Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 72 — page 13: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION baby carriages. His job was to take a pair of wheels from stacks beside him and slip them on the near-side axles. The man further along finger- tightened a couple of holding nuts, the man beyond him tightened them with a wrench, the one past him put on the plated hub caps. Men on the other side of the belt per- formed the same service for the off-side. The work required nothing but mechanical action. All along the line men worked for six hours a day, five days a week, assembling the car- riages from the bare chassis to the finished product. The assembly belt determined the speed at which they worked, a buzzer signalled the half-way meal break and knock-off time. The men had long learned the art of letting their trained reflexes do the work while they talked or thought of other things. ‘Saw the foreman chew you up, Frank,” said the man on the left, the one who put on the holding nuts. “Second time this month, isn’t it?” “So what?” “So if you get fired you 12 won’t be able to keep up the payments on that new lift of yours.” The man was envious. He had a wife and two chil- dren, and couldn’t afford luxuries. “I can live without it.” Frank let his hands reach for the wheels, pick them up, slip them on the axles. Even this monotonous job required nothing in the way of com- petition. He would have worked at double the speed and not worried about it. ‘“‘Anyway, there are other jobs.” *“Where?’’ The man sucked at his teeth. ““Bill got canned last month. You remember Bill? The guy who was going to write a book.” “IT remember him.”’ Frank did, a thin, stooped, weak- chinned individual who pro- posed to write a book which would turn society inside out. The fact that no one, aside from a few professors and students, read anything but the comic books now didn’t seem to have worried him. “Three times late so they fired him. He’s still on relief.” “So now he’ll have plenty of time to write his book.” comiclooks.corn