Aslan Norval

by B. TRAVEN

  Aslan waved at her assistant, and the long pointer traced a line straight across from New York to San Francisco.

  “What you see here, gentlemen, is the route Mr. Beckford indicated. However, the canal we plan and the one our engineers will build is only about half as long and will probably cost one-tenth of what this direct canal would cost.”

  “Did we hear that correctly, Miss Norval?” Senator Drake interrupted her. “Your canal would cost less than a tenth of what the direct canal would cost?”

  “Maybe even just a twelfth. And that is because our canal does not start in New York, but here.”

  At her behest, the pointer flew from New York to Galveston, Texas.

  “Our canal begins here in Galveston and ends at the Pacific Coast, somewhere between Los Angeles and San Diego, wherever it is most advantageous.”

  On the map, the pointer raced across Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, and stopped north of San Diego.

  “In this area between San Diego and Los Angeles, we will have the canal end in a bay that will give ships the most protection for anchoring before they continue into the Pacific Ocean.”

  “Well, Miss Norval, that certainly moves the execution of your plan into the realm of possibility,” remarked Senator Shearer, as he continued doodling naked girls with large breasts on the paper in front of him.

  “While the distance from New York to San Francisco”—the pointer mapped the distance—“as we have repeatedly explained to the honorable gentlemen, is two thousand two hundred thirty-four nautical miles, the distance from Galveston to the Pacific Coast is only about one thousand two hundred thirty-seven nautical miles. And, just as an aside, gentlemen, from Galveston, near Houston, a canal in the direction of the Pacific Coast has already been in existence since 1914, the Houston Canal.”

  New maps appeared before their very eyes. The maps were large and the letters and numbers printed in bold so that the newspaper reporters and the few members of the audience in the chambers could read them without having to stand up. The committee had never seen such a well-led and cleverly organized performance. Every new map or table appeared as if by magic and seamlessly corroborated Aslan’s speech.

  It had been Beckford’s idea to use the displays. It was a great idea, which she would never have thought possible, since she did not deem him very intelligent at all. Whenever Aslan turned around during her speech to see the assistants with their maps, she felt gratitude for Beckford’s input. She had never spoken in public before except during her studies, when she had sometimes given a speech in front of an invited audience or recited Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address during school ceremonies. The help and support she received from the maps and tables gave her an unexpected feeling of superiority. However, the greatest sense of confidence came from the knowledge that she was fighting for a project that she deemed good, feasible, and most beneficial for the general public.

  To her surprise, she managed to sufficiently enthrall the interrogating senators: in part, with her personality, her beauty, and her elegance, but to a greater extent with her carefully chosen words. The committee was spellbound by her command of statistics. The data served to prove that her plans were feasible and that her company was healthy.

  “Yes, gentlemen, as I said, this canal from Galveston to Houston takes the route we have chosen for our canal and has existed since 1914. You might be interested in the fact that it has the same length as the Panama Canal. You will be even more interested to hear that this Houston Canal has a width of sixty-seven meters, while the sluices of the Panama Canal are only thirty-six meters wide. The Panama Canal is therefore thirty-one meters narrower, and wide ships cannot pass. Even the Suez Canal, which causes so many headaches for certain governments, is only thirty-seven and a half miles longer than the Houston Canal, and you will be very surprised to hear that it is only one meter narrower and thirty centimeters deeper. A canal like the one that our company intends to build and will build, gentlemen, might appear impossible with its one thousand two hundred thirty-seven miles. However, you should take into consideration that the total length of all shipping canals built in the last one hundred years is almost four hundred fifty nautical miles. This distance does not include the canal that begins at the Rhône river in France and ends in the Vistula river in Poland, which therefore runs across all of Europe. Also not included is the Chicago Drainage Canal, one of the eight technological wonders of the Americas, which allows a ship to go from Chicago to New Orleans, granted, mainly using the Mississippi River. That is a distance of about eight hundred miles, and if the ship crosses Lake Michigan, the journey can begin in Canada. This long waterway would not be possible without connecting canals built by humans. We could not export grain, just to name one indispensable product, at the price at which we do now.

