Ken Danagger Dannager is a Pennsylvania coal producer and friend of Hank Rearden’s. Like Rearden, Dannager recognizes the destructive nature of the rulers’ laws and breaks them, engaging in illegal deals that are necessary if he wants to keep producing coal. He joins the strike after being arrested for his part in the transaction that results in Rearden’s trial.
Judge Narragansett Judge Narragansett is the legal figure who stands for the rule of objective law and the rights of the individual. He joins the strike when he understands that the administration of justice is impossible under the looters’ arbitrary decrees. In the end, as the strikers prepare to return, he revises a clause in the United States Constitution, prohibiting the government from enacting laws that abridge the freedom of production and trade.
Dan Conway Dan Conway builds the tiny Phoenix-Durango Railroad into the dominant railroad of the southwestern states. As Taggart Transcontinental deteriorates, Dan Conway’s road takes most of the Colorado freight traffic. Because he provides such superb service to his shippers, James Taggart uses political influence to pass the “Anti-dog-eat-dog Rule,” putting Conway out of business.
Eddie Willers Dagny’s childhood friend and assistant at Taggart Transcontinental, Eddie Willers is a conscientious worker and loyal employee of the railroad who is outraged by the restrictions that the looters place on America’s most productive individuals. Through Eddie, the mysterious railroad worker in the cafeteria gains important information regarding Dagny’s work, the state of the railroad, and the conditions of American industry.
Cherryl Brooks The poor shop girl who mistakenly idolizes James Taggart and marries him, Cherryl Brooks is a hero worshipper. She admires achievement and the individuals who attain it. Cherryl leaves the slum neighborhood in which she was raised to come to New York City to advance her career. Because of her ambition and her hero worship (her virtues), James Taggart seeks to destroy her. He is powerless to destroy Dagny, Francisco, Rearden, and the others, so he wreaks his hatred of the good on Cherryl.
The Wet Nurse The Wet Nurse is the young bureaucrat just out of college whom the government assigns as a spy to Rearden’s mills. Despite being taught nothing but moral relativism by his teachers, the boy is sufficiently honest to recognize Rearden’s moral stature and the looters’ evil. He grows into a legitimate hero worshipper like Cherryl and, similarly, is destroyed by the looters.
Tom Colby The head of the union of Rearden steelworkers, Tom Colby recognizes that there is no necessary conflict of interest between employer and employees. Rearden demands and gets the most efficient labor force in the world, for which he pays wages significantly above union scale. Colby, a diligent worker, recognizes that Rearden is his ally, not a “class enemy.”
Gwen Ives Gwen Ives is Rearden’s secretary. She’s ruthlessly efficient in her work and intensely loyal to Rearden and his mills. Her commitment to justice is shown when she cries at the news that Rearden has been robbed of his ore mines by the passage of the Equalization of Opportunity Bill. When Rearden retires and disappears, she too leaves the firm.
James Taggart Dagny’s older brother and the President of Taggart Transcontinental, Jim is a “looter”—a businessman who seeks gain not by productive work but by political connections. The difference between Dagny and her brother is shown in their reactions to Dan Conway’s Phoenix-Durango Railroad. They both want to put the competitor out of business. Dagny wishes to do so by building Taggart’s Rio Norte Line into a more efficient road, whereas Jim seeks to destroy the Phoenix-Durango by political decree. Where Dagny stands for production, Jim stands for force. Jim is motivated by his hatred of good men and his desire to kill such individuals as Dagny, Rearden, Francisco, and Galt.
Lillian Rearden Lillian is Hank Rearden’s wife. She cultivates connections with the looters in an attempt to reach the one goal of her life—the destruction of the husband she hates. Envy and hatred of the good dominate her, just as they do James Taggart. Her chosen mission in life is destruction, but she’s more honest with herself than Taggart is. Taggart attempts to delude himself into believing that he’s motivated by a desire for material gain, whereas Lillian Rearden acknowledges that she’s motivated solely by a desire to destroy the good that she can never hope to match.
Dr. Robert Stadler The brilliant scientist turned looter-politician, Robert Stadler was once head of the Department of Physics at the Patrick Henry University. A genius in the field of theoretical physics, he was also the teacher of Galt, Francisco, and Ragnar. Stadler believes that most men are irrational and impervious to reason. Because men would never voluntarily choose science, they must be forced to support it. Stadler believes that the men of the mind are an endangered minority among the uneducated masses and should have the right to rule. For this reason, he thinks he can use governmental force to advance the cause of science.
