Science fiction; Short stories; Sociology -- Fiction; United States -- Fiction; Universities and colleges -- Fiction
"With a bright and glorious future--potentially without poor and
without uncared-for ill--potentially with no ugliness, no vistas which
are not beautiful--the best people in the best planned town in the
country--the jewel of the United States."
She paused and then leaned forward intensely, striking her clenched
hand on the speaker's stand with each word for emphasis.
"_All we need is more members. Now get out there and recruit!_"
I finally recognized Mrs. Searles, as an answering sudden blast of
sound half deafened me. The crowd was chanting at the top of its lungs:
"Recruit! Recruit!"
Mrs. Searles stood still at the speaker's table and behind her,
seated in a row of chairs, was a group that was probably the board of
directors. It was mostly women, and the women began to look vaguely
familiar, as if they could be members of the sewing circle.
I put my lips close to the ear of the pretty usher while I turned over
the stiff printed bulletin on a hunch. "How long has the League been
organized?" On the back of the bulletin was a constitution.
She was cheering with the crowd, her eyes sparkling. "I don't know,"
she answered between cheers. "I only joined two days ago. Isn't it
wonderful?"
I went into the quiet outer air and got into my car with my skin
prickling. Even as I drove away, I could hear them. They were singing
some kind of organization song with the tune of "Marching through
Georgia."
Even at the single glance I had given it, the constitution looked
exactly like the one we had given the Watashaw Sewing Circle.
All I told Caswell when I got back was that the sewing circle had
changed its name and the membership seemed to be rising.
* * * * *
Next day, after calling Mrs. Searles, I placed some red stars on my
graph for the first three months. They made a nice curve, rising more
steeply as it reached the fourth month. They had picked up their first
increase in membership simply by amalgamating with all the other types
of charity organizations in Watashaw, changing the club name with each
fusion, but keeping the same constitution--the constitution with the
bright promise of advantages as long as there were always new members
being brought in.
By the fifth month, the League had added a mutual baby-sitting service
and had induced the local school board to add a nursery school to the
town service, so as to free more women for League activity. But charity
must have been completely organized by then, and expansion had to be in
other directions.
Some real estate agents evidently had been drawn into the whirlpool
early, along with their ideas. The slum improvement plans began to
blossom and take on a tinge of real estate planning later in the month.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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