The Rangers Are Coming

by Phil Walker

  “What’s more,” said Cary, “Education describes efforts largely self-initiated for the purpose of taking charge of your life wisely and living in a world you understand. The educated state is a complex tapestry woven out of broad experience, grueling commitments, and substantial risk taking. To be educated is to understand yourself and others, to know your culture and that of others, your history, and that of others, your religious outlook and that of others. If you miss out on this, you are always at the mercy of someone else to interpret what the facts of any situation mean.”

  “That’s unprecedented,” said Gladstone.

  “The results are right in front of your eyes,” said Cary.

  “I didn’t understand most of what I saw at the research center,” said the Prussian Monarch. “I saw people writing complicated mathematical formulas and others seeming to apply the formulas to beams of light.”

  “Frankly, I don’t understand it either, other than the general goal to develop a high powered beam of light, called a laser, which will cut metal.”

  “What happens to all this information,” asked Gladstone?

  “An excellent question, Prime Minister,” said Cary. “We have another research center that monitors all the other research centers. It’s no secret to any of you now we are using machines, called computers, to compile, correlate, interpret, and then apply information of all kinds. The combined work of all the research centers in the country are downloaded to a master computer on a daily basis. This gives us linkages impossible for humans to interpret. The master computer is capable of billions of computations a second. It analyzes the fragments of work being done around the continent, and then combines it into usable avenues of continuing work. It then sends the new data to the research center that’s working on that particular area of work, and gives the researchers the benefit of everything anyone else has learned that might apply to their projects. We are coming up with new things all the time.”

  “Astonishing, “said Gladstone.

  “As the President said, it’s the greatest secret we have. We’ve been working in this way for almost a hundred years. The results in new products are sent all over the world in our trading network, and each of your countries have benefitted from the solutions.”

  The conversation had drawn a lot of people to listen in to what was being said, and the look on their faces showed a dawning understanding of what a motivated and interconnected group of people could accomplish.

  ***

  The next morning the buses were loaded and the convoy left Washington, driving on a smooth sheet of wide asphalt to the west. Gladstone was amazed at how fast the buses could move when they were put to maximum output.

  They drove across the colorful and beautiful country of the Appalachian Mountains and down into Pennsylvania. Their first stop was at a huge industrial complex.

  “This is one of our oil production centers,” explained the President as the buses were parked on a hill overlooking a big valley. “We have hundreds of wells for oil drilled down there. They can produce about half a million barrels of oil a day. We have an equal number of wells that are extracting natural gas. The entire output goes into that very large refinery you see located in the center of the producing fields where diesel fuel is refined from the crude oil. The heavier waste is processed into tars which are combined with sand and rocks to make the surface of the roads on which we have been driving.”

  “There are pipelines leaving the refineries to deliver diesel to stations scattered all over the Eastern Coast. Other pipelines spread out to the cities where they deliver the natural gas to disbursement centers and smaller and smaller pipes until they reach homes and buildings. The heating and air-conditioning of your resort comes from here.

  Further down the valley were to two big buildings with a light smoke coming from stacks. The buses unloaded and the groups were taken inside.

  “These are power plants,” said Gallagher. “They are run on natural gas, and produce electricity. The heat from burning the gas run those turbines and generates electricity. These two plants produce about a million giga-watts of energy per day. The electrical lines are all buried and the wires are encased in steel pipes. That way they are not subject to being knocked out with high winds or snowstorms. These two plants power Washington, Baltimore, and Philadelphia.”

  “We currently have about 500 of these plants running across the continent.”

  “Where do all the people who work at these facilities live,” asked someone?

  “Good question,” said Gallagher. We have two high-speed trains that run out of this industrial valley, over the hill and down into another valley. We have a complete city there. It’s quite pretty and quiet. The workers come back and forth on staggered schedules, which make the commute from home to work, just 20 minutes.”

  “Our next stop is Three Rivers, a city that got its name from the three rivers that converge.”

  It was another hour to the city of Three Rivers. At the confluence of the rivers was the city itself. It was a lovely designed community that spread out from the commercial and recreational center, lined with parks.

  “You would never know from looking at Three Rivers, that an enormous industrial plant is located beyond the line of forest. Again we run high-speed trains to let the workers commute.”

  They skirted the city on a smooth road and approached a really gigantic complex of buildings. The largest of which was in the center. Other long buildings fanned out from the central building. A network of smaller trains moved all over the area, carrying people and products. The buses were able to inch their way along between the buildings and stop at the entrance of the huge, very noisy building.

  “If you expect to hear anything I say, you will have to wear these headsets,” said Gallagher, “Also, for safety reasons, we ask you all to put on a yellow hard hat.”

  The group filed by a distribution point and donned headsets and hard hats. They could hear Gallagher talking, and the headsets drowned out the roar of the building itself.

  They walked along a catwalk over-looking several huge containers, which were full of hot molten metal.

