KNOWING A COUNTRY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 20, 24 July 1939, Page 7

KNOWING A COUNTRY

TAXI-DRIVERS AN AID

TYPICAL OF THEIR LANDS

Observers who travel about Europe iirtgrviewing head waiters and taxiv drivers may not be so far off the tracK, after SJJ, writes Anne O'Hare McCormick in ti?e "New York Times." Head waiters, to"X& sure, are a bit too -upperclass to refle«4 public opinion on the lower levels, *?ut they are more in-ternational-mindeci nowadays than Foreign Ministers.'^ Reporters wiio spend their days sotujding out Governments and people • who influence official policy need the soothing presence of the maitre cl^o'tel at dinner time to reassure them that there are other countries besides the <me they're in. The head waiter is about* the only man-of-the-world left in any capital; at least, he is the most conspicuous survivor of that Old World wiiere me'h, honey, and ideas circulated, at will instead of being locked up in a series of fortified compounds. < The taxi-driver is different. A study of chauffeurs and the vintage, variety, and habits of the vehicles they pilot through strange streets might give a truer picture of the world than the view obtained in "official circles" and "responsible quarters." THE TYPICAL MEN. For taxi-drivers are typical. la Rumania a great many are said to belong secretly to the Iron Guard; perhaps that explains their peculiarly conspiratorial air. In Palestine the most numerous and the safest are armed Jews, reckless young fellows who shatter the legends of Jewish caution as completely as the agricultural colonies disprove the notion that the Jew is not a farmer. In. Poland taxicabs are fewer than droshkies, and the drivers handle their machines as if they 'were horses on the rutted roads of the steppes. The Paris drivers are grizzled old fellows, testy and taciturn, likely to be anything but French yet taking on. the characteristics of that middle-aged, sceptical, and, at sharp corners, unexpectedly audacious people. In London, sitting aloft in the biggest and solidest of all taxicabs, they have the manner and bearing of upper servants, polite, dependable, quiet, a little t6o servile. . '- In Berlin they take no chances. Out on the open roads the drivers let themselves go, as Germans do when they have ho rules to restrain them. Even Hitler complains of the abnormal number, of motor accidents. But *n the cities traffic . officers don't, get any back talk; nowhere are their orders more instantly obeyed. READING OR ARGUING. In cabs, either rickety or brandnew, the Roman chauffeurs talk. They are always interrupted reading the papers or gathered in little groups, arguing while they wait, and as they dash down steep streets whistling warnings to the pedestrians, they continue the conversation with the passenger, quite ready to grumble over the scarcity of coffee, the price of bread,-the price of war, the weight of the Axis, any party leader but Mussolini, still the pride and boast .of most of his countrymen. • In his attitude towards his "fare" the Roman suggests' the New York taxi-driver. But it is a dim suggestion, as the fare discovers at the first impact of the real article. The public chauffeur of Manhattan is in a class'by himself. r - /!...: Despite opposirtgTsysjtems Of govern*ment, the Italian^ and tfh£ Erench ar? naturally democratic. While increa&ing political and economic democracy has done little to modify class consciousness in England, the Nazi dictatorship is rapidly destroying the class system m Germany, especially in tha jarmy. But all such confusing- •distincItions fade into the background in the presence of the full-blown democracy of the New York taxi-driver. , Undoubtedly he is "fresh," as free-and-easy, and unconscious of any line of race, colour, or condition, social or economic, as is America compared to the freest society in Europe. ' A TRAVELLER'S RETURN. Almost the first American . voice heard by this returning traveller was the voice of a' coloured taxi-driver. He started out by inquiring about the trip. ■ Was there going to be war? Then he launched into a discussion of. the coal strike. "Now that this pub-^ licity trouble over in Europe is sort of settling v down," he remarked—a purely uninteiitional jab at the passenger— "we'll get around to a little pacifyin* round here." • A little later - a familiar taxi-man who parks near "The Times" office opened his door with a welcoming grin. "Say, how long you been; goneT* he asked. "Five months? Then you weren't here when it happened." "What happened?" "Why, I _ had a baby!" he announced proudly, and we swerved within an inch of a truck as he reached into his pocket and hanfled over a snapshot of a bright-eyed infant enthroned on a satin quilt in a big bed. , ... Certainly the taxi-driver is tfre best sample of our particular brand.of democracy. Meeting him first crack mikes you recall all the others you have encountered, floating on the tides of crisis. The European landing on these shores who gets his first glimpse into America by quizzing taxi-men gets nearer the heart of our mystery— •for the United States is almost as inexplicable to Europe as Germany or Russia is to us—-than by any other short cut. To one coming up for air after long immersion in the international situation, they go a long way towards explaining the whys of Europe and the ways of America.