A Technocracy Movement That Was Successful

[Major Major]

The National Advisory Council for Aeronautics and Rocketry

The National Advisory Council for Aeronautics was founded in 1915 to coordinate, undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research in the United States. When Professor Robert H. Goddard was named Chief Technician, he was concurrently made chairman of the organisation, which was renamed "National Advisory Council for Aeronautics and Rocketry", with the Rocket Bureau of NACA being made a significant portion of the organisation. His death shortly thereafter left the NACAR leaderless.

The NACAR continued to function as a department reporting to the Chief Technician. Its efforts were restricted to the development and launch of small-scale rockets similar to those that Professor Goddard had built.

As you will recall, in 1958, the German government made an offer to HMG to create a combined rocketry project. Their development of rockets had progressed to the point where their Aggregat-5 rocket was functioning. Its maximum altitude of 7.5 miles was adequate to the purposes, but the testing of rockets with longer ranges would require testing areas that were unavailable to the German project.

The Long-Range Weapons Establishment was founded at RAAF Woomera, in South Australia. The first launch of the Aggregat-5 was in 1959, and was followed by the testing of the Aggregat-4. The first Aggregat-4 was launched in 1961.

In 1962 the Soviet Union launched the Satellite-1 using a rocket capable of achieving orbital attitudes. The response of the British and German governments was to increase funding for the LRWE projects. The German design bureaus began work on an advanced rocket, designated Aggregat-10. At present the LRWE are launching an uprated Aggregat-4, designated Aggregat-9. The British Satellite Office is developing a more advanced satellite which is planned to investigate orbital conditions. Future plans include development work on a communication satellite system.

In response, the United States Government has named Professor Theodor von Kármán as Director of NACAR. President Witt has announced that "this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth."

The plans of Professor von Kármán do not seem to include any other missions. The NACAR programme is only and solely aimed at a lunar mission.

The opinions of the British and German scientists and engineers working on our current programme is that this strategy is hazardous and unlikely to succeed.

 

[Major Major]

The National Advisory Council for Aeronautics and Rocketry

Be glad I didn't make it the "National Advisory Scientific Council for Aeronautics and Rocketry".

I mean . . . NASCAR?

 

[Major Major]

. . . after the World War, a number of talented American writers and poets moved to Paris, deeming the culture of America to be dull and stultifying. A few remained, producing some noteworthy works of literature on their own. But the bulk of them, in the cafés and bistros of France, enriched the world with many and varied works of literature and poetry that speak to the human heart and limn the human condition.

The past few years in America have confirmed their opinion, it would seem. The domestic American fiction field began to show its own strength by 1936. Many writers were enrolled in the American New Deal projects and unearthed the minor histories of America, whether places or peoples. This latter includes the histories of the few surviving former slaves, and the rich and varied tapestry of the American Indians.

President Witt, upon his assumption of power in 1937, at first seemed sympathetic to these measures. The ambit of the Federal Writers’ Project was extended, it was annexed to the newly-founded National Council for the Arts, and many more writers joined its ranks. The new director, however, Mr Louis P. Archer, was not a writer. He was an electrical engineer who had been a member of the CPTS since 1932.

By 1938, the NCA Writers’ Project had succeeded in cartelising the major publishers of America; they had signed agreements not to buy any works save those certified by the FWP as being “rational, scientific, and skeptical.” At first this seemed nothing more than an agreement to keep the businesses profitable.

Over the next few years, changes began to occur. As films (overseen by the NCA Cinema Project) began to adhere to the standards directed by the CPTS, so did literature. Attitudes that conflicted with the CPTS doctrine were discouraged.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the quality of literature declined. Literary scholars in England have compared the works produced under that supervision to be at the level of cheap adventure fiction, dominated by stereotypes, stock characters and plots, and minimal literary value. Some of the more conservative have compared it to the “Socialist Realism” of Soviet literature.

A further development ensued towards the end of the forties. More and more, books were published that did not have a listed author. They would be copyrighted by the “NCA Writers’ Project”. These works were more and more limited in style and content.

The latest development has been labeled as “bizarre”. The NCA Writers’ Project nominated the best-selling novel of 1951 for the Nobel Prize for Literature. This work, titled The Liar of the Stars, recounts the career of an astrologer, James A. Strabismus, who makes a career of bilking clients for predictions. He eventually encounters a heroic CPTS official, Edward Mounch (supposedly a chemical engineer from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) who unmasks him as a fraud. The astrologer disappears into the slums, and his latest victim donates her fortune to the CPTS.

