n?
How could the administrative officers of the United States Government be
responsible for such misjudgment? Such maladministration, if performed
consciously, would be sheer treason. Yet, unconsciously and ignorantly,
Baker's authority was perpetuated, giving him a stranglehold on the
creative powers of the nation.

Fenwick tried to recall how he and Baker had become friends--so long
ago, in their own college days. It wasn't that there was any closeness
or common interest between them, yet they seemed to have drawn together
as two opposites might. They were both science majors at the time, but
their philosophies were so different that their studies were hardly a
common ground.

Fenwick figuratively threw away the textbook the first time the
professor's back was turned. Baker, Fenwick thought, never took his eyes
from its pages. Fenwick distrusted everything that he could not prove
himself. Baker believed nothing that was not solidly fixed in black and
white and bound between sturdy cloth covers, and prefaced by the name of
a man who boasted at least two graduate degrees.

Fenwick remembered even now his first reaction to Baker. He had never
seen his kind before and could not believe that such existed. He
supposed Baker felt similarly about him, and, out of the strange
contradiction of their worlds, they formed a hesitant friendship. For
himself, Fenwick supposed that it was based on a kind of fascination in
associating with one who walked so blindly, who was so profoundly
incapable of understanding his own blindness and peril.

But never before had he realized the absolute danger that rested in the
hands of Baker. And there must be others like him in high Government
scientific circles, Fenwick thought. He had learned long ago that
Baker's kind was somewhere in the background in every laboratory and
scientific office.

But few of them achieved the strangling power that Baker now possessed.

The Index! Fenwick thought of it and gagged. Wardrobe evaluation! Staff
reading index! The reproductive ratio--social activity index--the index
of hereditary accomplishment--multiply your ancestors by the number of
technical papers your five-year old children have produced and divide by
the number of book reviews you attend weekly--

Fenwick slumped in the seat. We hold these truths to be
self-evident--that the ratio of sports coats to tuxedos in a faculty
member's closet shall determine whether Clearwater gets to do research