At last they came to a skyscraper, taller than the rest, which had
carved in stone over its mammoth doors, _Big Business Building_. Into
this the Sorcerer turned followed by Raphael and Cassandra. The great
marble hallway was decorated with colored pictures of lumps of coal and
tins of oil, while over the elevator shafts which faced the door there
hung a life-size portrait of the Sorcerer himself done in oils. They
walked to one of the elevators and stepped in. A mechanico sat on a
stool in one corner, his hand on the starting lever.
‘Go-Getter or Will-to-Power, sales or production?’ he asked.
‘What does that mean?’ asked Raphael.
‘The Executive Offices,’ commanded the Sorcerer. Then he explained to
Raphael that Mechanico Limited was divided into two large groups, those
that manufactured and those that sold what was manufactured, Go-Getters
sold and Will-to-Powers produced.
‘Oh,’ said Raphael. Cassandra did not bother to listen.
[Illustration: CASSANDRA SKIPPED GAYLY ALONG BESIDE RAPHAEL WHO TRIED
TO KEEP STEP WITH MECHANUS]
In the meantime the elevator flew to the top of the building thirty
stories high and returned twenty-nine. The elevator man opened the
door and pointed to the right, ‘First door on your left.’
They stepped out. Before them stretched a corridor of doors with
pearl-gray glass panels which bore the words _Millions Ltd_ in raised
gilt letters, while below it was traced the slogan, _The Go-Getter
Gets_. Raphael wondered what the Go-Getter got, but the Sorcerer had
opened the door and they walked in.
As they entered, a hundred mechanical clerks seated before a hundred
flat-topped desks whirled in a hundred revolving chairs and stared at
them and then whirled back again. Goodness, thought Raphael, they must
do a lot of business. For on each desk were ten shiny black telephones.
‘Wait here a moment,’ said the Sorcerer, and disappeared behind a door
marked _Private_.
‘Please,’ said Raphael to one of the nearest clerks, ‘what are you
doing?’
‘I’m figuring production and sales.’
‘Production of what?’
‘Why, mechanicos, of course.’
‘Are you a Will-to-Power?’
‘No. I’m the sales department.’
‘Then you’re a Go-Getter.’
‘The Go-Getter gets,’ began the figure automatically. ‘He increases his
personal efficiency. No man is bigger and better than his sales. That’s
what keeps me busy--bigger and better.’ And he continued cranking the
adding machine in front of him.
Just then the Sorcerer beckoned to them from a door in the wall. There
were three doors lettered _Very Private_, _Really Very Private_, and
_Not So Very Private_. Through this last one they followed Mechanus.
‘Raphael and Cassandra, these are the Executives. They plan the work
and are responsible for its success.’
At this ten mechanicos with immense bulging foreheads rose and bowed.
‘Pleased to see you,’ they said with one voice. ‘Pleased indeed.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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