sixteenth president of
the United States, a country which once stretched south of the
Forty-ninth Parallel from the Atlantic to the Pacific. I have been
traveling extensively in what is left of Lincoln's nation. 'Dukes,'
remarked Chesterton, 'don't emigrate.' This country was settled by the
poor and thriftless and now few more than the poor and thriftless remain
in it.

"Let me try to present an overall picture: What is left of the country
has become a nineteenth century Ireland, with all economic power in the
hands of absentees. It is not that everyone below the level of a
millionaire is too stupid to foresee possibility of complete
destruction; or the middle and lower classes virtuously imbued with such
fanatical patriotism they are prepared for mass suicide rather than
leave. Because dukes _are_ emigrating and sending the price of
shippingspace into brackets which make the export of any commodity but
diamonds or their own hides a dubious investment, even the pawning of
all the family assets would not buy steerage passage for a year old
baby. Besides there are not enough bottoms in the world to transport a
hundred and fifty million people. If the Grass is not stopped, except
for a negligible few, it will cover Americans when it covers America.

"No wonder a strange and conflicting spirit animates our people. Apathy?
Yes, there is apathy; you can see it on the faces in a line of relief
clients wondering how long an industrially stagnant country can continue
their dole--even though now it consists of nothing but unpalatable
chemicals--socalled 'Concentrates.' Despair? Certainly. The riots and
lootings, especially the intensified ones recently in Cleveland and
Pittsburgh, are symptoms of it. The overcrowded churches, the terrific
increase in drugging and drinking, the sex orgies which have been taking
place practically in the open in Baltimore and Philadelphia and Boston
are stigmata of desperation.

"Hope? I suppose there is hope. Congress sits in uninterrupted session
and senators lend their voices night and day to the destruction of the
Grass. The Federal Disruptions Commission has published the eleventh
volume of its report and is currently holding hearings to determine how
closely the extinct buffalograss is related to _Cynodon dactylon_. Every
research laboratory in the country, except those whose staffs and
equipment have been moved with their proprietary industries, is
expending its energies in seeking a salv