  “This is our largest steel mill in the country,” said Gallagher. “In the beginning we used what you have recently developed, the Bessemer method of producing steel. Later, we switched to the Open Hearth Method, which is more efficient and produces a better quality steel with fewer impurities.”

  One of the open hearth containers was dumping it’s load just then, and Gallagher paused to let people see the process. The molten steel went shooting off into at least a dozen troughs that went in all directions, out of the building. “The open hearths run 24 hours a day, six days a week,” said Gallagher, “We produce a million pounds of steel every day.”

  “Now let me show you the genius of our early designers,” said Gallagher. “We kept the assembly plants for products right next to the source. It means we don’t have to reheat the steel to make things. Follow me and I will show you one of the assembly plants.

  They walked several hundred yards and entered a building. The steel became enclosed in a long, square box on the way to the assembly plant and was now cool enough to be solid.

  As it entered the assembly plant, the steel was divided into various sized long squares and these were cut into different sizes and fed into big stamping machines. Gallagher led them down the line and the people could see that shovels, rakes, hoes, pickaxes, sledgehammers, and the frames for wheelbarrows were coming out the other side and down into water that steamed as the metal cooled. Men were waiting to attach the handles, and attachments to the tools. A machine took away the completed tools, men neatly stacked them in wooden boxes, stamped, “Rome” and trucks hauled the boxes away headed for a port and a ship being loaded for Italy.

  Gallagher picked up a hammer from the finished pile. “We just made this high quality, last forever, hammer in five minutes. It cost us about 50 cents to produce the steel and a quarter for the materials and labor to make it
a complete hammer. It will cost about a quarter to deliver this hammer to a port and put it on a ship, and another quarter to ship it to Rome. We can make and deliver it for $1.25. You think you are getting a wonderful bargain for buying it wholesale for $6. You sell at retail for $12, and it’s the best hammer in your store, for the least amount of money.”

  “We can receive an order, refit our machines for whatever you need built and turn it all out in less than a week. There is a complex of 12 assembly plants, surrounding the steel mill where each man does a particular job in an assembly line. We have 10 such complexes sprinkled around the country making everything we export, plus a hundred specialized mass production facilities building things for us and for you. The only thing people complain about is not being able to get enough of our products.”

  “This is just an example. Today we wanted you to see the power source of our electricity, the source of our steel production, and examples of our assembly lines that make products. I’m sorry you ladies didn’t get to see the textile mills and those plants that make all the clothing we ship abroad, but they are clear down in Atlanta and we just didn’t have the time.”

  “As it is, it will be late before we get you home tonight, but I think you are going to enjoy it. The Voyager has reached the moon and is now in orbit. This evening you will get to watch the first men in history walk on the moon. So, if you are ready, let’s drive back to Washington.”

  They got back to Washington in time for a late supper. Everyone was hungry and the food was particularly good. The Europeans had seen an eyeful that day. All of them had wondered how the United States could run the titanic industrial production they did. Now they knew. Every leader was thinking of ways to increase his own country’s production, using some of the wonderful innovations they’d seen today.

  After dinner, the big screen covering most of a wall lit up and live coverage of the moon landing got underway. The Command Capsule and the moon rover was safely lifted out of the shuttle bay. The three man crew aboard reported that everything was a “go” for orbiting and detaching the moon rover. The cameras showed the command capsule maneuver to a lower orbit, and the moon lander broke away with its two-man crew.

  Within an hour the powerful cameras were showing the lander make a soft landing on the moon with puffs of moon dust floating up. Soon the astronauts were climbing down the ladder and stepping onto the surface of the moon. “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for Mankind,” said the astronaut. Arcadia had insisted on those words.

  The entire North American Continent, every citizen, American’s all, swelled with pride at the sight. The remainder of the world was represented by 320 Europeans, who had the same feelings.

  It was late when the show was over. President Gallagher thanked the visitors for being there to see this event with him. “Tomorrow is a day for rest and recreation. We have been driving you nice folks pretty hard the last ten days, so I think you need a day off. Go swimming in the pool, sleep late, go shopping see the sights of Washington you’ve missed. Do whatever you want, because the day after tomorrow you’ll be leaving on your tours to see the wonders of our country.

  The group took him at his word and scattered. Charlene and a bunch of ladies headed for the Emporium. Henry went to see Mount Vernon, the home of Washington. Herbert had a rather special offer from a certain green-eyed girl to spend the day with her, go to the National Zoo and have dinner at her home with her family.

  William Gladstone, decided to try the swimming pool, which he enjoyed very much, especially the hot tub, he read a newspaper, he sampled one of films on the movie channel. It was called Robin Hood, starring Russell Crowell. He really enjoyed that experience. Then he took a nap.

  The following day, the Europeans split into small groups, and took off by plane, train or bus, to see America.

