There is surely something in American traditions that does tend toward real democracy in spite of our faults and shortcomings.

In most other countries two men of as different antecedents, ancestry, and surroundings as Billy O'Neill and I would have had far more difficulty in coming together.

I came from the biggest city in America and from the wealthiest ward of that city, and he from a backwoods county where he kept a store at a crossroads.

In all the unimportant things we seemed far apart.

But in all the important things we were close together.