness into
which the Hans had been
dragged by their civilization.
There was no incentive for anyone
to leave his apartment unless
he was in the military or air service,
or a member of one of the
repair services which from time
to time had to scoot through the
corridors and shafts of the city,
somewhat like the ancient fire departments,
to make some emergency
repair to the machinery of
the city or its electrical devices.</p>
<hr />
<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Why</span> should he leave his
house? Food, wonderful
synthetic concoctions of any desired
flavor and consistency (and
for additional fee conforming to
the individual's dietary prescription)
came to him through a
shaft, from which his tray slid
automatically on to a convenient
shelf or table.</p>
<p>At will he could tune in a theatrical
performance of talking
pictures. He could visit and talk
with his friends. He breathed the
freshest of filtered air right in
his own apartment, at any temperature
he desired, fragrant
with the scent of flowers, the
aromatic smell of the pine forests
or the salt tang of the sea, as he
might prefer. He could "visit"
his friends at will, and though
his apartment actually might be
buried many thousand feet from
the outside wall of the city, it was
none the less an "outside" one,
by virtue of its viewplate walls.
There was even a tube system,
with trunk, branch and local lines
and an automagnetic switching
system, by which articles within
certain size limits could be despatched
from any apartment to
any other one in the city.</p>
<p>The women actually moved
about through the city more than
the men, for they had no fixed
duties. No work was required of
them, and though nominally free,
their dependence upon the government
pension for their necessities
and on their "husbands"
(of the moment) for their luxuries,
reduced them virtually to
the condition of slaves.</p>
<p>Each had her own apartment
in the Lower City, with but a
single small viewplate, very limited
"visitation" facilities, and
a minimum credit for food and
clothing. This apartment was assigned
to her on graduation from
the State School, in which she
had been placed as an infant, and
it remained hers so long as she
lived, regardless of whether she
occupied it or not. At the conclusion
of her various "marriages"
she would return there, pending
her endeavors to make a new
match. Naturally, as her years increased,
her returns became
more frequent and her stay of
longer duration, until finally,
abandoning hope of making another
match, she finished out her
days there, usually in drunkenness
and whatever other forms of
cheap dissipation she could afford
on her dole, starving herself.</p>
<p>Men also received the same
State pension, sufficient for the
necessities but not for the luxuries
of life. They got it only as
an old-age pension, and on application.</p>
<hr />
<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">When</span> boys graduated from
the State School they generally
were "adopted" by their
fathers and taken into the latter's
households, where they enjoyed
luxuries far in excess of their
own earning power. It was not
that their fathers wasted any affection
on them, for as I have explained
before, the Hans were so
morally atrophied and scientifically
developed that love and affection,
as we Americans knew
them, were unexperienced or
suppressed emotions with them.
They were replaced by lust and
pride of possession. So long as it
pleased a father's vanity, and he
did not miss the cost, he would
keep a son with him, but no
longer.</p>
<p>Young men, of course, started
to work at the minimum wage,
which was somewhat higher than
the pension. There was work for
everybody in positions of minor
responsibility, but very little
hard work.</p>
<p>Upon receiving his appointment
from one or another of the
big corporations which handled
the production and distribution
of the vast community (the
shares of which were pooled and
held by the government—that is,
by San-Lan himself—in trust for
all the workers, according to
their positions) he would be assigned
to an apartment-office, or
an apartment adjoining the
group of offices in which he was
to have his desk. Most of the
work was done in single apartment-offices.</p>
<p>The young man, for instance,
might recline at his ease in his
apartment near the top of the
city, and for three or four hours
a day inspect, through his viewplate
and certain specially installed
apparatus, the output of a
certain process in one of the vast
automatically controlled food
factories buried far underground
beneath the base of the
mountain, where the moan of its
whirring and throbbing machinery
would not disturb the peace
and quiet of the citizens on the
mountain top. Or he might be required
simply to watch the operation
of an account machine in
an automatic store.</p>
<p>There is no denying that the
economic system of the Hans was
marvelous. A suit of clothes, for
instance, might be delivered in a
man's apartment without a human
hand having ever touched it.</p>
<p>Having decided that he wished
a suit of a given general style,
he would simply tune in a visual
broadcast of the display of various
selections, and when he had
made his choice, dial the number
of the item and press the order
button. Simultaneously the
charge would be automatically
made against his account number,
and credited as a sale on the
automatic records of that particular
factory in the account house.
And his account plate, hidden behind
a little wall door, would
register his new credit balance.
An automatically packaged suit
that had been made to style and
size-standard by automatic machinery
from synthetically produced
material, would slip into
the delivery chute, magnetically
addressed, and in anywhere from
a few seconds to thirty minutes
or so, according to the volume of
business in the chutes, and drop
into the delivery basket in his
room.</p>
<hr />
<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Daily</span> his wages were credited
to his account, and
monthly his share of the dividends
likewise (according to his
position) from the Imperial Investment
Trust, after deduction
of taxes (through the automatic
bookkeeping machines) for the
support of the city's pensioners
and whatever sum San-Lan himself
had chosen to deduct for personal
expenses and gratuities.</p>
<p>A man could not bequeath his
ownership interest in industry to
his son, for that interest ceased
with his death, but his credit accumulation,
on which interest
was paid, was credited to his eldest
recorded son as a matter of
law.</p>
<p>Since many of these credit fortunes
(The Hans had abandoned
gold as a financial basis centuries
before) were so big that they
drew interest in excess of the utmost
luxury costs of a single individual,
there was a class of idle
rich consisting of eldest sons,
passing on these credit fortunes
from generation to generation.
