AS 1:10 Wyatt's Torch Plot and Comments

PLOT
Dagny talks with the clerk and then the mayor in hopes of finding the creator of the motor. When she calls back to the office, Eddie tells her she needs to come back because "they’re trying to kill Colorado". Several interest groups have made demands. Dagny decides she can’t stop the politicians, so she will spend her time tracking down the creator of the motor. Dagny works her way through a series of people and ends up meeting Hugh Akston. He tells her not to waste her money searching any more. The special interest group Directives are issued. According to the Directives, TT does not have to pay off their bondholders. Wyatt retires in protest and leaves the hill of Wyatt Oil as a solid sheet of flame.


SUBPLOT (loose ends)
Jim has a plan for TT "I fully intend to protect the interests of Taggart Transcontinental." However, Dagny realizes "The John Galt Line had been only a drainpipe that had permitted Jim Taggart to make a deal and to drain their wealth, unearned, into his pockets, in exchange for letting others drain his railroad."

Larkin doesn’t supply Hank with ore. Instead, Larkin sends it to Orren Boyle.

Lillian works on Hank’s guilt.

The 20th Century Motor Company history involves: Mayor Bascom as the last "sole" owner, Lawson as the president of Community National Bank when it crashed, Hunsacker as the president of 20th C and only man to beat Midas Mulligan, Ivy Starnes was the second generation owner, and Hastings who was the second man to leave.

Hastings’ young assistant invented the motor. Hastings’ widow leads Dagny to Hugh Akston.

Hugh works as a short order cook and gives Dagny a cigarette bearing the sign of the dollar.


COMMENTS
Mayor – "Why does anybody buy a business? To squeeze whatever can be squeezed out of it." This mentality is short-term and killing a lot of businesses today. Squeezing efficiencies out of a process is EXTREMELY profitable because it goes right to the bottom line. It doesn’t get taxed. However, the way to squeeze is to innovate. Do the SAME with less. I saved more than one company over $10 million a year in raw material costs by making the same or better product with less resources. I have yet to meet other "formulators" who intentionally try to make the same product or better with fewer resources. "You’re either virtuous or you enjoy yourself. Not both, lady, not both." What are the implications of living in a world where virtue and enjoyment are mutually exclusive?

Activity – We haven’t discussed profitability yet, but here’s an application. Hank and Dagny know the reason for their actions. They put their effort towards activities that yield the greatest return. "There was no action she could take against the men of undefined thought, of unnamed motives, of unstated purposes, of unspecified morality." To Hank "The same kind of brain can’t do both. Either you’re good at running the mills or you’re good at running to Washington."

Scale - Lillian is taking the opportunity to work Hank over with guilt and is showing she has progressed to a more negative position on the scale. "To love a woman for her virtue is meaningless. But to love her for her vices is a real gift, unearned and undeserved." With the shipment to Boyle, Paul Larkin is now on the negative side of the scale.

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