[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Astounding Science-Fiction, February 1947.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Robert Hohmann smiled superciliously at the man before him. "You have nerve," he said. It might have been a compliment excepting that the tone of the words was definitely sarcastic. "You have the colossal effrontery to come here before me and tell me what I can do and what I cannot do."
Greg Hammond said, quietly, "Shall I repeat it? You are not to attempt the construction of the plutonium producing uranium pile."
"Or else—what?" sneered Hohmann.
"The United Nations makes no threats," said Greg. "We are not a military organization. We are the voice of the people—including yours, Hohmann. We merely set forth that which the people desire, and remind them of it. If someone—you in this case—goes against the will of the people, it will be for the people to decide his fate."
"You do not understand," said Hohmann, "nor can I possibly penetrate your illogic reasoning. The person is secondary to the State. Therefore it is for the State to—"
"The State is the result of the people," returned the United Nations representative. "Were it not for the people, there could be no State."
"Were it not for the State," thundered Hohmann in a ringing voice, "people could not exist in the luxury they have. Man would still be pitted against man and brother against brother. The State combines them into an insoluble unit."
"The United Nations combines all States into an insoluble unit," replied Hammond.
"Which believes itself capable of telling me what I can and cannot do!"
George Oliver Smith (April 9, 1911 – May 27, 1981) (also known by the pseudonym Wesley Long) was an American science fiction author. He is not to be confused with George H. Smith, another American science fiction author. Smith wrote mainly about outer space, with such works as Operation Interstellar (1950), Lost in Space (1959), and Troubled Star (1957).
He is remembered chiefly for his Venus Equilateral series of short stories about a communications station in outer space. Most of the stories were collected in Venus Equilateral (1947), which was later expanded with the remaining three stories as The Complete Venus Equilateral (1976).
His novel The Fourth "R" (1959) – re-published as The Brain Machine (1968) – was a digression from his focus on outer space, and an examination of a child prodigy.