"Don"t you understand, sir, that consequences necessarily follow actions? What sort of world would this be if everyone rushed around blindly using things of whose nature they were completely unaware?"
"Don"t mumble," warned Judge Robinson.
I began to feel very low indeed and could only say haltingly, "I acted in good faith, gentlemen," when Mr Miller kindly recommended that I be excused since I had evidently given all the information at my command.
"Subject to recall," growled Attorney General Smith.
"Oh, certainly, sir, certainly," agreed Mr Miller, and I was thankfully released from my ordeal.
"Josephine Spencer Francis."
I cannot say Miss Francis had made any concessions in her appearance in deference to the committee, for she looked as though she had come straight from her kitchen, a suspicion strengthened by the strand of gra.s.s she carried in her fingers and played with absently throughout.
She appeared quite at home as she settled herself in the chair, scanning with the greatest interest the faces of the committeemen as if she were memorizing each feature for future reference.
The honorable body returned her scrutiny with sharply individual emphasis. The attorney general smiled pleasantly at her; Judge Robinson looked more sour than ever and grunted, "Woman; mistake"; Senator Jones bowed toward her with courtesy; a.s.semblyman Brown gave her a sharp onceover; Mr Miller pursed his lips in amus.e.m.e.nt; and Dr Johnson gazed at her in horrified fascination.
Senator Jones bowed for a second time and inquired her name. He received the information and chewed it meditatively. Miss Francis took out her gold toothpick, considered the etiquette of using it and regretfully put it away in time to hear the attorney general"s question, "Mrs or Miss Francis?"
"Miss," she replied gruffly. "_Virgo intacta._"
Senator Jones drew back as if attacked by a wasp. Attorney General Smith said, "Hum," very loudly and looked at a.s.semblyman Brown who looked blank. Dr Johnson"s nose raised itself a perceptible inch and Judge Robinson, sensing a sensation among his colleagues, shouted, "Speak up, madam, don"t mumble."
Mr. Miller, who hadnt been affected, inquired, "What is your occupation, Miss Francis?"
"Agrostological engineer, specializing in chemical research."
"How"s that again?" Judge Robinson managed to put into the simple gesture of cupping his ear a devastating condemnation of Miss Francis, women in general, science and presentday society. She politely repeated herself.
"Astrology--what"s that got to do with the gra.s.s? Do you cast horoscopes?"
"Agrostology," Dr Johnson murmured to the ceiling.
"Will you explain please in simpler terms, just what you do?" requested Attorney General Smith.
"Local statutes against fortunetelling," burst out Judge Robinson.
"I have spent my life studying reactions of plants to the lighter elements and the effects of certain compounds on their growth, reproduction, and metabolism."
Judge Robinson removed his hand from behind his ear and rubbed his skull irritably. a.s.semblyman Brown complained, "There"s entirely too much talk about reaction." Dr Johnson inspected a paneled wall with no interest whatever and Senator Jones stated pontifically, "You are an agricultural chemist."
Miss Francis smiled at him amiably. "Agriculture is a broad field and I farm one small corner of it."
Attorney General Smith leaned forward with interest. "From what university did you obtain your degrees, Miss Francis?"
She slouched back comfortably, to look more cylindrical than ever.
"None," she stated baldly.
"Hay? ... mumble!"
Senator Jones said, "I"m afraid I did not quite understand your reply, madam."
"I hold no degrees, honors, or diplomas whatever, and I have not wasted one second of my life in any college, university, academy, or other alleged inst.i.tution of learning. The degrees good enough for Roger Bacon, Erasmus Darwin, Lavoisier, Linnaeus and Lamarck are good enough for me. I am a questioner, gentlemen, a learner, not a collector of alphabetical letters which, strung together in any form your fancy pleases, continue eternally to spell nothing whatever."
Sensation. One of the experts who had been waiting patiently to testify, folded his arms and said in a loud voice, "This is what comes of tolerating women in the professions." Another muttered, "Charlatan ...
ridiculous ... dangerous thing ... shameful ... s.e.x ..." Two elderly ladies in broadcloth coats with fur collars, later identified as crusaders for antivivisection, cheered feebly and were promptly ejected.
Senator Jones took off his spectacles, polished them exhaustively, tried to put them on upside down, gave up and stated gravely, "This is an extraordinary admission, Miss, um, Francis."
