Second: they equal us technologically, and have perhaps surpassed us, or they could have built no such system of canals and pumping stations.
Third: Mars is an aging planet and his inhabitants can keep alive only by the exertion of extreme intelligence. They would not have survived at all, had they not applied that intelligence, their technological capabilities, and their strength to a far greater degree than have we."
"Of course you'll want me to tell you what these creatures look like, in view of my predictions that they at least equal us in intelligence and may be immeasurably ahead of us in knowledge and capabilities.
"But here, gentlemen, you will ask in vain.
"We know that the atmospheric sheath of Mars has become thinner and thinner with the passing years and today has but a fraction of the pressure of our terrestrial air. Our space men will be obliged to wear pressure suits while on Mars, and would suffocate without artificial respiration. From that we may deduce that Martians are differently constituted. But of their actual appearance we are totally ignorant. They might be mammals with specialized lungs… Could it be that some form of gigantic insects or reptiles have performed those technological miracles? We cannot tell.
"The mathematical precision of the layout of the canals must fill us with awe. But does not the bee produce the comb with marvelous mathematical precision, storing it with food against the winter? And is not the hive an example of social cooperation which permits amazing communal achievement along technological lines?
"We are baffled by the problem of how intelligent beings survive in the thin Martian air and among his violent temperature variations. But here on our own Earth, there are animals which marvelously survive under conditions lethal to humans. May not frogs become frozen in the ice all Winter long, only to awaken unharmed when Spring comes?
Do not fish of the profoundest ocean deeps live under a pressure of hundreds of atmospheres, dying when brought to the surface?
"We must believe that God's will that there should be life in nature cannot easily be frustrated by physical obstacles. And when He wills that the characteristics with which He has endowed them shall no longer withstand the environment which His will imposes upon them,
He selects special favorites for the gift of intelligence with which to alter their environment.
"No, gentlemen, it would be fallacious to assume that we sentient begins stand alone in the universe; nor should we arrogate to our Earth the distinction of being the only planet to bear higher forms of life.
"So let us reach out! Let us fare forth to seek our fellow beings in the depth of space! Perhaps we too can learn from God's creatures on our sister planet. For on its countenance are clearly written the symbols of creative and intelligent works wrought by them…"
Chapter 8 — The Mission of Space Travel
A number of speakers were to come before the Mars Committee after Spencer and Hansen had had their day. Holt was required to outline his plans for preparing the organization and Lussigny went deeply into the subject of radio communications. Dick Peyton, Chief Designer of United Spacecraft, told them many of the details of theconstruction of the Mars vessels. Finally, Professor Ashley related what the World Research Board proposed to undertake in the matter of preparatory research.
After long study and debate the Mars Committee unanimously concluded that Operation Mars presented no insuperable difficulties to an energetic and determined attack. It proclaimed without a dissenting voice that it believed that the enormous sums of money required would indeed be well spent for the general benefit of humanity. Not one of their signatures was missing on the favorable report in which they advocated consideration of the Mars Exploration Act by the World Senate and House.
It was on the floor of the Senate that the initial victory of the proponents of Operation Mars proved to be but a first battle in what was to be a lengthly war, for both Senate and House were composed of a congeries of people whose primary interests lay anywhere else rather than in a costly excursion into deep space. A very considerable number of the delegates held their positions below the vaulted dome in Connecticut, with the avowed intention of devoting their full time and effort to ameliorating the lot of their particular constituents, and to the neglect of all else.
All too many were obsessed with the desire to cater exclusively to such feelings, desires and needs as might animate those who had elected them. Narrow, provincial points of view frequently dominated the thoughts of those whose votes held away over the welfare of all the inhabitants of Earth. Nor were such men backward about emphasizing what they felt to be their duties along such lines.
Countless regions still suffered dreadfully from the aftermath of the ultimate war.
Wounds suffered in direct combat still bled copiously and even the quasi-neutrals in many cases existed precariously at the very brink of an economic precipice, created by the almost complete stagnation of world trade which had accompanied the destructive conflict. It was small wonder that the United Congress had become a sounding board for the plaints of those impoverished countries whose primary objective it was to pick the pockets of the more opulent.
The price exacted of the victors for a global democratic government had indeed been high, for it was not long before the poor but populous regions of South and East Asia began to throw their numerically superior representatives into the scales within the great, domed structure of the Congressional building. More and more the scales inclined towards the indigent populations and to the detriment of the erstwhile Western powers.
The 800 million voters in India and China weighed heavily behind the efforts of their representatives to tap the remaining resources of the West and to ameliorate the sufferings caused by the civil wars which had torn them during the global conflict. With oriental guile they set about the task of piping a flood of gold and goods into their insatiable maws.
When Operation Mars reached the Congress it was promptly projected into the maelstrom of these conflicting interests. The appropriation of two billion dollars called for by President Vandenbosch represented an outlay which loomed large beside the funds for the World Recovery Plan, to which America was contributing the largest part. And so it was not long before a block of great power was formed in opposition to Operation Mars.
It was composed, significantly enough, of representatives of regions from which few, if any, contributions to it could be expected.
The leader and mouthpiece of the opposition was a Chinese Senator named Chi-Lau-Hen. The dignity and pomposity of his appearance in no wise obstructed the cunning machinations he aimed at the obliteration of Operation Mars. Chi-Lau-Hen meticulously and skillfully avoided any mention of the financial aspect in his speeches on the floor, or when he buttonholed prospective supporters of his stand in private. Rather would he quote impressively from the writings of Buddha and Confucius, emphasizing their admonitions towards economy and salutary moderation in all things. With oriental adroitness, he warned against the dangers of passionately plunging into the unknown. Chi-Lau-Hen explained to all and sundry how the past war, with its horrors, might have been avoided if only mankind had abjured the "intoxication" of dynamic ideals and had devoted itself to self-sufficient, God-fearing contemplation of the Karma. He was wont to fortify his arguments with references to "eternal China" and "timeless India." Solemnly he recounted how often both had been raided throughout history by belligerent and dynamic neighbors, and how the invaders had inevitably succumbed and been absorbed by nonresistance and the very inertia of their almost stoic inhabitants. "Do not, I beg of you, violate the Tao!" was the culmination of his great speech before the Senate, "God is eternally on the side of those who serve Him and are subservient to Him on the land where