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“A MELTING POT”

AMERICAN OUTLOOK EXPLAINED. One of the proudest boasts of American citizenship is that it is a “meltingpot” of all Europe. This pride tends to a conscious and over-emphasised rejection of any suggestion that it is an “English” country, writes Mr William Dwight Whitney, a New York barrister and member of a well-known American family. There are many unexpected results that flow from this attitude. It leads to a rejection of all Europe, and to a certain contempt for Europe, not 1 —as when "John Bull” rejects Europe —because it is the seat of supposedly inferior races, but because it is the seat of diverse races who have failed to mould themselves into one. This feeling in America is the source of many of the attitudes toward the war which arc at first sight inexplicable. The American pities Europe, because he thinks that its wars are due to a blind inability on the part of its inhabitants to melt themselves into a single "people," as he has done with its emigrants across the Atlantic. He thinks that if the Englishman, and the Spaniard and the Czech and so forth would melt themselves into one people,} they would be blessed with just such peace as he believes that he enjoys. But, conversely, it makes him distrustful of his Government, in a way that no Englishman could bo of his. For the melting lias not been complete in America, and beside the pride in its processes there exists within each group in America a suspicion of the other groups which gives the American a fear that if lie lias a strong Government, even temporarily, that Government will steal his liberties. Ope should not under-estimate the preva- 1 lence in the United States of the idea ■ that it cannot go into this war because ■ it would be necessary then to entrust 1 such power to the Federal Government that the people would never get back t their liberty after the war. In America < no class is accustomed to the thought) I of war, as no class is accustomed even Jt to the thought of diplomacy. When a!' challenge such as the present makes its impact on America, it is a surprise to s all. None are trained, by environment i or life-calling, to accept it in a matte)’- t of-fact way. c

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WAITA19410514.2.59

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 May 1941, Page 6

Word count
Tapeke kupu
391

“A MELTING POT” Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 May 1941, Page 6

“A MELTING POT” Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 May 1941, Page 6

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