Page:Amazing Stories Volume 17 Number 06.djvu/6

A GREAT many of the miracles we see around us today were the science fiction of yesterday. Amazing Stories was the first magazine to pioneer in this field, and one of its slogans is "Prophecy today, fact tomorrow." Today's air-war (most recent miracle was the complete destruction of an entire sea armada from the air) was one of the most significant and fruitful prophecies of post science fiction. Much of this prophecy was carried out in stories, but some of it came through editorials, features, illustrations, etc. And much of it was deliberate—the result of an intentional and careful effort at predicting future wonders. We'd like to do it again.

MUCH thought a being given today to the nature of the world of tomorrow. Here's our thought on one angle of it, which we give both as a prediction, and a suggestion. Perhaps we are not original in it, but science fiction's mission always has been two-fold—to entertain, primarily, and to advance new ideas.

AMERICAN solidarity, and later, world solidarity, can be greatly advanced by beginning now to weld the two American continents into a unit that will become a powerful leader toward a future civilization that will stagger our imaginations. Scientific miracles will be accomplished. But to accomplish them to the fullest, we win have to make a beginning.

ZERO will be our final result without that beginning—which brings us to our prophecy, predicated on one inescapable fact . . . The peoples of the Americas do not understand each other. The greatest barrier to that super civilization that is to come after the war is understanding. We don't speak the same language!

IT WILL come, we say, to the point where the languages of the Latin Americans will not only be taught in oar schools, but will be a compulsory subject as elementary as the teaching of English. Let us begin now to learn how to understand our neighbors before we actually move into the "new world" and live with them.

NO BETTER way than that to save years of wasted effort, to learn to like each other, to learn to work together! No better way to begin to draw up the blueprints which will later become the magnificent edifice we will quite possibly call the "golden civilization" science fiction writers have so often glowingly described in their science fiction stories. Put our children on "speaking terms"!

GOOD! good! good! was what one of our readers said about last month's issue. Well, we've slapped together a new issue which we think is as good as last month's—if not better.

STANDING at the head of the list—at least on the contents page—is a new author's story. It's Gilbert Rae Sonbergh's "Laboratory of the Mighty Mites" and for a first sale to our magazine, it's a "mighty mite" indeed. Also, the story is featured on the cover with a painting by Hadden, also first-timing in color for us. We warn you, nothing new about the ideas in this story, but plenty of new treatment. You'll like it a lot. How soon can you "see through" the point the author is making?

THE return of Don Wilcox to our pages is marked by "Earth Stealers," a third in the series of which "Battering Rams of Space" proved so popular. The familiar characters you liked so well are back again in a story that will have you standing on your feet and cheering.

ONE of our revealing "asides" can be inserted here. Originally, Malcolm Smith did a cover for this story, and Don wrote the story around it. Then the cover was changed, and Wilcox's "bug" characters added to it. Finally, after much ado, your editor looked the finished cover over and decided it was lousy. So we killed it. However, we didn't want to make you wait for a grand yarn, so we ran it anyway. As a result, you have two stories in this issue which were actually intended as separate issue features! We hope you like 'em both!

ROBERT MOORE WILLIAMS does one of those increasingly frequent "masterpiece" stories he's been turning out on what he originally

6