A CANDID CRITIC OF AMERICA

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 72, 18 December 1926, Page 11

A CANDID CRITIC OF AMERICA

A writer in the PrubSiau Kro-uz Zcimm” iviiu recently visited Aew Yoik paints a picture of disappointment. “America," he says, “has nothing to give to the cultivated European, bycn where Nature in its grandeur should impress us. It is crushed b.V organisation and the masses of people. lie was especially displeased "ith American newspapers: "Ihe newspapers! When you see them jot of the Yankees are so strongly de'elope 1. while the head leaves so much to bo desired. Size and weight exorcises the muscles far more than tlm coihculd dthe mind. Sport, scandal, ernno. stock market and so-called humour— thats the contents. Add society, iniieh radim gossip about films ami studios. Art? beyci. Science? None. Politics Hardly. How Douglas Fairbanks and other film stars spend tlie day is just as important as tlie fact that tlie President went fishing and caught three trout.” Spiritually Americans evidently don t amount to much. He writes: “H the uuml'H'r of churches could be tuKen as criterion. .Americans would be a y?rv relitjious people. No. the number €»i cluirches docs not mean that the Amcri can has a deep inner life. Goins to ehureh is for him nothing more than a custom." As for th© average t American woman ''her purpose in life is. clothes, movies, dancing—especially dancing.” The A men can films are characterised: "Take : he-udiful girl a handsome man and a villian. shako them for seven acts/'