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selfish men can do to Earth's resources. He knows what
happened to Earth's oil during the Time of Troubles, for instance, and the way
topsoil was ruined.
    "When a farmer experiences a drought, he doesn't care
that the amount of water lost in space flight isn't a droplet in a fog as far
as Earth's over-all water supply is concerned. Hilder has given him something
to blame and that's the strongest possible consolation for disaster. He isn't
going to give that up for a diet of figures."
    Sankov said, "That's where I get puzzled. Maybe it's
because I don't know how things work on Earth, but it seems to me that there
aren't just droughty farmers there. As near as I could make out from the news
summaries, these Hilder people are a minority. Why is it Earth goes along with
a few farmers and some crackpots that egg them on?"
    "Because, Commissioner, there are such things as worried
human beings. The steel industry sees that an era of space flight will stress
increasingly the light, nonferrous alloys. The various miners' unions worry
about extraterrestrial competition. Any Earthman who can't get aluminum to
build a prefab is certain that it is because the aluminum is going to Mars. 1
know a professor of archaeology who's an anti-Waster because he can't get a
government grant to cover his excavations. He's convinced that all government
money is going into rocketry research and space medicine and he resents
it."
    Sankov said, "That doesn't sound like Earth people are
much different from us here on Mars. But what about the General Assembly? Why
do they have to go along with Hilder?"
    Digby smiled sourly. "Politics isn't pleasant to explain.
Hilder introduced this bill to set up a committee to investigate waste in space
flight. Maybe three fourths or more of the General Assembly was against such an
investigation as an intolerable and useless extension of bureaucracy—which it
is. But then how could any legislator be against a mere investigation of waste?
It would sound as though he had something to fear or to conceal. It would sound
as though he were himself profiting from waste. Hilder is not in the least
afraid of making such accusations, and whether true or not, they would be a
powerful factor with the voters in the next election. The bill passed.
    "And then there came the question of appointing the
members of the committee. Those who were against Hilder shied away from
membership, which would have meant decisions that would be continually
embarrassing. Remaining on the sidelines would make that one that much less a
target for Hilder. The result is that I am the only member of the committee who
is outspokenly anti-Hilder and it may cost me reelection."
    Sankov said, "I'd be sorry to hear that, Assemblyman.
It looks as though Mars didn't have as many friends as we thought we had. We
wouldn't like to lose one. But if Hilder wins out, what's he after,
anyway?"
    "I should think," said Digby, "that that is
obvious. He wants to be the next Global Coordinator."
    "Think he'll make it?"
    "If nothing happens to stop him, he will."
    "And then what? Will he drop this Waster campaign
then?"
    "I can't say. I don't know if he's laid his plans past
the Coordinacy. Still, if you want my guess, he couldn't abandon the campaign
and maintain his popularity. It's gotten out of hand."
    Sankov scratched the side of his neck. "All right. In
that case, I'll ask you for some advice. What can we folks on Mars do? You know
Earth. You know the situation. We don't. Tell us what to do."
    Digby rose and stepped to the window. He looked out upon the
low domes of other buildings; red, rocky, completely desolate plain in between;
a purple sky and a shrunken sun.
    He said, without turning, "Do you people really like it
on Mars?"
    Sankov smiled. "Most of us don't exactly know any other
world, Assemblyman. Seems to me Earth would be something queer and
uncomfortable to them."
    "But wouldn't Martians get used to it? Earth isn't hard
to take after this. Wouldn't your people