cts as if he believes it--the most
effective advertising is advertising that is asked for.

BOOK IV

THE TECHNIQUE OF A NATION'S GETTING ITS WAY WITH OTHER NATIONS

I

FOURTH OF JULY ALL THE YEAR ROUND

It would be very convenient for the other nations in the world to-day if
America--being the biggest, the freshest and the most powerful after the
war and having the other nations for the time being most dependent on it,
could be the one that they felt most deserved to lead them and have its
way with them.

It is almost the personal necessity of forty other nations to-day that
America should be a success, that America instead of instantly
disappointing the other nations, should instantly prove itself worthy of
the leadership they would like to place in her hands. "America's success
is the world's success," people keep saying. This has a prettified and
pleasant sound--in speaking of a great, or rather of a big, nation.

But what of it? What is the fact? What do we wish we could believe is the
fact? What is there--either in our own interests or the interests of
others that can really be done and done now about the fact--if it is a
fact--by any real person or body of persons in America? As a practical
and not a Fourth of July institution,--or rather as an institution for
celebrating the Fourth of July all the year round, the Air Line League
looks upon direct action to be taken by the American people to meet the
world's particular situation at this time, as follows:

If America is to get its way--the way, as we like to think, of democracy
and freedom, with other nations, there are certain things about us the
other nations want to know.

The other nations want to know that America has a technique for getting
its way with itself.

The nation that has the most self-control will be the nation that as a
matter of course and of common safety will be asked in the crisis, by the
other nations, to take the lead in controlling order, in controlling or
insuring the self-control of others.

The other nations want to know--if they are going to let us have our way
with them--put over what we like to call our superior democratic open way
upon them, that we have a vision--a vision of human nature and of modern
life which is better, clearer, more practical and timely than their
vision.

The other nations want to know,--if we are to have our way, that we not
only have a vision of what our way is--a national vision,