"AMERICA UP-TO-DATE."

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 641, 19 October 1909, Page 8

"AMERICA UP-TO-DATE."

MR. FOSTER FRASER'S LECTURE,. , "I could have listbnod for' another hour—: two honrs." This remark from, a lady's lips, overheard in. the vestibule of ■ the Town Hall last night,.undoubtedly, expressed ..the feeling;; of many...of .■ thoso :.who •■ heard.. Mr; John Foster-Fraser in , ..-his brilliant. Uocture/ on. "America Up-to-Dato." ■ ' • " ■■■ '[./,,, The-Governor,'Lady Plunket, and , party wore present. Lady .Ward, Miss Ward, and their, party seated near them. The Prime' : Minister .was, chairman, and sdmo 'of '■ hie ! Cabinet colleagues were among tho auditors. Ihe great hall was ailed in nearly every part. bir Joseph Ward said he'was very pleasedto on such an interesting occasionto introduce euch a brilliant writer and Ice-- «!"*• <?"■ that New■' Zealand- was : the forty-eighth country visited by Mr; 'Foster I'raser, and that ho spoke eleven',languages."• Maori would perhaps-be the twelfth. He hoped , tho visitor had been having, and'would liave, a verv happy time in this , country, and that and-by we should oil havo the pleasure of read- "? E l om T Oth, S g f rom hie brilliant and able nen ; about New Zealand. (Applause.) . '" .Tho ovation which had marked-the appearance of chairman; and lecturer upon the platform wag. repeated when Mfi , Foster FrW began to.speak. .' -■ ■'■ '")',■ Ho played with his subjecti'-'iittte at .first. Uβ bantered America.and ralhiSl , New Zealand. : Ihe Americans were confident that,- whatever , claims might be put forward by other , lands. America was Teally "God's Own Country"bounded on the east by the broad ABantie,' on the south by the equator, on the west- , by' eternity, and on the north, of course, by 'he' North Polo. The finest thing about the' Americans: was'. , their modesty, . and -tie next finest,, was their appreciation ; of' truth. George . Washington, . on : one occasion, didn't tell a, lie, and this impressed his fellow-countrymen so much that they; made him' President of the United States'." After' a few moro- sentences in* this-Vein : of-.'good-' huraopred satire;- the lecturer, growing serious.' declared . that- , America ' was • Ehowing-other countoes many ways in whioh they would-do' "W, V?. follow her,'and at the game'time was exhibiting other tendencies and results', which all nations would do'well to avoid. ; v •:. That abont-all there was by-war of oxordium-if term, can; be' applied to what was real y. the, pleasant, easy, &1k 'of ,v Sl-A ; W W ' relations- with .' h& audience. Hβ had given them to expect (hat 'he-was not going to:deliver a dulled l.iivr' discourse, and-tfiat America was abottt to tZ ceive some .very candid treatment.. ■- ' ' •nr-A e iv ex PWtatidns wero amply .. fulfil'ed nL? V s, ' snd'5 nd ' ha<J ' brought- away-a few photographs-and;- would somebody, *. please, SSfn w?° traveller started off » P SL v he with a modest flippandy. and jump through' America/. WJf: league-long."- Ho ' skipped and XOTk >. yhicapv Pittsburg, • Niagara. Alasti were taken not.i o ai bt e■ g>ok-conducted,' Baedetefm-nißhed globe-try^ own-an order 'based upon idea*. "America? , he shot out ,n one of .his flashes of eUaracteS: non, is a; land of; contrasts." This obviously ™«-o f .\ft«: k«ys to.the'lcotureVs aSS. S i!*n - matt « r - He'showed end'pictures ?Li i 8 ?!^ 0 cll i dreh wtton-pioking;. whm & n ?u. b S s l m mdimenfe ofeducahon; tpld'pf white boys and. girls of nine, eight, and seven years, wor£in R 70 hours, a' week m the American potton miUs to -make money■ ■SSS LV- 'til 0 work in th. mines; and, his voice took on its- moist earnest tones as-he PUt into brief and biSpSs h vu^ r l or - of America's-curse and' ohild labour. -But'.'in lees than a minute the SfcSs t> young -women at , , the' oash-regißter works fat Dayton- were- lonngine^ Sn, sipp «? ? t * am fte J r Pleasant ;;reet-room, : whither they, may go whenever'the work'seems toohfeavy.for the-company trusts its workers.'' ru i ! *i'?i employed.'by the- same eh- , lightened: capitalists, were seeli in another "pie.■• ture at their gardening- nobbies, and the eystem of suggestion boxes," by means if. which the firm rewards its workore for having ideas, One picture , Had .snch' , artistlo \ dramaHo power that, the lecturer naturalty"enbfcf!h felt ! it necessary to assnrer-Kis-hearers that it was a bona-fide photogrdpli,, neither, faked nor arranged, '.ll.was.-.simply- ft. long uphill, stretch' of • snoit, with a Imeor trndgihg travellers in closesingle file, from outside the-field'pf .vi6i6noa the. left to the sky line-near, the upper, fight-' ,hand. .corner. It" was the "trail '. to, Klondike. It was Hie gdld-fever'fn picture showed a'train and-a'crowd of comfortable,, ordinary, -prosperous travellers 1 - thesame trail, twelve''-months: later. ■■■" ■- '• • The.pictures talked and the-talker piatured. There was no heed for the magic carpet thatMr., Fraser had feigned to \yisli for; His hearers could see. more of -'America'by just listening to his skilful and impartially selected,, vividly . expressed,- and, 'humorouslr hghtenod facts, than '• most. of them' would have .seen if they had crossed :the Paoifio in' other .vessels than' those' of. imagination. It ■ was the America of splendid-.energy,: of: deplo'r- • able political corruption, of' marvellous industrial efficiency,"of the growing unemployed problem.' : It. was , the land of the Chicago stockyards, the western , ranches, the' "pit" where men gamble in the food of nations. ■ The lecture was just the brilliant talk that' was to be eipeoted of Mr; Foster Fras«r; Instead of a peroration he'loft with his audience a final contrast that had evidently impressedhim deeply: American.-young men in the ctts , discussing mondy-raaking and labour-saving: machinery—English,(and Neff : Zealand?) vouug men filling suburban trains with talk- of. cricket 'and- football/- ■'. ■ ..... . Mr. Foster Fraser will leoture o>!' "ThrougTTßussia in.Eevolution. , ' , ■'' - -.