CHAPTER V
I AM DRAFTED FOR PATERNITY AND MAKE EXTRAORDINARYPETITION TO THE CHIEF OF THE EUGENIC STAFF
~1~
My research was progressing nicely and I had discovered that in thisfield of chemistry also my knowledge of the outer world would give metremendous advantages over all competitors. Eagerly I worked at thelaboratory, spending most of my evenings in study. Occasionally Iattended the educational pictures or dined on the Level of Free Womenwith my chemical associates and spent an hour or so at dancing or atcards. My life had settled into routine unbroken by adventure. Then Ireceived a notice to report for the annual examination at the PhysicalEfficiency Laboratory. I went with some misgivings, but the ordealproved uneventful. A week later I received a most disturbingcommunication, a bulky and official looking packet bearing the imprintof the Eugenic Office. I nervously slit the envelope and drew fortha letter:
"You are hereby notified that you have reached a stage of advancement inyour professional work that marks you a man of superior gifts, and,having been reported as physically perfect you are hereby honoured withthe high privilege and sacred duties of election to paternity. Fullinstructions for your conduct in this duty to the State will be found inthe enclosed folder."
In nervous haste I scanned the printed folder:
"Your first duty will be to visit the boys' school for which passport ishere enclosed. The purpose of this is to awaken the paternal instinctsthat you may better appreciate and feel the holy obligation andprivilege conferred upon you. You will also find enclosed cards ofintroduction to three women whom the Eugenic Office finds to be fittedas mothers of your children. That natural selection may have a limitedplay you are permitted to select only one woman from each threeassigned. Such selection must be made and reported within thirty days,after which a second trio will be assigned you. Until such finalselection has been recorded you are expressly forbidden to conductyourself toward these women in an amorous manner."
Next followed a set of exacting rules for the proper deportment, in thecarrying out of these duties to which the State had assigned me.
A crushing sense of revulsion, a feeling of loathing and uncleanlinessoverwhelmed me as I pushed aside the papers. Coming from a world wherethe right of the individual to freedom and privacy in the matrimonialand paternal relations was recognized as a fundamental right of man, Ifound this officious communication, with its detailed instruction,appalling and revolting.
A man cravenly clings to life and yet there are instincts in his soulwhich will cause him to sell life defiantly for a mere conception of amoral principle. To become by official mandate a father of a numerousGerman progeny was a thing to which I could not and would not submit.Many times that day as I automatically pursued my work, I resolved to goto some one in authority and give myself up to be sent to the mines as aprisoner of war, or more likely to be executed as a spy. Cold reasonshowed me the futility of neglecting or attempting to avoid an assignedduty. It was a military civilization and I had already seen enough ofthis ordered life of Berlin to know that there was no middle ground ofchoice between explicit obedience and open rebellion. Nor need I concernmyself with what punishment might be provided for this particulardisobedience for I saw that rebellion for me would mean an investigationthat would result in complete tearing away of the protecting mask of myGerman identity.
But after my first tumultuous feeling subsided I realized that somethingmore than my own life was at stake. Already possessed of much intimateknowledge of the life within Berlin I believed that I was in a way tocome into possession of secrets of vast and vital importance to theworld. To gain these secrets, to escape from the walls of Berlin, was amore than personal ambition; it was an ambition for mankind.
After a day or two of deliberation I therefore decided against any rashrebellion. Moreover, as nothing compromising was immediately required ofme, I detached and mailed the four coupons provided, having duly filledin the time at which I should make the preliminary calls.
~2~
On the day and hour appointed I presented the school card to theelevator operator, who punched it after the manner of his kind, and dulydeposited me on the level of schools for boys of the professionalgroups. A lad of about sixteen met me at the elevator and conducted meto the school designated.
The master greeted me with obsequious gravity, and waved me to thevisitor's seat on a raised platform. "You will be asked to speak," hesaid, "and I beg that you will tell the boys of the wonderful chemicaldiscoveries that won you the honours of election to paternity."
"But," I protested, as I glanced at the boys who were being put throughtheir morning drill in the gymnasium, "I fear the boys of such age willnot comprehend the nature of my work."
"Certainly not," he replied, "and I would rather you did not try tosimplify it for their undeveloped minds, merely speak learnedly of yourwork as if you were addressing a body of your colleagues. The less theboys understand of it the more they will be impressed with itsimportance, and the more ambitious they will be to become greatchemists."
This strange philosophy of education annoyed me, but I did not have timeto argue further for the bell had rung and the boys were filing in withstrict military precision. There were about fifty of them, all in theirtwelfth year, and of remarkable uniformity in size and development. Theblanched skin, which marked the adult faces of Berlin, was, in the pastycountenance of those German boys, a more horrifying spectacle. Yet theystood erect and, despite their lack of colour, were evidently a wellnourished, well exercised group of youngsters.
As the last boy reached his place the master motioned with his hand andfifty arms moved in unison in a mechanical salute.
"We have with us this morning," said the master, "a chemist who has wonthe honours of paternity with his original thought. He will tell youabout his work which you cannot understand--you should therefore listenattentively."
After a few more sentences of these paradoxical axioms on education, themaster nodded, and, as I had been instructed, I proceeded to talk of thechemical lore of poison gases.
"And now," said the master, when I resumed my seat, "we will have areview lesson. You will first recite in unison the creed of your caste."
"We are youth of the super-race," began the boys in a sing-song and welltimed chorus. "We belong to the chemical group of the intellectuallevels, being born of sires who were great chemists, born of greatchemists for many generations. It is our duty to learn while we are yetyoung all that we may ever need to know, to keep our minds free fromforbidden knowledge and to resist the temptation to think on unnecessarythings. So we may be good Germans, loyal to the House of Hohenzollernand to the worship of the old German God and the divine blood of Williamthe Great."
