Short Story about miniature people on a table top

[melhxi]

Hi all, I'm glad I found this forum while looking for the short story. It's a SF short I read many years ago. The main character is a human undergoing a test of his ability to lead prior to permitting him to run for some high office. He is strapped and plugged in to a miniature world created on a huge table top populated with miniature human like beings. The little people have a sliver of metal in their spines that connects them to the central control computer. The human under test has god-like powers on the table and he must impress devine-like guidance over the little people for a set amount of time without causing too many deaths among them. Each little person's death causes a power surge into the man's control helmet. Too many deaths in a short amount of time and the man could be killed by the surge.

 

[CassFrank]

This is The Short Ones by Raymond Banks (1955). It has been sought after many times on these boards. Plot: “Hiller is being tested for worthiness by playing god over an engineered species of short ones. He has to decide what to do when a non believing faction kills his followers.”