“If you were saving heavy metals for space flight,” Kerry asked bluntly, “why did the Earth United pigeonhole Ben Thrusher’s space drive?” Dr. Chapman started to answer, but the commander asked bluntly, “Do you know what the birth rate is?” Kerry didn’t. “I understood,” he remarked with sarcastic emphasis, “that it was a statistic that could give aid and comfort to the enemy.” “Any development of a new frontier tends to raise the birth rate explosively. That’s fine. When we open the planets we’ll need a high birth rate. But after the Three Days’ War--you remember--the crime wave was so terrific that both the Americas and the Asian Alliance had to throw their whole armies into policing. “With the high birth rate and scarce food supplies, most families couldn’t get along unless both parents worked. With neglected children--and too few schools and teachers--crime skyrocketed. The emergency--even a non-existent one from outer space--let us pass drastic laws which the public wouldn’t have accepted in peacetime. Food rationing. Conversion of luxury crops to food raising. The non-worker law for mothers of families. That was unpopular, but it did cut down juvenile crime!” “And the curfew law,” Kerry said. “If there are no Pharigs, that’s tyranny.” “You’re perfectly right,” the commander said. “But the Night Police drain off the unemployed population. It’s cheaper to pay them, as a civilian army, than to maintain prison systems and public welfare programs. If a man is unemployed or unemployable, he goes in the Night Police and it’s up to him and his intelligence whether he sweeps the streets or becomes responsible for the peace of a whole city.” “So that was it!” Fallon muttered. Commander Lal rose restlessly and paced the room. “The curfew lights--crimes were worked mostly in darkness--brought the crime rate down right away. Getting rid of unemployment and starvation took away all excuse for crimes. There are no more victims of society. The only criminals now are those who commit crimes of passion, and we don’t need to be sentimental about them any more. Most crime is prevented and the rest can be punished effectively. Attributing all crimes of violence to the Pharigs made crime, in the public eye, equivalent to saying inhuman or alien, and destroyed the superficial glamor around crime and violence.” Dr. Chapman raised a hand and made the very protest that was on Kerry’s lips. “But in a free society, certainly man has inherent rights and freedoms.” The commander looked tired. “Yes. But freedom exists only where there is elbowroom for a man to move without gouging his neighbor’s ribs. We just don’t have it on Earth any more. And all idealistic statements to the contrary, no honest man _needs_ that kind of freedom in these days.