The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1920. AMERICAN INSINCERITY.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3412, 17 February 1920, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1920. AMERICAN INSINCERITY.

1 With which its incol*pL‘;f.tc<.3 “The Taihape Post. 2:} Waimarino Newt.”

i The truth about conditions with [which civilisation is faced can only_ the learned by carefully noting the [responsible utterances of statesmen lwho are engaged on behalf‘ ‘of the inations in combatirig those condi}tions. ' We mean by responsible utterances, speeches made in houses of Ilegislature where they can be apilauded or refuted, for it is fatal to the establishment of an understanding ! of things as they are to attach equal "value to that. which is irresponsible ‘as to that which is said under cirIcumstances of the gravest responsibility. We have noted that in the legislature of America, where a confusging, ever-—flowing multiplicity of words are devoted to setting forth America } as a nation that stands for honour, ‘justice, freedom, humanity, as against less moral attributes, a.gain§t tyranny, tdespotism. slavedom, cruelty and lack ‘of human sympathy, there"ls' Téss delsire to conform acts with words than in I€BiSlatlll‘€s Where Words are fewer, gyet produce results overwhelmingly, iimmeasurably more humane. It is ‘not necessary to review speeches of President Wilson and American legisllators in this connection. for every reader is, or should be, tired of the nauseating twaddle that is ‘daily b'eing . sent from America, for which we -have Ito pay, about the Peace Treaty and ‘the League of Nations, which is to I end war and save the world, as far as, ,possible, from a recurrence of war. {We have good cause for doubting iAme'l-ican sincerity; ‘Americans desire an agreement, which provides, vulgarly stated, “heads we win, t-ails You lose,” all the tirne. Americans‘ have sickeningly boasted about the part I they played in the war a boasting that iis understandable only from the -cosmopolitan nature of the United States’ population. They profess to have fought for freedom and justice and to save humanity from everything that was inhuman. To reach a clear, correct understanding of what nations !fought for, we -have only to make a lcareful study of the sacrifices of each ‘country involved, of physical sacrifices in self-protection, of sacrifices ‘to save others from aggression, and; gof generous‘ ‘sacrifices after war was‘ ‘over to save friend. -and enemy froml starvation, and from civil strife. We "need not ask what Britain has done,l and st.ill continues to do, but our attentions may well be arrested by what Americans are doing, if not by what they have done. and what a panarama of virtue and national abnegation and generosity is disclosed in] Senate -debates. It all helps to discover to Britain and her other Allies just what has actuated Americans from the beginning. Mr A. J. Balfour, Britain's veteran statesman, was cheered in the House of Commons, one day last week, when he stat‘e§ii“: “a great amelioration of the conditions of Europe might be possible if] countries which the war had left rich— I er than before fully assisted.’-’ There is but one country left richer than be!ore the war, omitting Japan, and that is America, and the world is yet expecting and waiting for that generosity an over-liberal use of irijunctivei discussion sliould have placed beyond doubt. There will «be no denial of the fact so modestly and skilfully stated by Mr Balfour, and when the ‘

‘immensity of the volume of riches lAmeric.alls have stored upas a result I . gm . ._ . 4 of trading on War COI1(.l1t10I1S, It .1s suf}ficient to kill all faith in human ,nature, for it discloses in the superllative degree “man’s inhumanity to lman.” It suggests that the nation of itrusts and combines is constituting iitself. one mighty combine for corneriing and creating a monopoly of the Wvealth of the world. In relieving European distress America has magnanimously agreed to remit the interest on interest of European loans for three years, realising that.it is utterly impossible for Europe to pay compound interest on the stupendous debt that has accumulated to America, for that ‘time at least. Yet Britain is Voting enormous sums annually for relief of Gentral Europe, _and the British Government is, incidentally, informing the United Sates that in addition to the £12.500,000 voted for the current year, it was prepared to contribute a further sum equal to half what Ame , rice. was prepared to give in provid-‘xi ing foodstuffs, raw materials‘ and other ‘ essentials for the relief of the peoples I of Central Europe. Americans are‘ still considering this proposition, but‘ Canada has promptly intimated its] desire to help, is: it possible for New ' Zealand to spare anything in contr.i- l

buting to the relief of starving peo—i ples, friends and erstwhile enemies?‘ Although America has "g'rown“ enormously rich out of the war, its people seem the least disposed to save Eur-~ ope from a condition ‘that is already casting shadows of destruction over American commercialism, ‘Americans are striving to gain the whole world and standing to lose national identity. Jtmerica is holding back re-construe-! tion by a disgusting itenlpo_l-ization in I

connection with ratification of peace terms. and the League «gut _Nations _constitution which tliefhelped to evolve; America has grown inordinately, stupendously rich out of the war, and the comparative meannessl displayed, moi-any and monetari—ly,' seems to justify the German view that America, from beginning of the war to the present time, has been actuated by the “almighty do1lar;:” that America, is pro British. while Britain. as the most profitable customer’; but America. has yet to learn that when the British Empire gecomes fully con-S-CiOl]S> of its real position among nations, of its true status in world trade and finance, its component parts will make such an effort that’ will not be understandable to Ame-. rican greed and graft. ‘A nation is‘ truthfully mirrored in its government, and from what is observable in the American mirror, much cannot be expected of it in European reconstruction. ‘