AMERICA LEARNS FROM CANADA,

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 12 September 1933, Page 4

AMERICA LEARNS FROM CANADA,

It is difficult for many New Zealanders who see America only through the medium of the films' to' realise the w'ide gulf which separates British and American thought and practice in very many spheres. In the preceding article there are mentioned a few of these differences, made more vivid by comparison with conditions which have long ruled in New Zealand. It is not only the intelligent observer from abroad who finds while in America that this nation which', fo'r the most, part, speak's the English language, is (more ‘ ‘ un-English” than many a Continental country —the best class of American journal, conscious that its highest patriotic duty' is not to pander to the weaknesses of its own country, goes to unusual lengths toi stir the idealism of the American public. One cannot imagine a British newspaper in any part of the Empire being .so moved by its canseiousness of its country’s failure as to print such words as the following, which appeared in the "Christian' Science Monitor,” a Boston daily: "Across the North American- continent men have drawn an invisible line from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It divides Canada from the United States. On both sides of that line the majority of people speak the same language, enjoy approximately equal standards of Jiving, dwell under practically identical laws. 'South of that line the homes of peaceful citizens have been burst into, their .inmates, without respect of ago or sex, • kidnapped by cowardly armed criminals and held for ransom, maltreated, and even murdered. Industry and 1 business, intimidated) by bombs and machine guns, yield tribute estimated at many millions of dollars to racketeers whose rapacity is only equalled by their ruthlessness. North of that line citizens who happen to be well-to-do have no need of maintaining armed guard's to protect their loved ones o/r to enjoy the uninvacEed security of their homes. They have not been forced to pay organised gangster's in order to do business). "Why do the gangster and the racketeer stay so prudently below the line? Because justice in the Dominion of -Canada is swift and conviction of the proved lawbreaker certain. Why is Camiadian court procedure so swift and certain? Largely because criminal law ils the -saline all over Canada. . '.

More and more public opinion in America is crystallising into, the conviction that major crimes 'should be made federal offences. Plans are under way in Washington to employ federal power In greater measure to rid the United States of the miserable incubus of insolent) and 'defiant lawlessness. Sulch action' can in no way change the unshakable conviction that local law enforcement is the ideal method. But the very fact that local enforcement is so oftein) crippled 1 by politics points to the urgent need for drastic remedy. If that remedy cannot come through cleansing of local government, then the people will demand more federal action. Startling—and humiliating—is the fastmounting tide of evidence disclosing the sinister clutch of the 1 crooked politician on courts and police departments. That in itself, unfortunately, is not news. ... It is absurd to

affirm that because this unholy alliance is an ancient evil in' America if. cannot be broken. Such a defeatist attitude is unworthy of a nation of freemen. Those who weakly subscribe to it are unpatriotic. Other civilised countries do not submit to the yoke of the criminal. When courts and police shall be utterly divorced from politics one of the clinging roots of the evil will have been plucked) .out. Before • that is achieved a still deeper root must bo 'torn up—the apathy of the average citizen.”