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FIFTEEN

"Thank you, gentlemen. That will be all." The president got up, and the others followed suit: Greg Lambert and the Secretaries of the Treasury, Commerce, and Labor. Commerce and Labor rose tiredly; this man in the White House was damned difficult.

By contrast, Lambert, the White House Assistant for Policy Development, was cheerful. Though under Haugen he was only an advisor, editor, and source of information, he enjoyed watching the president's mind at work, charging ahead, questioning and absorbing data on the run, seeming rarely to doubt his own judgment.

And Lambert found a certain perverse pleasure in the president's independent toughness. Sandforth and Komisky—Commerce and Labor—had requested this meeting to make one last try at changing the old man's mind. Because once tonight's speech was made, he and they were committed. He'd listened patiently at first to the same arguments in new clothes. Then his jaw had begun to clench, to jut. Still, he'd heard them out; they'd have to give him that.

To Haugen, cabinet secretaries were not makers of government policy. They were administrators of major executive departments. Because they were knowledgeable, their input was to be sought and listened to, but he felt no need to be guided by them or swayed by them. He could get input from any number of experts—had and would—and made his own decisions.

They filed from the room, the president last. General Hammaker was waiting for him outside the door. While Lambert and the secretaries went down the hall to the elevator, Haugen stopped.

"What have you got Ernie?"

"The Soviets have reached Teheran from the east. They rolled into the city and basically leveled the government district."

"And the Ayatollah?"

"He got out, apparently yesterday, and surfaced in Islamabad an hour ago."

"Good."

"He made a speech there, in Arabic. I left a videotape of it with Martinelli; it has an English translation. It'll probably be all over the world on the evening news. He really laid it on the Kremlin; called for an Islamic jihad against the Great Russian Satan."

Haugen, tired, grunted, and started for his office with Hammaker beside him. A Farsi-speaking Persian, Haugen mused, addressing in Arabic an audience whose native tongue was Urdu. Arabic was, in its way, as big an international language as English, but the nations who shared it as their first or second language managed to fight each other as much as any other group of countries in the world. So much for the concept that having a single planetary language would engender world peace.

"D'you think anything will come of it?" he asked. "Jalal's speech, that is?"

"Not any declarations of war, that's for sure. There'll probably be some verbal artillery aimed at the Soviets. Chances are some KGB and GRU people will get picked up and disappear, and it's barely possible we might run into a little more friendliness. It might even reduce the terrorism frequency a bit, or redirect it at the Soviets, especially in their Moslem regions. Time will tell.

"This is probably the biggest PR goof the Kremlin ever made; worse than Hungary." Hammaker fell silent then, caught again in the question of why the Soviets would do something so stupid. But then, why did nations, rulers, people in general, do some of the stupid things they did?

They arrived outside Martinelli's office. "I'll look at the tape now," Haugen told him. "It'll give me a change of pace before I put together this evening's speech. And thanks."

Hammaker saluted and left. As he headed for his office, he thought about what the president had just said. Change of pace before he put together this evening's speech! Judas Priest! The old sonofabitch certainly didn't require a lot of lead time.

***

Jumper Cromwell had been sworn in as vice president, and introduced to his new office and secretary down the hall from the president's; and his new office and secretary in the old Executive Office Building; and his new office and secretary in the Capitol Building just off the Senate floor; and his whole damn suite of vice-presidential offices and staff in the Dirksen Office Building.

He wasn't going to get involved in any of it, more than he absolutely had to. Which was very damned little. Haugen agreed, he was the president's backup and unofficial national security advisor, and that was it. He'd had to leave active military service, and of course his chairmanship, before swearing in—a constitutional requirement. But he'd arranged for a small office in the Pentagon, and to stay on all the routing lists he'd been on before. To keep up with things.

The phone buzzed on his Pentagon desk. He reached; tapped keys. "Cromwell," he said.

"General, this is Major Chilberg. It's about our project. I have something to give you."

Jesus, Cromwell thought, what a tangled web we weave. Or try to unravel. "Good. I'll meet you here in my office. Right away."

"Yes sir."