  Charlene and three other ladies and four teenage girls went by bus to Niagara Falls. They went first to New York City and stayed to sightsee and shop for three days in America’s biggest city. Then it was on to Niagara Falls, which they all enjoyed very much. Next, they got on a train and went west through the Canadian States and saw Banff and Jasper national park. Even though she had done different things then were on her list, Charlene could not have imagined a more enjoyable time and became fast friends with her travelling companions from Austria, Prussia, Italy and Spain.

  Herbert had a thrilling time with the Lakota Sioux, and enjoyed the traditional ceremonies they presented. However, the biggest thrill was racing across the prairie in an ATV and shooting a big buffalo from amongst a herd of millions. He went on to Yellowstone to see the geysers, and the big falls. The Grand Teton’s, were like magic. One of his French friends told him that Teton was French for breasts.

  Then they flew to the Grand Canyon. Herbert was offered a four- day float trip on a big raft down the Colorado, instead of his last choice, and he was never more glad to have made that choice. The wild ride on the rapids of the river was unforgettable and he really liked sleeping on the ground in a tent, by the flowing waters.

  Henry saw Yellowstone and the Tetons. He was overwhelmed by the Giant Sequoias. He loved the Grand Canyon, but only took a burro down to the river and back. He thought the highlight of his trip was a visit to the mysterious cliff dwellings of the Anasazi, the Ancient Ones, at Mesa Verde.

  William Gladstone took three days to make the trip on the railroad across the entire continent. He stopped in a small town in Iowa. He got there on Sunday, and was enchanted with a repeat of the Sabbath activities, on a smaller scale. He was deeply impressed with the people’s dedication and love of God. He ended up in San Francisco, enjoyed that boisterous gold-happy boomtown, and took a plane back to Washington.

  When the entire group was joined together again at the resort, almost two weeks later they had a grand banquet in the restaurant with a thousand tales to tell. They were sunburned, had all sorts of scrapes and bruises, their clothes were torn and tattered, but they came to the dinner, the way they came back and wore all their experiences like badges of honor.

  Wonderful new friendships had been made; bonds of comradeship that would never break were forged. There were now six new couples among the group of young men and women who had found love in their time together. Actually, the number was seven. Herbert invited his green-eyed beauty to have dinner with them. Her name was Andrea Marie. They were clearly in love and agonizing over what they would do when the time came for Herbert to go home.

  The orchestra was back, as was the President and all the guides. Gallagher had gone out with the groups and managed to see most of the visitors at some point on their adventures. He hopped up on the stage, grabbed the microphone and said, “Well, what do you think of the United States NOW?”

  The yelling and foot stomping and applause went on continuously for ten minutes.

  46

  Georgetown, Washington, D.C.

  Arcadia met with President Gallagher often during the previous three weeks the Europeans had been in the country. They had reviewed a hundred hours of surveillance tapes capturing the secret conversations going on among the families. They also had tapes where groups of men and women were together.

  “The whole point to showing our hand here is to overwhelm these galoots with a world they don’t know exists,” said Arcadia. “I would say we have accomplished that in a way that’s beyond our expectations.”

  “The status of women in our society hasn’t been lost on the European women,” said the President. “Most of them are badgering their husbands to give them the same rights.”

  “Listen to this piece of conversation between the Czar of Russia and the French Chancellor,” said Arcadia. She punched up the conversation and they watched.

  “There is no way we can compete, catch-up, or conquer the country,” said the Frenchman.

  “They must have some motive for revealing all these wonders to us,” said the Czar, “I wonder what it is.”

  “Obviously, they know we’re going to want ev
erything they have. I can’t imagine what the price will be.”

  “Nothing short of overhauling all our countries, I would guess,” said the Czar.

  “The trouble with that,” said the Frenchman, “is I don’t think it’s such a bad idea.”

  “That’s pretty typical of what we have recorded,” said Arcadia

  “We are enjoying a period of good will among these nations they’ve never known,” said Gallagher. “The idea of going back to the plotting, scheming and warfare is something none of them really want to do. However, so far, only Gladstone has had a glimmer of the idea, we’re planning to give them a better choice. He said it the other day, “Wouldn’t it be sensible to turn all this good will into a way to get together and talk about our differences? How can one look on all this and remain unchanged?”

  “He’s getting close,” said Arcadia. ”When the time comes to roll out our plan, he might be the first to endorse it.”

  “OK,” said Gallagher, “One more giant ego boost the day after tomorrow and then we will get down to business and see if we can pull this off.

  The ego boost was the successful return of the astronauts from the moon and a big ticker tape parade down Broadway in New York. The media was playing up the fact it was actually the Europeans who were there to send them off. Therefore, as a special treat for America, a chance to see all the great leaders of Europe together for the first time riding in the parade on special floats built for the occasion.

  At dinner the night before they flew up to New York, the Europeans talked about what they should wear on an occasion of such pomp and circumstance.

  “I’m wearing my buffalo hat, the Lakota gave me,” said Herbert.