ling of Soviet bonds decreed a contravention of
socialist economy, wages of all were equalized, and the word
stakhanovism erased from all Russian dictionaries.

No formal peace was ever made. Neither side had any further appetite for
war and though newspapers like the _Daily Intelligencer_ continued for
months to clamor for the resumption of hostilities, even to using
aircraft now that there was less danger of reprisal, both countries
seemed content to return quietly to the status quo. The only results of
the war, aside from the tremendous losses, was that in America the grass
had been unmolested for a year, and the Soviet Union had a new
constitution. One of the peculiar provisions of this constitution was
that political offenders--and the definition was now severely limited,
leaving out ninetynine percent of those formerly jeoparded--should
henceforth expiate their crimes by spending the term of their sentence
gazing at the colossal and elaborate tomb of Stalin which occupied the
center of Red Square.

_46._ General Stuart Thario, rudely treated by an ungrateful republic,
had the choice of a permanent colonelcy or retirement. I have always
thought it was his human vanity, making him cling to the title of
general, which caused him to retire. At any rate there was no difficulty
in finding a place for him in our organization, and if his son's salary
and position were reduced in consequence, it was all in the family, as
the saying goes.

One of the happy results of our unique system of free enterprise was the
rewarding of men in exact proportion to their merits and abilities. The
war, bringing disruption and bankruptcy to so many shiftless and
shortsighted people, made of Consolidated Pemmican one of the country's
great concerns. The organization welcoming General Thario was far
different from the one which had hired his son. I now had fourteen
factories, stretching like a string of lustrous pearls from Quebec down
to Montevideo, and I was negotiating to open new branches in Europe and
the Far East. I had been elected to the directorship of several
important corporations and my material possessions were enough to
constitute a nuisance--for I have always remained a simple, literary
sort of fellow at heart--requiring secretaries and stewards to look
after them.

It is a depressing sidelight on human nature that the achievement of
eminence brings with it the malice and spite of petty minds and no one
of prominence can