Nordenholt’s Million
Of all the incidents in that afternoon, I think the sight of these
placards brought home to me most forcibly two of the salient
characteristics of Nordenholt’s many-sided mind: his foresight and
his self-reliance. Their appearance in the streets at that moment
showed that they formed part of a plan which had been decided upon
several days in advance, since time had to be allowed for printing
and distributing them; whilst the fact that they were being posted up
within two hours of the close of the meeting proved that Nordenholt
had never had the slightest doubt of his success in dominating the
Ministers.
Later on, I became familiar with these posters. They were not identical
by any means; and I learned to expect a difference in their wording
according to the district in which they were posted up. The methods
of varied personal appeal had long been familiar to the advertising
world; but I found that Nordenholt had broken away from tradition and
had staked everything upon his knowledge of the human mind. In these
advertisements his psychological instinct was developed in an uncanny
degree which was clear enough to me, who knew the secret; but I doubt
if any man without my knowledge would have seen through the superficial
aspect of them quite so readily.
In this first stage of his campaign he had to conceal his hand. The
advertisements were merely the first great net which he spread in
order to capture every man who would be at all likely to be useful
to him, while the meshes had to be left wide enough to allow the
undesirable types to slip through. The proclamations--for they really
took this form--set forth concisely the exact danger which threatened
the food-supply of the country; explained why it was essential that
immense masses of nitrogenous material must be manufactured; and called
for the immediate enrolment of volunteers from selected trades and
professions.
As a primary inducement, the scale of remuneration offered was far
above the normal pay in any given line. It was, in fact, so high that I
fell at once to calculating the approximate total of wages which would
be payable weekly; and the figures took me by surprise when I worked
them out. No single private fortune, however gigantic, could have kept
the machinery running for even a few months at the uttermost. When I
pointed this out to Nordenholt he seemed amused and rather taken aback;
but his surprise was at my obtuseness and not at my calculations.
“Well, I’m slightly astonished, Flint. I thought you would have seen
deeper into it than that. Hasn’t it occurred to you that within six
weeks money, as we understand it, will be valueless? If we pay up
during the time we are getting things arranged, that will be all that
is required. Once the colony is founded, there will be no trade between
it and the outside world, naturally; and inside our own group we could
arrange any type of currency we choose. But, as a matter of fact,
we shall go on just as usual; and Treasury notes sufficient for the
purpose are already being printed.”
But the cash inducement was not the only one upon which he relied even
in his preliminary moves. Patriotism, the spirit of public service,
the promise of opportunities for talent and many other driving forces
were enlisted in the campaign. These more specialised appeals were
mainly sent out in the form of advertisements in the newspapers--great
whole-page announcements which appeared in unusual places in the
journals. I suppose to a man of enormous wealth most things are
possible, especially when the wealth is coupled with a personality like
Nordenholt’s; but it certainly amazed me to find his advertisements
taking the place of the normal “latest news” space in many papers. Nor
was this the only way in which his influence made itself felt. The
editorial comments, and even the news columns of the journals, dealt
at length with his scheme; and he secured the support of papers which
were quite above any suspicion of being amenable to outside influence.
On the face of it, of course, his plans--so far as they were made
public--were obviously sound; but I cannot help feeling that below this
almost unanimous chorus of praise in the leading articles there must be
some influence at work beyond mere casual approbation. Very probably
Nordenholt had seen his way to enlist the sympathy of editors by some
more direct methods, possibly by calling the controllers of policy
together and utilising his magnetic personality and persuasive powers.
In my own field of work at the first I found some difficulties in my
dealings with the Trades Union officials, who were suspicious of our
methods. They feared that we contemplated dilution on a huge scale;
and they were anxious to know the details of our plans. I consulted
Nordenholt on the point and found him prepared.
“Of course that was bound to arise as soon as we began to move on
a big scale. Well, you can assure them that we shall act strictly
according to the law of the matter. Promise them that as far as working
conditions go, we shall begin by letting the men fix their own hours of
work; and if any man is dissatisfied with these, we will pay him on the
spot a bonus of six months’ wages and let him leave instantly if he so
desires.
“Point out to them that, in the cases of some trades, I may have to
enlist the majority of the Unionists in the country; and that I am
not going to tie their hands by any previous arrangements: they shall
settle the matter for themselves. If that doesn’t satisfy them, you may
tell them definitely--and put it in writing if they wish--that under
no circumstances will I expect my employés to work for longer hours or
less pay than any other Trades Unionist in the country.”
