George O. Smith

“ Nothing—absolutely nothing—is worth anything. The psychological impact of the pearly gate and the street of gold tends to strike home the fact that here in Fabriville, nothing of material substance is of value. Service, which cannot be duplicated, is the medium of exchange in Fabriville—have you anything to offer, reverend? ”

“ You've been feeling very virtuous about having worked like a slave for your fortune, which would probably keep you in cakes and lodging for the rest of your life. You've been promising starvation and pauperism to anyone who bought anything that seemed the slightest bit frivolous to you. Now that the ax has slipped, you're mad because the guy who liked to ramble amid the roses is not going to starve to death as per schedule. ”

“ You've been getting your flock from people who have no chance to have the pleasure of fine homes and good friends. You've been promising them streets of gold, pearly gates, and the sound of angelic music. ”

“ As soon as we get this mess ironed out, you'll be able to enjoy life as before. Your savings are safe. As soon as we get a medium of exchange that works, you'll be credited—the government took care of that as soon as the bottom fell out of the monetary system. Call 'em dollars, credits, or whathaveyous, they'll all be pro-rated and you'll then enjoy your fortune—though it won't be as much fun because no man is going to have to slave again. You're a crazy man, Towle, and as such I'm sending you back to Terra under guard. We'll let the psychologists work over you. ”

“ Around the encircling fence went the monstrous duplicator, and at each pause it dropped the carbon copy of the original house. Hour after hour it hummed, and when it completed the circle, Norton's mob was housed, fed, and clothed.
Venus Equilateral resounded and re-echoed from the force of the blast. It rocked, and precession tilted it away from its true North and South axial positioning. Men raced along the car-way to the blister laboratory and Channing led the wild rush. ”

“ I'd treat her with the most delicate of care," said Keg.
"She's my maid!"
"Look, Linna. You're not up-to-date. I can predict people sleeping in gold beds and eating from solid platinum dishes before the hysteria dies out. The economic set-up has gone to pot, Linna, and we're trying to work it out."
"But what's the world coming to?"
"It isn't a matter of what it is coming to, it's a matter of where it has gone. As best as my technicians tell me, metals will be rated in value as per their atomic number. Uranium is more expensive than lithium because the transmutation-factor is higher. ”

“ We're exactly even. At least in Fabriville, we aren't going without anything. Eventually the rest of the worlds will fall in line and there will be enough of stuff for everyone, but until that time arrives, we'll be seeing trouble."
"The rest of the worlds?"
"There'll be riots and small-town wars. I only hope we can get our fence up before they decide to call on us."
"You've sort of created an oasis here," said Linna. "But how long will it last?"
"Until Channing and Franks come up with some substance that can not be run through their own duplicator. ”

“ The exhausted batteries are dumped into the matter bank and re-converted. But it is not a real luxury, running on batteries. They need the high power that your stations will deliver. They need the telephone and the radio which your men can maintain. Go and seek the officials of the various companies, and tell them what you want to do. Work at it, Norton. There will be a lot of men in your gang that would rather do something else. Eventually you will be able to release them to do the jobs they are best fitted for. Until we get a medium of exchange, it is a job for job proposition. ”

“ By the same token, Venus Equilateral is a ruined concern. We've dropped from ten million paid messages per day to a mere handful. Those we send through because we are bound by agreement to maintain service at all costs. We aren't making expenses, if you feel like hollering about money. Would you like a few million?" asked Channing suddenly.
"I have—"
"And you used your duplicator to run up your fortune first thing, didn't you?" asked Channing scathingly.
"Naturally."
"And you're sore because every one else did the same thing. Towle, you're a dope. ”

“ Has anyone ever tried to make his own automobile? Can you see yourself trusting a homemade flier? On the other hand, why should an aeronautical engineer exist. Study is difficult, and study alone is not sufficient. It takes years of practical experience to make a good aeronautical engineer. If your man can push buttons for his living, why shouldn't he relax?"
"But what are we going to do?"
"Linna, I bought this place so that we could work it out. There is one thing that cannot be duplicated." ”

“ We need a more sturdy fence around Fabriville. We have the material—who hasn't—but we have not the manpower. Get your mob to run up this fence, Norton, and I'll see that you are paid by giving each and every man a house-hold-size duplicator complete with a set of household recordings. ”

“ Nothing will be worth anything in money. A diamond as big as your fist will be just so much carbon crystal. I want to butter us up, Linna, before the crash. That's the way to do it."
"What is this crash coming from?"
"Don Channing and Walt Franks have just developed a gadget that will transmit articles over any distance. That shoots Interplanet. The articles—or the signal-impulses from them—can be recorded, and the recording can be used to duplicate, exactly, the same thing as many times as you want it." ”

“ And all the time the plant here will be duplicating the whole solar system into the worst mess it ever got itself into. Better stop until we can get something sensible figured out to take care of the conversion."
"That in itself will take ten years," said Kingman. "Meanwhile, money is still of value because the thing is not widespread. People will buy and sell, and I'm going to buy up enough to keep me and mine in the running until things settle down. You have no idea how much stuff is needed to keep a man running for ten years, Channing. ”

