. Meetings denounced the inaction of the
authorities; a gigantic parade bearing placards calling for an end to
procrastination marched past the cityhall. Democrats blamed Republicans
for inefficiency and Republicans retorted that Miss Francis had done her
research during a Democratic administration.

Every means previously tried and found wanting was tried again as though
it were impossible for human minds to acknowledge defeat by an insensate
plant. The axes, the scythes, weedburners and reapers were brought out
again, only to prove their inability to cope with the relentless flow of
the grass. Robot tanks loaded with explosives disappeared as had those
containing the soldiers, and only the stifled sound of their explosion
registered the fact that they had fulfilled their design if not their
purpose.

It was difficult for the man on the street to understand how the weapons
successful in Normandy and Tarawa could be balked by vegetation. Like
the Investigating Committee's pursuit of the question of the crudeoil's
adulteration, they wanted to know if the tanks were firstline vehicles
or some surplus palmed off by the War Department; if the weedburners
were properly accredited graminicides or just a bunch of bums taken from
the reliefrolls. The necessary reverse of this picture was the jubilant
hailing of each new instrument of attack, the brief but hysterical
enthusiasm for each in turn as the ultimate savior.

Because of my unique position I witnessed the trial of them all. I saw
tanks dragging rotary plows and others equipped with devices like
electricfans but with blades of hardened steel sharpened to razor
keenness. The only thing this latter gadget did was to scatter more
potential nuclei to the accommodating wind.

I saw the Flammenwerfer, the dreadful flamethrowers which had scorched
the bodies of men like burnt toast in an instant, direct their
concentrated fire upon the advancing runners. I smelled the sweetly sick
smell of steaming sap and saw the runners shrivel and curl back as they
had done on other occasions, until nothing was presented to the
flamethrowers except the tangled mass of interwoven stems denuded of all
foliage. Upon this involved wall the fire had no effect, the stems did
not wilt, the hard membranes did not collapse, the steely network did
not retreat. It seemed a drawn battle in one small sector, yet in that
very part where the grass paused on the ground it rose higher into the
air like a