  “Gentlemen, when I am talking about prices of products transported via waterway, and about the influence of low shipping costs on a country’s economy, I would like to name the Netherlands and Belgium as examples. Both countries are among the most densely populated nations in the world, and yet they are wealthy to an extent that you might never expect. However—and this might be the explanation for their prosperity—the Netherlands, which are so small that almost everyone steps on someone else’s toes, possess four thousand eight hundred seventeen miles of canals, and Belgium, nine hundred ninety-eight miles. Moving goods via waterway is still the cheapest mode of transportation. Shipping costs have a huge influence on the determination of product prices. The lower the shipping costs, the cheaper we can sell products to the consumer, which clearly reduces the danger of inflation. Gentlemen, I am sure you are aware that the state of Illinois is one of the most highly developed states in terms of industry, agriculture, and commerce. What has contributed more than anything else to this unique development of the state—which might appear more important—is the waterway system built by humans. Illinois possesses one thousand—”

  At this point, the map of the state of Illinois unfurled, and a table full of numbers appeared next to it. The pointer swept across the map and stopped on the numbers that Aslan rattled off from memory.

  “This state has one thousand one hundred seventy-eight miles of navigable waterways. There is no doubt that this circumstance has significantly contributed to the incredibly fast development of the state.”

  “Miss Norval,” the chairman interrupted. “I admit that what you have just explained is new to me. You could be right that this system of canals explains to a large extent the state’s rapid development. I understand what you are trying to prove with your reference to the waterway system of the state of Illinois. Otherwise, I would have said that the price of grain for export has nothing to do with our task of determining the financial security of your company and your shares.”

  “Mr. Senator, I only brought up Illinois, its connection via canal to the Gulf of Mexico, and the state’s length of navigable waterways, because the canal we plan to build is only a few miles longer than this canal system of only one of the fifty states of the Union.”

  “That is what I suspected, Miss Norval. It was too obvious to be overlooked or more accurately, not to be heard.” Looking at his watch and comparing it to the clock on the wall, he banged his gavel and declared: “This hearing is adjourned until five o’clock.”

  13.

  Accompanied by her secretary, Aslan called a cab and drove to her hotel. She took a short hot bath, threw herself onto the bed, closed her eyes, and banished all thoughts having to do with the hearing.

  As Aslan had wished, Amy appeared by her bedside forty minutes later: “Ma’am, it’s time. Your meal is served.”

  Aslan picked out a new dress. When she entered the living room, she found Amy already sitting at the table with a platter of beef and four kinds of vegetables in front of her.

  “It’s a shame, ma’am, that you can’t eat such a good meal as this. It is wonderful, and I am hungry as a wolf in northern Manitoba in the deepest winter.”

  “Have
you ever been to Manitoba, Amy?”

  “Three years ago. But it was summer. It was lovely. Many lakes. Many mosquitoes. Friendly inhabitants. And the food! Every plate you got would have fed four people.”

  Aslan looked at the slab of meat on Amy’s plate as she was cutting off a nice chunk dripping with red juice. Squinting at Amy’s meal with longing, Aslan said: “Order this dish for me later tonight, Amy. However, given the hot afternoon I am about to face in the hearing, I will stick to my normal daily lunch so as to keep it light on my stomach.”

  It was indeed a modest meal for a healthy young woman like Aslan who had been on her feet since six o’clock in the morning: a soft-boiled egg, a sandwich with one slice of ham and one slice of cheese, three salad leaves, a pear, a banana, an apple, and a large glass of milk.

  “Have you talked to Mr. Beckford on the phone, Amy?” asked Aslan, pulling the slice of cheese out of the sandwich and placing it back on the plate for fear of overeating.

  “Yes, ma’am, while you were asleep. He said he would be here on time with the materials you put on the list for this afternoon.”

  “Putting materials in order and having them ready at exactly the right second is something he knows how to do. It seems that’s the only thing he’s good for at all.”

  “Maybe so. But do you know, ma’am, this Mr. Beckford really is incorrigible. He asked me again—and in the middle of the hearing—whether I would marry him, and if I didn’t want to get married whether I would at least go out to dinner with him.”

  “And you, Amy, said yes, of course.”

  “Me? I don’t think so. He’s not my type. Too heavy for me and my feelings.”

  “Too heavy for you and your feelings?” Aslan gazed into her secretary’s face inquisitively, apparently trying to figure out the meaning of Amy’s words. But Amy was so busy with her steak at that moment that she was clearly not thinking about an answer. “He is,” said Aslan, “exactly the kind of guy to become a Marine Corps sergeant, and probably not even a good one at that. He has no idea what to do with a brain.”

  “But, ma’am, he does have something boyish about him. He never feels responsible, no matter what he is doing or plans to do. He just lives in the moment. He doesn’t worry about the future.”

  “That’s possible. I’ve never considered him from that perspective. I just haven’t had enough time. And no interest. He can be entertaining for a quarter of an hour. But then he really gets on your nerves. However, for me and my plans, he’s the most suitable man I’ve been able to find. Without a brain, without imagination, without the ability to think for himself. A drill sergeant.”

  “I think that it’s time to go, ma’am,” said Amy, washing down her last bite with a sip of water.

  Aslan got up and stretched. “I feel like new. The hardest part is over. The honorable pencil pushers listened to me and allowed me to explain what I had to clarify. And that, if I may say so myself, is a great success.”

  When Aslan and Amy were sitting in the cab, Amy asked innocently: “Ma’am, do you think that you have convinced the gentlemen that your company is healthy and that there is not the slightest fraud at play?”

  “Amy,” said Aslan, checking her freshly made-up face in a little hand mirror, “Amy, you little innocent lamb. Have you not realized that I am acting in the loveliest and most amusing comedy with these venerable gentlemen?”

  “What do you mean, ma’am?”

  “It’s a propaganda comedy, my little lamb. Oh, here we are. Pay the driver.”

  A few minutes later, Aslan was back in the chamber. A few senators were loitering in order to listen to some of the lobbyists in the hallway and to figure out how much they might gain from this or that promise and what personal advantages such a half affirmation might bring them.

  Dozens of attentive women watching from home had nothing better to do than to sketch the outlines of Aslan’s dress. They guessed that it must have been made in Paris; since nothing like it was available in New York. In fact, this heavenly creation came from Vienna.

  Senator Drake chaired the committee now. He noticed Beckford, who was fiddling with maps, boards, and tables, and remembered how his victorious moment had been spoiled when Aslan came to Beckford’s rescue the day before. He said to himself: “I abhor this bear of a man. I can’t stand him. He hasn’t done anything to me, but I would hold him in contempt of this court if I could. What an unpleasant character! I wonder where she found him. He must be the errand boy of the company, even if they are presenting him here as the general manager. She took his place just in time, and now she’s running the show. And how well she does it. Instead of fearing us, now we are the ones who have started to fear her. One wrong word, and she’s got us. Thirty—oh, who am I kidding, sixty million people are watching and laughing at us as this heiress makes a mockery of us.”

  “Miss Norval,” he started, “let us forget about other canals, and the prices of grain, cotton, sugarcane, and coffee! Let us also forget the state of Illinois and let us finally talk about your canal, which the company you founded plans to build.”

  “If you misunderstood me, sir, then I apologize with all due respect. However, I cannot defend our project successfully if I’m not allowed to compare our allegedly unfeasible plan with others that are similar and were indeed successfully executed.”

  “Would you not agree, Miss Norval, that the Panama Canal, which the U.S. already owns, fulfills its purpose and renders your project redundant?”

  “Whether the Panama Canal fulfills its purpose is a question that has not been answered to date.”

  “Now, how are we supposed to understand that, Miss Norval?”

  “Since you’ve now brought up the Panama Canal again, it seems very important to return to this point, both for the purposes of this investigation and for the defense of our project. The question of the Panama Canal might in fact force our government to participate actively in our project.”

  “Are you not exaggerating a little, Miss Norval?”

  “Not at all, sir.”

  Aslan moved her hand, and a map of Panama as well as three boards full of numbers appeared behind her.