“ What has happened, specifically?"
"Channing and Franks invented a gadget that will reproduce anything."
"It is just that?"
"That and only that," said Keg.
"But it seems to me that this would make everybody live in a world of plenty."
"It will. That's why we'll have people sleeping in solid gold beds and enjoying solid silver plumbing. Platinum will have no more value than a slab of lead of the same weight. You see, Linna, when they can duplicate anything—in quantity—it includes money, stocks, bonds, and jewelry as well as radio receivers, automobiles, refrigerators, and table lamps. ”

“ Venus Equilateral is about done for, Channing."
"Meaning?" asked Don, lowering his eyebrows. "Seems to me that you're the one that should worry. As I said, we'll give you your opportunity to buy in."
"Interplanet Transport is finished," agreed Johnson. He did not seem overly worried about the prospect of tossing a triplanetary corporation into the furnace. "So is Venus Equilateral."
"Do go on," snapped Don. "It seems to me that we've just begun. We can take over the job of shipping on the beams. The matter-transmitter will take anything but life, so far. ”

“ But it isn't going to work that way."
"This is going to be a nice, level civilization by the time we get through it," said Kingman. "There'll be no more shopping for food. No more working thirty-five hours a week for your pay so that you can buy the niceties of life. With your household duplicator, you can make everything you need for life, Channing. The Terran Electric label on your duplicator is the label of the New Way of Living." ”

“ Linna, dollars are worthless, these days. Monetary holdings are valueless. Stocks and bonds are likewise useless. Interplanet isn't shipping a thing. Terran Electric isn't selling anything. Venus Equilateral is handling sentimental messages only, and they'd be running at a loss if it weren't for the fact that they're out in space where power comes from Sol. ”

“ Just remember this, people are not going to fall for a bit of salving talk when they want nothing. You promise them anything you like in the way of fancy embroidery, but they'll have it at home now instead of getting it in heaven. Give 'em something to hope for in the way of greater intelligence, or finer personality, or better friends, and they'll eat it up.
"As far as having all of Mars under my thumb, someone had to straighten out this mess. ”

“ Start being a spiritual organization, try to uplift the poor in spirit instead of telling them that they will be blessed because of it. Don't ever hope to keep your position by telling people that material made with a duplicator is a product of Hell, Devil, & Co., because they won't believe it in the first place and there won't be anything manufactured by any other means in the second place. ”

“ We know nothing of the extra-charted elements. We can make 'em, but until we do, what can we know of them?"
"Well, we didn't lose the Station," said Walt. "And business is so punk that tossing the beams won't harm us much; we'll have to spend some time aligning the place again."
"We're all here, anyway," agreed Don, looking over the ruined blister laboratory. "But look, Wes, I think you're running on the wrong gear. Anything that can be made with this gadget can be duplicated. Right?"
"I guess so."
"What we need is a substance that will be stabilized under some sort of electronic pressure. ”

“ Towle ducked the thrown chair, faded backwards, and fired at Don.
The shot pinged against the steel wall, flaking off some of the plastic covering. Don dropped to the floor, and came up with his wastebasket, which he hurled at Towle. Towle ducked, fended it aside with his left hand, and tried to level the gun again. Walt Franks reached into an open file drawer and grabbed a large handful of papers, which he threw at Towle. They fluttered and filled the air for a moment, which distracted Towle long enough for Channing to leap over the desk. ”

“ They stood Towle up, rang and waited for a guard, and then saw the man off under the guard's eye.
And Don Channing said to Walt Franks: "Until we find a medium of exchange, there'll be the devil to pay and no pitch hot."
Walt nodded. "I'm glad we're out here with our little colony instead of where lots and lots of people can come storming at the gates demanding that we do something. Hope Keg Johnson is holding his own at Fabriville."
It was a growling mob that tramped across the desert towards Fabriville. A growling, quarreling mob, that fought in its own ranks and stole from its own men. ”

“ Until someone gets a medium of exchange, we're forced to go on the barter-and-trade basis. Fabriville will toss out anyone who isn't paying his way by working. In return, he has free call upon the market, the manufacturing center, and the professionals. Thank God that hoarding is silly in a realm of ultra-plenty. ”

“ Now we have a condition where people can have those—worldly goods—luxuries right here on earth and without waiting for death to take them there. If you want to start a return to church movement, reverend, you might start it by making your particular outfit one of the first to eschew all this palaver about streets of gold. ”

“ To take on another ten thousand would complicate our work-system to the breaking point. We're running perilously close to chaos as it is, and we couldn't take more. If you'll set up the power stations and start small communities at these points, you'll all be better off. ”

“ A substance that is overbalanced as goes electrons. They will be inserted by concocting the stuff under extremely high electron pressure. Make it some sort of station that has an intrinsic charge of ten to the fiftieth electron volts, or so; that'll make queer alloys, I'll bet. Then it can be stabilized by inter-alloying something with a dearth of electrons. ”

“ Keg, you know I've never questioned your ability. You have always enjoyed the run of big business. Whenever I've needed or wanted anything, it has been available. I write checks and never question the balance. ”

“ Merely because an operator as large as myself cannot palm off two hundred one thousand dollar bills with the serial number AG334557990HHL-6. Counterfeiting will become a simple art soon enough, Linna, but until it is accepted, I'm not going to break any laws. ”

“ Illustrated by Orban
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Astounding Science-Fiction, June 1945.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
"A lot has been written about mankind starving amid plenty. But never before was a civilization confronted with the prospect of luxury amid bankruptcy—"
Keg Johnson was the executive type. ”