p? You know as well as I do that the
great failing of the American people has always been their lack of
interest in politics."

"What? Why, they vote, don't they? What was the last percentage?"

"Eight-eight-point-three-seven. Sure they vote--once the ticket has
been presented to them. But how many of them have anything to do with
nominating the candidates or writing the platforms? How many will
actually take time out to _work_ at it--or even to write their
Congressmen? 'Ward heeler' is still a term of contempt.

"All too often in our history the vote has been simply a matter of
choosing between two well-oiled machines. A sufficiently clever and
determined group can take over a party, keep the name and the slogans
and in a few years do a complete behind-the-scenes _volte-face_."
Dalgetty's words came fast, this was one facet of a task to which he
had given his life.

"Two machines," said the stranger, "or four or five as we've got now,
are at least better than one."

"Not if the same crowd controls all of them," Dalgetty said grimly.

"But--"

"'If you can't lick 'em, join 'em.' Better yet, join all sides. Then
you _can't_ lose."

"I don't think that's happened yet," said the man.

"No it hasn't," said Dalgetty, "not in the United States, though in
some other countries--never mind. It's still in process of happening,
that's all. The lines today are drawn not by nations or parties, but
by--philosophies, if you wish. Two views of man's destiny, cutting
across all national, political, racial and religious lines."

"And what are those two views?" asked the stranger quietly.

"You might call them libertarian and totalitarian, though the latter
don't necessarily think of themselves as such. The peak of rampant
individualism was reached in the nineteenth century, legally speaking.
Though in point of fact social pressure and custom were more
strait-jacketing than most people today realize.

"In the twentieth century that social rigidity--in manners, morals,
habits of thought--broke down. The emancipation of women, for
instance, or the easy divorce or the laws about privacy. But at the
same time legal control began tightening up again. Government took
over more and more functions, taxes got steeper, the individual's life
got more and more bound by regulations saying 'thou shalt' and 'thou
shalt not.'

"Well, it looks as if war is going out as an institution. That takes
off a lot of pressure. Such hampering restr