The schoolmaster, who had nodded his head in unison with the rhythm ofthe recitation, now smiled in satisfaction. "That was very good," hesaid. "I did not hear one faltering voice. Now you may reciteindividually in your alphabetical order.
"Anton, you may describe the stages in the evolution of the super-man."
Anton, a flaxen-haired youngster, arose, saluted like a wooden soldier,and intoned the following monologue:
"Man is an animal in the process of evolving into a god. The method ofthis evolution is a struggle in which the weak perish and the strongsurvive. First in this process of man's evolution came the savage, wholived with the lions and the apes. In the second stage came the darkraces who built the so-called ancient civilizations, and fought amongthemselves to possess private property and women and children. Thirdcame the barbarian Blond Brutes, who were destined to sire thesuper-race, but the day had not yet come, and they mixed with the darkraces and produced the mongrel peoples, which make the fourth. The fifthstage is the pure bred Blond Brutes, uncontaminated by inferior races,which are the men, who under God's direction, built the Armoured City ofBerlin in which to breed the Supermen who are to conquer the mongrelpeoples. The sixth, last and culminating stage of the evolution of manis the Divinity in human form which is our noble Ho
use of Hohenzollern,descended physically from William the Great, and spiritually from thesoul of God Himself, whose statue stands with that of the Mighty Williamat the portals of the Emperor's palace."
It had been a noble effort for so young a memory and as the proud masterlooked at me expectantly I could do nothing less than nod myappreciation.
The master now gave Bruno the following cue:
"Name the four kinds of government and explain each."
From the sad-eyed youth of twelve came this flow of wisdom:
"The first form of government is monarchy, in which the people are ruledby a man who calls himself a king but who has no divine authority sothat the people sometimes failed to respect him and made revolutions andtried to govern themselves. The second form of government is a republic,sometimes called a democracy. It is usually co-existent with the lawyer,the priest, the family and the greed for gold. But in reality thisgovernment is by the rich men, who let the poor men vote and think theyhave a share in the government, thus to keep them contented with theirpoverty. The third form of government is proletariat socialism in whichthe people, having abolished kings and rich men, attempt to governthemselves; but this they cannot do for the same reason that a mancannot lift himself by his shoestraps--"
At this point Bruno faltered and his face went chalky white. The teacherbeing directly in front of the standing pupil did not see what hadhappened, while I, with fleeting memory of my own school days,suppressed my mirth behind a formal countenance, as the stoic Brunoresumed his seat.
The master marked zero on the roll and called upon Conrad, next in line,to finish the recitation.
"The fourth and last form of government," recited Conrad, "is autocraticsocialism, the perfect government that we Germans have evolved fromproletariat socialism which had destroyed the greed for private propertyand private family life, so that the people ceased to struggleindividually and were ready to accept the Royal House, divinelyappointed by God to govern them perfectly and prepare them to make warfor the conquest of the world."
The recitations now turned to repetitions of the pedigree and ranking ofthe various branches of the Royal House. But it was a mere list of nameslike the begats of Genesis and I was not able to profit much by thisopportunity to improve my own neglected education. As the morning woreon the parrot-like monologues shifted to elementary chemistry.
The master had gone entirely through the alphabet of names and nowcalled again the apt Anton for a more brilliant demonstration of hissystem of teaching. "Since we have with us a chemist who has achievedpowers of original thought, I will permit you, Anton, to demonstratethat even at the tender age of twelve you are capable oforiginal thought."
Anton rose gravely and stood at attention. "And what shall I thinkabout?" he asked.
"About anything you like," responded the liberal minded schoolmaster,"provided it is limited to your permitted field of psychic activity."
Anton tilted back his head and gazed raptly at a portrait of the MightyWilliam. "I think," he said, "that the water molecule is made of twoatoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen."
A number of the boys shook their heads in disapproval, evidentlyrecognizing the thought as not being original, but the teacher waited inrespectful silence for the founts of originality to burst forth inAnton's mind.
"And I think," continued Anton, "that if the water molecule were made offour atoms of nitrogen and one of oxygen, it would be a great economy,for after we had bathed in the water we could evaporate it and make airand breath it, and after we had breathed it we could condense it againand use it to drink--"
"But that would be unsanitary," piped a voice from the back of the room.
To this interruption Anton, without taking his gaze from the face ofWilliam, replied, "Of course it would if we didn't sterilize it, but Iwas coming to that. We would sterilize it each time."
The master now designated two boys to take to the guardhouse of theschool the lad who had spoken without permission. He then produced a redcardboard cross adorned with the imperial eagle and crossed test-tubesof the chemists' insignia and I was honoured by being asked to decorateAnton for his brilliant exploit in original thought.
"Our intellectual work of the day is over," resumed the master, "but inhonour of our guest we will have, a day in advance, our weekly exercisesin emotion. Heinrich, you may recite for us the category of emotions."
"The permitted emotions," said Heinrich, "are: First, anger, which weshould feel when a weak enemy offends us. Second, hate, which is ahigher form of anger, which we should feel when a powerful enemy offendsus. Third, sadness, which we should feel when we suffer. Fourth, mirth,which we should feel when our enemy suffers. Fifth, courage, which wefeel at all times because we believe in our strength. Sixth, humility,which we should feel only before our superiors. Seventh, and greatest,is pride, which we should feel at all times because we are Germans.
"The forbidden emotions are very numerous. The chief ones which we mustguard against are: First, pity, which is a sadness when our enemysuffers; to feel this is exceedingly wicked. Second, envy, which is afeeling that some one else is better than we are, which we must not feelat all because it is destructive of pride. Third, fear, which is a lackof courage. Fourth, love, which is a confession of weakness, and ispermissible only to women and dogs."
