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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            and October 1928
  Steel is a soulless corporation if
  there ever was one. They have the              BLACK_MASKS
  shrewdest lawyers in the country,
  and they get away legally with              And I guess this
  things that are flagrantly illegal,         first volume (of
  such as freezing out competitors,           a voluminous
  stealing patents, and the                   series) is a
  like. Report has it that they do not        collaboration:
  stop at arson, treason, or murder to
  attain their ends, but as Prescott          Edward Elmer Smith &
  said, they never leave any legal            Lee Hawkins Garby
  proof behind them."
                                               [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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