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The Inevitable Conflict
by Paul H. Lovering
Published in
Amazing Stories
, December 1930, p. 776-797, and January 1931, p. 928-949.
Introduction
To say now that women may be commandeered into active fighting service at any time in the future,
would seem to be the height of ridiculousness. The universal male cry would probably be, "And what
earthly good could women be as soldiers!" Yet Joan of Arc led her soldiers to phenomenal victory and
women in Russia today are doing work still exclusively man's everywhere else in the world. And in the
field of politics, woman's voice is heard more and more. Even if it is not imminent, it is more than
interesting to speculate about the possibility. Mr. Lovering, who is well known to our readers, has more
than idle speculations on the subject and has worked his ideas into an engrossing story of the future.
Chapter I
"Your words are treasonable."
Matriarch Victoria Arston's cold, gray eyes compressed to pin-points of icy emphasis.
"If any subject of Matriarchy of the United Companies had given utterance to such statements, I would
condemn him to the lowest levels of our deepest mines."
General K'ung Fu, Mongolia's famous soldier-statesman, ambassador to the court of the great American
Matriarchy, spread his hands in a gesture of courteous regret.
"I must disavow intention to offend. When I spoke the military impotence of America under the
government of the United Companies, I only inferred a comparison between conditions here and in my
own country."
He smiled gently.
"Ours, Eminent Matriarch, is a masculine civilization. Men are our leaders, from our glorious Emperor -
exemplar of all masculine virtues - to the humblest subject in his home."
Smiling still, he spread his hands again in courteous disavowal of intentional offense.
"Different countries - different customs. What Mongolia deems desirable is not what America esteems."
The Matriarch had heard him in cold silence.
"We do not welcome sentiments such as you have expressed, or ideas such as you have voiced - "
She halted protestations with imperious hand.
"You will understand, general, my remarks are in no sense personal. They are dictated solely by
circumstances of state, more evident to our eyes than to yours after so brief a residence as you have had
in America. You must not take too seriously the expressions of such immature and inexperienced youths
as Stephen Mowbray with whom, I know, you have conversed."
She smiled as his eyes narrowed slightly in surprise.
"Even your own masculine government," she continued, icily, "has its reckless young rebels."
Mongolia's ambassador winced under her biting reference to the brief, vain revolt of his emperor's eldest
son, which that able ruler recently had crushed with ruthless hand. He also recalled that his predecessor
had departed hastily from the American court following a sharp interview with this masterful woman, in
which she had hotly resented a charge of secret support for the youthful insurgent. His own orders had
been to pacify her, in order that there might be no open break or interruption of the enormous American
tribute to Mongolia, until the Asiatic war genius had perfected plans upon which he long had been
meditating.
"From the time the Matriarchy assumed control of America," she continued, leaning forward and
emphasizing her words with a stern forefinger, "we have perceived the folly of permitting discussion of the
absurd doctrine of 'men's rights.' Long before the republic collapsed, a victim to the incapacity of
masculine rule."
General K'ung winced slightly. She noted it and a half-smile wreathed her firm lips.
"Long prior to its collapse," she pressed on ruthlessly, "women had been conducting its affairs. So-called
'Captains of Industry' had become mere figureheads. I am reciting history, general, but it is necessary to
recall it to your mind in order that you may understand America."
Coldly furious, she did not spare him.
"Actual management of the great companies had been in the hands of their secretaries - women, who
had broken away from the absurd taboo of the past that their place was in the kitchen and the nursery -
and who had devoted their lives to the conduct of giant business enterprises. They were the
super-women of a masculine decade, the motors that drove industry, directed politics, molded the press
and controlled legislation. Even then - "
She transfixed the unsmiling diplomat with a compelling finger.
"Even then, they possessed a dim understanding of the great destiny of the sex. They perceived the
incapacity, the futility of man. They resented masculine lust for sports involving physical danger - "
Chief among these, I presume," interjected K'ung Fu suavely, "was war?"
Her heavy hand fell, palm downward, on the table in among you, vigorous assent.
"Absolutely! For untold centuries, patient, submissive women had been venturing within the Valley of the
Shadow to bring men children into being - and for what purpose? That they might be accoutered in the
gaudy trappings of militarism and sent against the children other mothers had borne. Millions of lives
wasted - industry turned from its sane channels - passions inflamed - hatred engendered - false ideals of
heroism created - and what did it all avail? When, in all time, was there a war which, in itself, was good,
or which brought results comparable with the sorrow, suffering and destruction it entailed?"
"If I am questioned," he replied, smiling easily for the first time, "I fear I must answer as a soldier - there
are many wars which bring compensations in the cultivation of a revived martial spirit among the people,
in the subordination of sordidly material well-being to the concept of the common weal. Even Nature,
Eminent Matriarch, wars in her storms and the air is sweeter after a thunder shower."
Her heavy' brows contracted ominously. After a pause, a wintry smile broke through her stormily
compressed lips.
"We cannot meet on common ground," she declared, "You see life from a viewpoint we know to be
absurd and unreasonable. However, to continue with my recital. After women had obtained complete
control of American affairs, had thrown aside republicanism and substituted our efficient matriarchy under
my distinguished ancestor, the first Victoria Arston, lingerings of discontent persisted among the men."
"Is it possible?" ejaculated the general, suavely ironic.
"Theirs was the old, ignorant, masculine dissatisfaction with a settled state of affairs," she continued
curtly. "Theirs was the urge for the so-called 'progress' that had been observable since the dawn of
history."
"I understand," he declared. "I understand - perfectly."
