AMERICA-A BIG “SHAM.”

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1166, 1 November 1913, Page 4

AMERICA-A BIG “SHAM.”

Whilst abroad, Mr W. W. Pilkiuglon. of Wellington, visited America, which country he described to a Dominion reporter as “a big sham from beginning to end.’’ It i?difficult commercially to get at the bedrock truth of anything, so alarming is the American habit of exaggerations, and the length to which he will go iu what is colloquially termed bluffing. “The American parent will,’’ says Mr Pilkington, “impress upou his son from the earliest stages that he is the greatest man ou earth, and there is no other country worth a straw, and the American teacher will have no scruples in impressing on his pupils what a great fellow he is, Our American experience was such that we were positively elated on returning to England, where there is a belter atmosphere and a purer code of commercial

dealing. The American press is, on the whole, quite unreliable, depending, as it does, on gross exaggeration to thrill the public. There are good papers here and there that are not unprincipled, as there are charming American people (particularly among the travelled class), but our experience was that they were not lu the majority.