"It is not an admission at all; it is a statement of fact. As for its irregularity, I take the liberty of believing we unlettered ones are in the majority rather than minority."
Judge Robinson warned, "Could be cited for contempt, Miss Harrumph."
Dr Johnson said sharply, "Nonsense, madam, even a--even a tree surgeon has more respect for learning."
Mr Miller leaned slightly over the table. "Do you realize that in your ignorant dabbling you have ruined hundreds of propertyowners and taxpayers?"
"I thought there was some law against practicing without a license,"
speculated a.s.semblyman Brown.
"There is apparently no law applying intelligence qualifications for members of the legislature," remarked Miss Francis pleasantly.
Senator Jones lifted his gavel, idle until now, and banged it on the table, smashing his spectacles thoughtlessly placed in front of him a moment before. This did nothing to appease his rising choler. "Silence, madam! We have perhaps been too lenient in deference to your, um, s.e.x.
I"ll remind you that this body is vested with all the dignity of the state of California. Unless you apologize instantly I shall cite you for contempt."
"I beg the committee"s pardon."
The investigators held a whispered conference among themselves, evidently to determine whether this equivocal apology was to be accepted. Apparently it was, for Dr Johnson now asked loftily and with an abstracted air, as though he already knew the answer and considered it beneath notice, "What was this magic formula you caused to be put on the gra.s.s?"
Malicious spirits averred that d.i.c.kie Johnson had flunked out of agricultural school, had an obscure European diploma, and that his fame as a professor at Creighton University was based on the gleaming granite and stainless steel building dedicated to research in agronomy which bore the legend "Johnson Foundation" over the entrance. No one hearing him p.r.o.nounce "magic formula" putting into the word all the contempt of the scientist for the quack, could ever put credence in the base slander. "What was this "magic formula" you caused to be put on the gra.s.s?" he repeated.
Miss Francis reeled off a list of elements so swiftly I"m sure no one but the stenographer caught them all. I know I didnt get more than half, though I was sitting less than five feet from her. "Magnesium," she stated, "iodine, carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, helium, potash, sulphur, oxygen ..."
Dr Johnson seemed to have known its composition since grammarschool days. Senator Jones asked, "And what effect did you expect this extraordinary conglomeration to have?"
She repeated what she had told me at first and the deductions she had made since. Dr Johnson smiled. "A true Man of Science," he stated, "one who has labored for years to acquire those degrees you affect to despise, would have been trained in selfless devotion to the service of mankind, would never have made whatever gross error your ignorance, heightened by projection into a sphere for which you are probably biologically unfitted--though this is perhaps controversial--has betrayed you into. For had you freely shared your work with colleagues they would have been able to correct your mistakes and this catastrophe brought on by selfish greed--a catastrophe which has already cost millions--would not have occurred."
The entire committee, including Dr Johnson himself, seemed pleased with this indictment. Attorney General Smith looked inquiringly at the witness as though inviting her to answer _that_ if she could. Miss Francis evidently took the invitation literally, for she addressed herself directly to Dr Johnson.
"I do not know, Doctor, where these beautiful and eminently sensible ideals you have so eloquently outlined are practiced, where scientists, regardless of biological fitness, share with each other their advances from moment to moment and so add to the security of civilization from day to day. Is it in the great research foundations whose unlimited funds are used to lure promising young men to their staffs, much as athletes used to be given scholarships by universities anxious to improve the physical qualities of American youth? Is it in the experimental laboratories of great industries where technological advances are daily suppressed, locked away in safes, so profits may not be diminished by the expensive retooling necessary to put these advances into effect? Or is it in a field closer to my own, in chemical research--pure science, if you like--where truly secrets are shared on an international scale in order to build up the cartels which choke production by increasing prices and promote those industries which thrive on international illwill?"
a.s.semblyman Brown rose to his feet and said in measured tones, "This woman is a paid agent of the Communist International. I have heard such rantings from demagogues on streetcorners. I demand the committee listen to no more of this propaganda."
Mr Miller gave a polite wave of his hand toward the a.s.semblyman, indicating at once full agreement with what the legislator said and apology for pursuing his questioning of Miss Francis. He then asked the witness sternly, "What is your real name?"
"I"m afraid I don"t quite understand. The only name I have is Josephine Spencer Francis and so far as I know it is thus written on my birth certificate."
"Birth certificate, ay? Where were you born? Speak up, don"t mumble."