The Titanic Plan Read Online Free PDF

friend, King Camp Gillette. ” He blew the ink dry then slid the book across the table.
    “ For you, Jack.”
    “ Thank you. What is it?”
    “ The blueprint of the future.”
    “ Okay.” Astor’s impatience was becoming evident. “But what is it?”
    Gillette leaned close, affecting an almost conspiratorial posture. It was an instinctive move – after so many years of door-to-door sales, Gillette knew all the tricks of drawing people in. He lowered his voice. “It is the greatest building project mankind has ever known.” Gillette tilted back. He smiled. His eyes twinkled. “It is a plan to take humanity out of the darkness it suffers and into paradise, where all men and women will live happy, fulfilling lives. It’s a plan to build one large city, a Metropolis, where mankind can labor together and then enjoy the highest expressions of culture and art. It would be a place of true sharing, where greed and crime and jealousy would cease to exist because we would be satisfied with the riches all around us.”
    Gillette opened the book for Astor. He showed him the carefully drawn plans of thousands of skyscraper apartments geometrically placed amid an intersection of avenues, lawns and gardens. “Can you imagine the endless beauty of a conception like this?” Gillette continued. “I envision in this city sixty million souls, fifteen thousand miles of main avenues, every foot of which would be a continuous change of beauty.”
    Gillette blazed as he laid out his utopian vision. “We would build it in the only possible place on the American continent: Niagara Falls – a source of everlasting power.” He flipped a page and pointed to a map. “The manufacturing center would be across the river and would be connected to the city by great bridges over which railroads would run.
    “ Once it is demonstrated that within this Metropolis the citizens have achieved a level of happiness never experienced by men before, I envision similar great cities being erected throughout the world, and all of humankind truly entering a golden age.” Gillette glowed beatifically seeing his vision of a modern day Eden. “So what do you think?”
    Astor thought he was mad. “Interesting,” said Astor. “But I imagine it would take vast sums of money to build your Metropolis?”
    “ That’s why I’m here, Jack. You’re an inventor, a visionary who desires the highest aspirations for mankind. You are the type of man that would join with me in providing the needed wealth.”
    “ Even my riches would be a drop in the bucket to what you need for such an undertaking,” Astor said to Gillette.
    “ Yes, of course, I am a practical man, after all. My plan is to start small. Build several Metropolis’ on a limited scale.”
    “ How would people within these cities make a living?”
    “ That’s the great beauty of it: everything will be self-contained, from shops to groceries to amusement. Work would only be for the greater good of the Metropolis and ones fellow man. I believe we can never achieve the perfect social system until money and everything of material value is swept from the face of the earth.”
    “ Am I understanding you correctly?” Astor asked, puzzled. “You are soliciting me to invest capital without any profit motive whatsoever?”
    “ Your profit motive would be bringing mankind into its golden age. You would be remembered as one of the greatest men who ever lived.”
    He’s not just mad , Astor thought, he’s a stark raving lunatic.
    “ It is a very interesting concept, King, and I am flattered that you approached me with your proposition,” Astor said, and then swallowed the rest of his champagne. “Let me read your book and ponder your extraordinary idea and I will get back to you. Now, if you’ll excuse me, my head is throbbing and I must get something for it.”
    King Gillette jumped up, still burning with passion, and pumped Astor’s hand. “John Astor you have demonstrated that you are truly the