The Fountainhead Page #10

Well I am. I live by the judgment

of my own mind and for my own sake.

Let them say what they please.

By the time you come to trial,

no jury will convict you.

The public will think what I want them to

think. The Banner will save you.

Dominique, do you see why

I love the Banner? I hold power.

Are you sure of it, Gail?

You'll see the demonstration for yourself.

I rule that city. I've never lost a battle.

It's your first test

of a real issue, which...

- Hello?

- Gail Wynand, please.

- Speaking.

- Gail, this is Alvah.

Yes, Alvah?

Keating has admitted

Roark designed Cortlandt.

- Toohey has a signed confession.

- What?

It made the front page

of the other daily so we had to go along.

Stay there. I'll come at once.

What is it?

Ellsworth Toohey got a confession

from Peter Keating.

It's on the front pages tomorrow,

including the Banner.

I'm not counting on public opinion one way

or the other so don't be afraid for me.

I'll fight for you

if it takes everything I own.

When I can't fire anyone on my paper,

I'll close it...

...and blow your brains out

or mine.

They've walked out on us.

The whole city room.

Our best boys.

They're Toohey's best friends.

- They won't work without him.

- Ellsworth Toohey is fired and stays fired.

I can't understand how Ellsworth

got so much power.

I never noticed it but he got his gang in

little by little and now he owns them.

- And I own the Banner.

- Do you, Mr. Wynand?

So you were after power, Mr. Wynand...

...and you thought you

were a practical man.

You left to impractical intellectuals like me

the whole field of ideas...

...to corrupt as we please

while you were busy making money.

You thought money was power.

Is it, Mr. Wynand?

You poor amateur.

You've never been enough of a scoundrel

for your own ambition.

That's why I'll be back on this job...

...and when I am, I'll run this paper.

When you are. Now get out of here.

- How clever, my dear.

- Yes, it is, isn't it?

We must do what we can for the cause.

I just fired my cook

because I caught her reading the Banner.

Gail, what are we gonna do?

I can't get anyone.

They refuse, no matter

what salary I offer.

Nobody wants to work for the Banner.

Nobody wants to read it.

How long can we go on like this?

To the end.

Gail, give me back

my old job.

I shall be proud to work

for the Banner now.

Come on.

Take these to the back room, pick up

the wire flimsies and bring them.

Then report to Manning

at the city desk.

- All returns, eh?

- Yup.

Gives me the creeps.

Looks just like slabs in the cemetery.

And they keep growing

every night.

Guess nobody buys

the Banner anymore.

They're killing themselves.

Work night and day and still newspapers

come back unread.

Ready with it, Mrs. Wynand?

There's the Sunday makeup.

It's fairly rotten, but it'll have to do.

I sent Manning home.

He was going to collapse.

Jackson quit, but we can do

without him.

Alvah's column was a mess.

I rewrote it.

Don't tell him. Say Gail did.

All right.

It'll be all right, Gail.

It will be all right.

The Banner is not helping Howard.

It's ruining him.

It's turning more

people against him.

He doesn't care about that

but stand by him.

- Don't give in to them.

- I can't save him.

He'll win in his own way.

I can't save him. I have no power.

I never had any power.

Nobody's ever listened to me

because nobody's ever respected me.

I wasn't a ruler of the mob.

I was its tool.

If you don't give in, you'll save yourself

and the Banner.

I never ran the Banner. They did.

The men in the street.

It was their paper, not mine.

There's nothing to save now.

Gail, don't give in to them.

Don't give in.

You'd better give in.

We can't permit this to go on.

After all, we're your board of directors.

We have something to say.

We've lost all our advertisers

we've lost our public, for what?

Now, if it were a serious cause,

but for some fool dynamiter?

What is this, an intellectual issue? Are we

losing our shirts for principles or something?

Gail, Gail, it's no use.

We must call Ellsworth Toohey

and take him back.

We must reverse our stand

on the Cortlandt case.

We must come out against Roark.

Wynand, this is final.

Yes or no?

Give in or close the Banner.

You'd better give in.

All right.

I solemnly ask

of every man who hears this case...

...to let his own mind

pronounce a verdict upon it.

You have heard the testimony

of the state's witnesses.

The confession of Peter Keating

has made clear...

...that Howard Roark

is a ruthless egoist...

...who has destroyed Cortlandt Homes

for his own selfish motive.

The issue which you are to decide

is the crucial issue of our age:

Has man any right to exist

if he refuses to serve society?

Let your verdict give us the answer.

The state rests.

The defense may proceed.

Your Honor,

I shall call no witnesses.

This will be my testimony

and my summation.

- Take the oath.

- Do you swear to tell the truth...

...the whole truth and nothing

but the truth...

...so help you God?

- I do.

Thousands of years ago the first man

discovered how to make fire.

He was probably burned at the stake,

he taught his brothers to light.

But he left them a gift

they had not conceived.

And he lifted darkness

off the earth.

Throughout the centuries, there were men

who took first steps down new roads...

...armed with nothing

but their own vision.

The great creators, the thinkers, the artists,

the scientists, the inventors...

...stood alone against

the men of their time.

Every new thought was opposed...

...every new invention was denounced...

...but the men of unborrowed vision

went ahead.

They fought, they suffered

and they paid, but they won.

No creator was prompted by a desire

to please his brothers.

His brothers hated

the gift he offered.

His truth was his only motive.

His work was his only goal.

His work, not those who used it...

...his creation, not the benefits

others derived from it...

...the creation which gave form

to his truth.

He held his truth above all things

and against all men.

He went ahead whether others agreed

with him or not...

...with his integrity as his only banner.

He served nothing and no one.

He lived for himself...

...and only by living for himself

was he able to achieve the things...

...which are the glory of mankind.

Such is the nature of achievement.

Man cannot survive,

except through his mind.

He comes on earth unarmed.

His brain is his only weapon, but the mind

is an attribute of the individual.

There is no such thing

as a collective brain.

The man who thinks

must think and act on his own.

The reasoning mind cannot work

under any form of compulsion.

It cannot be subordinated to the needs,

opinions, or wishes of others.

It is not an object of sacrifice.

The creator stands

on his own judgment.

The parasite follows

the opinions of others.

The creator thinks.

The parasite copies.

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