GREAT DEBT
OWED BY UNITED STATES TO BRITAIN CULTURAL AND POLITICAL INHERITANCE. I MUTUAL IDEALS AND OBLIGATIONS. By Charles E. Payne, Division of Social Studies, Grinnell College, lowa. Americans owe a great debt to Britain and the average American is wholly unaware of it, said Mr Charles E. Payne, of the Division of Social Studies, Grinnell College, lowa, in an address reported in the “Christian Science Monitor.” To her America owes its very language and much of its literature. Not only do Americans still read Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, the King James Version of the Bible and the early nineteenth century poets, but think what more recent writers such as Dickens, Carlyle, Darwin, Hardy, H. G. Wells, John Galsworthy, and Bernard Shaw have meant to American thought! From Britain, too, the United States has inherited its legal system. Britain’s common law is still America’s where no statute exists. That law has been developing ever since the thirteenth century. Then, too, she has given America the jury system and the right of habeas corpus, those great safeguards of individual liberty and justice. From Britain came parliaments, with all that they imply. These political and legal rights were brought to America by British settlers long used to their practice. Later, America separated from Britain because, temporarily, under George 111, she was untrue to her own past. American independence was therefore not wholly won in 1776, but traces itself, in part, back to Magna Carta and the first English Parliament in the thirteenth century. Then, too, colleges and universities in North America were founded after the pattern of Oxford and Cambridge and American ideals of education closely resemble the British. For example, unlike continental universities, Americans do not confine their educational aims to purely intellectual objects, but aim rather at the all-around development of the individual. Finally, Americans have inherited the British ideals of religion. Puritanism, Congregationalism, Quakerism, and Methodism all started in Britain. One has only to remember what these creeds have meant to American life! But not only have Americans inherited this rich legacy from the British; they have transmitted it to innumerable other peoples who are largely unaware of its source. Americans have inherited an obligation and a duty to defend this inheritance and pass it on to their children. This very debt to the past implies a duty to the future. It is thus that civilisation has been developed. . But all America’s debt to Britain has not been incurred in the remote past. To illustrate, all through the nineteenth century, it was the support of Britain and her fleet which made the Monroe Doctrine effective. America’s Navy was not strong enough to enforce _jt until after 1890. England was the only European Power that favoured the United States in the Spanish-American War. Somewhat earlier, by the Webster-Ashbur-ton Treaty, Britain had gained the right, which could not be unilaterally revoked, to share in the building of a Panama Canal. When it became evident, however, in the ’9o’s that America had set her heart on building the canal alone, England yielded to the American desire, despite the fact that there was no legal way to compel her. Furthermore, when the canal was finally completed, England withdrew her fleet largely from Caribbean waters and allowed her fortifications to fall into disrepair, thus voluntarily recognising America’s paramount position in those regions. ; After the Great War, Great Britain conceded to the United States parity in battleships at the Washington Conference and was wholly co-operative in carrying out American aims at the conference, even abandoning her AngloJapanese Alliance in favour of a FourPower Treaty of the United States, Japan, Britain, and France. In yielding this she was abandoning a century-old tradition, a tradition dear to English hearts. At a later Conference, she granted parity in all naval categories and thus shared with America the supremacy of the seas. Both nations should recognise fully their common heritage and way of life, and. more important, realise their joint obligation and responsibility for the future. The fact is that today the United Nations are faced with a situation where, if they win the war, the future of the world can be in more intelligent hands than at any time since the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century. We of the dominant democracies need to co-operate wholeheartedly in meeting that destiny, freeing ourselves from ambition, selfishness and all imperialistic designs. Only thus can we realise for all mankind our common hopes, ideals and aspirations. Otherwise, this war with all its sacrifices in blood and treasure, will have been fought in vain.
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Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 August 1942, Page 4
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764GREAT DEBT Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 August 1942, Page 4
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