I jotted the phrase down in my pocket-book.
“I may as well tell you, Flint, that I have given instructions to the
recruiting offices. No Trades Union Leader will be engaged by me under
any circumstances whatever. It’s real working men that I want; and I
don’t think much of the Union leaders from the point of view of actual
work.”
He looked at me for a moment and I saw a faint smile on his face.
“It seems to me, Flint, that even yet you haven’t managed to see this
thing in perspective. You must really get into your mind the fact that
there is going to be a clean break between the old system and the new
one we are making. Look at the thing in all its bearings. Once we are
up North, men shall work for me as I choose and for what I choose.
There will be no Factory Acts and Trades Union regulations or any other
hindrance to our affairs. They come here and try to put a spoke in my
wheel? I don’t mind that at all. But I do see that they are trying,
whether wilfully or through sheer ignorance, to hamper this work which
is essential to the race. Therefore I propose to meet them with fair
words. It’s not for me to enlighten their ignorance if it has persisted
up to now in the face of all this. I make them that promise, and if
they can’t understand its meaning, that is no affair of mine. _We_
know, if they’re too dense to see it, that in a few months there won’t
be a Trades Unionist left in the country, outside the colony! There
will be no wages drawn outside our frontier; so even if I paid our men
nothing, still I should be keeping my promise to the strict letter.”
“I see your point,” I said; “all’s fair and so forth?”
“Also, we shall have trouble, up there, I have no doubt. Probably there
will be a ca’ canny party among our recruits. They will have every
chance at first. I won’t interfere with them. But once the situation
clears up a little, I shall deal with them--and I shall do it by the
hand of their own fellows. They won’t last long. Now get along and
promise these officials exactly what I have told you.”
I offered no criticisms of his methods. His brain was far better than
mine. When I remember that he must have drafted the outlines of his
scheme and arranged most of the preliminaries of its execution in less
time than it would have taken me to decide upon a new factory-site,
I am still lost in amazement at the combination of wide outlook and
tremendous concentration of thought which the task involved.
Despite the carefully-planned deterrents which appeared in the
proclamations, the recruiting was enormous from the first.
“Nordenholt’s Million”--as the popular phrase ran--was not really a
million at all; but Nordenholt knew the influence of a round figure
upon the public imagination and it was near enough for all practical
purposes. He had looked on the thing in the broadest possible lines at
the start, and had drawn up a rough classification for the use of the
recruiting stations. To begin with, he limited the enlistment to men
between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-five; though exceptional
cases received special consideration. On this basis, he expected to get
all the men he required. Three-quarters of a million of these were to
be married men with an upper limit of four children, preferably between
the ages of six and twelve. In addition to this, he was prepared to
accept half a million young unmarried men. Half a million unmarried
girls were also selected. The net result of this was that in the end he
obtained in round numbers the following classes:
Husbands 750,000
Wives 750,000
Children 2,250,000
Bachelors 500,000
Girls 500,000
----------
Total 4,750,000
That left a margin of a quarter of a million below his original
estimate of five millions; and this he kept free for the time being,
partly because some of the number would be made up by specialists who
did not come under the general recruitment organisation and partly,
possibly, for taking in at the last moment any cases which might be
specially desirable.
At a later date I had an opportunity of questioning him as to his
reasons in laying down this classification: and they struck me as sound.
“In the first place, I want a solid backbone to this enterprise. I get
that by selecting the married men. They have got a stake in the thing
already in their wives, and especially in their children. I know that
the children mean the consumption of a vast quantity of food for which
we shall get no direct return in the form of labour; but I believe that
the steadying effect introduced by them will be worth the loss. We are
going to put this colony under a strain which is about as great as
human nature can bear; and I want everything on our side that can be
brought there.
“Then again, they will help to form a sort of public opinion. Don’t
forget that the ultimate aim of this affair is to carry on the race. I
could have done that by selecting bachelors and girls in equal numbers
and simply going ahead on that basis. But we must have discipline; and
unless you have some established order we should simply have ended by
a Saturnalia. You couldn’t have prevented it, considering the nervous
strain we are going to put on these people. I have no use for that sort
of thing; so I chose a majority of men with families, whose natural
instincts are to keep down the bacchanalian element among the unmarried.
