MEET ME ON THE BARRICADES

This touch of reality nearly extinguished the
President.

—But she’d only say I was crazy. Maybe. . . .

By a superhuman effort of will and imagination
he held his distinguished visitor at his side. He began
to talk rapidly; the opportunity would soon pass.

“You mustn’t think me presumptuous, Mr. Presi-
dent, but. . . .”

“Just call me Franklin, old boy.”

His shadowy companion nearly disappeared into
thin air. .

—That’s going a bit too far. He wouldn’t say that

the first time he met me.

“But I must say, sir, that you missed the chance
of a lifetime in ’3 3 when you had the banks on their
knees. You should have nationalized them. Nation-
alization of credit is not a very revolutionary meas-
ure, even if Marx did call for it in the Communist
Manifesto.”

“But I’m not a communist,” the President said.

“Yes, I know, preservation of the best aspects of
capitalism and all that sort of thing. But after all I
voted for you. . . .”

“Thanks a lot,” said the President with gratitude.

“And thousands of other communist sympathizers
as well.”

79