"... Most obvious sort of conspiracy! If the Radical-Socialist Party
leaders, or the Consolidated Illiterates' Organization Political
Action Committee, need any further evidence of the character of their
candidate and idolized leader, Chester Pelton, the treatment given to
Pelton's candidacy by Literate First Class Elliot C. Mongery, this
morning, ought to be sufficient to remove the scales from the eyes of
the blindest of them. I won't state, in so many words, that Chester
Pelton's sold out the Radical-Socialists and the Consolidated
Illiterates' Organization to the Associated Fraternities of Literates,
because, since no witness to any actual transfer of money can be
found, such a statement would be libelous--provided Pelton had nerve
enough to sue me."

"Why, you dirty misbegotten illegitimate--!" Pelton was on his feet.
His hand went to his hip, and then, realizing that he was unarmed and,
in any case, confronted only by an electronic image, he sat down
again.

"Pelton's been yapping for socialized Literacy," the man on the screen
continued. "I'm not going back to the old argument that any kind of
socialization is only the thin edge of the wedge which will pry open
the pit of horrors from which the world has climbed since the Fourth
World War. If you don't realize that now, it's no use for me to
repeat it again. But I will ask you, do you realize, for a moment,
what a program of socialized Literacy would mean, apart from the
implications of any kind of socialization? It would mean that inside
of five years, the Literates would control the whole government. They
control the courts, now--only a Literate can become a lawyer, and only
a lawyer can become a judge. They control the armed forces--only a