  “Gentlemen, I am not including the costs for the construction of the Panama Canal itself in the sum of money I will mention here. That amount constitutes the indemnity that we paid to the Republic of Panama to ensure their continued friendship.”

  “An indemnity, Miss Norval?”

  “That is right, an indemnity. Or rather, we should call it a bribe. Let us enumerate: In 1904, our government paid Panama ten million dollars for the right to use the canal zone. Between 1914 and 1936, our government paid Panama two hundred fifty thousand dollars annually. In gold, I might add. That already adds up to five million seven hundred fifty thousand dollars. The Panamanian government demanded an increase of the indemnity, and therefore our government paid four hundred thirty thousand dollars annually between 1937 and 1955, although no longer in gold. In 1955, our government pledged to pay one million nine hundred thirty thousand dollars each year. And please note that Panama demanded an annual payment of five million dollars before the signing of the agreement in 1955. Currently, Panama insists on a yearly indemnity of fifty percent of net earnings.

  “Gentlemen, if you add it all up, our government has paid about thirty million dollars to the Panamanian government since 1904. That sum does not include the twenty-five million dollars in gold that our government paid Colombia in 1921 as compensation for the loss of Panama, which had been a province of Colombia before our government took over. By the end of 1960, we will have paid approximately sixty-four million dollars for the right to use the canal zone. That is a truly gigantic sum for a strip of relatively infertile land, ten miles wide and fifty miles long, half of which is water.

  “And now, gentlemen, if you think about the enormous sums of money that we pay Panama, which will probably increase considerably in the future, I ask you: Does our government have any guarantee that Panama will not demand the r
eturn of the canal zone one day, unexpectedly and without warning? Demand its return on the basis that the zone is an integral part of Panama—and therefore, ‘Foreigners, get out of Panama, especially Yankees.’”

  “Miss Norval, I assure you that this will not happen.”

  “Oh, it will not? Are you sure, Mr. Senator? Is it not a mistake to deny that the possibility exists? We do not have a permanent guarantee for our supposed rights in Panama. No guarantee and no security. What happened in Egypt a few years ago can happen in Panama any day.”

  “Never, Miss Norval. Never. The circumstances are completely different and cannot be compared in any way, shape, or form with those of the Suez Canal.”

  “I apologize, Mr. Chairman, I disagree. The circumstances are not as different as they might seem upon superficial examination.”

  “Different or the same, Miss Norval. We will know how to defend rights that we obtained legally and through mutual agreement.”

  “Of course, Mr. Chairman. Of course. We will send our Marine Corps troops to Panama, like we sent them to Nicaragua when we planned to build a canal through that country. Honorable committee, the growth of our neighbor, Latin America, is downright eerie. It is not the weak, helpless, economically dependent Latin America that existed when our government committed the irresponsible error of bombing the Mexican port of Veracruz. Nor is it the Latin America of thirteen years later, when we committed a similarly embarrassing error by occupying Nicaragua for six years, supporting a dictator and tyrant of the worst kind until the day of his assassination.

  “Gentlemen, today, Latin America is a power of approximately two hundred million very enterprising people, full of nationalism of the kind that our country does not even see during wartime. If the republic of Panama were to announce an end to our friendship—a friendship forced upon them—and our government attempted to deal with the termination of our relationship by sending the Marine Corps, we would have all of Latin America against us. We would have a much larger force against us than the British and French, who stood against the entire Arab world when they attempted to take back the Suez Canal with the help of airplanes, warships, and tanks. We should not get the wrong impression about the peoples of Latin America. They do not hate us. That is true. Nevertheless, they do not like us regardless of the number of beautiful speeches or mutual visits. One of the reasons why they distrust us is that our government supports every dictator morally and economically, no matter how bloodthirsty and tyrannical he may be. We keep those tyrants in power as long as they serve certain powerful circles in our country in political and financial terms. Our government is cleverly attempting to prevent a unification of the Latin American peoples, like the Arab peoples are doing at the moment. You might think that the motto of our government is to keep those countries apart to make them more amenable to our wishes and interests. And I doubt that we could count on Canada in a serious conflict with Latin America.