Mississippi to the Volga

It was like a game of Consequences. Eric Johnston, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, met 100 Soviet trade experts in Moscow. He said:

"Gentlemen, I ask you to please realize how completely our American Communists have been wasting their time. Not long ago an American research institution asked a large number of people all over the United States: 'To what social class do you think you belong?' Most organized wage earners replied that in their opinion they belong to the middle class. . . .How can the American Communists make a proletarian revolution among workers who do not even know they are proletarians?

"Our American Communists have not caught on to this fact; they lack originality and realism. If you take pepper, they sneeze. If you have indigestion, they belch. They annoy our trade unions more than they annoy our employers.

"Let us do two things. One, let us resign ourselves to the fact that, for a long time to come, you and we are going to live in two different economic ways. Two, let us visit and trade. Let there be more Soviet businessmen who know the Mississippi Valley. Let there be more American business men who know the valley of the Volga."

The Russians listened politely at first, as the translation was read them, a paragraph at a time, gradually smiled, more & more broadly, finally applauded heartily.

The world said: and a good thing, too. The consequences were: everyone felt better.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.