There would be no purpose in writing any more about myself. I told All, in the sketch that was published in the May STARTLING STORIES.

       So instead of talking about myself, I'd like to talk a little about THE THREE PLANETEERS.

       A very common supposition in science-fiction seems to be that when interplanetary travel is finally achieved, and there are populations of colonizing Earthmen on the other worlds, they will all be ruled by the same government and law, and that war and strife will be forgotten.

       Now, I never could see that as inevitable. In fact, it always seemed more reasonable to me to suppose that every world would have its own government. And here's why:

       Just think of what an effect distance has right here on Earth. Englishmen migrate to America -- and a century or so later they find they just can't get along with the parent country any more, and declare their independence. The same thing happens to the Spaniards who colonized South and Central America. It's happening right now to South Africa and Australia.

       Now, if that is true right now on Earth, surely it will be even more true in the future in the Solar System! Think of yourself, a few hundred years from now, on Mars. Your father was born on Mars, and your grandfather. You know that several generations back one of your ancestors came here from Earth, but you don't feel any loyalty to Earth. Mars is your world.

       What would you do, in a situation like that? If precedent or history mean anything, ten to one you'd shine up your trusty atom-gun and go out with a lot of your fellow Martians to win your independence from Earth. And the chances are that you'd win it.

       And in the centuries that followed, your descendents would be more and more true Martians, wouldn't they? They'd be modified by generations of life in a new environment. The people of the different worlds, all of the same Earth stock, would grow more and more unlike each other. If they couldn't settle their differences they'd go to war.

       That's the speculative background of THE THREE PLANETEERS. But it isn't any history of the future. It's a story. I hope it's a good story.