Evening star., 1939-01-12
THE EVENING THURSDAY,

OF the trouble; he had not been the
heart Of the trouble; but he had
been its forefront. Reedly and his
ambitions and intrigues, his ro-
manticism and his arrogance, his
obvious good looks, melodramati-
cally aristocratic, and his obvious
contempt for the common man, had
become the center and embodiment
Of the old order of things that Rud
was bent upon destroying. He was
world MARSHALL, /. was manifest
that he hoped to be the first world
Caesar. He played OF the govern
ments against the group and the
group against the governments
more and more plainly. Until he
was destroyed, his destruction
seemed to be the final victory for
which the group had to fight. When
he was destroyed, his destruction
seemed only an incident in a far
profounder conflict.
Little Resistance.
In the days before, the outbreak
Of war had brought the group into
official existence, it had carried on
its propaganda against astonish-
ingly little resistance. It had slip
ped in between right and left, with
such an air of undogmatic neutral
ity that few people realized its
fundamental propositions ploughed
deeper than either reactionary or
red"
AS the defeat of militant totali-
tarianism became more certain, the
resolve of this active and ascendant
party of the common man to keep
Its grip on the world industries
and the transport. services it had
practically Communicated, and to
go on disregarding the national
separations it had over-ridden In
the name of military necessity, be-
came more definite and outspoken
And with that, resistance to the
group rose.
The hold the sense
movement had secured upon the
means of counter-propaganda var
led widely in different countries,
and Rud realized with a gathering
anger that a widespread series of
movements for national racial as
sertion, against deadly uniform
ity," against socialism" and the
bureaucratic control of financial
processes, against educational
tyranny" and "the suppression of
local and individual enterprise"
were putting up a more and more
effective opposition to his rapid
drive toward permanent So
cialistic world organization and adj
ministration. After the war" they
said, restoration" After the war;"
said the common-sense party, go
on to the new world"
Human and Spontaneous.
At first the widespread resistance
to world unif1cation had seemed
various In its nature, very human
and spontaneous. At first perhaps
1t was. Rud put 1t down for a while
to the natural perversity of his
fellow common men. He was dis
posed to deal with it piecemeal.
Then as he heard Thirp's reports
upon Reedly's ever-ramifying activ-
tiles and discussed the accumulating
opposition with the organizing
Bodisham and the shrewd, obser-
want Chiffan, he began to realize
the increasing interrelation of these
difficulties. They were being drawn
together and shaped into definite,
new, reactionary organization. Very
rapidly now.
AS usual his mind leapt beyond
his instructors.
He summoned his inner cabinet,
his most trusted intimate, Bodis-
ham, Steenhold and Chiffan, to
his room at the Airdrome.
Il want to talk to you three about
something urgent" he said. Let
me explain. :"
They did nothing to prevent him.
This new movement. Its be-
ginning to crop up, In speeches,