"Very good," said the master, "I will now grant you permission to feelsome of the permitted emotions. We will first conduct a chemicalexperiment. I have in this bottle a dangerous explosive and as Idrop in this pellet it may explode and kill us all, but you mustshow courage and not fear." He held the pellet above the mouth ofthe bottle, but his eyes were on his pupils. As he dropped thepellet into the bottle, he knocked over with his foot a slabof concrete, which fell to the floor with a resounding crash. Afew of the boys jumped in their seats, and the master gravely markedthem as deficient in courage.
"You now imagine that you are adult chemists and that the enemy hasproduced a new form of gas bomb, a gas against which we have noprotection. They are dropping the gas bombs into our ventilating shaftsand are killing our soldiers in the mines. You hate the enemy--hatehard--make your faces black with hate and rage. Adolph, you areexpressing mere anger. There, that is better. You never can be a goodGerman until you learn to hate.
"And now we will have a permitted emotion that you all enjoy; theprivilege to feel mirth is a thing for which you should be grateful.
"An enemy came flying over Berlin--and this is a true story. I canremember when it happened. The roof guard shot at him and winged hisplane, and he came down in his parachute, which missed the roof of thecity and fell to the earth outside the walls but within the first ringof the ray defences. He knew that he could not pass beyond this and hewandered about for many days within range of the glasses of the roofguards. When he was nearly starved he came near the wall and waved hiswhite kerchief, which meant he wished to surrender and be taken intothe city."
At this point one of the boys tittered, and the master stopped his storylong enough to mark a credit for this first laugh.
"As the enemy aviator continued to walk about waving his cowardly flaganother enemy plane saw him and let down a line, but the roof guardsshelled and destroyed the plane. Then other planes came and attempted topick up the man with lines. In all seven planes were destroyed inattempting to rescue one man. It was very foolish and very comical. Atlast the eighth plane came and succeeded in reaching the man a linewithout being winged. The roof batteries shot at the plane in vain--thenthe roof gunners became filled with good German hate, and one of themaimed, not at the plane, but at the man swinging on the unstable wireline two thousand metres beneath. The shell exploded so near that theman disappeared as by magic, and the plane flew off with the emptydangling line."
As the story was finished the boys who had listened with varying degreesof mechanical smiles now broke out into a chorus of raucous laughter. Itwas a forced unnatural laughter such as one hears from a bad actorattempting to express mirth he does not feel.
When the boys had ceased their crude guffaws the master asked, "Why didyou laugh?"
"Because," answered Conrad, "the enemy were so stupid as to waste sevenplanes trying to save one man."
"That is fine," said the master; "we should always laugh when our enemyis stupid, because then he suffers without knowing why he suffers. Ifthe enemy were not stupid they would cease fighting and permit us torule them and breed the stupidity out of them, as it has been bred outof the Germans by our good old God and the divine mind of the House ofHohenzollern."
The boys were now dismissed for a recess and went into the gymnasium toplay leap frog. But the sad-eyed Bruno promptly returned and saluted.
"You may speak," said the master.
"I wish, Herr Teacher," said Bruno, "to petition you for permission tofight with Conrad."
"But you must not begin a fight," admonished the master, "unless you canattach to your opponent the odium of causing the strife."
"But he did cause the odium," said Bruno; "he stuck it into my leg witha pin while I was reciting. The Herr Father saw him do it, "--and theboy turned his eyes towards me in sad and serious appeal.
The schoolmaster glanced at me inquiringly and I corroborated the lad'saccusation.
"Then," said the master, "you have a _casus belli_ that is actuallytrue, and if you can make Conrad admit his guilt I will exchange yourmark for his."
Bruno saluted again and started to leave. Then he turned back and said,"But Conrad is two kilograms heavier than I am, and he may notadmit it."
"Then," said the teacher, "you must know that I cannot exchange themarks, for victory in a fight compensates for the fault that caused it.But if you wish I will change the marks now, but then you cannot fight."
"But I wish to fight," said Bruno, "and so does Conrad. We arranged itbefore recitation that he was to stick me with the pin."
"Such diplomacy!" exulted the master when the lad had gone, "and tothink that they can only be chemists!"
~3~
As the evening hour drew near which I had set for my call on the firstof the potential mothers assigned me by the Eugenic Staff, I re-read therules for my conduct:
"On the occasion of this visit you must wear a full dress uniform,including all orders, decorations and badges of rank and service towhich you are entitled. This is very important and you should callattention thereto and explain the full dignity and importance of yourrank and decorations.
"When you call you will first present the card of authorization. Youwill then present your identification folder and extol the worth andcharacter of your pedigree.
"Then you will ask to see the pedigree of the woman, and will not failto comment favourably thereon. If she be already a mother you willinquire in regard to her children. If she be not a mother, you willsupplicate her to speak of her potential children. You will extol thevirtue of her offspring--or her visions thereof,--and will not fail tospeak favourably of their promise of becoming great chemists whoseservice will redound to the honour of the German race and theRoyal House.
"After the above mentioned matters have been properly spoken of, you maycompliment the mother upon her own intelligence and fitness as a motherof scientists. But you will refrain from all reference to her beauty ofperson, lest her thoughts be diverted from her higher purpose to mattersof personal amours.
"You will not prolong your call beyond the hours consistent with dignityand propriety, nor permit the mother to perceive your dispositiontoward her."
Surely nothing in such formal procedure could be incompatible with myown ideals of propriety. Taking with me my card of authorization bearingthe name "Frau Karoline, daughter of Ernest Pfeiffer, Director of thePerfume Works," I now ventured to the Level of Maternity.