“But in addition to these married men, I needed others who had a free
hand and who had only their own lives to risk. In certain lines, the
unmarried man can be relied upon where the married man shivers in his
shoes to some extent. That accounts for the bachelor element.
“But, since a preponderance of males over females would be bound to
lead to trouble, I had to enrol enough girls to bring up the balance.
Possibly they may also serve to spur on the younger men to work; and
they will be able to help in the actual task before us in a good many
ways, like the Munition girls of the War period.”
It seemed to me then the only possible solution of the problem; and it
worked in practice. We can’t tell how things would have fared if any
other arrangements had been made, so I must leave it at that. Anyway,
I think Nordenholt enlisted two of the strongest instincts of humanity
on his side in addition to the fear of hunger: and that was a definite
gain.
“Nordenholt’s Million” was, of course, a microcosm of the national
industries. It would serve no purpose to catalogue the trades which
were represented in it. Miners, iron- and steel-workers, electricians
and makers of electrical machinery preponderated; but Nordenholt had
looked ahead to agriculture and the needs of the population after the
danger of famine was past.
In the early stages, the statistical branch--recruited from the great
insurance companies--was perhaps the hardest worked of all. The most
diverse problems presented themselves for treatment; and they could
only be handled in the most rough-and-ready fashion until we were able
to bring calculation to bear. Without the help of the actuaries, I
believe that there would have been a collapse at various points, in
spite of all our foresight.
I have not attempted to do more than indicate in outline the activities
which engrossed us at that time. In my memory, it lives as a period of
frantic and often very successful improvisation. New problems cropped
up at every turn. The decision of one day might entail a recasting of
plans in some field which at first sight seemed totally divorced from
the question under consideration. Each line of that complex system
had to be kept abreast of the rest, so that there was no disjunction,
no involuntary halt for one section to come up with the remainder, no
clash between two departments of the organisation. And yet, somehow,
it seemed to work with more smoothness than we had expected. Behind us
all, seated at the nucleus of that complex web of activities, there
was Nordenholt, seldom interfering but always ready to give a sharp
decision should the need arise. And I think the presence of that cool
intelligence behind us had a moral effect upon our minds. He never
lessened our initiative, never showed any sign of vexation when things
began to go wrong. He treated us all as colleagues, though we knew that
he was our master. And under his examination, difficulties seemed to
fade away in our hands.
* * * * *
It was not until the meeting of Parliament that the Government
connection with Nordenholt’s scheme became known to the public; but on
the first day of the session the Prime Minister introduced a Bill which
subsequently became the Billeting Act; and this brought to light the
fact that Nordenholt was not working merely as a private individual.
Under the Act, the Government took powers to house the Nitrogen
Volunteers, as they were termed, in any locality which might be found
necessary. The wording of the Act gave them the fullest power in this
matter; but it was so contrived that no one suspected the establishment
of only a single Nitrogen Area.
In his speech on the second Reading, the Premier excelled all his
previous tactical exercises. He explained very clearly the nature
of the peril which threatened the country; and he pointed out that
the measure was necessary in order to cope with the danger. The new
Nitrogen work would entail great shiftings of labour hither and
thither, as the new factories grew up; and it was essential to provide
dwellings for the artisans engaged in the industry. Everything must
give way to this; and since houses could not be built in the short time
available, some sort of arrangement must be made which would, he hoped,
be merely temporary. He explained that the Government had empowered
Nordenholt to carry out the early arrangements; and he was able to give
statistics showing the progress which had already been made during the
last few days.
At the same time, he introduced a second Bill, somewhat on the lines of
the old Defence of the Realm Act, which enabled the Government to cope
with circumstances as they arose without the necessity of prolonged
Parliamentary debates.
So ingeniously did he handle the matter that there was practically no
opposition to either measure. It must be remembered that the influence
of the Press had been exerted almost entirely in favour of Nordenholt’s
scheme. The previous clamour for action had been succeeded by a chorus
of praise; and the bold initiative shown in the Nitrogen plans had been
acclaimed throughout the country.
Meanwhile, Nordenholt was making the best of two worlds. Nominally,
he was engaged in a private enterprise over which the Government had
no control; actually, he had the whole State machinery at his back to
assist him in his operations. This dual nature of the matter enabled
him to carry out his work with a minimum of interference from red taped
officials, while at the same time he was able to command the resources
of State Departments in any line wherein they could be of service
to him. After the passing of the two Acts, the Government adjourned
Parliament, to avoid the putting of awkward questions; so that during
the ensuing weeks the Nitrogen undertaking could progress without any
fear of interference or undue publicity.
