IDEALISTIC U.S.A.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19180, 10 December 1927, Page 17

IDEALISTIC U.S.A.

TO IHS SDITO* 07 THI PBISS. Sir,—One reads some nnctious selfrighteous cant from public men occasionally, but seldom anything quite so nauseating as tho U.S.A. Presidents vupourings at the opening of Congress. That the "unprecedented generosity of the U.S.A. naval reductions is a ludricous misstatement is clear to all who know that Britain had the greatest fleet that ever existed in 1918, and eveu Coolidgo must know it is now only a tithe of what it was. Then, presented with thinly-veiled insolence, we have the usual "hands oif America, we will build what we like and arm as we will and it's no business of anyone else"—a terrible drop from the idealism, which was to sink national differences in the great desire for universal peace. But the plum of the thing is his impudence and mendacity in finishing this precious gem by stating: "Wherepver our flag goes the rights of humanity increase." What rights? Is one of them the right to murder, hold-up, and rob in the typically American way—as shown by their police records. Eleven thousand homicides a year (generally called murders in other countries) in 90 per cent, of which crimes no arrest even is made and in the 10 per cent, conviction is rare and punishment rarer—that is one record of democracy triumphant! Another apparently is the right to burn negroes in their public squares to show their ideas of the "equality of man." But what outlook can the world expect from a nation one of whose leaders publicly stated recently "that he never went abroad as he wished to remam 100 per cent. American" ?—Yours, etc., L.E.C,