Not surprisingly, the Nobel Committee declined to consider it.

 

[Major Major]

The Long Term

The political climate in the United States has changed since the election of President Witt (to state the obvious). The then-existing political parties have ceased to exist, being unable to put up candidates, obtain donations, or in some cases even operate. Since the causes for their problems are officially stated as being "mental illness" or simply "irrational", the courts, which are closely supervised by the Scientific Bureau of Investigation and the Office of Mental Sanitation, have not been particularly responsive.

The court system has changed further, as legally-trained judges have retired or been dismissed, and been replaced by scientists and engineers from the CPTS. It is now virtually impossible to escape a diagnosis of "mentally ill". This has silenced most opposition to the government.

The elected officials of the country have little or no power. The states and municipalities have been taken over by federally-appointed administrators, members of the CPTS. The elected offices are still filled, but they are used as benefits for senior CPTS members and have no real power.

Political culture has been replaced by CPTS culture. Students are instructed in it from their first days, where they are taught how rationality and science have never before been more highly regarded and developed than under the current government. A legal finding in 1944 forced the closing of all religious and other private primary and secondary education institutes, and parents who have attempted to keep their children out of school have been found mentally ill and have lost custody of their children.

Some youths have worked at creating a "counter-culture" -- private clubs where satire of the government and society is presented. These are generally broken up within a few months, their principal members being institutionalized for being mentally ill.

In the thirties, there were a vast diversity of social organisations. The government has broken these up. Religious groups were an early target, but other fraternal organisations have been dissolved as well. President Witt said, "Can you imagine any sane rational man wanting to dress up as a buffalo? Or pretend to be a primordial savage?"

Even less structured, more local groups have been broken up. To take one example, there are no card clubs any more. Playing cards is held to be tantamount to gambling or fortunetelling -- activities discouraged by the government. Of those recreations not so stigmatised, chess, for example, is only permitted between individuals, or in large official chess organisations. Chess is held to be an "intellectual" recreation, and so looked upon favourably by the government. (Parenthetically, the FIDE, the world organisation governing chess, has not granted an American the rank of grandmaster, their leading rank, since 1951. Most of the Americans who submit scores to the FIDE are considered mediocre, and the few who compete in international championships are poor players. In return, the American Government has created the Scientific Federation of Chessplayers, with its own rankings, rewards, and so on.)

The average American, therefore, has no life save his relationship with the federal government. This lack of a social climate, of a political structure, is enduring for the time being, but may collapse with frightening speed.

 

[Major Major]

The Hawai'i Crisis of 1962

In 1962, Frederick Osborn, director of the CPTS's American Eugenics Society, made a speech in Los Angeles on the topic of "Improving the American Gene Pool". In the course of the speech, he characterised the "Eastern Races" as being genetically unfit.

This became disseminated among the Japanese-American population of the western states, and of the Territory of Hawaii (as it was called then). Riots broke out, which were generally suppressed by the Technical Police.

The exception was the islands of Hawai'i, which had a substantial Japanese population. The Hawaiian Technical Police employed their usual non-lethal methods against mobs armed with clubs and stones. Many were killed or severely injured.

In response, the Japanese Imperial Government detached two of their Special Naval Landing Forces to Hawai'i, on board their 7th and 8th Cruiser Divisions. The ships sailed at fastest speed, planning to refuel in Hawai'i.

The SNLF proved able to overcome the resistance of the Technical Police. They secured the city of Honolulu, including the abandoned naval base of Pearl Harbour, and the islands of Kauai and Maui. The follow-up convoy, more conventional transports carrying the Japanese 24th Infantry and 27th Infantry Divisions, and two naval oilers, was expected to arrive within two weeks.

In response, the SWAT Southwestern Area dispatched two SWAT squadrons on dirigibles. Of the four dirigibles sent, two were blown off course and forced to return, and one disappeared without trace. The dirigible Moffat reached the island of O'ahu and attempted to make a landing, but the Japanese blocked the runway at Honolulu Airport and disabled the airship wth gunfire.

The American Diplomatic Representative in Japan was requested to communicate to his government that the Imperial Government had taken steps to protect the Japanese subjects in Hawai'i. The American government took this under consideration.

