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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.Ô
Sankov said, ÓThat'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?Ô
ÓBecause, 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. I
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.Ô
Sankov said, ÓThat 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?Ô
Digby smiled sourly. ÔPolitics 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.
ÓAnd 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 side lines would make that one
that much less a target for Hilder. The result is that I am the only member of the committee
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who is outspokenly anti-Hilder and it may cost me re-election.Ô
Sankov said, ÓI'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?Ô
ÓI should think,Ô said Digby, Óthat that is obvious. He wants to be the next Global
Co-ordinator.Ô
ÓThink he'll make it?Ô
ÓIf nothing happens to stop him, he will.Ô
ÓAnd then what? Will he drop this Waster campaign then?Ô
ÓI can't say. I don't know if he's laid his plans past the Co-ordinacy. Still, if you want my
guess, he couldn't abandon the campaign and maintain his popularity. It's gotten out of
hand.Ô
Sankov scratched the side of his neck. ÔAll 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.Ô
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, ÓDo you people really like it on Mars?Ô
Sankov smiled. ÓMost of us don't exactly know any other world, Assemblyman. Seems to
me Earth would be something queer and uncomfortable to them.Ô
ÓBut wouldn't Martians get used to it? Earth isn't hard to take after this. Wouldn't your
people learn to enjoy the privilege of breathing air under an open sky? You once lived on
Earth. You remember what it was like.Ô
ÓI sort of remember. Still, it doesn't seem to be easy to explain. Earth is just there. It fits
people and people fit it. People take Earth the way they find it. Mars is different. It's sort of
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