social evil with clubs and
prisons. I am reminded of the simpleton found measuring two horses with
a tape in order to be able to distinguish the black one from the white.
Until I came along, nobody had ever reached the core of the matter. You
don't kill a flourishing plant--in this case an Upas Tree--by lopping
off a handful of leaves. You strike at the roots. That's what I meant to
do--and did--for your benefit. Oh, I admit there were a few dollars in
it for me, but so what? The ox that treads the wheat is not muzzled.
When a man saves a manufacturer $50,000 a year by some improved process,
or even by using three bolts someplace instead of four, they gladly pay
him three per cent of the annual savings, or something like that, as a
reward. Most big outfits have such a policy, and it's a good one. Well,
if I cut millions off the government budget, is a lousy $100,000 too
much to ask? I just wanted to go on with my researches without battling
a horde of bill collectors every month. Fat chance--I didn't get a
measly dime. You, your elected and appointed officials, and your kept
press just gave me the all-time horse-laugh. Well, he who laughs
last--you'll remember the old saw; I'll see to that.

* * * * *

I'm writing this so you'll know how they treated me. You mustn't think
I'm a crank, mad at the world for no reason. My case is better than
Dreyfus' and Sacco-Vanzetti's combined. Here I was prepared to remove
the drug scourge forever, and at a piddling cost. Did I get courteous
handling, or at least a fair hearing? Not bloody likely! I was an idiot
to expect anything from the world's most inflated bureaucracy--Dickens'
Circumlocution Office brought up to date.

Let me start at the beginning; then you'll see who's right. I'm a
biochemist by profession. A damned good one, but too individualistic to
please the big research centers. They like docile teams--scientific
Percherons to pull the big red wagon. So I taught at one jerkwater
college after another. Sooner or later my superiors, all dodderers who
stopped thinking with sighs of relief once they had their PhD union
cards, objected to my attitude. If I published, they were jealous; it
made the other faculty members look bad. If I failed to produce, then
why was I wasting lab facilities and neglecting my classes? The
students wanted their term papers back within five days; the other
teachers could manage it, why not me? The difference betwe