(1976) The R Document (26 page)

He watched Collins and Radenbaugh depart. When he turned back into his office, he found that his secretary had followed him.

Noticing her perplexed expression, the city manager asked, ‘What is it, Miss Hazeltine?’

‘The two gentlemen who just left… Did I hear you say they were here to get information to help them remodel and rebuild Bisbee?’

‘That’s right.’

‘But it must be wrong, sir. The city of Bisbee was thoroughly overhauled, replanned, and rebuilt just a few years ago. I have a file on it from the Bisbee Chamber of Commerce.’

Now it was the city manager who appeared thoroughly perplexed. ‘That can’t be.’

‘I’ll show you.’

Minutes later, the city manager had gone through the file of clippings, photographs, and maps of Bisbee, Arizona, all extolling the work just completed in rebuilding portions of the city.

He looked stricken. Immediately, he put through a person-to-person call to Mr Pitman of Phillips Industries in Bisbee.

After that, he phoned the sheriff.

‘Mac, two outsiders were just here posing as personnel from Phillips Industries - the Bisbee branch - asking all kinds of nosy questions. They had a letter from Pitman of Phillips Industries. He never heard of them. I don’t like this, Mac. Should we arrest them?’

‘No. Not until we find out who they are. You know our orders.’

‘But, Mac-‘

‘You leave it to me. I’ll get right in touch with Kiley. He’ll know what to do.’

*

On the second floor of Argo City High School, Miss Watkins, a prim, severe-looking middle-aged woman, had left her class to join Collins and Radenbaugh in the hallway.

‘The principal phoned. He said you were waiting to see me. What can I do for you?’

‘We heard you were fired, Miss Watkins,’ Collins began. ‘We wanted to ask you some questions.’

‘Who are you?’

‘We’re from the school board in Bisbee. We are here making a survey of the school system in Argo City. We were chatting with the city manager, when he mentioned your case. He said you got out of line -‘

‘Out of line?’ she repeated, puzzled. ‘I was doing my job. I was teaching American history,’

‘Anyway, they gave you notice.’

‘Yes, today’s my last day.’

‘Can you tell us what happened?’ asked Radenbaugh.

‘I’m almost ashamed to repeat it,’ she said. ‘It’s too ridiculous. My class was about to embark on a study of the Founding Fathers. To enliven the study, I remembered an old clipping I’d saved from a newspaper in Wyoming before I came here.’ She fished into her purse, drew out a yellowing clipping, and handed it to Collins. ‘I read it to my tenth-grade history class…’

Collins and Radenbaugh read the lead of the Associated Press story: ‘Only one person out of 50 approached on Miami streets by a reporter agreed to sign a typed copy of the Declaration of Independence. Two called it “Commie junk”, one threatened to call the police…’

Miss Watkins pointed to the last part of the story. ‘Other people who bothered to read the first three paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence had similar comments. One said, “This is the work of a raver.” Another said, “Somebody ought to tell the FBI about this sort of rubbish.” Still another called the author of the Declaration “A redneck revolutionist.” And you can see there, the reporter circulated a questionnaire containing an excerpt from the Declaration of Independence among 300 members of a young religious group, and 28 per cent answered that they thought the excerpt had been written by Lenin.’

She took the clipping back. ‘After I read it to my students, I told them I wasn’t going to let them go through my course without reading the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution properly, or without understanding those classic documents.’

‘Did you mention the Bill of Rights?’ asked Collins. ‘Well, of course. It’s part of the Constitution, isn’t it?

In fact, I got into quite a discussion with my class about the basic freedoms and civil rights. My students seemed highly stimulated. However, several of them went home and told their parents about it, and it got all exaggerated and distorted, and before I knew it the head of the Argo City Board of Education came down on me as a troublemaker. A troublemaker? What trouble? I said I was only teaching history. He insisted I was fomenting dissent, and he said he would have to terminate me. Truly, I still don’t understand what happened.’

‘Aren’t you going to protest your dismissal?’ Radenbaugh wanted to know.

Miss Watkins seemed genuinely surprised at the suggestion. ‘Protest? To whom?’

‘Surely there must be someone.’

‘There isn’t. Even if there were, I wouldn’t think of doing so.’

‘Why not?’ persisted Radenbaugh.

‘Because I don’t want to get involved in such things. I just want to be let alone. I believe in live and let live.’

