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Line 78: − + − Yet his two most important prospects continued to elude him, and to resist the efforts by his friend Francisco d'Anconia to recruit them. One was Dagny Taggart, with whom he had been in love for ten years, a state that he might have feared would cloud his judgment. The other was [[Henry Rearden]], the owner of a [[steel]] company who had developed his own new version of [[steel]] that included [[copper]] as well as [[iron]]. (The government had in fact confiscated the formula for "Rearden Metal," but the only steelmaker to try to copy the formula had to abandon the attempt after Ragnar Danneskjold shelled his factory to ruins by an offshore bombardment.)+ + + + + + + + + + +
→The last three years
John Galt's last three years were his busiest. In those years he accomplished his most numerous and most consequential recruitments. The consequences were, quite simply, devastating for the world system. As the [[United States]] government added outrage after outrage (with names like "Equalization of Opportunity Act" and "[[Directive 10-289]]," both of which presaged [[Richard Nixon]]'s wage and price controls and [[Barack Obama]]'s present program), John Galt found recruitment that much easier.
John Galt's last three years were his busiest. In those years he accomplished his most numerous and most consequential recruitments. The consequences were, quite simply, devastating for the world system. As the [[United States]] government added outrage after outrage (with names like "Equalization of Opportunity Act" and "[[Directive 10-289]]," both of which presaged [[Richard Nixon]]'s wage and price controls and [[Barack Obama]]'s present program), John Galt found recruitment that much easier.
[[Ellis Wyatt]], [[Andrew Stockton]], and [[Ken Dannager]] were only three of the recruits that he gathered in those years. Stockton opened a foundry in the valley, and that gave Galt an idea. He designed several pieces of laboratory equipment, and asked Stockton to make them. These he moved into his New York apartment, where he outfitted a complete physics laboratory. He installed one of his electrostatic motors for electric power, so that no one need question why the tenant of such a run-down apartment was using so much "juice."
The ninth year of the strike saw the passage of the Equalization of Opportunity Act, the last consequential thing that the [[United States Congress]] actually did. Nevertheless, [[Dagny Taggart]] and [[Henry Rearden]] went forward with their plans for building "The John Galt Line" in Colorado. When the Line opened, businesses began to relocate there. But then Congress empowered the Bureau of Economic Planning ana Natural Resources to issue directives, with the force, not only of Presidential [[Executive Order]]s, but of law. The BEPNR issued several directives that effectively destroyed the economy of Colorado. They included:
# A speed limit of sixty miles per hour on all trains, even though the John Galt Line could easily handle trains moving twice as fast.
# A train consist limit of sixty cars per train.
# A surtax on all of Colorado's businesses. This of course would violate the [[United States Constitution]] (see Article I, Section 9, Clauses 4 and 5). But, in this alternate history as in the real-life present day, nobody cared.
# A limit on the production of Rearden Metal (see below) to the amount of special alloys that other steel producers made (later adjusted), and
# A Fair Share Directive forbidding any one customer to receive any order larger than any other.
[[Ellis Wyatt]] blew up his shale-oil fields and joined John Galt's strike on the very day that the news broke. [[Andrew Stockton]] followed. [[Lawrence Hammond]], the automaker, was third. Several other [[Colorado]] businessmen followed. ([[Ken Danagger]] would quit in the eleventh year of the strike.) The Colorado strikers converted everything they could into gold and/or machinery, and brought these to Mulligan's Valley.
Stockton opened a foundry in the valley, and that gave Galt an idea. He designed several pieces of laboratory equipment, and asked Stockton to make them. These he moved into his New York apartment, where he outfitted a complete physics laboratory. He installed one of his electrostatic motors for electric power, so that no one need question why the tenant of such a run-down apartment was using so much "juice." And so for eleven months out of the year, John Galt would extend the body of knowledge of physics as much as he could by running a one-man laboratory. Then, every June, he offered a course of lectures, at ten dollars (in gold) per person, to men whom he could be sure would apply his knowledge most effectively in their own designs.
His two most important prospects continued to elude him, and to resist the efforts by his friend Francisco d'Anconia to recruit them. One was Dagny Taggart, with whom he had now been in love for ten years, a state that he might have feared would cloud his judgment. The other was [[Henry Rearden]], the owner of a [[steel]] company who had developed his own new version of [[steel]] that included [[copper]] as well as [[iron]]. (The government had in fact confiscated the formula for Rearden Metal, but the only steelmaker to try to copy the formula had to abandon the attempt after Ragnar Danneskjold shelled his factory to ruins by an offshore bombardment.)
== The scab ==
== The scab ==