POLITICAL METHODS IN United states

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 18, 10 November 1948, Page 5

POLITICAL METHODS IN United states

Not Understood By Those Outside When M. Vishinsky made his •speech in which he accused the Americans of war-mongering, Americans themselves were shocked and hurt that he should have taken seriously some of the things that had been said and published in .the United States . against Russia. But they are used to their own political methods, .and the Russians are not, said Rev. G. I. Laurenson, Superintendent of Methodist Home and Maori missions in a chat with a Beacon representative on Mon ■ ■day.

Mr Laurenson, who toured Ameirica extensively recently and attended a number of Church conferences there, conducted a service at the ' Wh'akatane Methodist Church on Sunday evening, and addressed a public meeting on Monday night. Both were well-attended. A fifteen-minute talk with Mr Laurenson showed him to be a keen observer with a gift for passing on his impressions., Pressure Selling

Americans, he said, were used to pressure selling in nearly all aspects of their lives. That had built pretty high sales resistance, with the result that, to put ideas across, their propagandists always talked on the exaggerated scale—something that was clearly understood by the Americans themselves but quite likely to give , strangers a wrong impression. 0

For instance, he said, President Truman’s re-election was no sur-> prise to him, nor did he expect it to be a surprise to the average American, despite the efforts of the' big newspaper organisations which obviously- backed the Republican ticket to try to sell the idea that the Democrats were finished. In the midst of that campaign, however, he had found citizens cautious about newspaper opinion, which many regarded as the wishful thinking of the proprietors and not a reflection of public views at all. ’ Propaganda “Build-Up” Mayoral elections in New York while he was there convinced Mr Laurenson that we in this country do not understand American methods or atmosphere at all. All the publicity was exaggerated to the point where, to arrive at some approximation of the truth, one had “to “cut it in half and divide by four.”-, That tendency, to “build upY on political propaganda was a factor that cauld not be overlooked in the international picture. Though the Americans were used to that sort, of thing it could be, and he believed probably had been on some occasions, misinterpreted outside as a tru ? expression of American public opinion. ■“Adolescent Nation” Solid public. opinion in America was really disturbed that America had found herself in a position .of world leadership without a background of high-level diplomatic experience. It had been put to him -that she was “an adolescent nation dealing with adult- affairs”, and the more thoughtful citizens were ill at •ease in consequence. He did not honestly believe anyone there wanted a war with Russia or anybody else, but it was a fact that some highly inflammatory material h£d got into the press. ‘Communist “Probe” Anti-Communist propaganda had reached hysterical heights, culminating in the comb-out of civil servants and others suspected of “unAmerican activities”. In that regard, Mr Laurenson, while making it •quite clear he held no brief for Communists or “fellow travellers”, s&id he felt the method of handling the “probes” (the word “purge” had been carefully avoided) had fed the Communist Party rather than suppressed it. Mild radicals branded as ■Communists found themselves literally driven into the Communist ■ camp, In fact, the campaign had fed the Red organisation .to a degree - that amazed those who thought they were solving a problem.