Science fiction; Short stories; Sociology -- Fiction; United States -- Fiction; Universities and colleges -- Fiction
The first day of the sixth month, a big two page spread appeared in
the local paper of a mass meeting which had approved a full-fledged
scheme for slum clearance of Watashaw's shack-town section, plus plans
for rehousing, civic building, and rezoning. _And_ good prospects
for attracting some new industries to the town, industries which had
already been contacted and seemed interested by the privileges offered.
And with all this, an arrangement for securing and distributing to the
club members _alone_ most of the profit that would come to the town in
the form of a rise in the price of building sites and a boom in the
building industry. The profit distributing arrangement was the same one
that had been built into the organization plan for the distribution
of the small profits of membership fees and honorary promotions. It
was becoming an openly profitable business. Membership was rising more
rapidly now.
By the second week of the sixth month, news appeared in the local paper
that the club had filed an application to incorporate itself as the
Watashaw Mutual Trade and Civic Development Corporation, and all the
local real estate promoters had finished joining en masse. The Mutual
Trade part sounded to me as if the Chamber of Commerce was on the point
of being pulled in with them, ideas, ambitions and all.
I chuckled while reading the next page of the paper, on which a local
politician was reported as having addressed the club with a long
flowery oration on their enterprise, charity, and civic spirit. He
had been made an honorary member. If he allowed himself to be made a
_full_ member with its contractual obligations and its lures, if the
politicians went into this, too....
I laughed, filing the newspaper with the other documents on the
Watashaw test. These proofs would fascinate any businessman with the
sense to see where his bread was buttered. A businessman is constantly
dealing with organizations, including his own, and finding them either
inert, cantankerous, or both. Caswell's formula could be a handle to
grasp them with. Gratitude alone would bring money into the university
in carload lots.
* * * * *
The end of the sixth month came. The test was over and the end reports
were spectacular. Caswell's formulas were proven to the hilt.
After reading the last newspaper reports, I called him up.
"Perfect, Wilt, _perfect_! I can use this Watashaw thing to get you so
many fellowships and scholarships and grants for your department that
you'll think it's snowing money!"
He answered somewhat disinterestedly, "I've been busy working with
students on their research papers and marking tests--not following the
Watashaw business at all, I'm afraid. You say the demonstration went
well and you're satisfied?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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