less than
sixty-eight glorious American burgs with a population of over one
hundred thousand! And all these cities stand together for power and
purity, and against foreign ideas and communism--Atlanta with Hartford,
Rochester with Denver, Milwaukee with Indianapolis, Los Angeles with
Scranton, Portland, Maine, with Portland, Oregon. A good live wire from
Baltimore or Seattle or Duluth is the twin-brother of every like fellow
booster from Buffalo or Akron, Fort Worth or Oskaloosa!

"'But it's here in Zenith, the home for manly men and womanly women and
bright kids, that you find the largest proportion of these Regular Guys,
and that's what sets it in a class by itself; that's why Zenith will
be remembered in history as having set the pace for a civilization that
shall endure when the old time-killing ways are gone forever and the day
of earnest efficient endeavor shall have dawned all round the world!

"'Some time I hope folks will quit handing all the credit to a lot of
moth-eaten, mildewed, out-of-date, old, European dumps, and give proper
credit to the famous Zenith spirit, that clean fighting determination
to win Success that has made the little old Zip City celebrated in
every land and clime, wherever condensed milk and pasteboard cartons
are known! Believe me, the world has fallen too long for these worn-out
countries that aren't producing anything but bootblacks and scenery and
booze, that haven't got one bathroom per hundred people, and that don't
know a loose-leaf ledger from a slip-cover; and it's just about time for
some Zenithite to get his back up and holler for a show-down!

"'I tell you, Zenith and her sister-cities are producing a new type of
civilization. There are many resemblances between Zenith and these other
burgs, and I'm darn glad of it! The extraordinary, growing, and sane
standardization of stores, offices, streets, hotels, clothes, and
newspapers throughout the United States shows how strong and enduring a
type is ours.

"'I always like to remember a piece that Chum Frink wrote for the
newspapers about his lecture-tours. It is doubtless familiar to many of
you, but if you will permit me, I'll take a chance and read it. It's
one of the classic poems, like "If" by Kipling, or Ella Wheeler Wilcox's
"The Man Worth While"; and I always carry this clipping of it in my
note-book:

"When I am out upon the road, a poet with a pedler's load I mostly sing
a hearty song, and take a chew and hike al