FIFTY MILLION STRONG 



CHAPTER I 

 AMERICA 



THE Marathon runner must have had a sturdy ancestry, 

 a good environment, a clean life, a long period of special 

 training, be in the pink of condition and have a mountain-top 

 faith, if he would win. Likewise, America must have had a 

 sturdy ancestry, a good environment, a clean life, a long period 

 of special training, be in the pink of condition and have a 

 mountain-top faith, if she would dominate the era inaugurated 

 by the World War. A little investigation will show whether 

 or not America is fitted for the leadership which she aspires 

 to assume in the post bellum world, a shrinking, contracting 

 world, a world wherein, among many other wonderful things, 

 even the telephone talk of The New York Mail will be a 

 reality. 



*' Hello, Calcutta ! Canarsie wants you." 



" I'm still ringing 9876 Shantung." 



" Never mind, Montclair ! New Guinea was calling, but the 

 party's left the booth." 



" Here's Chihuahua, Vladivostok ! Drop one rouble at a 

 time, please ! " 



" Listen, Kansas City ! Tibet 2626 has been discontinued." 



" Hello, Tokio ; you say you can't understand the party in 

 Buenos Ayres ? I'll have the manager put an interpretress on 

 the line." 



" That b-r-r-r-r-r from the Glasgow exchange is spoiling the 

 waves ! " 



" You want the correct time? " 



" Quit your kidding, Greenwich ! " 



I 