There was not really any response that could be made. The United States lacked a military force capable of securing the islands, and due to its economic isolation, could not impose sanctions.

In October of that year, the Territorial Legislature was summoned under the authority ostensibly of the Territorial Governor, but in fact under the authority of the Japanese military commander, Rikugun-Taishō [General] Tanaka Shizuichi. The Legislature, which had been 'renewed' with new appointments to replace the CPTS members who had composed it, voted to annul the Newlands Resolution, the American Congressional resolution which had affirmed the annexation of Hawai'i. Having restored the Republic of Hawai'i, the legislature then voted to join the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere.

The American government still considers Hawai'i a territory of the United States, but is unable to enforce its will.

 

[Major Major]

The Rational Calendar

In 1960 President Witt made a speech broadcast over the Cable Radio News Channel and repeated on all other cable radio channels, inaugurating the "Rational Calendar".

The calendar retained the seven-day week, the traditional names of the days and months, and the five-day work week. However, it broke the labour force into several categories. No person had two adjacent rest days. This was announced as a means to rationalise the use of production machinery. "It is irrational and unscientific for valuable production machinery to remain idle for twenty-nine percent of the time," the President said.

Employees were required to be cross-trained in order to be able to use machines when trained workers were off. Nevertheless, industrial accidents increased slightly.

This was extremely disruptive to family life, as most families did not share days of rest. With the encouragement of participation by women in the labour force, this meant an abandonment of children. Part of the subsequent restructuring of businesses included the establishment of care centres for underage children. It was noted that the centres were used to instruct children in official government mores.

The increase in production has not been as great as anticipated. As was noted when the Soviet Union attempted a similar change, the extra use of machinery has increased wear and reduced the time available for maintenance.

The American government has proclaimed the new calendar as a great success.

 

[Major Major]

The Decline of American Religion

The confiscation of large religious buildings was completed by 1956. The closure of seminaries and other organizations for training of clergy soon followed. The pretext for was that the seminaries were engaged in promulgating irrational and unscientific thought.

The next blow to religion was the establishment of the "Rational Calendar". It was no longer possible for any group of worshipers to meet on the same day. The faithful who declined to work on religious days of rest were stigmatized, losing jobs and being reassigned to menial tasks, and in extreme cases being institutionalized.

Worshipers who offered their private residences as religious meeting places found themselves investigated for anti-scientific activity, and often lost work and were heavily fined. Those who met in apartments were evicted.

It is impossible to pay clergy, since the Rational Bank controls the transfer of Energy Certificates, and will block any payment made for "irrational methods". Thus clergy have to work regular jobs, which disrupts their activities further.

The official policy of the American government is to present religion as a primitive, unscientific, irrational remnant of pre-scientific days. The resistance of religious individuals to this policy is fragmented, dispersed, and generally ineffective.

 

[Major Major]

The Luna Disaster
From a report of the Long-Range Weapons Establishment

On July 16, 1969, the American moonrocket Luna was launched from the Robert H. Goddard Space Base at Roswell, New Mexico. On board were a crew of four: Commander Philip Evans, the pilot, Dr. George Esmond, the geologist, and William Martin and Samuel Hansen, the communication technicians.

The liftoff was at 10 p.m. local time. A group of official spectators headed by President Howard Witt observed. (Chief Technician Howard Hughes was unavailable. According to reports he was compiling his fifth 300-page memorandum on the rocket technology.)

The rocket lifted off and seemed to have no problems, but it exploded two minutes and fifty seconds into the flight, killing the four “venturers”.

Norman Royce, a CPTS official and engineer who defected to Canada in 1971 provided the British government with a copy of the official enquiry into the disaster, but augmented it with his own observations.

Testing on the rocket had been superficial. The engines were tested, but there was little or no attempt to test combined systems. Mr Royce had been calling for an unmanned test of the rocket (or so he claimed) but no such flight was ever flown.

The NACAR Administrator, Frank Joseph Malina, had overruled such testing. (Researchers at the LRWE have called this methodology ill-informed.) The telemetry for monitoring the rocket was not installed, Commander Evans saying it was unnecessary weight, in which judgment he was confirmed by Administrator Malina.

The mission profile that Mr Royce brought was considered “absurd” by the LRWE experts who were called in to analyse it. The rocket was supposed to make what is designated a “direct ascent”, not even going into orbit before being launched into a lunar trajectory.