Countless women passed me as I walked along. They were erect of form andplain of feature, with expressions devoid of either intelligence orpassion. Garbed in formless robes of sombre grey, like saintsof song and story, they went their way with solemn resignation. Some ofthem led small children by the hand; others pushed perambulatorscontaining white robed infants being taken to or from the nurseries fortheir scheduled stays in the mothers' individual apartments.
The actions of the mothers were as methodical as well trained nurses. Intheir faces was the cold, pallid light of the mother love of themadonnas of art, uncontaminated by the fretful excitement of the motherlove in a freer and more uncertain world.
Even the children seemed wooden cherubim. They were physically healthybeyond all blemish, but they cooed and smiled in a subdued manner.Already the ever present "_verboten_" of an ordered life seemed to havecrept into the small souls and repressed the instincts of anarchy andthe aspirations of individualism. As I walked among these madonnas ofscience and their angelic offspring, I felt as I imagined a man ofearthly passions would feel if suddenly loosed in a mediaeval andorthodox heaven; for everything about me breathed peace, goodness,and coldness.
At the door of her apartment Frau Karoline greeted me with formalgravity. She was a young woman of twenty years, with a high forehead andpiercing eyes. Her face was mobile but her manner possessed the dignityof the matron assured of her importance in the world. Her only child wasat the nursery at the time, in accordance with the rules of the levelthat forbids a man to see his step-children. But a large photograph,aided by Frau Karoline's fulsome description and eulogies, gave me avery clear picture of the high order of the young chemist's intelligencethough that worthy had but recently passed his first birthday.
The necessary matters of the inspection of pedigrees and the signing ofmy card of authorization had been conducted by the young mother with thecool self-possession of a well disciplined school-mistress. Her attitudeand manner revealed the thoroughness of her education and training forher duties and functions in life. And yet, though she relieved me soskilfully of what I feared would be an embarrassing situation, Iconceived an intense dislike for this most exemplary young mother, forshe made me feel that a man was a most useless and insignificantcreature to be tolerated as a necessary evil in this maternal world.
"Surely," said Frau Karoline, as I returned her pedigree, "you could notdo better for your first born child than to honour me with hismotherhood. Not only is my pedigree of the purest of chemical lines,reaching back to the establishment of the eugenic control, but I myselfhave taken the highest honours in the training for motherhood."
"Yes," I acknowledged, "you seem very well trained."
"I am particularly well versed," she continued, "in maternal psychology;and I have successfully cultivated calmness. In the final tests beforemy confirmation for maternity I was found to be entirely free fromerotic and sentimental emotions."
"But," I ventured, "is not maternal love a sentimental emotion?"
"By no means," replied Frau Karoline. "Maternal love of the highestorder, such as I possess, is purely intellectual; it recognizes only thepassions for the greatness of race and the glory of the Royal House.Such love must be born of the intellect; that is why we women of thescientific group are the best of all mothers. Thus, were I not whollyfree from weak sentimentality, I might desire that my second child besired by the father of my first, but the Eugenic Office has determinedthat I would bear a stronger child from a younger father, therefore Iacquiesced to their change of assignment without emotion, as becomes aproper mother of our well bred race. My first child is extremelyintellectual but he is not quite perfect physically, and a mother suchas I should bear only perfect children. That alone is the supreme purposeof motherhood. Do you not see that I am fitted for perfect motherhood?"
"Yes," I replied, as I recalled that my instructions were to paycompliments, "you seem to be a perfect mother."
But the cold and logical perfection of Frau Karoline dampened mycuriosity and oppressed my spirit of adventure, and I closed theinterview with all possible speed and fled headlong to the nearestelevator that would carry me from the level.
~4~
In my first experience I had suffered nothing worse than an embarrassin
ghalf hour, so, with more confidence I pressed the bell the secondevening, at the apartment of Frau Augusta, daughter of Gustave Schnorr,Authority on Synthetic Nicotine.
Frau Augusta was a woman of thirty-five. She was well-preserved, morehandsome and less coldly inhuman than the younger woman.
"We will get the formalities over since you have been told they arenecessary," said Frau Augusta, as she reached for my card and folderand, at the same time, handing me her own pedigree.
Peering over the top of the chart that recorded the antecedents ofGustave Schnorr, I saw his daughter going through my own folder with thebusiness-like dispatch of a society dowager examining the "character" ofa new housemaid.
"Ah, yes," she said, raising her brows. "I thought I knew the family.Your Uncle Otto was my second mate. He is the father of my third son andmy twin girls. I have no more promising children. Have you ever met him?He is in the aluminum tempering laboratories."
I could only stare stupidly, struck dumb with embarrassment.
"No, I suppose not," went on Frau Augusta, "it is hardly to be expectedsince you have upwards of a hundred uncles." She arose and, going towarda shelf where half a dozen pictures of half a dozen men reposed in anorderly row, took the second one of the group and handed it to me.
"He is a fine man," she said, with a very full degree of pride for apast and partial possession. "I fear the Staff erred in transferringhim, but then of course the twin girls were most unexpected andunfortunate since the Armstadt line is supposed to sire seventy-five percent, male offspring.
"What do you think? Isn't the Eugenic Office a little unfair at times?My fifth man thought so. He said it was a case of politics. I don'tknow. I thought politics was something ancient that they had in oldbooks like churches and families."
"I am sure I do not know," I murmured, as I fumbled the portrait of myputative uncle.