But younger sons and women
had no share in these fortunes,
except by the whims and favor
of the "Man-Dins" (Mandarins),
as these inheritors were known.</p>
<p>These Man-Dins formed a distinct
class of the population, and
numbered about five percent of
it. It was distinct from the Ku-Li
(coolie) or common people, and
from the "Ki-Ling" or aristocracy
composed of those more energetic
men (at least mentally
more energetic) who were the
active or retired executive heads
of the various industrial, educational,
military or political
administrations.</p>
<p>A man might, if he so chose,
transfer part of his credit to a
woman favorite, which then remained
hers for life or until she
used it up, and of course, the
prime object of most women,
whether as wives, or favorites,
was to beguile a settlement of
this sort out of some wealthy
man.</p>
<p>When successful in this, and
upon reassuming her freedom,
a woman ranked socially and economically
with the Man-Dins.
But on her death, whatever remained
of her credit was transferred
to the Imperial fund.</p>
<p>When one considers that the
Hans, from the days of their
exodus from Mongolia and their
conquest of America, had never
held any ideal of monogamy, and
the fact that marriage was but a
temporary formality which could
be terminated on official notice
by either party, and that after all
it gave a woman no real rights
or prerogatives that could not be
terminated at the whim of her
husband, and established her as
nothing but the favorite of his
harem, if he had an income large
enough to keep one, or the most
definitely acknowledged of his favorites
if he hadn't, it is easy to
see that no such thing as a real
family life existed among them.</p>
<p>Free women roamed the corridors
of the city, pathetically importuning
marriage, and wives
spent most of the time they were
not under their husbands' watchful
eyes in flirtatious attempts to
provide themselves with better
prospects for their next marriages.</p>
<hr />
<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Naturally</span> the biggest
problem of the community
was that of stimulating the birth
rate. The system of special credits
to mothers had begun centuries
before, but had not been
very efficacious until women had
been deprived of all other earning
power, and even at the time
of which I write it was only partially
successful, in spite of the
heavy bounties for children. It
was difficult to make the bounties
sufficiently attractive to lure the
women from their more remunerative
light flirtations. Eugenic
standards also were a handicap.</p>
<p>As a matter of fact, San-Lan
had under consideration a revolutionary
change in economic and
moral standards, when the revolt
of the forest men upset his
delicately laid plans, for, as he
had explained to me, it was no
easy thing to upset the customs
of centuries in what he was
pleased to call the "morals" of his
race.</p>
<p>He had another reason too.
The physically active men of the
community were beginning to
acquire a rather dangerous domination.
These included men in
the army, in the airships, and in
those relatively few civilian activities
in which machines could
not do the routine work and
thinking. Already common soldiers
and air crews demanded
and received higher remuneration
than all except the highest
of the Ki-Ling, the industrial
and scientific leaders, while mechanics
and repairmen who
could, and would, work hard
physically, commanded higher
incomes than Princes of the
Blood, and though constituting
only a fraction of one per cent of
the population they actually dominated
the city. San-Lan dared
take no important step in the development
of the industrial and
military system without consulting
their council or Yun-Yun
(Union), as it was known.</p>
<p>Socially the Han cities were in
a chaotic condition at this time,
between morals that were not
morals, families that were not
families, marriages that were not
marriages, children who knew no
homes, work that was not work,
eugenics that didn't work; Ku-Lis
who envied the richer classes
but were too lazy to reach out for
the rewards freely offered for individual
initiative; the intellectually
active and physically lazy
Ki-Lings who despised their
lethargy; the Man-Din drones
who regarded both classes with
supercilious toleration; the
Princes of the Blood, arrogant in
their assumption of a heritage
from a Heaven in which they did
not believe; and finally the three
castes of the army, air and industrial
repair services, equally
arrogant and with more reason
in their consciousness of physical
power.</p>
<hr />
<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">The</span> army exercised a cruelly
careless and impartial police
power over all classes, including
the airmen, when the latter were
in port. But it did not dare to
touch the repair men, who, so far
as I could ever make out, roamed
the corridors of the city at will
during their hours off duty,
wreaking their wills on whomever
they met, without let or
hindrance.</p>
<p>Even a Prince of the Blood
would withdraw into a side corridor
with his escort of a score
of men, to let one of these labor
"kings" pass, rather than risk an
altercation which might result in
trouble for the government with
the Yun-Yun, regardless of the
rights and wrongs of the case,
unless a heavy credit transference
was made from the balance
of the Prince to that of the worker.
For the machinery of the city
could not continue in operation a
fortnight, before some accident
requiring delicate repair work
would put it partially out of commission.
And the Yun-Yun was
quick to resent anything it could
construe as a slight on one of its
members.</p>
<p>In the last analysis it was
these Yun-Yun men, numerically
the smallest of the classes, who
ruled the Han civilization, because
for all practical purposes
they controlled the machinery on
which that civilization depended
for its existence.</p>
<p>Politically, San-Lan could balance
the organizations of the army
and the air fleets against
each other, but he could not break
the grip of the repairmen on the
machinery of the cities and the
power broadcast plants.</p>
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