Cromwell tapped another key and returned to the contents of his IN basket. The paper kept flowing, regardless of the real world. The country was still wobbly after taking a standing eight-count; there was war in Iran; and the Readiness Command wasn't ready, although it soon would be again, with the National Guard taking over the entire internal peace-keeping job. Even if the Red Fleet was sailing up the Potomac, paper would flow in the Pentagon. It was part of an insatiable information hunger.

He scanned another memo, initialed it, and tossed it in his OUT basket. Chilberg was in charge of his unofficial research on the Holist Council; there was no guessing what he'd gotten hold of.

***

The president's communicator buzzed. "Yes Jeanne?"

"I found Father Flynn. He's here now."

"Good. Send him in."

A moment later the priest entered. "Sit down, Steve," said the president. "Coffee?"

"No thanks."

"I've been ignoring you. My apologies. I'm still at that stage where I'm running and don't dare slow down. Actually I've gotten on top of things somewhat: I'm through the worst of the briefing phase—the urgent, four-alarm part. I've worked out and issued operating procedures and delegations of authority that save me a fair amount of time and trouble, and I've gotten the feel of the people who work for me. Canned a couple of them, and in general gotten the machinery somewhat tuned up and oiled.

"I'll tell you what," he added, "Donnelly had some good people with him, especially Milstead and Martinelli. They've gotten to be like my right and left arms."

Flynn nodded. "For me, being in the White House has been more like a vacation than a job. I'm enjoying more time for study and reading than I've had since seminary." He cocked his head and looked Haugen over. "You've developed little satchels under your eyes, Arne—not enough sleep or too much reading—but other than that you look well."

Haugen grinned. "I keep making resolutions to sleep more and exercise, but other things keep getting in the way. My health is not top priority; the business of living outranks it."

The Jesuit's eyebrows raised. "And what is the business of living?"

Haugen's eyes held energies. Father Flynn marveled that this man could have so much life at his age. As if he wasn't using it up; as if he created it as he went.

"The business of life? It's whatever you make it," Haugen replied. "Man wasn't born to take care of himself, he was born to do things."

He chuckled. "My first week here, with everything that was happening, Singleton tells me to come in for a physical. I told him I'd had one in August and I was too damn busy now. When he started to argue, I told him to back off, that I'd call him, he wasn't to call me.

"A person does need to keep the machinery functional, but there are times when maintenance and repairs have to be postponed, backlogged, to get more important things done when they need to be."

The priest nodded. "I have no argument with that. But I hope you don't postpone too long. You're remarkably fit and strong for a man your age. Or a man of fifty, as far as that's concerned. Just don't squander yourself."

The president raised his right hand. "I promise," he said. "Matter of fact, I'm flying John Zale in from Duluth. You've met John; he was my executive secretary there. He's going to be my personal expeditor here. I've worked out his job description with Milstead so they won't step on each other's toes. It'll give me more time and take some pressures off Charles; he's too valuable to use up."

Haugen's face went serious then. "This is the night I give the speech on the economic measures we talked about, and right now I've got a case of nervous stomach.

"Will you be watching?"

"By all means, Mr. President."

"Good. You know, I've seldom operated rushed like this before. I'll tell you a secret though: It's exciting as hell. Using the term 'hell' figuratively.

"Meanwhile if there's anything I do that bothers you, that seems unethical or otherwise wrong, I hope you'll let me know. I'm depending on you to."

The Jesuit's blue-gray eyes were steady on the president. "I will, Mr. President," he said. "I will."

***

The White House broadcast room required little preparation for a telecast; little more than lighting a fire in the fireplace. After a late supper with his wife, the president took the stairs down from the presidential apartment, was made up for the cameras, and went in. At 9 p.m. eastern time, 6 p.m. Pacific, he was on his feet beside the fireplace, and the telecast began.

"Good evening," he said. "I'm speaking to you tonight from the broadcast room in the White House." His voice was mild, quiet but easily heard, the words distinct but casual.

"I'm not going to talk just now about the war in Iran, other than to mention that the Soviet invaders captured Teheran today. Many of you have already heard that. We're not ignoring what's happening there; the Pentagon is following events closely. But just now my attention is on problems at home. And what I'm going to talk to you about this evening is the economy. Or actually, certain important aspects of it."

He strolled to a desk and sat down. "This desk isn't mine, incidentally. Mine has a computer terminal on it, and it isn't usually this tidy.

