Joe Chessman had been following Plekhanov's argument. He said dourly,
"But finally the group conquers its environment to the point where a
minimum of leisure is available again. Not for everybody, of course."

Amschel Mayer bounced back into the discussion. "Enter the priest, enter
the war lord. Enter the smart operator who talks or fights himself into
a position where he's free from drudgery."

Joe Chessman said reasonably, "If you don't have the man with leisure,
society stagnates. Somebody has to have time off for thinking, if the
whole group is to advance."

"Admittedly!" Mayer agreed. "I'd be the last to contend that an upper
class is necessarily parasitic."

Plekhanov grumbled, "We're getting away from the subject. In spite of
Mayer's poorly founded opinions, it is quite obvious that only a
collectivized economy is going to enable these Rigel planets to achieve
an industrial culture in as short a period as half a century."

Amschel Mayer reacted as might have been predicted. "Look here,
Plekhanov, we have our own history to go by. Man made his greatest
strides under a freely competitive system."

"Well now ..." Chessman began.

"Prove that!" Plekhanov insisted loudly. "Your so-called free economy
countries such as England, France and the United States began their
industrial revolution in the early part of the nineteenth century. It
took them a hundred years to accomplish what the Soviets did in fifty,
in the next century."

"Just a _moment_, now," Mayer simmered. "That's fine, but the Soviets
were able to profit by the pioneering the free countries did. The
scientific developments, the industrial techniques, were handed to her
on a platter."

Specialist Martin Gunther, thus far silent, put in his calm opinion.
"Actually, it seems to me the fastest industrialization comes under a
paternal guidance from a more advanced culture. Take Japan. In 1854 she
was opened to trade by Commodore Perry. In 1871 she abolished feudalism
and encouraged by her own government and utilizing the most advanced
techniques of a sympathetic West, she began to industrialize." Gunther
smiled wryly, "Soon to the dismay of the very countries that originally
sponsored bringing her into the modern world. By 1894 she was able to
wage a successful war against China and by 1904 she took on and trounced
Czarist Russia. In a period of thirty-five years she had advanced from
feudalism to a world power."

Joe Chessman took his turn. He sai