Robinc by H. H. Holmes Politics and robots are, alike, very curious things. But they're alike in another way--if you look at things straight, and don't throw out answers even if they do seem more than a little screwy, you can use them effectively-- [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Astounding Science-Fiction September 1943. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] You'd think maybe it meant clear sailing after we'd got the Council's O.K. You'd maybe suppose that'd mean the end of our troubles and the end of android robots for the world. That's what Dugg Quinby thought, anyway. But Quinby may have had a miraculous gift of looking straight at problems and at things and at robots and getting the right answer; but he was always too hopeful about looking straight at people. Because, like I kept saying to him, people aren't straight, not even to themselves. And our future prospects weren't anywhere near as good as he thought. That's what the Head of the Council was stressing when we saw him that morning just after the Council had passed the bill. His black face was sober--no trace of that flashing white grin that was so familiar on telecasts. "I've put your bill through, boys," he was saying. "God knows I'm grateful--the whole Empire should be grateful to you for helping me put over the renewal of those Martian mining concessions, and the usuform barkeep you made me is my greatest treasure; but I can't help you any more. You're on your own now." That didn't bother Quinby. He said, "The rest ought to be easy. Once people understand what usuform robots can do for them--" "I'm afraid, Mr. Quinby, it's you who don't quite understand. Your friend here doubtless does; he has a more realistic slant on things. But you--I wouldn't say you idealize people, but you flatter them. You expect them to see things as clearly as you do. I'm afraid they usually don't." "But surely when you explained to the Council the advantages of usuforms--" "Do you think the Council passed the bill only because they saw those advantages? They passed it because I backed it, and because the renewal of the Martian concessions have for the moment put me in a powerful position. Oh, I know, we're supposed to have advanced immeasurably beyond the political corruption of the earlier states; but let progress be what it may, from the cave man on up to the illimitable future, there are three things that people always have made and always will make: love, and music, and politics. And if there's any difference between me and an old-time political leader, it's simply that I'm trying to put my political skill at the service of mankind."