Transport was the first problem which occupied Nordenholt’s attention.
It was in this connection that I caught my first glimpse of the
“Nordenholt Gang” at work. The executive staffs of the railways were
left intact, but one day there descended upon them a quiet little man
in spectacles with full authority in his pocket. Grogan had apparently
never been connected with railways in his life, as far as I knew, but
he took control of the whole system in the country without showing the
faintest sign of hesitation. How he acquired his knowledge, I never
learned; but I gathered that he had originally made his mark by his
investigations of the effect of trade-routes upon commerce.
His work was to indicate the broad outlines of the scheme, and the
railway officials then filled in the details. Yet I was told that he
seemed to know to a truck the demands which his projects would entail
upon the railways; and he never put forward anything which led to a
breakdown. I think he had that type of mind which sees straight through
the details to the core of an undertaking and which yet retains in due
perspective the minutiæ of the machinery.
And it was not only the railways which he had in his charge. All
the motor services were brought under his control as well. It was a
bewilderingly complex affair; and he had to act as a kind of liaison
centre between the two departments, clearing up any troubles which
arose and co-ordinating the twin methods of transport. I think he had
the power of mental visualisation developed to an abnormal extent;
and his memory must have been quite out of the common. To assist
him, he had the largest railway map I have ever seen--it covered a
whole floor--and on it were placed blocks of metal showing the exact
situation of every truck, carriage and locomotive in the kingdom. These
were moved from time to time by his assistants in accordance with
telegraphic information; and if he doubted his recollections at any
moment he could go and study the groupings upon it.
I remember seeing him once when things had got slightly out of gear,
his hands full of telegraph forms, his feet encased in felt slippers
to avoid marking the surface of the map, studying a point in the Welsh
system where a number of trucks had been stranded in sidings. With the
briefest consideration he seemed to come to a decision, for he gave his
orders to an assistant:
“Locomotive, Newport to Crumlin, _via_ Tredegar Junction. (It can’t
go through Abercarne, because the 3.46 is on the line now and I
don’t want to waste time shunting.) Then on to Cwm--C-w-m--to pick
up twenty-seven trucks in the siding. All right. After that, back
to Aberbeeg--b-double-e-g--since the line is blocked at Victoria by
No. 702. Then Blaina--B-l-a-i-n-a--and Abergavenny. All right....
Stop a moment. Map-measure, please. Motor Fleet 37 will be at
Abergavenny about then with some stores for the North. Hold train at
Abergavenny and wire them to stop No. 37 as it passes. That will fill
up ten trucks, I think. All right. Train Hereford, Birmingham, via
Leominster. Load twelve trucks Birmingham. Tamworth, pick up five
truck-loads--food, that red block there--then North behind No. 605. All
right. Then wire Abergavenny to send No. 37 to Monmouth. They’ll get
their orders there. All right.”
So it went on, I am told, hour after hour, throughout the day. Even
the details of the diurnal traffic were not sufficient; for as he went
along, he planned the night-operations as well. When he retired for the
short sleep-time which he took, every point had been regulated for the
ensuing five hours.
At first, everything culminated in the word “North”; but almost
immediately the whirling traffic on the south going rails had to be
considered also, as it grew in volume. How he managed it, I do not
know; but he seemed to have some sub-conscious faculty of drawing a
balance-sheet of the traffic at any moment; so that he knew if he was
sending too much North or too little South. Personally, I imagine
that he owed his success to a power akin to that of the professional
chess-player who can play a dozen blindfold games at one time.
Everybody has the faculty of mental visualisation developed in a
greater or less degree; but in Grogan, as far as traffic was concerned,
it seems to have attained supernormal proportions. I believe that he
actually “saw” in his mind the whole of England covered with his trains
and motor fleets and that he had by some means established time-scales
which enabled him to calculate the moments at which any train or fleet
would pass a series of given points. It was, of course, an immensely
more difficult affair than blindfold chess-playing; but I think it
clearly depended upon cognate processes.
Congleton, the Shipping Director, had a much easier task. For him there
was no trouble of blocked rails or interleaving traffic. His main
difficulty arose from berthing accommodation, which was a comparatively
simple affair. Most of the food-supplies were transferred North on
board ship; and a certain amount of the shifting of population was also
done in this way, especially the removal of the Glasgow inhabitants.