"Of course," continued the voluble Fran Augusta, "you must not think Iam criticizing the authorities. It is all very necessary. And for themost part I think they have done very well by me. My ten children havesix fathers. All of them but the first were men of most gracious mannerand superior intelligence. The first one had his paternity rightrevoked, so I feel satisfied on that score, even if his son is notgifted--and yet the boy has beautiful hair--I think he would make anexcellent violinist. But then perhaps he wouldn't have been able toplay, so maybe it is all right, though I would think music would be moreeasily learned than chemistry. But then since I cannot read either Iought not to judge. I will show you his picture. I may as well show youall their pictures. I don't see why you elected fathers should not seeour children--but then I suppose it might produce quarrels. Some womenare so foolish and insist on talking about the children they havealready borne in a way that makes a man feel that his own children couldnever come up to them. Now I never do that. Why should one? The futureis always more interesting than the past. I haven't a single child thathas not won the porcelain cross for obedience. Even my youngest--he isonly fourteen months--obeys as if he were a full grown man. Some saymental and physical excellence are not correlated--but that is aprejudice because of those great labour beasts. There isn't one of mychildren that has fallen below the minimum growth standards, except mythird daughter, and her father was undersized, so it is no faultof mine."
As the loquacious mother chattered on, she produced an album, throughwhich I now turned, inspecting the annual photographs of her blondbrood, each of which was labelled with the statistics of physical growthand the tests of psychic development.
Strive as I might I could think of no comments to make, but the mothercame to the rescue. Unfastening the binding of the loose leaf album shehastily shuffled the sheets and brought into an orderly array on thetable before me ten photographs all taken at the age of one year. "Thatis the only fair way to view them," she said, "for of course one cannotcompare the picture of a boy of fifteen with an infant of one year. Butat an equal age the comparison is fair to all and now you can surelytell me which is the most intelligent."
I gazed hopelessly at the infantile portraits which, despite theirvaried paternity, looked as alike as a row of peas in a pod.
"Oh, well," said Frau Augusta, "after all is it fair to ask you, sincethe twins are your cousins?"
Desperately I wondered which were the twins.
"They resemble you quite remarkably, don't you think so? Except thatyour hair is quite dark for an Armstadt." Frau Augusta turned andglanced furtively at my identification folder. "Of course! your mother.I had almost forgotten who your mother was, but now I remember, she hadmost remarkably dark hair. It will probably prove a dominantcharacteristic and your children will also be dark haired. Now I shouldlike that by way of a change."
I became alarmed at this turn of the conversation toward the morespecific function of my visit, and resolved to make my exit with allpossible speed "consistent with dignity and propriety."
Meanwhile, as she reassembled the scattered sheets of the portraitalbum, the official mother chattered on concerning her children'sattributes, while I shifted uneasily in my chair and looked about theroom for my hat--forgetting in my embarrassment that I was dwelling in asunless, rainless city and possessed no hat.
At last there was a lull in the monologue and I arose and said I must begoing.
Frau Augusta looked pained and I recalled that I had not yetcomplimented her upon her intelligence and fitness to be the mother ofcoming generations of chemical scientists, but I stubbornly resolved notto resume my seat.
"You are young," said Frau Augusta, who had risen and shifted herposition till she stood between me and the door. "Surely you have notyet made many calls on the maternity level." Then she sighed, "I do notsee why they assign a man only three names to select from. Surely theycould be more liberal." She paused and her face hardened. "And to thinkthat you men are permitted to call as often as you like upon thosedegenerate hussies who have been forbidden the sacred duties ofmotherhood. It is a very wicked institution, that level of lust--someday we women--we mothers of Berlin--will rise in our wrath and see thatthey are banished to the mines, for they produce nothing but sin andmisery in this man-made world."
"Yes," I said, "the system is very wrong, but--"
"But the authorities, you need not say it, I have heard it all before,the authorities, always the authorities. Why should men always be theauthorities? Why do we mothers of Berlin have no rights? Why are we notconsulted in these matters? Why must we always submit?"
Then suddenly, and very much to my surprise, she placed her hands uponmy shoulders and said hoarsely: "Tell me about the Free Level. Are thewomen there more beautiful than I?"
"No," I said, "very few of them are beautiful, and those of the labourgroups are most gross and stupid."
"Then why," wailed Frau Augusta, "was I not allowed to go? Why was Ipenned up here and made to bear children when others revel in thedelights of love and song and laughter?"
"But," I said, shocked at this unexpected revelation of character,"yours is the more honourable, more virtuous life. You were chosen formotherhood because you are a woman of superior intelligence."
"It's a lie," cried Frau Augusta. "I have no intelligence. I want none.But I am as beautiful as they. But no, they would not let me go. Theypenned me up here with these saintly mothers and these angelic children.Children, children everywhere, millions and millions of them, and not aman but doctors, and you elected fathers who are sent here to bring uspain and sorrow. You say nothing of love--your eyes are cold. The lastone said he loved me--the brute! He came but thrice, when my child wasborn he sent me a flower. But that is the official rule. And I hate him,and hate his child that has his lying eyes."
The distraught woman covered her face with her hands and burst intoviolent weeping.
When she had ceased her sobs I tried to explain to her the philosophy ofcontentment with life's lot. I told her of the seamy side of the gownthat cloaks licentiousness and of the sorrows and bitterness of theashes of burned out love. With the most
iridescent words at my command Ipainted for her the halo of the madonna's glory, and translated for herthe English verse that informs us that there is not a flower in anyland, nor a pearl in any sea, that is as beautiful and lovely as anychild on any mother's knee.
But I do not think I altogether consoled Frau Augusta for my Germanvocabulary was essentially scientific, not poetic. But I made a nobleeffort and when I left her I felt very much the preacher, for thefunction of the preacher, not unlike death, is to make us cling to thoseills we have when we would fly to others that we know not of.
