Emil had been running for president a number of years already as a result of an attempt by him to give away his land in Northern Wisconsin to the United Nations. Emil felt that World Government was the only way to peace and prosperity and thought that, if people gave their property to the U.N., this would hasten the process.

Unfortunately, he discovered that a citizen of the U.S. can neither sell nor give away U.S. territory to a foreign government, not even to the U.N. Emil decided to make an issue of it. He showed me his file of letters and even a newspaper column detailing his exploits (tongue in cheek, but he didn't see it that way).

It was at this point that Emil decided that the only way he could force America to give its land to the U.N. was to run for president. His platform consisted of a promise to turn control of the country over to the U.N. upon taking office. He called his political party, which consisted only of himself, the One United Nations Organization. Since Emil himself did not vote (he told me he didn't believe in voting), he never got a single vote in any of his runs for office, to my knowledge. Perhaps he managed to get some later, but as of 1971, he was batting .000.

Emil's run for president didn't seem to have anything to do with any actual elections. He never registered as a candidate and never urged anyone to vote for him. He simply ran for president. He didn't care if it was an election year or not. He wasn't bothered a bit by the fact that no one voted for him.

Finally, the U.N. actually wrote to him and told him that, while they appreciated his sentiment, they would not accept his land, even if they were allowed to. Emil was infuriated. To his mind, the U.N. had betrayed him and no longer deserved his support, so he changed the name of his party to One United Nature's Organization, because he had a few ideas about the ecology as well as World Peace. His new platform became a hodge-podge of Emil's various theories about the Earth.

Emil seemed to have a special affinity for water. Any liquid was water to Emil. He once told me that the lava of volcanoes was actually just dirty water. Emil was convinced, he never clearly explained why, that the earth was a huge ball of water with a thin crust of land on the outside, possibly the result of the accrual of meteoric dust. Too much pressure on this crust caused the water in the center to squirt out through volcanoes. One of the main things that caused this pressure was the weight of too many people. Overpopulation caused volcanoes.

Emil was also worried that the earth's water was evaporating into space, which would cause famines. His solution was to enclose the earth in a gigantic cube or sphere of glass. He considered the problem of acquiring that much glass to be irrelevant. He was sure that scientists could solve a little problem like that. He considered the glass enclosure of the earth to be an "experiment" that we urgently needed to do in order to be sure that the planet wouldn't dry up.

Emil was a rather small man with a butch hair cut and favored baggy clothes. He said he had been in the Air Force for something like 14 years and had been medically discharged after a head injury. He said that he had a metal plate in his head. I have no idea if this was true. I don't recall any visible scars of any size on his scalp, so I am inclined to think that this was merely his story. Since he had no job, but managed to afford a small apartment, I think it is likely that he was receiving some sort of disability pay, so the military history may be true. The property he owned in Wisconsin had been bequeathed him by his father, who Emil said was a farmer. As of 1971, I believe he still had it, although I don't think it had a livable house on it, as he never went there.

I lost touch with Emil after the erstwhile attempt of his friend to establish the bookstore failed. I saw an ad sometime later in the Duluth News Tribune, obviously placed by Emil, seeking a "wise Chinese woman" to run for vice president. Emil had spoken of his desire to find a running mate, especially a female and preferably Chinese. I don't know if he ever found one. Emil was not very good at attracting women.

I have never seen one of his flyers. They must have been a later innovation. The resolution on the image was not very clear, but I think I recognize the earth-in-a-box drawing, but it also seemed to have evolved somewhat. I have no idea how he got to New York or what happened to him there.