Evening Star Newspaper, October 27, 1935, Page 89

Magazine Section of the earth where listeners can be found is plain. A considerable number of people dining together. They give.a glimpse of the fashions of 2054 and the tableware of an eating place. They look up at a large frame in which Theo- tocopulos is seen and heard talking. The crowd is attentive but displays little reaction to his speecl. The edge of a swimming pool on which a number of young people in athletic clothing applaud one of their number who has just put down an antagonist. A man stands up and switches on a televisor, and everybody listens. Some mutter comments to each other, and opinion is divided. A number of scientific people working in a laboratory. Theotocopulos is seen talking on the televisor. One man is irritated and says: “Oh stop his nonsense.” Theotocopulos is switched off. An Oriental young woman with a fan, re- clining indolently on a couch under a window that looks out upon palms, listens gravely to am oval televisor on which Theotocopulos continues his speech. A mountain hut with a glass window giving upon a violent snowstorm. Two workers in arctic costume occupy the hut; one lies on a bed, the other sits at a table and listens to the voice. They switch it off. “‘I suppose that rubbish appeals to the crowds in the town. What do they know of real work?"” A group of modelers in a studio. It is large but not fundamentally different from an art studio of to-day. There have been no great changes in the plastic arts. In the background is the televisor. An artist is focussing this, and Theotocopulos becomes visible and audible. First Modeler: “Hear! Hear!” Second Modeler: “No! No!" He turns the televisor off. ‘A man has a right to do what he likes with himself." First Modeler: ‘“Never. That Space Gun ought to be destroyed. And now!” Thus continues, in part,thediscourseof Theo- tocopulos which is being listened to by a world audience: ““These people who are so kind as to manage our world for us declare that they leave us free to do as we please; they assert in season and out of season that never has there been such freedom as we have to-day. And as the price of this limitless freedom we enjoy, they ask us to ignore the hard and dreadful THIS WEEK persistence of their own inhuman researches. But is our freedom really the freedom they pretend it is? Isa man free who cannot protest at what he sees and hears? We want the freedom to prevent. Have they the right to use the resources of this world to torment us by the spectacle of their cruel and mad ad- ventures? Have they the right to mar the very peace of our starry heavens by human sacrifices? ““Is man nerer to rest, never to be? A time will come when they will want more cannon fodder for their space guns — when you in your turn will be forced to take your chance upon strange planets and in dreary and abom- inable places beyond the friendly stars. I tell you we must stop this insensate straining towards strange and inhuman experiences — and we must stop it now. I say: Make an end to Progress now. We are content with the simple, sensuous, limited, lovable life of man, and we want no other. Between the dark past of history and the incalculable future, let us _snatch to-day —and live. What is the future to us? Give the earth peace and leave our human lives alone."” A phosphorescent cavity deep in the earth, a cavity in a rock into which minerals have been free to crystalize for immemorial ages. Big dark and light crystals in crowded confu- sion. Into this the nose of a borer pierces its way laterally and comes to a stop. It with- draws, and two young men and a girl in shiny whité¢, close-fitting clothes with glow lamps on their foreheads creep into the cavernous space. & First young man: “Here we are ten miles below the surface. And no molten rock, but instead this Aladdin’s cave.” The girl: “And precious stones! What wouldn't my great-grandmother have given for them!” Second young man: “'I wonder what is going . on up above.” He s carrying a small televisor on his chest in the position of a breast pocket and he swings it into position to look at it. The others look also over his shoulder. The televisor shows Theotocopulos bowing and turning away. They hear a rush of applause. Thegirl: ““It’s Theotocopulos. He’s finished. But we know what he had to say. We have heard it all before. Is there anything else?” First young man: “This Theotocopulos is an old imbecile.” i R A3l 1N AN A Illustrations by Jules Gotlieb — - i, The rulers of the New World are continually experimenting and inventing, adding to human knowledge Second young man: “The dear little chil- dren are not to take risks any more. Just play with their little painties and sing their little songs. But mind you, that stuff is going tostir up a lot of the lazy people in the towns. They hate this endless exploration and ex- perimenting. What business is it of theirs? It’s a sort of envy they feel. It wounds their pride. They do not want to do this work them- selves, but they cannot suffer anyone else todoit...."” The Great Hall of the Drama in which Theotocopulos has been talking. A crowd is flowing out of the hall. One man says to another: “He's right. The Space Gun is an offense to every human instinct.” A woman: “If I were that man Passworthy, I would ksll Cabal.” A man: “It makes me long for the good old days when there was honest warfare and simple devotion to honor and the flag. Space Guns indeed! What is the world coming to?” The woman: “I wish I'd lived in the good old days before all this science took pos- session of us.” The Struggle for the Space Gun The scene is an anteroom to the dining alcove where Cabal, Passworthy, Catherine and Maurice are to dine. The alcove is a sort of glazed balcony projecting over one of the great City Ways. When the glass is closed, it is quite silent. When it is opened, sounds come up from below. On a couch Maurice and Catherine sit close together and very content with each other. They look up as if through the transparent ceiling at something in the air and then stand up as Passworthy appears through a small door that leads from above. Passworthy: “And so we've had our three 7 days for reflection. Haven't you two thought better of it?” Maurice: ‘“We couldn’t think better of it, Father. Don’t make things hard for us.” Passworthy to Catherine: “Where is your father?” Catherine: “He was coming here with me, but he had a call from Morden Mitani, who had something urgent to say to him.” Passworthy: “‘Morden Mitani?"” “The Controller of Traftic and Order. My father waited behind to talk to him.” One of the City Ways. Morden Mitani and Cabal walk across the scene and arrive at a vantage point on a high bridge looking down over a great arena far below. Mitani: “That is what I want you to see.” Far below a little straggle of people is gathering into a sort of procession. They are singing a song of revolt. Cabal: “What are they doing?” “That's — what do they call it? —a demonstration. Trouble.” “‘But what's the trouble?” Mitani draws him back behind a pilaster. Other people come to the bridge in order to see the crowd below. They do not observe Cabal Mitani, in a low tone: ““That is the outcome of Theotocopulos. He ought not to have been allowed to talk on television.” “The world must have free speech. We can't go back on that. People must think for themselves.” “Then the world will have to have police- men again. Just to keep people from acting too quickly on a chance suggestion.” “What can he do?” ; ‘“People are taking him wvery seriously. They want to stop the firing of the Space (Continued on page 13)