ry way possible, the
extention of the benefits of sub-total prosthesis techniques to all
the people of this land and not to a chosen few--_

Screams, hoots, cat-calls, applause, all from the gallery. None
below--Senatorial dignity forbade, and the anti-sound glass kept the
noise out of the chamber below. Then Dan Fowler stood up, an older
Dan Fowler than most of them seemed to remember. "You have heard the
charges which have been read. I stand before you now, formally, to
withdraw them--"

What, what? Jaws sagging, eyes wide; teevie camera frozen on the
Senator's face, then jerking wildly around the room to catch the
reaction--

"You have also heard the petition which has been read. I stand before
you now, formally, to withdraw it--"

Slowly, measuring each word, he told them. He knew that words were not
enough, but he told them. "Only 75,000 men and women have undergone
the process, at this date, out of almost two hundred million people on
this continent, yet it has already begun to sap our strength. We were
told that no change was involved, and indeed we saw no change, but it
was there, my friends. The suicides of men like Kenneth Armstrong did
not just _occur_. There are many reasons that might lead a man to take
his life in this world of ours--selfishness, self-pity, hatred of the
world or of himself, bitterness, resentment--but it was none of these
that motivated Kenneth Armstrong. _His death was the act of a
bewildered, defeated mind_--for he saw what I am telling you now and
knew that it was true. He saw Starships built and rebuilt, and never
launched--colonies dying of lethargy, because there was no longer any
drive behind them--brilliant minds losing sight of goals, and drifting
into endless inconsequential digressions--lifetimes wasted in
repetition, in re-doing and re-writing and re-living. He saw it: the
downward spiral which could only lead to death for all of us in the
last days.

"This is why I withdraw the charges and petition of this Hearing. This
is why I reject rejuvenation, and declare that it is a monstrous thing
_which we must not allow to continue_. This is why I now announce that
I personally will nominate the Honorable John Tyndall for President in
the elections next spring, and will promise him my pledged support, my
political organization and experience, and my every personal effort to
see that he is elected."

* * * * *

It seemed that there would be n