Collins entered the discussion again. ‘But they won’t let you live, Miss Watkins. At least, not your way.’

She seemed momentarily confused. ‘I don’t know. I guess there are rules here, like everywhere. I must have accidentally broken one. But it’s nothing I’d make a - a public fuss over. No, I wouldn’t think of doing that.’

‘What happened the last time you taught the Constitution?’ Collins wondered.

‘I had never taught it before. I used to teach European history. The city manager’s wife taught American history, but she retired last semester and I was moved over to replace her.’

‘What are you going to do now, Miss Watkins? Stay in Argo City?’

‘Oh, no, they wouldn’t let me. Unless you work for the company or city, you can’t stay. They wouldn’t give me another job. I suppose I’ll go back to Wyoming. I don’t know. It’s very upsetting. I just don’t know what I did wrong.’

‘Do you want to tell us more?’ Collins asked.

‘About what?’

‘About what goes on here?’

‘Nothing goes on here, really nothing,’ she said too emphatically. ‘I think I’d better get back to my class. If you’ll excuse me now…’

She disappeared inside the room.

Radenbaugh looked at Collins. ‘Who said it, Chris? If fascism ever comes to the United States, it’ll be because the people voted it in.’

‘Amen,’ said Collins. He took Radenbaugh by the arm. ‘We’d better get back to the hotel. There’s a lot to decide.’

By five minutes after five o’clock the three of them had assembled in Chris Collins’ room in the Constellation Hotel.

Collins was the first to speak, addressing himself to Chief Justice Maynard, who had just sat down on the hard bed, had removed his hat, and was now mopping his wet brow.

‘Well, Mr Chief Justice, what did you find out?’

Maynard seemed dazed. ‘In a word, it’s - it’s - shocking.’

‘Unbelievable,’ agreed Collins.

‘Who could even imagine this going on in the United States?’

‘It’s going on, all right,’ said Collins grimly. ‘The people here are so indoctrinated with it, they dont know what’s happened.’

Maynard nodded heavily. ‘Yes. that was my impression.’

‘It’s late,’ said Collins, ‘and I think the sooner we get out of here and head back for Phoenix, the better. We can discuss it in detail in the car. But right now, let me sum up what Donald and I found out. Between us, we covered a lot of ground, spoke to a lot of people.’

‘So did I,’ said Maynard. ‘I even saw the sheriff and the newspaper editor. They talk and they don’t realize what they’re saying. It’s become a way of life. Never in my experience, here or abroad, at least since the Second World War, have I seen a population living such a robotlike existence. Or dwelling under such an insidious oppression.’

Collins rose, and moved restlessly around the room. ‘Let me tell you, in a nutshell, what Donald and I found out. The Argo Smelting and Refining Company owns the only basic food and clothing stores in town. The mining employees are paid salaries, but they are also given coupon books, v/ith scrip, which is good only in the company stores. When they run out of money, they can use the scrip to buy on credit. Thus, most of them wind up in hock to the company.’

‘A subtle form of slavery or economic bondage,’ added Radenbaugh.

‘But there is much that is less subtle. The company owns every acre of land, owns or controls the city hall, sheriff’s office, schools, hospitals, theater, post office, church, repair shops, city newspaper, this very hotel. The company librarian bans books - not so much sex books as political books and history books. The post office screens - a euphemism for opens - all incoming and outgoing mail. The school board determines what the teachers should teach. The sheriff sees that peddlers and salesmen are not given permits. The hotel allows no one to stay more than two days. Strangers are picked up for vagrancy after three days. The company censors the minister’s sermons. Unmarried men and women are segregated by sex into four company board-inghouses, which are filled with informers. As to general housing -‘

‘I looked into that,’ said Maynard. ‘I pretended I was considering buying a house and settling down here. It was fruitless. Only employees of Argo City Smelting are eligible to buy homes. The company holds the mortgage on every house that is bought. Mortgage payments are deducted from salary. If the owner decides to leave town, he must sell his house back to the company. On rented homes, the rents are also deducted from paychecks.’

‘More bondage,’ said Radenbaugh.

Collins moved toward Maynard. ‘What else did you find out?’

