"But what other transportation power, Doctor?"
"Oh. Half a dozen ways, at least. Get rid of the I.C. engine completely, both Otto cycle and Diesel cycle, and go back to the external combustion engine and steam. The I.C. engine never did make sense; starting and stopping combustion every split second is a guarantee of incomplete combustion, wasted fuel, and smog. Air pollution. External combustion has no such built - in stupidity; no matter what fuel, it burns continuously and can be adjusted for complete combustion. The Stanley Steamer used kerosene. But that's petroleum again. I would use wood alcohol as a starter - it hurts me every time I pass a sawmill and see them burning chips and slash.
"But wood alcohol has its drawbacks. We may burn hydrogen someday. Or learn to store electricity in less weight and less space. Or store energy in a flywheel. But all of those, even hydrogen, are simply ways to store energy. It still leaves an energy problem."
"Hydrogen, too? But you said we would burn it. No?"
"We'll burn it for some purposes; in some ways it's the ideal fuel; its only ash is water vapor. But, Ma'am, we don't have hydrogen; we have water - and even with perfect efficiency - never achieved - the energy you get out of hydrogen by burning it cannot exceed the energy you must use in getting that hydrogen by electrolysis of water. So you must generate electricity first."
"I see. No free lunch."
"Never a free lunch. But the energy problem can be solved several ways . . - through renewable resources. We've been using nonrenewable resources - coal and oil and cutting trees faster than they grow."
"Renewable resources - Windmills and water power and sun power?"
"Wind and water power are fine but limited. I mean effectively unlimited power. Such as this new wrinkle of thermoelectric power from the temperature difference of deep ocean and surface ocean. But there aren't too many really convenient places to do that. You named the one energy that is unlimited and convenient anywhere. Sun power."
"So? What desert is convenient to the Gary steel mills?"
"Not desert, Ma'am; the Sierra Club wouldn't like it."
"I plan to tell the Sierra Club that they are not the government of the United States. But in stronger language."
"I look forward to hearing you, Madam President.
The Sierra Club loves deserts and hates people. But our deserts aren't sufficient. Sun power, yes - but unlimited sun power. In orbit."
South Africa Enraged
United States Surprise Return to Gold Standard at $350 per Troy Ounce of Fine Gold Has
Bourses in Turmoil
"New Policy Obvious Concommitant of
Return to Balanced Budget," Says
Treasury Secretary Spokesman
"The Way to Resume is to Resume."
By ADAM SMITH
Finance Editor
WASHINGTON - The Treasury Secretary, after reading aloud to the Press the President's brief announcement of resumption of specie payments immediately at $350/oz., emphasized that this was not a tactical maneuver to "strengthen the dollar," not an auction of bullion such as those in the past, but a permanent policy consistent with the administration's total policy. "A return to our traditional policy, I must add. A century ago, for 15 years, war caused us to suspend specie payments - but never with any intent to accept the vice of fiat money. Since 1971, as sequelae to 3 wars, we have had a similar problem. By letting the dollar float until the world price of gold in terms of dollars settled down, we have determined what could be called the natural price. So we have resumed specie payment at a firm gold standard. God willing, we will never leave it."
This was in answer to the London Times correspondent's
frosty inquiry as to whether or not the Secretary thought anyone would want our gold at that price. The Treasury Secretary told him that we were not "selling gold" but promising to redeem our paper money at a gold - standard price. The Times' question was inspired by the fact that at the close of market Friday the London fix was $423. 195 per troy ounce, with the Zurich fix, the Winnipeg fix, and the Hong Kong fix (the last only hours before the Washington announcement) all within a dollar of the London fix.
PRAVDA: " - .capitalistic trickery - "
Moscow has not had a free market in gold since pre - 1914 but, as a gold - producing country, its response to our resumption policy has been even more acid than the shrill complaints from Johannesburg. The Zurich gold market did not open today. London opened on time but the price dropped at once, with the first purchase at $397. 127, which slowed but did not stop the decline. Winnipeg opened an hour late; the reason became clear when the Prime Minister announced the tying of the Canadian dollar to the U.S. dollar at one - to - one - a fait aCCompli as the two currencies have hunted up and down, never more than 1% apart, for the past several months.
The timing of the announcement gave the world a weekend in which to think things over, the purpose being presumably to reduce oscillations. The New York Stock Market responded with an upward surge. The Dow - Jones Industrials closed at
"Mr. Chairman, are these unofficial figures I have in front of me - that each of you has in front of you - correct? Or have my informants been leading me down the garden path? The figures on the use of hard drugs, for example?"
"Madam President, I don't know quite how to answer that."
"You don't, eh? You're Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and for four years before that chief of staff of your service. If these figures are not right, how far are they off and which way?"
"Ma'am, that is a question that should be put to each of the Services, not to me."
"So? General, you are relieved of active duty. A request for retirement will be acted on favorably, later today. You are excused. General Smith, take the chair."
The President waited until the door closed behind the ex - Chairman. Then she said soberly, "Gentlemen, it gives me no pleasure to put an end to the career of a man with a long and brilliant record. But I cannot keep in a top spot in my official family a military officer who can't or won't answer questions that, in my opinion, must be answered if I am to carry out my duties as Commander in Chief. If he had answered, 'I don't know now but I'll start digging at once and won't stop until' - but he said nothing of the sort. I gave him two chances; he brushed me off." She sighed. "I suppose he dislikes taking orders from one with no military experience; I do not assume that my sex and skin color had anything to do with it. General Smith, you are in the chair by default; I can't ask you about the other Services. How about your own? Hard drugs."
"I suspect that this figure is conservative, Ma'am. I've been trying to get hard data on hard drugs since I was appointed to this job a year ago. In most cases we need evidence from medical officers to make it stick
• . . and all our doctors are overworked; we don't have nearly enough of them. Worse yet, some of the doctors are pushers themselves; two were caught."
"What happened to them? Making little ones out of big ones?"
"No, Ma'am. Discharged. In civilian practice, I suppose."
"For God's sake, why? Has the Army forgotten how to hold a court martial? Two drug pushers, simply sent home and still licensed to practice medicine - and to prescribe drugs. General, I'm shocked."
"Ma'am, may I say something in my own defense? Then you can have my request for retirement, if you wish it."
"Please. Go ahead."
"These cases occurred before I became Chief of Staff. At the time these two were caught, I was Superintendent of the War College; drugs are not a problem there. When last I had troop duty, I did have a policy of treating use of hard drugs as a criminal offense, as permitted and required by regulations. But the very most I ever managed was to get some sent to the V.A. for hospital cure and rehabilitation. Under the present rules, if a man has a good lawyer - and they do, usually - he can get away from courts martial and appeal to a civilian judge. That usually ends it."