(One analyst who saw a photograph of the Luna said, “It looks like something out of Dan Dare!”, the illustrated adventure series.)

The American government have remained silent about the fate of the Luna and the future of their space programme.

 

[Major Major]

The Newfoundland Vote

. . . in 1947 the Newfoundland electorate began to agitate for a vote on the fate of the colony. Now that the economy had recovered, the status of being a colony was aggravating. Accordingly, the British governement scheduled a plebiscite to determine the future of Newfoundland.

There emerged three factions, each backing one of the three positions on the ballot. The Confederate Association called for union with Canada. The Responsible Government League wished to see a return to Dominion status. And the Economic Union Party called for union with the United States.

The EUP was quickly supported by the WCPTS. Several hundred American, British, and Canadian CPTS members came to Newfoundland and began working for union. They sponsored rallies, distributed brochures, and debated the issue in the public square.

The rallies were poorly attended. This may have been because the centrepiece of such a rally was a filmed speecy by the American President, delivering a lecture on the advantages of a Newfoundland governed by “science, rationality, and skepticism”. After the first week, the audiences of these were mostly the members of the various CPTS groups. Any local who attended found himself pressured by a number of CPTS men. The Economic Union Party disavowed the efforts of the CPTS, for which it was condemned by President Witt as being “irrational and unscientific”.

In the final election, the vote was 44% for union with Canada, 45% for independence, 10% “no preference” — and less than 1 percent for union with the United States.

In anticipation of a victory, the American government had dispatched a squadron of five dirigibles carrying SWAT squadrons, and one AA-417 aircraft with the new administrative monitors of the federal government. Winds forced the dirigibles to turn back and one crashed in Nova Scotia. The aircraft disappeared in transit; a Royal Canadian Navy patrol ship found an oil slick but no debris or survivors.

Afterwards the Dominion of Newfoundland government signed agreements with Canada and the United Kingdom for the stationing of naval and air contingents in the country. The Confederate Association renamed itself the Canada Party, and has a platform calling for union with Canada. The British and Canadian governments have agreed that such a change is admissible, but their official position was that such a vote should be delayed.

The American government maintains that the election gave a majority to union with the United States but “irrational elements” in the Newfoundland government suppressed the vote.

 

[highwayhoss]

After reading through this timeline, I have to think this is not going to end well for the US.

IMHO, what we have here is a government that is essentially similar to communism but with a more colorless ideology. While they claim to be rational, scientific and progressive, they are anything but that in practice. Real science has things like peer review, criticism and objective analysis; this is nothing more than a repressive ideology wearing a lab coat.

The average American, therefore, has no life save his relationship with the federal government. This lack of a social climate, of a political structure, is enduring for the time being, but may collapse with frightening speed.

Especially is the system is stressed in any way. The leadership apparently sees people as nothing more than machines no different from engines and factories. They seem to have forgotten that people need things like leisure, rest and entertainment. Without that, sooner or later, productivity is going to take a nosedive.
What's worse is the level of incompetence this government has created. We have scientists and engineers being used as administrators and political leaders, jobs that that they are not trained for. Worse, because they are not doing the work they are trained for, science and education are regressing.
The worst part is that this government is hopelessly deluded as to their power. They try to act powerful , but thanks to their policies, the US has been rendered both militarily and economically impotent. I just cannot see most nations taking the US seriously at this point. Sooner or later, someone will challenge the US in their own backyard; when it happens, the nation will likely suffer a massive collapse.

 

[Strategos' Risk]

The timeline reminds me a bit of Player Piano by Vonnegut. i wonder if it was an influence. Especially the credential inflation bit where each government functionary has a ton of degrees.

 

[Major Major]

After reading through this timeline, I have to think this is not going to end well for the US.

IMHO, what we have here is a government that is essentially similar to communism but with a more colorless ideology. While they claim to be rational, scientific and progressive, they are anything but that in practice. Real science has things like peer review, criticism and objective analysis; this is nothing more than a repressive ideology wearing a lab coat.
Especially is the system is stressed in any way. The leadership apparently sees people as nothing more than machines no different from engines and factories. They seem to have forgotten that people need things like leisure, rest and entertainment. Without that, sooner or later, productivity is going to take a nosedive.
What's worse is the level of incompetence this government has created. We have scientists and engineers being used as administrators and political leaders, jobs that that they are not trained for. Worse, because they are not doing the work they are trained for, science and education are regressing.
The worst part is that this government is hopelessly deluded as to their power. They try to act powerful , but thanks to their policies, the US has been rendered both militarily and economically impotent. I just cannot see most nations taking the US seriously at this point. Sooner or later, someone will challenge the US in their own backyard; when it happens, the nation will likely suffer a massive collapse.

