DR. FRANK CRANE’S DAILY EDITORIAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 59, 1 June 1927, Page 16

DR. FRANK CRANE’S DAILY EDITORIAL

THE FOREIGNER

(Copyright, 1927.) £)NE of the most powerful and one of the most disgraceful methods of arousing popular resentment, and thus fostering war, is to appeal to the people’s hostility to foreigners. To many people the virtue of loving their own country .is worthy only when it is measured by the virtue of hating other countries. The more you hate outsiders, therefore, the better American you are supposed to be. A man in Texas advertised himself as a 200 per cent American. Someone asked him why be published such an advertisement, as 100 per cent was supposed to be perfect. He said he was a 200 per cent. American because he hated everybody. Two half-drunken navvies were walking along the wharf in London, and one of them said: “Who is that man cornin’?” “I dunno,” said the other; He looks like a foreigner to me. ’Eave a ’arf brick at ’im.” These stories illustrate the common hatred of a foreigner. It is prevalent in all countries. “America for Americans” has its counterpart in every nation. Everyone thinks its inhabitants are better than the others, and that the others are inferior. We must protect ourselves against them. The vaster and profounder the ignorance of the people, the more they have foreigners. The Chinese are indulging in a debauch of the lowest form of nationalism. Th'.y find that their most unifying cry is “Down with the foreigners.” This sentiment easily turns into blood-lust and all manner of cruelty. lit is an essential in wars, and it is part of the stuff from which wars are made. It is fed upon the silliest stories.' Reports are abroad in China of how missionaries kill babies. As a matter of fact, the missionaries exert their efforts to save the lives of babies. The most of them are in China to do nothing but good. Their medical missions are centres of sanitation, and almost all popular reforms for the benefit of the common people originate with the missionaries. It is the instinct of the herd to trample upon anybody who will not keep step This instinct is about as common toward those in advance as to those who are behind. The first impulse of a people is to stay as they are, and not be changed way.