Manawatu Evening Standard. Circulation 3,300 Copies Daily. MONDAY, JUNE 3, 1907. AMERICAN SENSATIONALISM.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8300, 3 June 1907, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. Circulation 3,300 Copies Daily. MONDAY, JUNE 3, 1907. AMERICAN SENSATIONALISM.

Thk journals of the United States never had a great reputation for sanity or reliability. Their love of sensation and p/uriency has justified the use of th« epithet "gutter Press," as applied to the American daily newspapers. A typical instance is to be found in the group of journals controlled by Mr W. R. Hearst. From the principal paper published under his auspices, the New York American, we quote a portion of an article which certainly assists those as a distan.ee to understand the part the Press is playing in the antiJapanese agitation. In the case under notice the writer mis-directs his energies against Britain, and ivere Britishers more sensitive such remarks, if persisted in, might easily cause estrangement and irritation. "The time will come," says this representative American journal, "when the United States will order all foreign Powers which hold possession on this side of the world to haul down their flags and follow Spain, which we had to fight in order to expel. We tolerate Canada as a British colony, and English ownership of islands in our waters for the double reason that custom inures us to anachronism, and that we suffer no present danger or inconvenience from it. But we learned while the Civil Wa: was being fought how perilous a matter it is, this British propinquity. The neutrality of England made the Bahama Islands in reality hostile territory—a base of supplies for the Confederacy. There the blockade-runners found shelter and gave aid and comfort to the South. Had'we not been very tired of fighting after Lee surrendered, the United States would surely have taken the Bahamas. And it would have been good policy to do it, too, along with the other islands under British rule. It will be done some day, of course, in obedience to the demand of national security." The writer who can contemplate Britain calmly submitting to the confiscation of her West Indian colonies must be endowed with an inordinate share of a quality that Americans are usually supposed to possess. But all things are possible to one who can make the following suggestion:—"lt may become expedient to annex Canada also. At the least she will be required to cease being British and foreign, and made to sit up for herself in self- respect*

ing Amex-ican fashion. It was an affecting sight, President Roosevelt and Mr Brvce clasping hands across the sea, as it were, and indulging in blood-is-thicker-than-water sentiment, but the sinister fact remains that every British gun mounted on this oontinent has its muzzle turned upon the United States. The Monroe Doctrine as a negative command has served us well; ultimately it will be given an affirmative authority. 'You shall not come/ will be changed into 'You must go,' to our monarchical friends, English and ether. And worse things could happen to England than to lose her distant possessions and become another peaceloving, harmless Holland, which is to be her fate, unless she shall grow in democratic sanity, get rid of her medieval flummery in the way of throne and nobility, and seek admission to the American Union as a State." Such idle vapourings can well be laughed at, especially when it is remembered that the American Press has lost whatever influence it ever had.