This is an irrational and unscientific observation. Under the rule of science and reason, the United States far exceeds all other nations in production, life-style, and health. The application of scientific principles to life has made for a better, finer, more rational way for the country. Other countries languish in the mire of irrationality, of unscientific and credulous ways.

This is the problem. The devaluing of functions other than science and engineering has led to injustice. Notice how people who disagree with the government are found to be insane and hospitalized, often suffering psychosurgery.

The economy is hampered by poor administration. Economic decisions are made by "scientific" principles that often conflict with real needs. In addition, the control over commerce provided by the abolition of physical currency and of credit has created a barter underground economy, clumsy, often mis-handled, and frequently assailed by the government.

Contact with the world over the border is limited. No one can get foreign currency, and Energy Certificates do not circulate, not to mention that foreign countries are not connected to the Rational Bank system. While this is damaging the world capital market, it most importantly isolates the United States from the world economy.

In any case, due to the withering away of the postal system, the lack of connectivity of the Internal Network to other countries, and the control by the government over the news media (which presents a highly skewed picture of foreign affairs), the average American is cut off, and the ruling class is trained to disdain other countries.

However, the only potential challengers at the moment are Mexico and the Commonwealth. Other countries, such as Japan and the Soviet Union, might have the will to do so, but they lack the means. The Republic of Hawai'i, for example, is heavily subsidized by the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, and a disproportionate quantity of Japanese shipping is devoted to feeding their outpost.

The timeline reminds me a bit of Player Piano by Vonnegut. i wonder if it was an influence. Especially the credential inflation bit where each government functionary has a ton of degrees.

There is a bit of Player Piano in this, in regards to the rule of the managerial class over the unskilled. But here, the unskilled have jobs, since automation is not as developed and there are still service industries.

 

[Major Major]

Dr. Peter Anaximandros, Director of the National Health Service, delivered his usual speech on January 2. He praised the workers of the NHS for their full and firm dedication to the well-being of the nation and extolled the advances in medical science over the past year.

He noted for example the latest development in diathermy treatment for infections. "Can you imagine the suffering of those who lack this beneficial treatment? Why, in other lands, the ill are made to endure having moldy bread placed upon their wounds! How could anyone imagine that such an unscientific treatment could provide any palliation?" The audience applauded this.

Dr. Anaximandros, as is the case with the senior officials of the NHS, holds dual degrees. He is a biologist as well as a physician. His Ph.D. thesis was "On the Ineffectiveness of Penicillin In Treating Infections". (A foreign researcher who criticised his methodology, sample size, and use of references was dismissed as "an old herb-woman".)

In this case, the preferred treatment for infections is a combination of diathermy and ultrasound. While this does have some effect, all too often it is less than totally effective.


It is difficult to tell whether or not the claims of the American government to having increased life-span are valid. Official reports from within the country are vague and often misleading. Some trends can be discerned.

One means by which average lifespan has been said to have been extended is statistical; infants who die within the first year of their lives are not counted in the death rates. There may be other deceits, but due to the closed nature of American society it is difficult to learn of them.

American physicians do not submit reports of their treatments to foreign institutions. An enquiry from the German health service was answered with a bureaucratic comment which seemed to reduce to, "You would not understand it."

Whatever useful developments that have been made in American health care remain their propriety information, for better or for worse.

 

[Major Major]

Population Crisis?
From an article in the Spectator

The American government has declined to release the results of the 1970 Census.

Their statement gave as the reason that the census was conducted according to scientific and rational methods which could not be comprehended by the untrained. This evasion was noted.

Reports from within the country indicate an ageing of the population and hint at a decline in total numbers. Several reasons have been advanced in explanation of this.

The mass sterialisation of a number of ethnic groups has contributed to the decline in births. This has been presented as an eugenic means, but has not been justified to the satisfaction of other eugenic groups outside the United States. In addition, it has led to members of these groups declining medical treatment, with consequent increased in their death rate.

