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SOULLESS_CORPORATION

                                             December 13, 2007

Heh... upon re-reading "The Skylark
of Space" (1928) for the first time             "The Skylark of Space"
since I was 14 or so, I suddenly                 by E.E. "doc" Smith
realized that the corrupt corporation
on the side of the villain is                       Original publication:
actually "US Steel", thinly                           Amazing Stories
disguised:                                            August,
                                                      September
   "He has cause to be, Dick. World Steel             and October 1928
   is a soulless corporation if there ever
   was one. They have the shrewdest                      BLACK_MASKS
   lawyers in the country, and they get
   away legally with things that are                  And I guess this
   flagrantly illegal, such as freezing               first volume (of
   out competitors, stealing patents, and             a voluminous
   the like. Report has it that they do               series) is a
   not stop at arson, treason, or murder              collaboration:
   to attain their ends, but as Prescott
   said, they never leave any legal proof                Edward Elmer Smith and
   behind them."                                         Lee Hawkins Garby

                                                       [ref]


   "Exactly. Go on, I see you are getting
   the idea. If we should both conveniently
   die, they could get the solution from the
   company, and have the monopoly, since no
   one else can handle it."

   "But they couldn't get away with it,
   Mart--never in a thousand years, even
   if they wanted to. Of course I am small
   fry, but you are too big a man for even
   Steel to do away with. It can't be
   done."

   "I am not so sure of that. Airplane
   accidents are numerous, and I am an
   aviator. Also, has it ever occurred to
   you that the heavy forging for the
   Skylark, ordered a while ago, are of
   steel?"

   Seaton paused, dumbfounded, in the act
   of lighting his pipe.

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