"First I want to commend the army, and more especially the national guard, for their vital work in seeing that the distribution of food and fuel have continued and been improved. Without their work and your cooperation, this country would go down the tubes regardless of anything I could do.

"Also at this time I'd like to commend President Donnelly and his advisors, operating under martial law, for their emergency slashing of federal salaries and wages, tying them to week by week economic indicators. And I'd like to commend state, county, and municipal governments for their similar actions. With the crash of wages and prices generally, the gross reduction of tax income has meant much less money to pay public employees with.

"The alternative approach, which President Donnelly wisely rejected, was to print and distribute large quantities of money backed by neither goods nor public credit. In other words, worthless money. If he'd done that, we'd have had several hundred percent inflation by now, or worse. And planning, and the recovery steps I'm going to outline for you here, would be much more difficult.

"I'd also like to commend the American people for their wide acceptance of emergency wage slashing and rent slashing in the private sector. It kept a lot of businesses going, and a lot of people employed. And it kept vital goods flowing.

"Incidentally, our latest figures show unemployment at fifty-eight percent. So you can see why the president's been given emergency powers."

He paused, pursed his lips slightly, then continued. "With regard to federal taxes, I have personally talked with the new Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, Mr. Fred Buhler. The recent flurry of IRS property seizures has been halted, with property being returned to the people it was taken from. If any more such seizures occur without proper court action, let your nearest FBI office know. They have orders from me, through Director Dirksma, to handle whoever is responsible. Meanwhile, twenty-three IRS personnel have been reprimanded and reduced in grade. Nineteen others, including ex-commissioner Edwin Balthazar, have been fired, and the FBI is looking into possible malfeasance charges against them, which could mean criminal proceedings and jail sentences. I'm sure that no one will be happier to know this than the large majority of IRS employees who've done the best they could and have tried to operate in a sane and ethical manner."

The president's eyes were direct, as if he were looking at his audience through the camera. "None of this means that tax cheating is all right. What it does mean is that the IRS is not above the law. And that its authorizations do not include arrogant, arbitrary, or vindictive behavior. Also, it means that the IRS, like the rest of us, needs to adjust its operations ethically and responsibly to the emergency situation. Right now, top priority goes to salvaging this nation.

"Regarding jobs: The Federal Highway Administration, the Office of Community Planning and Development, and the Labor Department have been putting together a program of public works which will employ several million people within the next couple of weeks. Some of you have seen the first of these public works projects starting up in your communities. To give credit where credit is due, these agencies had begun the planning before I took office, assuming that such programs would be wanted.

"The wages will be low, because the United States Treasury is very low, and because government incomes from taxes have been enormously reduced. But these projects will give a lot of families a wage earner, and the opportunity to buy things they need. And the convenience and dietary variety of getting their food in a local store, instead of having to go, usually on foot, to an emergency food distribution center and stand in line. This program will also provide road and park improvement and new construction that will be greatly appreciated in the future.

"There are several reasons we've been able to actually get these projects underway so quickly. But the central reasons have been martial law and the Emergency Powers Act. These allowed the suspension of a lot of barriers and delays, the slashing of government wages and of payments to government contractors, and the suspension of bond payments, leaving us with something for project funds. These cuts and suspensions have been hard on certain people, but they were necessary adjustments to a critically dangerous situation.

"And that's all I have to say for now about what we might call relief measures. Important as they are, and they are very important—vital—much of my attention is on rebuilding the economy on a solid base.

"Basically, the crash has slammed us back to economic square one. Suspension of contract strictures on wages, prices, interests, etcetera, have allowed the country to make the adjustment without going back even further, to square zero. So the question I've been working on is how do we get up to square two and above.

"I've been given a lot of different advice on the economy in the short time I've been in office. You might not believe how different some of it has been. And almost all of it supported by what sounds like convincing data and logic. But very little of the advice was the kind I could put into action for quick, broad, positive results that were consistent with a return to democracy.

"So I decided that if experts had such different ideas about what was best to do, I was justified in starting from scratch to see where logic would take me.

"Which I did. I wrote it up and gave it to five economists of generally different views. And got it back with their independent critiques."