The most recent form of contribution to this has been the sweeping change in personal life caused by the introduction of the new calendar. Observers have reported that any marriage results in the assignment of the newlyweds to two different calendar schedules, so they do not share a common day off. Sometimes, a marriage will result in one or the other of the newlyweds being reassigned to a job in a different part of the country. The other is not forbidden to resign but usually finds that obtaining a new job in the new area has deliberate barriers placed in its way.

The American National Health Service has introduced a new feature of their Human Improvement Plan. It arranges introductions between two people who are considered to be genetically positive, with the intent of conceiving a child. This is particularly hard on women since after her recovery from birth she is introduced to a different man, with the intent of "genetic diversity". The children of these pairings are raised in communal crechés. Perhaps not surprisingly, there are indications of neglect and of higher than normal death rates.

The government has disparaged large families. "A horde of children, born too close together, weakens the health of the mother. They cannot be raised properly, and they often fall into irrational habits by reason of this neglect," was the official statement on the issue.

The average American is further demoralised by this reduction in status. Resistance would seem to be possible, but given the encompassing nature of the government, such resistance could not be easily organised.

 

[Major Major]

President Howard Witt: His Personal Life

The American President is and remains a man of mysterious origin. It has not been possible to determine his birthplace or birthdate, except that the latter must have been prior to 1902. He must have presented a certification of birth to establish his age at the time of his election as Vice-President in 1936, yet it remains sealed under confidentiality requirements. The sketchy biography presented at the time, and not expanded since, has not been proven or disproven.

His personal life is meagre. Visitors report that he lives in a two-room flat in the American executive mansion (the former byname of "The White House" having been discontinued) with the remainder devoted to public offices. When he travels, he uses similar accommodations.

He has never been known to take recreation or vacation. The intended presidential retreat in upstate Maryland has been converted into a CPTS meeting centre. He only travels on official business.

He takes all meals in the Executive Mansion dining area. Such few foreign visitors as he receives (primarily high-ranking officers of other national CPTS organisations) dine with him in this facility. He has ceased to receive foreign ambassadors, delegating this task to the Secretary of State. The last British Ambassador to shake hands with him, Lord Inverchapel (then Sir Archibald Clark Kerr) described his handshake as being like shaking with a dead fish.

The President occasionally makes public appearances, but these are primarily at CPTS functions, where he delivers a speech and then leaves. He has not spoken to the Press since 1947.

His personal life remains a mystery. He has never been seen in the exclusive company of a woman. (Some homosexualists have claimed him as one of them, but there is no evidence of such a relationship in his life.) No one has come forward claiming to have known him as a child, or even to have known him at University.

His living quarters have been viewed occasionally by employees and on rare occasions by foreign diplomatic visitors. All agree that the furnishings are adequate and plain. The former furnishings of the Executive Mansion have disappeared.

He has never been seen publicly in any clothing other than the Official CPTS Grey Suit.

When traveling, he is driven to the National Airship Field in a motor vehicle designed by Senior CPTS Member L. Buckminster Fuller. It is one of several containing officials and aides; there is no way to identify the one with the President unless he is seen to disembark. Occasionally he uses interurban transport, but it is in a car which is filled with CPTS officials.

This enigma, who must be in his seventies, and maintains supreme power over the country, seems to be a silent presence.

 

[Major Major]

The Birth Controversy

In 1959, the Daily Mail published an article which purported to explain the mystery of President Howard Witt's early life. The article contained the claim that far from being a native-born American, he was born in the Northwestern Territories of Canada, and his birth had never been registered. It further asserted that his primary and secondary education had been given him by tutoring, including some by his parents. He then supposedly entered the United States illegally and was admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology using forged credentials.

Since the scenario as given required a total lack of documentation it was extremely difficult to disprove. The Mail declined to release the name of the informant who had provided them with the information, saying that it had been given under a pledge of confidentiality.

Private investigators were deployed over the Northwestern Territories, though at some loss due to the large area involved and the reticence of the inhabitants to speak to outsiders. In any case, such memories would be over forty years old, and many such recollections had faded. People who might have known had moved, or even died. No conclusive evidence was found regarding such an affair.

Since the article claimed that "Howard Witt" was not his original name, but did not give or speculate as to what it actually had been, the investigation was further impeded. Lacking any solid evidence, the various newspapers and agencies that had investigated the claim had to give up.

The American government took no notice of the matter.

