— That pail Major be, be careful yes of course the ahm, that lintel over the entrance I think Mister Gibbs was explaining the lettering over the ahm, the Greek letters that is to say since of course he’s the only one who can ahm, who suggested that solution to Mister Schepperman’s unfortunate ahm, of course since he recommended Mister Schepperman to us in the first place yes or was it Mister Schepperman who ahm, who’s no longer with us that is to say yes he’s probably just ahm, probably still…
— Been selling his blood for money to buy paint.
— That’s disgusting Gibbs, sounds like somebody you’d bring in, now let’s get back to this budget…
— Why because his work, because he thinks one painting’s worth more than his own…
— Fine let him! Who asked him to paint it anyhow!
— That’s the point, Major. Nobody.
— mond Cable or some other growth stock…
— What did she say? what stock?
— But without them where do you get art.
— Get it? Art? You get it where you get anything you buy it, listen Gibbs don’t try to tell me in this day and age there isn’t enough around for everybody great art, pictures music books who’s heard all the great music there is, you? You read all the great books there are? seen all these great pictures? Records of any symphony you want reproductions you can get them that are almost perfect, the greatest books ever written you can get them at the drugstore your friend here selling his blood he’s crazy that’s all, like the one that just enriched the countryside here with the Mozart, pick up the paper the only time you read about them they’re making trouble for somebody, for themselves or somebody else that’s the only time you hear about them.
— The only time you hear about anybody.
— that we’re ready to vote for our share in Am…
— What do you mean do I go around with narcotics signing petitions painting slop writing books full of dirty words with a beard? They just want something for nothing half of them are crazy anyhow what about the one he just said he was afraid his head would fall off? Or your big name painter that cut off his ear what about him.
— But that’s what I said, without them where do you get the…
— Wait be quiet!
— Yes well of course we don’t really ahm…
— Look that’s my company! Did you hear that? They’re buying a share in my company Diamond Cable did you see that? That’s my company…!
— I saw it, from the show of hands it looked like they wanted to buy the…
— The what Gibbs, the what. The show of hands you didn’t even see it, you’ve been standing there trying to look down her dress they bought what they wanted to buy. You saw it Whiteback?
— why we call it corporate democracy isn’t it class…
— There did you hear that? Corporate democracy did you hear that Gibbs? This share in America it’s my company they just bought a share in my company, I didn’t get where I am slopping paint on the floor and cutting off my ear either run this school system along corporate lines Whiteback you’d have these strike threats complaints over harassment cleared up in no time, you’d…
— Yes well of course Vern ahm, I don’t think Vern would…
— That’s what they’re whining about isn’t it Dan? this harassment?
— The, the yes the directives the forms, the rules, regulations, guidelines…
— Yes well of course the ahm, you teachers get them from me, I get them from the District Superahm, Vern that is to say yes and he gets them from…
— Start an investigation find out who’s behind it, the…
— The harassment?
— No behind the complaints, the…
— And of course we all get them from the state and the state gets them from the federal education office in…
— The complaints?
— No the directives that is to say, guidelines, forms, regulations, Title Four…
— Title Four’s a hell of a big investment the government’s just protecting their investment see it at the corporate level all the time, that’s what you’re…
— Yes well of course we ahm, in terms of the ongoing situation in order to correlate the ahm, correlations Dan you can ahm…
— The, the correlations the correlations require standardization which, which requires standards…
— Go ahead Dan I’m listening, just let me get Whiteback’s phone in there…
— The standards yes establishing the standards in, just in the scoring area, some of the cards they have holes punched in them that don’t make any sense at all, on these tests for instance the ones to classify potential failures…
— Good, get them early. Hello? Weed out the bad risks… what…? he listened, spoke a crude syllable into the phone and laid it ranting on the desk. — Father Haight over at the parochial school letting us know they didn’t miss anything, lift your lessons right off the air and…
— When a boy that boy with the cap pistol, when he scores top on the music math index and then you check up his holes and find they don’t fit…
— Yes well of course he’s ahm, all we can do that is to say is to ahm…
— Send him back to Burmesquik.
— What was that Gibbs? Hyde sank back on the desk corner, where the telephone miniature continued to rant into his trouser pocket.
— I said maybe he hears a different drummer, Major.
— Nothing pansy about that, my boy’s as good on the drums as he is on trumpet. You’ve got a hole in the seat of your pants there too, Gibbs.
— Too? like this boy with the cap pistol? He launched a sudden step backwards, — let him step to the music which he…
— Look out!
— My, God…
— What was in it!
— That, that Leroy that idiot Leroy… Whiteback snatched up a blue cuff in a quick two step, — he brought the whole pailful to show me what was stopping up the plumbing in the junior high be careful, they’re all over the floor…
— But the, the junior high?
— There’s programming for you… Gibbs knocked a shoe against the baseboard, — speak of tangibilitating unplanlessness where’d you pick up that language, Whiteback?
— You, you have to speak it when you talk to them here Senator we, this way, we’ll get some paper towels in the boys’ room, Dan? Can you just reach over and, reach that? turn that thing off?
— treatment of waste silk, called discharging…
— Still want to get together on this remote special Whiteback, put it on tape for these Foundation people after this disgraceful exhibition you put on here today we might be able to cut our losses…
— I said off Dan, not up…
— beautiful colors, but the smell of this waste silk fermenting is so offensive that…
— Send your remote unit out to my shelter, tie the whole thing in with what we…
— Off, the knob marked off…
— improving production knowhow and eliminating waste in the cause of human better…
— Leroy must have got these knobs on backwards.
— elimination of waste and is fitted with a muscular mechanism, or sphincter…
— Out to the right, Whiteback led them in order of importance.
— Remember…? said Gibbs over diCephalis’ shoulder, glancing up at the portrait as he reached to close the door behind them — when Eisenhower’s doctor told the press this country is very interested in bowel movements?
— It’s marked boys…
The door swung the word Principal hollow behind their backs, leaving the only voice chiding in miniature from the desk where the telephone lay, the only face, where nothing had happened framed high on the wall there all this time to change the expression unchanged by a boy’s lifetime at the country’s helm “focusing on ideas rather than phrasing” with the plea “let’s not forget, above all things, the need of confidence and that, of course, I think nationally, it is what do you and I think of the prospects, do we want to go buy a refrigerator or something that is going to, that we think is useful and desirable in our families, or don’t we? And it is just that simple in my mind.”