Atlas Shrugged

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 "The worst I could find."
"You admit that?"
"I've stated it on paper in the reports I sent you."
"Is it true that you're using wood-burning locomotives?"
"Eddie found them for me in somebody's abandoned roundhouse down in Louisiana. He couldn't even
learn the name of the railroad."
"And that's what you're running as Taggart trains?"
"Yes."
"What in hell's the big idea? What's going on? I want to know what's going on!"
She spoke evenly, looking straight at him. "If you want to know, I have left nothing but junk on the San
Sebastian Line, and as little of that as possible. I have moved everything that could be moved—switch
engines, shop tools, even typewriters and mirrors—out of Mexico."
"Why in blazes?"
"So that the looters won't have too much to loot when they nationalize the line."
He leaped to his feet. "You won't get away with that! This is one time you won't get away with it! To
have the nerve to pull such a low, unspeakable . . . just because of some vicious rumors, when we have a
contract for two hundred years and . . ."
"Jim," she said slowly, "there's not a car, engine or ton of coal that we can spare anywhere on the
system."
"I won't permit it, I absolutely won't permit such an outrageous policy toward a friendly people who
need our help. Material greed isn't everything. After all, there are non-material considerations, even
though you wouldn't understand them!"
She pulled a pad forward and picked up a pencil. "All right, Jim.
How many trains do you wish me to run on the San Sebastian Line?"
"Huh?"
"Which runs do you wish me to cut and on which of our lines—in order to get the Diesels and the steel
coaches?"
"I don't want you to cut any runs!"
"Then where do I get the equipment for Mexico?"
"That's for you to figure out. It's your job."