I can only give the merest outline of these great operations; for
the details are too intricate to be described here. Nordenholt’s
first step was to commandeer most of the public halls in the country,
which were then fitted up with partitions, etc., in order to convert
them into temporary dwelling-places for families. Thereafter, he
began to move his Nitrogen Volunteers into the Clyde Valley step by
step; and simultaneously, under the Billeting Act, he evicted the
local population to make room for his men. There was a considerable
outcry; and at times the military had to be employed to persuade the
reluctant to move out of their homes; but after the first few cases of
obstruction had been dealt with firmly, the people recognised that it
was useless to protest. Edinburgh was also treated in the same way; for
Nordenholt had planned to occupy a belt of country running from coast
to coast. He had to find room for a population of five millions; and it
was evidently going to be a difficult matter.
Looking back upon it now, it was a wonderful piece of work, carried out
without any very serious hitches. To transfer a population of nearly
ten millions, and to distribute five millions of that over a wide
area of England--for this was the only way in which house-room could
be found for them--was a gigantic task. Fabulous sums were expended
in finding living-room for the refugees in the houses of residents
throughout England; and eventually all of them had roofs over their
heads, in private dwellings, in converted halls or in commandeered
hotels.
Meanwhile, in Glasgow itself, the ever-growing Nitrogen Area was
surrounded with military pickets which prevented the mingling of
new-comers and the old population. This precaution of Nordenholt’s was
mainly directed against the possibility of rioting; for the feeling
between the expelled inhabitants and the incomers was extremely bitter:
but it served another purpose in that it tended to surround the
Nitrogen Area with a certain atmosphere of mystery. This was heightened
by the stoppage of all telegraphic and telephonic communication between
Glasgow and the South. Soon the only information obtainable in England
with regard to affairs in the Clyde Valley came from emigrants; and
with the end of the exodus, even the mails ceased and an impenetrable
veil fell between the two parts of the island.
A similar screen had fallen between England and Ireland at a slightly
earlier date. All postal and telegraphic communication was broken
off, and no vessels were permitted to trade with the Irish ports.
It was by this means that the knowledge of the great Raid was kept
secret. Nordenholt was almost ready to disclose his hand; and the Raid
could not be postponed if any cattle were to be obtained alive. By a
series of lightning sweeps, the military rounded up all the available
live-stock in the island and drove them to the nearest ports, where
ships were awaiting them. Bitter guerrilla warfare raged along the
tracks of the columns; and the last pages in Irish history were marked
with bloodshed. Not that it mattered much, since all were to die in any
case before very long.
But I am now coming to the last stages of the exodus. All the required
food, all the available machinery and all the Nitrogen Volunteers had
been sent up into the Clyde Valley. Without warning, after a secret
session, Parliament had resolved to transfer itself to Glasgow. Now
came the final moves. On the last day, only pickets of the Military
Volunteers--the Labour Defence Force, as Nordenholt had renamed
them--were left behind in every important town.
During that night a carefully-planned course of destruction was
followed. Every telegraph and telephone exchange was gutted; the
remaining artillery was rendered useless; all the printing machinery
of newspapers was wrecked; every aeroplane destroyed and practically
all aerodromes burned: and as the trains and motors went northward in
the night, bridge after bridge on the line or road was blown up. When
morning came, there was a complete stoppage of all the normal channels
of communication; and up to the Border, the railways had been put out
of action for months. It was the second step in Nordenholt’s plan.
Hitherto, I have chronicled his successes; but now I must deal with his
single failure. He had intended to persuade the King to take refuge
in the Clyde Valley, and had even, I believe, found a residence for
him near Glasgow. Here, however, he met with a rebuff. I never learned
the details of the interview; but it appears that the King refused to
save himself. He felt it his duty to share the fate of his people.
Nordenholt pleaded that if the King himself would not come, at least
the Prince of Wales might be sent; but here also he failed to carry
his point. The Prince point-blank rejected the suggestion. Knowing
Nordenholt, I could hardly conceive that his persuasive proposals could
fail to take effect; but it was evident that he met with no success.
“He understood perfectly,” Nordenholt said to me later. “Both of them
thoroughly understood what it meant. I think they felt that a Crown
rescued at that price wouldn’t be worth wearing. At any rate, they
refused to come North.”