unseen, unknown scholars of the Hans, picking up their knowledge
piecemeal, as fast as they were able to.

During the earlier part of this period, there were many deadly wars
fought between the various gangs, and occasional courageous but
childishly futile attacks upon the Hans, followed by terribly punitive
raids.

But as knowledge progressed, the sense of American brotherhood
redeveloped. Reciprocal arrangements were made among the gangs over
constantly increasing areas. Trade developed to a certain extent, as
between one gang and another. But the interchange of knowledge became
more important than that of goods, as skill in the handling of synthetic
processes developed.

Within the gang, an economy was developed that was a compromise between
individual liberty and a military socialism. The right of private
property was limited practically to personal possessions, but private
privileges were many, and sacredly regarded. Stimulation to achievement
lay chiefly in the winning of various kinds of leadership and
prerogatives, and only in a very limited degree in the hope of owning
anything that might be classified as "wealth," and nothing that might be
classified as "resources." Resources of every description, for military
safety and efficiency, belonged as a matter of public interest to the
community as a whole.

In the meantime, through these many generations, the Hans had developed
a luxury economy, and with it the perfection of gilded vice and
degradation. The Americans were regarded as "wild men of the woods." And
since they neither needed nor wanted the woods or the wild men, they
treated them as beasts, and were conscious of no human brotherhood with
them. As time went on, and synthetic processes of producing foods and
materials were further developed, less and less ground was needed by the
Hans for the purposes of agriculture, and finally, even the working of
mines was abandoned when it became cheaper to build up metal from
electronic vibrations than to dig them out of the ground.

The Han race, devitalized by its vices and luxuries, with machinery and
scientific processes to satisfy its every want, with virtually no
necessity of labor, began to assume a defensive attitude toward the
Americans.

And quite naturally, the Americans regarded the Hans with a deep, grim
hatred. Conscious of individual superiority as men, knowing that
latterly they were outstripping the Hans in science and civilization,
they long