Maynard’s gray head wagged from side to side. ‘Enough to sicken me. I have never encountered such blatant disregard for the Bill of Rights. I stopped once to have a salad

in a company cafeteria. While at my table, out of curiosity, I jotted down on a napkin - two napkins, actually - the basic rights offered in the first ten amendments to the Constitution - the Bill of Rights adopted in December, 1791. Next to each amendment, I wrote down how the amendment is observed in Argo City. Listen to this -‘

He tugged the two napkins out of the pocket of his khaki jacket and exchanged his sunglasses for a pair of square-lensed reading glasses.

‘ - just listen to this,’ Maynard resumed. ‘The 1st Amendment guarantees freedom of religion, press, speech, and the rights of assembly and petition. Here in Argo City you attend one church or none at all. You read one newspaper, the Bugle. All outside newspapers and most magazines are banned. Did you know that? Television consists of one local UHF station - company-controlled, of course. National programs are videotaped, and only certain ones are shown. The same for radio. Taped shows are played. All radios are sold by the company, ones with special band niters so they can’t pick up Phoenix or other cities. Free speech is crippled all the way. Speak out of turn, and an informer reports you. You are out of a job and out of your home. No public gatherings and demonstrations permitted. The last one occurred four years ago. It was broken up, and the workers protesting lack of safety regulations were arrested. The jail was too small to hold them, but unbeknownst to anyone, there is an internment camp outside of town, in the desert -‘

‘An internment camp?’ Collins blinked, remembering his son, Josh, and the trip to Tule Lake.

‘Yes. Four weeks’ confinement in that camp ended the protest. There has never been another since.’ Maynard tried to make out his writings on the first napkin. ‘The 2nd Amendment gives the citizen the right to keep and bear arms, meaning it gives each state a right to have a militia. But not in Argo City, Only an elite group of company employees - higher-placed, dependable ones - can and do own weapons. The 3rd Amendment says no soldier can be quartered in a private residence without consent of the owner. Five years ago, a ruling was made here that permits

the police, in time of emergency, to move in and live under anyone’s roof. The 4th Amendment gives people the right to be secure against unreasonable search. An Argo City ordinance allows the sheriff’s men to enter anyhome without a warrant. The 5th Amendment protects the accused in a capital crime - only a grand jury can indict a civilian, by the way - and it guarantees due process, and says no one need be a witness against himself. Well, there’s no grand jury in Argo City. A judge decides whether the evidence makes a trial necessary. The judges, of course, are appointed by the company. The 6th Amendment guarantees that the criminally accused shall have a speedy trial, impartial jury, be confronted by the witnesses against him, have the assistance of counsel for defense. In Argo City you can languish in jail indefinitely before being tried. No juries here. One of the judges sits as both judge and jury, like it or not. Witnesses against the accused need not appear in person. Counsel for the defense is supplied by the company.’ Maynard uttered a sigh. ‘As Stanislaw Lee once said, “The dispensing of injustice is always in the right hands.” ’

‘Cripes,’ muttered Radenbaugh. ‘Wrong as they were, at least I had twelve jurors and I chose my own defense attorney.’

Maynard picked up his second napkin and read from it. ‘The 7th Amendment. Well, this also guarantees the right to a trial by jury - that is, in suits of common law. This has been entirely ignored in Argo City. The 8th Amendment promises no excessive bail, protects the citizen against excessive fines or cruel and unusual punishment. Well, here, for as little as a misdemeanor, the bail is set so high that the accused rots in prison until he is tried. I wasn’t able to learn the amounts of fines. But apparently cruel and unusual punishment is the norm. Guilty people lose their homes. Protests or felonies send you to a barbed-wire internment camp in the hot desert. God knows what else they have in their books. The 9th Amendment safeguards other rights not specified in the Constitution. I didn’t find out much tying into that, except that Argo City citizens apparently have no clear rights other than the right to eat and sleep, under certain conditions. The 10th Amendment reserves all

powers not delegated to the Federal Government by the Constitution to the states and the people. Here, obviously, all powers delegated by the Constitution to the Federal Government, the states, or the people are totally controlled by the company.’

‘Or by Vernon T. Tynan,’ said Collins. ‘Or by Tynan, yes,’ Maynard agreed. He stuffed the napkins back in his pocket. ‘Gentlemen, how in the devil could this have happened? I can see the Federal Government’s not being aware of what’s going on here. But the state of Arizona - one would think the state would be aware ‘and act upon it.’