 

[Major Major]

On July 11, 1978, President Howard Witt died. There had been no indication that he was unwell, and he had been reelected for a tenth presidential term two years previously, admittedly without any real opposition. The official report gave no indication as to how or where.

Vice-President Maurice Philipps, an electrical engineer who had previously served as chairman of the Scientific Research Department of the CPTS, Deputy Administrator of the Scentific Bureau of Investigation, and SWAT Regional Administrator for the Southeastern Department, was sworn in the same day. The swearing-in was mentioned at the end of the noon broadcast of the Cable Radio News Channel. The principal news item of that hour’s broadcast had been the report on the release of a new insecticide developed by the American Agricultural Chemical Company.

No announcement was made of funeral arrangements. A delegation of displomatic representatives come to offer official condolences was received with some incomprehension. There was no mention of any next of kin or other mourners.

The usual disposition of the remains of a CPTS senior member is a donation to science. It is presumed that President Witt’s body was disposed of in that fashion.

In the two months that have passed since his demise, there has been no change in official policies of the American government, or even an announcement that there might be changes. If there is disappointment or signs of unrest, they have not been noticed. Resistance to the American government has apparently become unthinkable. Those who have predicted collapse, with hope or despair, have continued to be disproved.

 

[Major Major]

The Gray Book

It has been ten years since President Howard Witt died. His successor, Maurice Phillips, served out the remainder of the term and was replaced by George Connelly, another CPTS official, who served one term. His successor was Arthur Nelson, still another CPTS official.

The most important act of President Phillips’s term was the publication of The Gray Book. This is a collection of the sayings of President Witt, divided up by topic. The official press release for its publication stressed how important it was for every member of the CPTS to acquire a copy, study it thoroughly, and follow its precepts.

It has been extremely difficult for this office to obtain a copy of the book. The purchaser must have a CPTS membership. It is illegal to deface or discard the book.

A rough idea of the contents has been accumulated by a professor at London University who has been intensely following American affairs. Official statements and various comments by senior CPTS officials quote passages from the book, and Professor Philip Ward has been able to reconstruct parts of the book.

It is in keeping with the public utterances of President Witt; dogmatic, unaccepting of disagreement, and dismissive of other opinions.

Efforts are continuing to obtain a copy.

 

[Major Major]

Life in CPTS America

The average American workingman is an atomised individual in a great machine.

This is a harsh judgment, but one that follows from observation. To pass down the street of an American city is to go through a drab enviromnent. Buildings are made of great slabs of concrete, similar to the Brutalist design that was advanced here in Britain, and even used in a few cities.

The inhabitants move along, going to work or coming from it. They are uniformly clad in clothing of grey. The policy of the CPTS is that grey cloth is the most energy-efficient to weave and dye, and so all clothing available is that colour. Older clothes have generally worn out by now. The person who has preserved an earlier suit stands out, and is looked at negatively.

Work schedules are staggered, “in order to attain maximum use of production machinery”. An hourly shift arrives at a plant in one mass, is admitted, and goes to work while the shift they are replacing leaves in a similar mass. One observer compared it to the labour gangs in Lang’s Metropolis.

There is little enough else to do. Recreational activities have withered. There are no public sports on the order of football, they having been discontinued as “irrational and unscientific”. Parks have been turned into locations for buildings.

The government has abolished all public holidays, on the grounds that they refer to irrational events. Vacation has also vanished, it being considered as an unscientific diversion of industrial effort.

The government’s labour policy has militated against marriage. A couple wishing to wed will not find any definite obstacles, but they will not find any place to live, since the blocks of flats are built around a single-room model, with shared toilet facilities and dining in a cafeteria on one particular floor.

Illness and injury can be catastrophic. The worker who falls ill, or is injured, is dismissed, on the grounds that he has impeded his usefulness to production by his own actions.

There is no energy and no motivating force, no organising space for revolution. A revolutionary could not communicate save by speaking, which would draw the attention of the Technical Police. Personal communications go through the Internal Network; it is not feasible to produce publications, due to the unavailability of reproduction methods.


The ruling class does not live much better. The example of President Witt, who lived in a two-room flat, is given as a model for the CPTS member. Even a high-level administrator lives in such a flat and has perhaps two Grey Suits for his wardrobe. He may be retained in office if he is injured or gravely ill, but many are dismissed.

 

[Alex1guy]

Man this is a great read, it's the most bizarre ALT of the US I've ever seen.