"I have the latest report from our public health authorities. It is
estimated that eighty percent of the population of the United States
and Canada has had, or will have, the S-Flu. Some twenty-five million
people, both male and female, who are known to have escaped the
disease, are at present protected either by weekly injections or by
isolation, and we are searching vigorously for others. We hope in a
few months time to have a vaccine which will give lasting protection.
The combined police forces of both countries are searching night and
day for the agents who, we suspect, are hiding in our cities, fanning
the flu to fresh vigor whenever it shows signs of abating. If twenty
percent do escape, since most of the females apparently do not become
sterile, the future of our countries therefore will depend on the
twenty million uninfected males. However, probably half of these are
either too old or too young to be of use for procreation at this time.
That leaves us with only ten million potential fathers north of the Rio
Grande."
* * * * *
He paused to let this sink in and the buzz of conversation broke into
excited comment. Tempers were getting short and here and there fists
pounded the desks to emphasize a point. The chairman rapped for order
and the President resumed as the noise died.
"The situation in Central and South America is worse. They do not
have adequate facilities to protect their populations. Evidence is
now coming in that S-Flu has also been let loose along with measlepox
in the Orient so that those who escape the one and live may well have
been sterilized by the other. The European countries have closed their
borders in an attempt to keep the measlepox out. They are already
overwhelmingly affected by the S-Flu.
"To sum up, except for the immunized master race of the USSR, the
peoples of the world are either dead, dying or sterile. If ten percent
escape one or the other fate we will be lucky. It might be considered
that the war is already won, and so it is in the dying Orient, but we,
although we are sterile, are still eager to fight ... and fight we must
if we are to save America and democracy for our children."
A roar of cheering drowned his attempt to continue. Senators, soldiers
and members of parliament were up on their feet, yelling, cursing,
banging desks or releasing their anger in any way they could find.
"Give them the Hell bomb," yelled one.
"Send over our planes," a portly congressman screamed.
"Kill them all, the monsters."
"It was terrific," Hallam broke off his recitation to comment. "I was
sure several of those old cobbers would have a heart attack, they were
so mad. Then somebody cut off the microphones and the noise became
bearable. Finally the President managed to get their attention and we
all sat down again and listened."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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