From one side of his desk, he took a neat stack of paper and held it up before the cameras. On the topmost, penned jottings were conspicuous in the margins and between the double-spaced lines.

"And I've paid attention to them. Because although the study of economics might still be in its adolescence, economists have studied the known phenomena of economics and the theories about them. And the economists I've talked to are very intelligent people, among the best, at the forefront of their still rather crude specialty. Just as some of the doctors of a hundred and fifty years ago were highly intelligent people, who had studied all the medical knowledge of the time and were limited by it.

"The upshot is that I've prepared some new law based on ideas that didn't offend most of those five economists too terribly. It deals with fair wages and salaries. Right now, wages and salaries are whatever an employer can afford. Or what he claims he can afford. This has kept the ship afloat, barely, but it has inevitably resulted in considerable suspicion and resentment, and a certain amount of gouging.

"So we need to establish ground rules on wages and jobs, which will be followed by rules allowing the 'desuspension' of mortgage payments and the reopening of stock markets.

"What we're going to do next—what I am going to tell you about now—will upset some people. It has already upset some of my cabinet, who have the responsibility of seeing that laws, orders, and programs are carried out.

"Because it's different than the way things have been done, and because it'll have to be debugged in use. But you and I know, and they know, what grew out of the way things used to be done. And I'm not changing what doesn't need to be changed.

"What I'm going to outline for you now applies to any and all businesses that do business across state lines or with the federal government, or have done during this calendar year. And it will be in effect until the first of next October, unless Congress or myself sees fit to cancel it."

The president looked around, scanning the panoply of cameras as if looking at the audience of viewers.

"By a week from next Monday morning at eight o'clock"—He paused for emphasis and repeated deliberately. "By a week from next Monday morning, every such employer, except for governments, every such employer with more than three people working for him, outside his own family or household, is to make the financial records of his business available to his employees. Or to employee representatives. In a form readily understood. And management and employees are to negotiate new wage and salary agreements based on"—he paused for emphasis—"on a sharing of income. Management's share will not come off the top, nor will labor's. They will come after other operating expenses are paid. Expenses such as rent, material, debt payments—things like that. Labor's wages, as always, will come out of the same pot that profits and management's salaries do. But now labor will know what's in that pot. And the negotiations are to determine the proportions—who gets what percentage."

The president cocked his head, hand cupped behind an ear. "I can hear the screaming from here. But let me comment that Duluth Technologies is an employer. Even now it has something like seventy-two hundred employees including sales representatives. So this new law impacts the firm I built, and that I will return to from here. For that reason, if for no other, you might expect me to be fair toward management.

"Meanwhile, all old wage scales and salary contracts, for everyone from sweepers to corporation presidents, are cancelled. Not just suspended, as they have been lately, but cancelled. And this includes those of government employees.

"By the first Sunday in January, each of those employers, and his or her employees or employee-elected representatives, must have negotiated a new agreement, to take effect on that date."

The president steepled his fingers, and his eyes focused elsewhere, as if in thought. When he spoke again, it was more slowly, as if choosing his words carefully.

"So what we're talking about here is what you might call floating salaries and floating wages. When company income goes up, everyone's share goes up. When company income goes down, everyone's share goes down. The sweeper's and the chairman of the board's. Labor will have something to say about management salaries, as well as management having something to say about labor's wages." His brows drew down slightly now, less in a frown than in serious emphasis. "But labor had better recognize the value of good management," he went on, "and the need for profits as a reward for investment and a necessary means for expansion. Labor should not get carried away by their new position and try to cut their own throats.

"I want to stress here that top management carries more responsibility than anyone else for company income, which means everyone's income, and it needs to be rewarded accordingly. But on the other hand, being top management does not justify an unreasonable share of company income. "One of the reasons that our economy foundered—one of the reasons—was the desire of both management and labor, both of them, to have everything they wanted, and right now. Or as close to everything and as close to right now as possible. This was a desire rooted in good old human ambition, and force-fed by advertising.

"Now as far as I can see, there is nothing wrong with wanting to have a lot—or in having it. But first you have to create it." The president's voice rose in emphasis. "Prosperity is not a matter of 'gimme,' of wanting and demanding. It's a matter of production and distribution and sales. Each of us, and that includes you, has to create, has to produce, our own prosperity. We, you, have to produce goods and services, and exchange them with others."