~5~
There remained but one card unsigned of the three given me.
Frau Matilda, daughter of Siegfried Oberwinder, Analine Analyst, wasregistered as eighteen and evidently an inexperienced mother-elect as Iwas a father-elect. The nature of the man is to hold the virgin abovethe madonna, and in starting on my third journey to the maternity level,I found hitherto inexperienced feelings tugging at my heartstrings andresolved that whatever she might be, I would be dignified and formal yetmost courteous and kind.
My ring was answered by a slender, frightened girl. She was so shy thatshe could only nod for me to enter. I offered my card and folder,smiling to reassure her, but she retreated precipitously into a farcorner and sat staring at me beseechingly with big grey eyes that seemedthe only striking feature of her small pinched face.
"I am sorry if I frighten you," I said, "but of course you know that Iam sent by the eugenic authorities. I will not detain you long. All thatis really necessary is for you to sign this card."
She timidly signed the card and returned it to the corner of the table.
I felt extremely sorry for the fluttering creature; and, knowing that Icould not alter her lot, I sought to speak words of encouragement. "Ifyou find it hard now," I said, "it is only because you are young and astranger to life, but you will be recompensed when you know the joys ofmotherhood."
At my words a look of consecrated purpose glowed in the girl's whiteface. "Oh, yes," she said eagerly. "I wish very much to be a mother. Ihave studied so hard to learn. I wish only to give myself to the holyduties of maternity. But I am so afraid."
"But you need not be afraid of me," I said. "This is only a formal callwhich I have made because the Eugenic Staff ordered it so. But it seemsto me that some better plan might be made for these meetings. Somesocial life might be arranged so that you would become acquainted withthe men who are to be the fathers of your children under lessembarrassing circumstances."
"I try so hard not to be afraid of men, for I know they are necessary toeugenics."
"Yes," I said dryly, "I suppose they are, though I think I would preferto put it that the love of man and woman is necessary to parenthood."
"Oh, no," she said in a frightened voice, "not that, that is verywicked."
"So you were taught that you should not love men? No wonder you areafraid of them."
"I was taught to respect men for they are the fathers of children," shereplied.
"Then," I asked, deciding to probe the philosophy of the education formaternity, "why are not the fathers permitted to enjoy their fatherhoodand live with the mother and the children?"
Frau Matilda now gazed at me with open-mouthed astonishment. "What abeautiful idea!" she exclaimed with rapture.
"Yes, I rather like it myself--the family--"
"The family!" cried the girl in horror.
"That is what we were talking about."
"But the family is forbidden. It is very wrong, very uneugenic. You mustbe a wicked man to speak to me of that."
"You have been taught some very foolish ideas," I replied.
"How dare you!" she cried, in alarm. "I have been taught what is right,and I want to do what is right and loyal. I passed all my examinations.I am a good mother-elect, and you say these forbidden things to me. Youtalk of love and families. You insult me. And if you select me, Ishall--I shall claim exemption,--" and with that she rose and dartedthrough the inner door.
I waited for a time and then gently approached the door, which I saw hadswung to with springs and had neither latch nor lock. My gentle rap uponthe hollow panel was answered by a muffled sob. I realized thehopelessness of further words and silently turned from the door and leftthe apartment.
The streets of the level were almost deserted for the curfew had rungand the lights glowed dim as in a hospital ward at night. I hurriedsilently along, shut in by enclosing walls and the lowering ceiling ofthe street. From everywhere I seemed to feel upon me the beseeching,haunting grey eyes of Frau Matilda. My soul was troubled, for it seemedto stagger beneath the burden of its realization of a lost humanity. Andwith me walked grey shadows of other men, felt-footed through the gloom,and they walked hurriedly as men fleeing from a house of death.
~6~
My next duty as a German father-elect was to report to the EugenicOffice. There at least I could deal with men; and there I went, nursingrebellion yet trying my utmost to appear outwardly calm.
To the clerk I offered my three signed cards by way of introduction.
"And which do you select?" asked the oldish man over his rimlessglasses.
"None."
"Ah, but you must."
"But what if I refuse to do so?"
"That is most unusual."
"But does it ever happen?"
"Well, yes," admitted the clerk, "but only by Petition Extraordinary tothe Chief of the Staff. But it is most unusual, and if he refuses togrant it you may be dishonoured even to the extent of having yourelection to paternity suspended, may be even permanently cancelled."
"You mean"--I stammered.
"Exactly--you refuse to accept any one of the three women when all aremost scientifically selected for you. Does it not throw some doubts uponyour own psychic fitness for mating at all? If I may suggest, HerrColonel--it would be wiser for you to select some one of the three--youhave yet plenty of time."
"No," I said, trying to hide my elation. "I will not do so. I will makethe Petition Extraordinary to your chief."
"Now?" stammered the clerk.
"Yes, now; how do I go about it?"
"You must first consult the Investigator."
After a few formalities I was conducted to that official.
"You refuse to make selection?" inquired the Investigator.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because," I replied, "I am engaged upon some chemical research of mostunusual nature--"
"Yes," nodded the Investigator, "I have just looked that up. The morereason you should be honoured with paternity."
"Perhaps," I said, "you are not informed of the grave importance of theresearch. If you will consult Herr von Uhl of the Chemical Staff--"
"Entirely unnecessary," he retorted; "paternity is also important.Besides it takes but little time. No more than you need for recreation."
"But I do not find it recreation. I have not been able to concentrate mymind on my work since I received notice of my election to paternity."
"But you were warned against this," he said; "you have no right topermit the development of disturbing romantic emotions. They may be badfor your work, but they are worse for eugenics. So, if you have maderomantic love to the mothers of Berlin, your case must be investigated."
