been used my name would have stood higher there than it does
to-day--unless the London people are very different from the people
in Youngstown, which I doubt. As it is they don't know whether their
future is bright or is as dark as mud. But it's not my fault. The
reporters never asked me.

If the first question had been handled properly it would have led
up by an easy and pleasant transition to question two, which always
runs: "Have you seen our factories?" To which the answer is:

"I have. I was taken out early this morning by a group of your
citizens (whom I cannot thank enough) in a Ford car to look at your
pail and bucket works. At eleven-thirty I was taken out by a second
group in what was apparently the same car to see your soap works.
I understand that you are the second nail-making centre east of
the Alleghenies, and I am amazed and appalled. This afternoon I am
to be taken out to see your wonderful system of disposing of
sewerage, a thing which has fascinated me from childhood."

Now I am not offering any criticism of the London system of
interviewing, but one sees at once how easy and friendly for all
concerned this Youngstown method is; how much better it works than
the London method of asking questions about literature and art and
difficult things of that sort. I am sure that there must be soap
works and perhaps a pail factory somewhere in London. But during my
entire time of residence there no one ever offered to take me to
them. As for the sewerage--oh, well, I suppose we are more hospitable
in America. Let it go at that.

I had my answer all written and ready, saying: