said interestedly, "What do you use for a basis of measurement,my friend? Such things as the number of television sets and movietheaters? To balance such statistics, I understand that per capitayour country has the fewest number of legitimate theaters of any of--Iuse Miss Moore's term--the civilized countries."
A Londoner, two down from Hank, laughed nastily. "Maybe schooling isthe way he measures. I read in the _Express_ the other day that evenafter Yankees get out of college they can't read proper. All theylearn is driving cars and dancing and togetherness--wotever that it."
Hank grinned inwardly and thought, _You don't sound as though you readany too well yourself, my friend._ Aloud he said, "Very well, in acouple of days we'll be in the promised land, I contend that freeenterprise performs the greatest good for the greatest number."
"Free enterprise," somebody down the table snorted. "That means thefreedom for the capitalists to pry somebody else out of the greatestpart of what he produces."
By the time they'd reached Leningrad aside from Paco and Loo, hiscabinmates, Hank had built an Iron Curtain all of his own betweenhimself and the other members of the Progressive Tours trip. Which wasthe way he wanted it. He could foresee a period when having friendsmight be a handicap when and if he needed to drift away from the mainbody for any length of time.
Actually, the discussions he ran into were on the juvenile side. HankKuran hadn't spent eight years of his life as a field man workingagainst the Soviet countries in the economic sphere without runninginto every argument both pro and con in the continuing battle betweenCapitalism and Communism. Now he chuckled to himself at getting intotiffs over the virtues of Russian black bread versus American white,or whether Soviet jets were faster than those of the United States.
With Char Moore, though she tolerated Hank's company, in fact, seemedto prefer it to that of whatever other males were aboard, it wascontinually a matter of rubbing fur the wrong way. She was ready tobattle it out on any phase of politics, international affairs or Westversus East.
But it was the visitors from space that actually dominated theconversation of the ship--crew, tourists, business travelers, orwhoever. Information was still limited, and Taas the sole source.Daily there were multilingual radio broadcasts tuned in by the_Baltika_ but largely they added little to the actual information onthe extraterrestrials. It was mostly Soviet back-patting on thesignificance of the fact that the Galactic Confederation emissarieshad landed in the Soviet complex rather than among the Westerncountries.
Hank learned little that he hadn't already known. The Kremlin had allbut laughingly declined a suggestion on the part of Switzerland thatthe extraterrestrials be referred to that all but defunct UnitedNations. The delegates from the Galactic Confederation had chose toland in Moscow. In Moscow they should remain until they desired to goelsewhere. The Soviet implication was that the alien emissaries had nodesire, intention nor reason to visit other sections of Earth. Theyhad contacted the dominant world power and could complete theirbusiness within the Kremlin walls.
* * * * *
Leningrad came as only a mild surprise to Henry Kuran. With hisknowledge of Russian and his position in Morton Twombly's department,he had kept up with the Soviet progress though the years.
As early as the middle 1950s unbiased travelers to the U.S.S.R. hadcommented in detail upon the explosion of production in the country.By the end of the decade such books as Gunther's "Inside Russia Today"had dwelt upon the ultra-cleanliness of the cities, the mushrooming ofapartment houses, the easing of the restrictions of Stalin's day--orat least the beginning of it.
He actually hadn't expected peasant clad, half starved Russiansfurtively shooting glances at their neighbors for fear of the secretpolice. Nor a black bread and cabbage diet. Nor long lines of thepolitically suspect being hauled off to Siberia. But on the other handhe was unprepared for the prosperity he did find.
Not that this was any paradise, worker's or otherwise. But it stillcame as a mild surprise. Henry Kuran couldn't remember so far backthat he hadn't had his daily dose of anti-Russianism. Not unless itwas for the brief respite during the Second World War when for acouple of years the Red Army had been composed of heroes and Stalinhad overnight become benevolent old Uncle Joe.
There weren't as many cars on the streets as in American cities, butthere were more than he had expected nor were they 1955 modelPackards. So far as he could see, they were approximately the samecars as were being turned out in Western Europe.
Public transportation, he admitted, was superior to that found in theWestern capitals. Obviously, it would have to be, without automobiles,buses, streetcars and subways would have to carry the brunt oftraffic. However, it was the spotless efficiency of publictransportation that set him back.
The shops were still short of the pinnacles touched by Westerncapitals. They weren't empty of goods, luxury goods as well asnecessities, but they weren't overflowing with the endless quantities,the hundred-shadings of quality and fashion that you expected in theStates.
But what struck nearest to him was the fact that the people in thestreets were not broken spirited depressed, humorless drudges. Infact, why not admit it, they looked about the same as people in thestreets anywhere else. Some laughed, some looked troubled. Childrenran and played. Lovers held hands and looked into each other's eyes.Some reeled under an overload of vodka. Some hurried along, businessbent. Some dawdled, window shopped, or strolled along for the air.Some read books or newspapers as they shuffled, radar directed, andunconscious of the world about them.
They were only a day and half in Leningrad. They saw the Hermitage,comparable to the Louvre and far and above any art museum in America.They saw the famous subway--which deserved its fame. They were usheredthrough a couple of square miles of the Elektrosile electricalequipment works, claimed ostentatiously by the to be the largest inthe world. They ate in restaurants as good as any Hank Kuran had beenable to afford at home and stayed one night at the Astoria Hotel.
At least, Hank had the satisfaction of grumbling about the plumbing.
Paco and Loo, the only single bachelors on the tour besides himself,were again quartered with him at the Astoria.
Paco said, "My friend, there I agree with you completely. America hasthe best plumbing in the world. And the most."
Hank was pulling off his shoes after an arch-breaking day ofsightseeing. "Well, I'm glad I've finally found some field where it'sagreeable that the West is superior to the Russkies."
Loo was stretched out on his bed, in stocking feet, gazing at theceiling which towered at least fifteen feet above him. He said "In thetown where I was born, there were three bathrooms, one in the home ofthe missionary, one in the home of the commissioner, and one in myfather's palace." He looked up at Hank. "Or is my country consideredpart of the Western World?"
Paco laughed. "Come to think of it, I doubt if one third the ruralhomes of Argentina have bathrooms. Hank, my friend, I am afraid Loo isright. You use the word _West_ too broadly. All the capitalist worldis not so advanced as the United States. You have been very lucky, youYankees."
Hank sank into one of the huge, Victorian era armchairs. "Luck hasnothing to do with it. America is rich because private enterprise_works_."
"Of course," Paco pursued humorously, "the fact that your countryfloats on a sea of oil, has some of the richest forest land in theworld, is blessed with some of the greatest mineral deposits anywhereand millions of acres of unbelievably fertile land has nothing to dowith it."
"I get your point," Hank said. "The United States was handed thewealth of the world on a platter. But that's only part of it."
"Yes," Loo agreed. "Also to be considered is the fact that for morethan a hundred years you have never had a serious war, serious, thatis, in that your land was not invaded, your industries destroyed."
"That's to our credit. We're a peace loving people."
Loo laughed abruptly. "You should tell that to the American Indians."
Hank scowled over at him. "What'd
you mean by that Loo? That has allthe elements of a nasty crack."
"Or tell it to the Mexicans. Isn't that where you got your wholeSouth-west?"
Hank looked from Loo to Paco and back.
* * * * *
Paco brought out cigarettes and tossed one to each of the others."Aren't these long Russian cigarettes the end? I heard somebody saythat by the time the smoke got through all the filter, you'd lost thehabit." He looked over at Hank. "Easy my friend, easy. On a trip likethis it would be impossible not to continually be comparing East andWest, dwelling continually on politics, the pros and cons of bothsides. All of us are continually assimilating what we hear and see.Among other things, I note that on the