Money Is the Root of All Good
BY PATRICK WILKINS
Urgent! Class AA emergency for Universal Relief!
Stock market crash on planet Lyrane, where people live
by economy based on good deeds. Cause unknown. Suspect
galactical manipulators of watering stock.
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Worlds of If Science Fiction, October 1954.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Kalgor, capital of the Galactic Empire, is not, as one would expect,one solid city. As a matter of fact, it is more suburban and rural thanmany farming planets.
The reason is obvious if but considered. The galactic government andthe equally large galactic businesses are so immense that they must bedistributed throughout the whole galaxy, with only the very cream ofthe hierarchy located on Kalgor. Thus, each company would have only onesmall building—but with a communication web that enfolded macroscopicenterprises.
Universal Relief Incorporated was typical of this arrangement.Although its warehouses and offices throughout the Empire could form amegalopolis in themselves, the fountainhead on Kalgor was a two storybuilding.
In that building there was excitement. People were rushingfrantically—the teletypes chattered in a frenzy—the air was staticwith urgency. It manifested itself in the quick jerky motions, in thevoices held just below the cracking point.
Universal Relief served the function that used to be handled by the RedCross. They were disaster rectifiers, succor and reconstruction wastheir business. But they were a business—declaring annual, taxableprofits and dividends and, in general, a profit-seeking firm.
They received regular payments from planetary governments, much likepremiums with insurance, and in case of emergency they were to providecomplete relief as swiftly as possible. There was no chance for graftin their business, for they were closely checked by the government andcompeting organizations like Galactic Aid, their closest rival.
This business was now apparently faced with a crisis and its staff wasfeverishly trying to cope with it.
Roald Gibbons, President of Universal Relief, was the only person notaffected—at least not apparently. His indolent posture, his quiet greyeyes reflected nothing of the hectic activity.
This made Kim Roger nervous.
"I don't think you comprehend the seriousness of it, Mr. Gibbons," hewas saying.
"I am not thinking of the seriousness of it. I just want the facts."
"Very well, sir. Two days ago, the Lyranian stock market crashed."
"You will have to go back further than that. I can't possibly know thehistory of all the planets in the Empire. That's what I pay you for.Give me some background."
This little speech made Kim lose his clutching hold on his patience.Roald Gibbons had just taken office after the death of his father, whohad managed the galactic firm for twenty years. By merely being theboss's son, Roald had achieved the reputation of being an ignorant,careless playboy. His professed ignorance of the planets confirmed, inKim's mind, this reputation.
With an effort, Kim resumed. "The planet of Lyrane, the only habitableone in the system of Lyrane—Copernicus sector—was colonized by asocio-economic sect for the purpose of testing its slightly radicalbeliefs.
"This sect maintained that an individual should not be paid on thebasis of the work he did, but for the good deeds, or good thoughtshe had. A smal