"But I have not."
"Then why has this disturbed you?"
"Because," I replied, "this system of scientific paternity offends myinstincts."
The investigator ogled me craftily. "What system would you preferinstead?" he asked.
I saw he was trying to trap me into disloyal admissions. "I have nothingto propose," I stated. "I only know that I find the paternity systemoffensive to me, and that the position I am placed in incapacitates mefor my work."
The investigator made some notes on a pad.
"That is all for the present," he said. "I will refer your case to theChief."
Two days later I received an order to report at once to Dr. LudwigZimmern, Chief of the Eugenic Staff.
&nb
sp; The Chief, with whom I was soon cloistered, was a man of about sixtyyears. His face revealed a greater degree of intelligence than I had yetobserved among the Germans, nor was his demeanour that of haughtyofficiousness, for a kindly warmth glowed in his soft dark eyes.
"I have a report here," said Dr. Zimmern, "from my Investigator. Herecommends that your rights of paternity be revoked on the grounds thathe believes yours to be a case of atavistic radicalism. In short hethinks you are rebellious by instinct, and that you are therefore unsafeto father the coming generation. It is part of the function of thisoffice to breed the rebellious instinct out of the German race. Whathave you to say in answer to these charges?"
"I do not want to seem rebellious," I stammered, "but I wish to berelieved of this duty."
"Very well," said Zimmern, "you may be relieved. If you have noobjection I will sign the recommendation as it stands."
Surely, I thought, this man does not seem very bitter toward mytraitorous instincts.
Zimmern smiled and eyed me curiously. "You know," he said, "that topossess a thought and to speak of it indiscreetly are twodifferent things."
"Certainly," I replied, emboldened by his words. "A man cannot dooriginal work in science if he possesses a mind that never thinkscontrary to the established order of things."
The clerks in the outer office must have thought my case a grievous onefor I was closeted with their chief for nearly an hour. Though ourconversation was vague and guarded, I knew that I had discovered in Dr.Ludwig Zimmern, Chief of the Eugenic Staff, a man guilty himself of thevery crime of possessing rebellious instincts for which he had decidedme unfit to sire German children. And when I finally took my leave Icarried with me his private card and an invitation to call at hisapartment to continue our conversation.
~7~
In the weeks that followed, my acquaintance with the Chief of theEugenic Staff ripened rapidly into a warm friendship. The frank mannerin which he revealed his dissatisfaction with the state of affairs inGermany pleased me greatly. Zimmern was interested in my chemicalresearches and quickly comprehended their importance.
"I know so little of chemistry," he deplored, "yet on it our whole lifehangs. That is why I am so glad of an opportunity to talk to you. I donot approve of so much ignorance of each other's work on the part of ourscientists. Our old university system was better. Then a scientist inany field knew something of the science in all fields. But now we arespecialized from childhood. Take, for example, yourself. You are at workon a great problem by which all of our labour stands to be undone if youchemists do not solve it, and yet you do not understand how we will allbe undone. I think you should know more of what it means, then you willwork better. Is it not so?"
"Perhaps," I said, "but I have little time. I am working too hard now."
"Then," said Zimmern, "you should spend more time in pleasure on theFree Level. Two days ago I conferred with the Emperor's Advisory Staff,and I learned that grave changes are threatened. That is one reason I amso interested in this protium on which you chemists are working. If youdo not solve this problem and replenish the food supply, the Emperor hasdecided that the whole Free Level with its five million women must beabolished. His Majesty will have no half-way measures. He is afraid totake part of these women away, lest the intellectual workers rebel likethe labourers did in the last century when their women were taken awaypiecemeal."
"But what will His Majesty do with these five million women?" Iinquired, eagerly desirous to learn more.
"Do? What can he do with the women?" exclaimed Dr. Zimmern in a lowpitched but vibrant voice. "He thinks he will make workers of them. Hedoes not seem to appreciate how specialized they are for pleasure. Hewill make machine tenders of them to relieve the workmen, who are to bemade soldiers. He would make surface soldiers out of these blind molesof the earth, put amber glasses on them and train them to run on theopen ground and carry the war again into the sunlight. It is folly,sheer folly, and madness. His Majesty, I fear, reads too much of oldbooks. He always was historically inclined."
On a later occasion Zimmern gave me the broad outlines of the history ofGerman Eugenics.
"Our science of applied Eugenics," he said, "began during the SecondWorld War. Our scientists had long known that the same laws of heredityby which plants and animals had been bred held true with man, but theyhad been afraid to apply those laws to man because the religion of thatday taught that men had souls and that human life was something toosacred to be supervised by science. But William III was a very fearlessman, and he called the scientists together and asked them to outline aplan for the perfection of the German race.
"At first all they advocated was that paternity be restricted to thesuperior men. This broke up the old-fashioned family where every manchose his own wife and sired as many children as he liked. There weregreat mutterings about that, and if we had not been at war, there wouldhave been rebellion. The Emperor told the people it was a militarynecessity. The death toll of war then was great and there was urgentneed to increase the birth rate, so the people submitted and women soonceased to complain because they could no longer have individualhusbands. The children were supported by the state, and if they hadlegitimate fathers of the approved class they were left in the mothers'care. As all women who were normal and healthy were encouraged to bearchildren, there was a great increase in the birth rate, which came nearresulting in the destruction of the race by starvation.
"As soon as a sufficient number of the older generation that hadbelieved in the religious significance of the family and marriage systemhad died out, the ambitious eugenists set about to make other reforms.The birth rate was cut down by restricting the privilege of motherhoodto a selected class of women. The other women were instructed in thearts of pleasing man and avoiding maternity, and that is where we havethe origin of our free women. In those days they were free to associatewith men of all classes. Indeed any other plan would at first have beenimpossible.