He paused. "And that's an important part of what this new law is about: Seeing that production, and the exchange between supplier and purchasers, comes before salaries and wages. It's fine for the businessman or manager to want a big boat, a diamond bracelet for his wife, a summer home in the mountains, a condo in Florida. And the employee can't be faulted for wanting a second car, a Hawaiian vacation, weekends on the ski slopes or in Las Vegas, and a stock portfolio. Those are all justifiable desires." Once more the president slowed for emphasis. "But the money has to come from somewhere, and if it doesn't come from production and sales, at prices that don't feed inflation, then the ship will finish sinking, and we'll end up with something more or less like the Soviet people struggle with.

"Basically that's the choice. And you're the only ones who can make it.

"And something I almost forgot to mention, related to wages—Both sides should consider bonuses for outstanding individual contributions to company income. That's not part of the new law, but it's a part of good sense."

Haugen leaned forward, both elbows on his desk now, crossing his forearms on it. "And there's more to this law. As of the first Sunday in January—" He enunciated the words almost one by one: "Starting in January, job security is tied to job performance. I'll repeat that: Job security will be tied to job performance. Allowing for sickness and other special cireumstances to be worked out between management and labor. For example, if you're an assembly line worker whose production frequently fails to meet agreed upon—agreed upon—quality and quantity standards, management must have the right to fire you. Fair standards and fair procedures for this are something that management and labor need to work out together as part of the labor-management agreement.

"At the same time, if you are a hired corporate executive whose decisions have been harmful to the company's economy, you can and should be fired. Labor and the stockholders should insist on it, because the inept manager hurts their earnings. The new law gives labor the leverage to get it done. I'll leave the evaluation and firing procedures to be worked out between management and labor.

"Of course, if the manager also owns the business, he can't be fired. But he can go down with the ship."

The president's voice, which had been business-like, changed, taking on a pleasant, genial tone. "Now there may be, out there, an occasional executive who is thinking, I don't need to worry about this new law. We'll find loopholes, or otherwise work our way around this. That's what we hire expensive law firms for."

His eyes hardened, and his voice took an edge. "To this individual I say, don't challenge me on this. You could find yourself working for room and board, making canvas products for Federal Prison Industries. And all the lawyers in New York, not to mention Philadelphia, won't be enough to save your butt."

He paused again, took a breath, and continued. "Now, if management and labor can't get together on what the income shares should be, and the working conditions, and job evaluation and discharge procedures, before the second Sunday in December, they'd better agree on and bring in an arbitrator for binding arbitration. Otherwise the federal government will provide the arbitrator. And we'll charge outrageously for it, which will cost both management and labor dearly until they've finally finished paying. Because we don't want the arbitration job; we want management and labor to take responsibility themselves.

"And all of this holds for nonprofit organizations as well as for those that hope to make a profit. Except that it does not hold for the majority of churches—those that have non-profit status."

The president sat back then. "This is all being published in detail. It will be available in stores within a week. There are people in government who are sweating blood to see that deadlines are met on this; my thanks to them.

"And that's all I have to say for now. Before too long, I expect to report to you on energy, the environment, and taxes. I believe you'll like what I have to say about each of them."

He got up from his chair. "Thank you all for listening. God bless you and good night."

***

When the cameras ceased recording and the microphones were off, Arne Haugen walked slowly into the center hall to an elevator, and rode up to the presidential apartment, where his wife waited. Enroute, he seemed to shrink two inches and age ten years. When he entered the living room, she got up and embraced him.

"You were very good," she said quietly. "I was proud of you."

He smiled ruefully. "Thank you, my most impartial friend. I feel as if I'd been hammered through a knothole."

She nodded. "I can understand that. But you did do well. Very well."

"The next question," he said, "is what the other 260 million think of it. Will they really try? And if they do, will it work or won't it? If they won't, or if it doesn't, you can forget democracy in America, and probably in the rest of the world."

He sank down in his favorite chair and this time let Lois pour a glass of wine for him; usually he did the pouring. "I think I'll go to bed early tonight," he said, then grinned. "Anyway I've still got my ace in the hole. I know damn well it'll work."

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