The Werewolf Principle

Read The Werewolf Principle for Free Online Page B

Book: Read The Werewolf Principle for Free Online
Authors: Clifford D. Simak
words, trying to capture on a sheet of paper the ferment of experience and of feeling and conviction which welled inside the brain.
    It was—this house—a far cry from two centuries ago, a structure and an institution which must be wondered at. And it was not finished yet. In another two centuries there might be as many changes and refinements as there had been in the last two hundred years. Would there ever be an end, he wondered, to the concept of the house?
    He took the paper from underneath his arm and opened it. The House had been right, he saw. There was little news.
    Three men had been newly nominated for the Intelligence Depository, to join all those other selected humans whose thoughts and personalities, knowledge and intelligence, had over the last three hundred years been impressed into the massive mind bank which carried in its cores the amassed beliefs and thoughts of the world’s most intellectual humans. The North American weather-modification project finally had been referred for review to the supreme court in Rome. The squabble over the shrimp herds off the coast of Florida still was going on. A survey and exploration ship finally had touched down at Moscow, after being gone for ten years and given up for lost. And the regional hearings on the biological engineering proposal would begin in Washington tomorrow.
    The biological engineering story carried with it two one-column cuts, one of Senator Chandler Horton and the other of Senator Solomon Stone.
    Blake folded the paper and settled down to read.
    WASHINGTON, NORTH AMERICA—The two senators of North America will square off on the proposal for the much-argued program of biological engineering as the regional hearing on the matter opens here tomorrow. Political fireworks are expected. No proposal in recent years has so seized the public imagination and no matter of greater controversy exists in the world today.
    North America’s two senators find themselves diametrically opposed, as indeed they have been opposed throughout the greater part of their political careers. Senator Chandler Horton has taken a firm stand in approval of the proposal, which will be submitted at the beginning of next year to a worldwide referendum. Senator Solomon Stone is as firmly opposed to it.
    That these two men should find themselves on opposite sides of the fence is nothing new. But the political significance of this issue goes deeper because of the so-called Unanimous Consent rule, whereby, on special issues of this sort, submitted to universal referendum, the mandate of the voters must be unanimously approved on the floor of the World Senate at Geneva. Thus, should the vote be favorable, Senator Stone would be required to stipulate that he would vote to confirm the measure on the senate floor. Failing in this, he would be bound to step aside by resignation of his seat. In this case a special election would be held to fill the vacancy caused by his resignation. Only candidates who made prior pledges to uphold the measure would be eligible to file for the special election.
    If the referendum should go against the measure, Senator Horton would find himself in a smiliar position.
    In the past, when this situation obtained, certain senators have retained their seats by voting for the proposals which they had opposed. This would not be the case, most observers agree, with either Stone or Horton. Both have placed their political lives and reputations squarely on the line. Their political philosophies are at opposite poles of the spectrum and over the years their personal antipathy toward one another has become a senatorial legend. It is not believed, at this late date, that either.…
    â€œYou’ll pardon me, sir,” said the House, “but Upstairs informs me that a strange thing happened to you. You are all right, I trust.”
    Blake looked up from the paper.
    â€œYes,” he said. “I am all right.”
    â€œBut might it not,” the

Similar Books

Sweet Perdition

Cynthia Rayne

Exiles

Elliot Krieger

Radium Halos

W.J. May