Herbert George Wells

The Future in America Herbert George Wells

The questions seem impertinent. They are part of a long paper of interrogations I mustanswer satisfactorily if I am to be regarded as a desirable alien to enter the United States ofAmerica. I want very much to pass that great statue of Liberty illuminating the World (froma central position in New York Harbor), in order to see things in its light, to talk to certainpeople, to appreciate certain atmospheres, and so I resist the provocation to answerimpertinently. I do not even volunteer that I do not smoke and am a total abstainer; onwhich points it would seem the States as a whole still keep an open mind. I am full ofcuriosity about America, I am possessed by a problem I feel I cannot adequately discusseven with myself except over there, and I must go even at the price of coming to a decisionupon the theoretically open questions these two inquiries raise