Yankees and Southerners

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 87, 21 February 1941, Page 5

Yankees and Southerners

HERE are Americans who live their whole lives in one corner of the country and have little personal acquaintance with other sections. Under such conditions, there flourish the local patriotisms and the provincial jealousies which may or may not conflict with a national sentiment. New Englanders on the Atlantic sea-coast sometimes feel that their corner is a unit, separate and distinct. New Yorkers may belittle other areas because their city is the biggest in the

‘Union, and their skyscrapers the -tallest; the Southern States — ‘Virginia, Alabama and the rest _-still feel that they form their own conclave, even though their attempt to secede from the -Union last century, was defeated. To them, a Northerner is a Yankee, and as such, an object of suspicion. Out West are communities that fear domination by the Atlantic States, and are

not so far removed from the pioneer days as their eastern compatriots. When I was in the north-west-ern State of Washington on the Pacific coast, they told me tales of encounters with the Indian tribes that were still within the range of living memory. One popular story will illustrate the supposed attitude of a typical easterner to the West. In 1928, Governor Alfred E. Smith was the Democratic candidate for President; he was a native of New York, and knew little of America outside his own State. It is said that a reporter asked him: "How many States do you expect to win west of the Mississippi?" To which, Al Smith replied: "Well, what States have you got out there?"-("The Political System of the United States: (1) The People of the United States and Their Country," by Professor Leslie Lipson, 2YA, February 10). :