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Without blinking at the immensity of U. S. wealth, the extent of U. S. poverty, FORTUNE makes as strong an affirmative statement with the photographs that illuminate U. S. life. as with the statistics that dramatize U. S. industrial growth, gives figures for future growth to justify the basic optimism that poll takers found when they asked their questions. In no field scrutinized could FORTUNE find that U. S. greatness lay in its past rather than its future, nor could it find one belief, one condition, one policy, the key to U. S. strength. "In spite of all lacks and unfavorable comparisons, the U. S. is the greatest nation on earth. . . . But its actual greatness rests not on these single assets but on their combination. The greatness of the U. S. is the sum of a vast land area; a great, resourceful population of diverse origins and talents; ... a universal industry of cosmic dimensions; an enormous treasury of resources; a form of government that has stimulated the optimum development of all the components of the economy. It is the compounding of all these sources of greatness that makes the U. S. great."