AMERICA'S DEGRADATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 January 1916, Page 4

AMERICA'S DEGRADATION.

Tlio official attitude of the United States in connection with the repeated horrors perpetrated by Germany and Austria during the war lias frequently been the subject of press comment of a more or less drastic nature. America prides herself on her greatness, and she is duly eredite'd wi£U being tlie land of great things, and yet she has proved to be nothing but a huge lethargic mass that, like the sick lion in the fable, can be kicked at will by the meanest beast of burden. America lias endured insults and the gravest wrongs perpetrated by the Teutons with all the humility of the veriest time-serving hypocrite that ever breathed, and no illusage to- which she has been subjected by the Austro-Germans has evoked anything more militant than a written request not to do it again on she will be angry and will not be on friendly terms witli Britain's enemies. In today's cables will be found a message from the Chicago correspondent of the London Daily News in which he says that America hag sunk to the lowest depth she has ever reached, and in--iai:ce* Hie fact that the picture of tin: president, when screened at places of entertainment ill London, is received with every expression of hostility and contempt. Why? Because America has failed to expression to lior outraged conscience and long suffering in face of repeated frightful crimes committed with impunity on V;r peaceful citizens by a nilhlers anil barbaric nation which holds ln'i 1 in supremo contempt fur the reason thai she lias' not sufficient Poiunjrc to avenge her wrongs. The t niled Slates has a large Teutonic population and votes count, but the disease whieli ha< undermined her constitution and put ail end to her prestige is, says ihe correspondent .the "itch for money,'' and for that she has bartered her birthright of freedom and become like a whipped canine, or. a* the correspondent puts it, too sordid and cowardly to light. The Allies liever expected or desired America's co-operation, but they had the right to expect that she would ptay the game and not put vip with barbarous acts of piracy and murder, nor give shelter to enemy conspirators bent oil evil designs and infamous outrages. Nor was it expected that American seame;. would have been suspectible of bribes to induce, them to concoct sucli stories as those which the German .-tithorities have published relative to the Bnra'ong case. The war lias brought hundreds of mil-

us to the- coffers «.' American industrial concerns, and mostly from Britain, and yet the president is willing to be floiuVd and bullied by Britain's enemies. There must be a more virulent canker in the American system than mere itch for money. The nation must have become so circle and degenerate that its conquest by the Teutons, if they are not thoroughly crushed, would he a mere picnic, .Surely the contingency must have impressed itself on some of the leaders of American politics, but, if so, they are content for Britain not only to work out America's salvation, but to make the process as difiieult as possible, and above all, a source of profit to the United States. American freedom will hereafter become a byword among tlte nations,