ing political ambition. I plead guilty of the
charge and demand to be shown by my accuser just what is undesirable
about ambition, be it political or otherwise. Have you no ambition? Of
course you have. Ambition drove your folks to create this machine and
ambition drove you to the fight for your freedom. Ambition is the
catalyst that lifts a man above his fellows and then lifts them also.
There is a sort of tradition in this country that a man must not openly
seek the office of the Presidency. I consider this downright silly. I
have announced my candidacy, and I intend to campaign for it as hard as
I can. I propose to make the problem of _education_ the most important
argument that has ever come up in a presidential campaign. I believe that
I shall win because I shall promise to provide this accelerated education
for everybody who wants it."

"And to do this you've used my machine," objected James.

"Did you intend to keep it for yourself?" snapped Judge Carter.

"No, but--"

"And when did you intend to release it?"

"As soon as I could handle it myself."

"Oh, fine!" jeered the judge sourly. "Now, let me orate on that subject
for a moment and then we'll get to the real meat of this argument. James,
there is no way of delivering this machine to the public without
delivering it to them through the hands of a capable Government agency.
If you try to release it as an individual you'll be swamped with cries of
anger and pleas for special consideration. The reactionaries will shout
that we're moving too fast and the progressives will complain that we
aren't moving fast enough. Teachers' organizations will say that we're
throwing teachers out of jobs, and little petty politicians will try to
slip their political plug into the daily course in Civics. Start your
company and within a week some Madison Avenue advertising agency will be
offering you several million dollars to let them convince people that
Hickory-Chickory Coffee is the only stuff they can pour down their gullet
without causing stomach pains, acid system, jittery nerves, sleepless
nights, flat feet, upset glands, and so on and on and on. Announce it;
the next day you'll have so many foreign spies in your bailiwick that
you'll have to hire a stadium to hold them. You'll be ducking
intercontinental ballistic missiles because there are people who would
kill the dog in order to get rid of the fleas. You'll start the biggest
war this planet has ever seen and it wi