UNITED STATES AID TO BRITAIN

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 137, 6 March 1941, Page 9

UNITED STATES AID TO BRITAIN

Yale Professor’s View NO LONGER MATTER FOR DISCUSSION “We are so committed to aid to Britain, in fact right up to our necks, that it is no longer a matter for discussion, said Professor Theodore Sizer, professor of the History of Art at Vale University, in an interview in Wellington yesterday. Like Britain and the rest of her Empire, the United States was a democracy and was committed to a certain line because the people wanted it, he said. Asked about direct United States participation in the war, Professor Sizer said the people of his country were much in two minds about it. lu his own particular world of colleges and universities the most Anglophile of his colleagues thought it would be a tragedy if the United States went to war. From their viewpoint the military influence was a dulling one. On the other hand, it would be the best way the Germans would have of neutralizing United States material aid to Britain, for if the former went to war herself, she might not be able to send Britain anything. The war so far had shown that masses of men were less important than great supplies of technical equipment. Professor Sizer said that the latest census showed 4,800,000 aliens in the United States. This did not include naturalized citizens. Almost all of this great number had gone to the United States to escape conditions in Europe and the majority were loyal to their new home. They had no use for the systems they had fled from. In his own town of Newhaven, one of English ideals settled by English people in the 17th century, the population was now a third Italian. These people had risen economically, socially and politically in their new homeland and bad no desire to return to the conditions of Europe. Generally speaking, the millions m the United States of German or Italian descent were loyal citizens. They had ro use for the systems of Germany and Italy; they had gone away and risen above these. At the same time there was always a minority residue who felt differently. The United States had been far behind in social legislation. Much of the New Deal was similar to what Mr. Lloyd George had begun in England 25 years befqre. It was a fact that before the New Deal 80 per cent, of the building had been done for 25 per cent, of the people. The New Deal had done great work in slum clearance. Whole city blocks had been demolished, and were being replaced by modern residential buildings. These were well planned. Electric light, gas, refrigeration and hot and cold water were included in the rentals. The buildings were so orientated as to get the maximum sun. There were no big kitchens, for space reasons, but kitchens were so scientifically planned that by standing in one place in her kitchen a housewife had within hand’s reach almost everything she wanted. These homes were being built for people on the lowwage scales, including negroes.