"For their own good and also for the peace of the state, we were forced to drastic action. Agitators
were sent to the mines, timber camps and mountain quarries, forbidden to marry and kept isolated until
their breed had expired. This occurred generations ago. There after, we had peace. Now, when we have
occasion, at rare intervals, to warn sporadic mouthers, the memory of that earlier lesson always is
sufficient to check pernicious preachers of the doctrine of 'men's rights.'"
"If I were an American and harbored the wholly heretical masculine opinions I do," the general laughed,
"I certainly should think long and frequently about those mines and quarries."
"With good reason," she assured him, bitingly, "for all your sons and grandsons would bear you
company, while your daughters and granddaughters would be forbidden to marry. We extirpate treason
root and branch."
"We, in China, in what we had considered - mistakenly, I now see - as our new age of liberalism, have
adopted the principle that justice is satisfied with visiting the penalty solely on the individual guilty of the
crime."
"You refuse to understand the difference in our viewpoints," she replied, head imperially high. "Nothing in
Mongolia compares with conditions here. Treason, is directed against an individual - your Emperor or his
representative. As in all masculine governments, you have only a succession of steps in power,
culminating with your ruler. Each is filled by a man who represents that step during his period in office.
Here, there is only the Matriarchy. There are no individuals. From myself to the most modest director of
ten of men workers, all women are a part of a great machine. Treason is not against an individual, but
against the matriarchy as a whole."
* * * * *
"Undoubtedly there is a difference I cannot perceive," he said, smiling broadly. "Needless to say, I shall
be most circumspect in word and deed. I would not have presumed to say outside this chamber what I
have remarked to your eminence, and you will recall I spoke as I did in answer to your questions."
She nodded agreement, her grim face relaxing.
"After all, we cannot be too careful, with Mongolia before our men as a survival of the theory of
masculine always dominance."
Declining to reopen the argument, K'ung Fu pressed on to another subject.
"May I assure my gracious master, Eminent Matriarch, that there will be an end to agitation by those
falsely assuming to represent the Matriarchy in seeking to excite our women to rise and take over the
reins of government?"
If his hooded eyes observed a slight, startled raising of her heavy brows, he gave no sign. She replied
haughtily.
"Am I accused of inciting Mongolia's women to rebel?"
"Not at all, Eminent Matriarch - only that those guilty of this offense claim to be in your pay and to be
following your instructions."
She had a vivid picture of secret agents sobbing out, under torture, certain statements that had best not
been said to the fiery Asiatic ruler.
"Would my disavowal of these people and their purposes suffice to reassure the Emperor?" she asked,
after a thoughtful pause.
"Absolutely."
She leaned across the table, her heavy face stern.
"Then, so assure him, general."
She rose with royal dignity. He bowed, in a foreign fashion unknown to the men of America, and she did
not withdraw her hand as he bent low over it.
"A masterful person," she murmured, watching his strong, heavy figure until it disappeared through
hangings held apart by graceful, beautiful boy pages. "If the republic had been filled with such as he - "
She smiled whimsically.
"Who knows whether we should have found it so easy to upset the old government?"
She surveyed her own strong figure, rounded and pleasing despite the years evidenced by her graying
hair, and her smile deepened.
"With such men at the helm of American affairs," she continued, laughing, "there might not have been
opportunity or the need for change."
A discreet hum sounded from a button on her shoulder. She inclined her head slightly.
"Yes?" she asked, haughtily.
"Eminent Matriarch! General Semiramis Bullvers, commander of the Amazons, reporting," said a stern
feminine voice.
"Yes," impatiently.
"The lowest-caste workers are marching on the Food Depots. May I ask that you effect contact by
Electrono for a more complete report."
Lips compressed, the Matriarch seated herself at a table and pressed a button. A red spot of light
leaped from a metallic stanchion and was centered on her forehead, completing thought connection with
General Bullvers, hereditary commander of the women's corps. There was no magic for her in the familiar
communication system, by which thought impulses had been linked with radionic power transmission for
the interchange of information without waste of time or energy in speaking.
"Throw a cordon around the ways leading to the Depots," she, directed, voicelessly.
"It has been done, Eminent Matriarch."
"Use gentle means, if possible. Men's lives are valuable in industry and must not be sacrificed. If
necessary, shower the rabble with sleep rays."
"The rays have been tried and have failed. They have found means for counteracting their effect."
"This is unbelievable! We know nothing of such a counter-agent. How did they devise one?"
"I do not know," the Amazonian leader replied. "Our communal Telemnons also have been
malfunctioning for days and we have been unable to read the mob mind of the city accurately."
"Your failure to report these extraordinary events is culpable, general. However, there still remains the
Death Ray. Use it, as a last resort, but remember, I shall hold you accountable for needless slaughter of
even these low-caste males. Act at once, as I have commanded."
"I salute you, Eminent Matriarch."
The red spot dimmed and disappeared. The matriarch turned to a large cabinet. Under her ministrations,
it sprang into life and as she slowly revolved the massive metal cylinder on noiseless bearings, a
panorama of gigantically extended city life unrolled before her eyes.
"At least, they have not found means of fogging the Televis," she murmured, studying the changing
pictures with keen eye.
Gigantic factories of the Clothing Company, constructed solely of a glass with tensile strength greater
than steel, yet more ductile than soft iron, swept across the face of the Televis. Into them was admitted
the precise degree of light and exterior heat for the most productive labor.
Followed a panorama of the metal-working centers, titanically powerful buildings, constructed especially
to resist the rending, explosive force of released atomic energy, with which ores were broken down and
their stores of precious materials released for industry. A moment later, she caught a glimpse of the area
where the workers in earth fashioned wares for a world denuded of nearly all other industrial productivity
following Mongolia's conquest of Asia, Europe, Africa and Australia. However, her thought was not on
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