"A second fault was that the superior men for whom paternity waspermitted were selected from the official and intellectual classes. Theresult was that the quality of the labourers deteriorated. So twostrains were established, the one for the production of the intellectualworkers, and the other for producing manual workers. From time to timethis specialization has increased until now we have as many strains ofinheritance as there are groups of useful characteristics known to behereditary.
"We have produced some effects," mused Zimmern, "which were notanticipated, and which have been calling forth considerable criticism.His Majesty sends me memorandums nearly every year, after he reviews thematernity levels, insisting that the feminine beauty of the race is, asa whole, deteriorating. And yet this is logical enough. With theexception of our small actor-model strain, the characteristics for whichwe breed have only the most incidental relation to feminine beauty. Thetype of the labour female is, as you have seen, a buxom, fleshly beauty;youth and full nutrition are essential to its display, and it soon fades.In the scientific strains it seems that the power of original thoughtcorrelates with a feminine type that is certainly not beautiful.Doubtless not understanding this you may have felt that you werediscriminated against in your assignment. But the clerical mindwith its passion for monotonous repetition of petty mental processesseems to correlate with the most exquisite and refined femininefeatures. Those scintillating beauties on the Free Level who haveever at their beck our wisest men are from our clerical strain,--butof course they are only the rejects. It is unfortunate that you cannotsee the more privileged specimens in the clerical maternity level.
"But I digress to that which is of no consequence. The beauty of women isunimportant but the number of women is very important. When some womenwere specialized for motherhood then there were surplus women. At firstthey made workers of them. The war was then conducted on a larger scalethan now. We had not yet fully specialized the soldier class. All theyoung men went to war; and, when they came back and went to work, theybecame bitterly jealous of the women workers and ma
de an outcry thatthose who could not fight should not work. The men workers drove the womenfrom industry, hoping thereby each to possess a mistress. As a result thegreat number of unproductive women was a drain upon the state. All sortsof schemes were proposed to reduce the number of female births but most ofthese were unscientific. In studying the records it was found that theoffspring of certain men were predominantly males. By applying thisprinciple of selection we have, with successive generations, been able toreduce the proportion of female births to less than half the old rate.
"But the sexual impulse of the labourers made them restless andrebellious, and the support of the free women for these millions ofworkers was a great economic waste. When animals had been bred to largesize and great strength their sexuality had decreased, while their poweras beasts of burden increased. The same principle applied to man hasresulted in more docile workers. By beginning with the soldiers and mineworkers, who were kept away from women, and by combining proper trainingwith the hereditary selection, we solved that problem and removed allknowledge of women from the minds of the workmen."
"But how about paternity among the workers?" I asked.
"Those who are selected are removed to special isolated quarters. Theyare told they are being taken to serve as His Majesty's body guard; andthey never go back to mingle with their fellows."
I then related for the doctor my conversation with the workman who askedme about women.
"So," said Zimmern, "there has been a leak somewhere; knowledge is hardto bottle. Still we have bottled most of it and the labourer accepts hisloveless lot. But it could not be done with the intellectual worker."
Dr. Zimmern smiled cynically. "At least," he added, "we don't propose toadmit that it can be done. And that, Col. Armstadt, is what I wasremarking about the other evening. Unless you chemists can solve theprotium problem, Germany must cut her population swiftly, if we do notstarve out altogether. His Majesty's plan to turn the workmen intosoldiers and make workers of the free women will not solve it. It is tooserious for that. The Emperor's talk about the day being at hand is allnonsense. He knows and we know that these mongrel herds, as he calls theoutside enemy, are not so degenerate.
"We may have improved the German stock in some ways by our scientificbreeding, but science cannot do much in six generations, and what wehave accomplished, I as a member of the Eugenist Staff, can assure youhas really been attained as much by training as by breeding, though thebreeding is given the credit. Our men are highly specialized, and onceoutside the walls of Berlin they will find things so different that thisvery specialization will prove a handicap. The mongrel peoples are moreadaptable. Our workmen and soldiers are large in physique, but dwarfedof intellect. The enemy will beat us in open war, and, even if we shouldbe victorious in war, we could not rule them. Either we solve this foodbusiness or we all turn soldiers and go out into the blinding sunlightand die fighting."
I ventured as a wild remark: "At least, if we get outside there will beplenty of women."
The older man looked at me with the superiority of age towards youth."Young man," he said, "you have not read history; you do not understandthis love and family doctrine; it exists in the outside world today justas it did two centuries ago. The Germans in the days of the old surfacewars made too free with the enemy's women, and that is why they ran usinto cover here and penned us up. These mongrel people will fight fortheir women when they will fight for nothing else. We have not bred allthe lust out of our workmen either. It is merely dormant. Once they areloosed in the outer world they will not understand this thing and theywill again make free with the enemy's women, and then we shall all beexterminated."
Dr. Zimmern got up and filled a pipe with synthetic tobacco and puffedenergetically as he walked about the room. "What do you say about thisprotium ore?" he asked; "will you be able to solve the problem?"
"Yes," I said, "I think I shall."
"I hope so," replied my host, "and yet sometimes I do not care; somehowI want this thing to come to an end. I want to see what is outside there.I think, perhaps, I would like to fly.
"What troubles me is that I do not see how we can ever do it. We havebred and trained our race into specialization and stupidity. We wouldn'tknow how to go out and join this World State if they would let us."
Dr. Zimmern paced the room in silence for a time. "Do you know," hesaid, "I should like to see a negro, a black man with kinky hair--itmust be queer."
"Yes," I answered, "there must be many queer things out there."
City of Endless Night Page 5
