IMPRESSIONS OF THE STATES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIII, Issue 226, 30 December 1920, Page 2

IMPRESSIONS OF THE STATES.

: DECAY OF HOME LIFE. Mr Robin Adair, the newly appointed secretary of the Dunedin Y.M.C.A-, who has just returned from a couple of years spent in America, say* that no thoughtful visitor to the United States can avoid being impressed with the insecurity -of the American home. It is of supreme importance and serious urgency to the true leadership of the country. This is particularly so in those eastern States where the countless, alluring attractions of the great cities make the home uninviting and rob the hearth of its warmth. The increasing tendency to hare most of the meals in city restaurants and tef make of (he “ home ,r a sleeping place is conducive to this state of affairs. The too frequent inability to rent or buy houses .offers the alternative of going into, tenement!. These spacious tenements are little communities where privacy is absent and family life destroyed. The American tolerance of facetiousucs* in the presence of such a sanctity of life as marriage does not stabilise the family, i The couple that seeks the marriage ceremony in a ballroom or on roller skates has no difficulty,m securing a clergyman to speak the binding word. The Feminists’ Movement, organised round the “ emancipation ” of women, discourages the true homo life, and sUnds lor the freedom of divorce. There is htuo wonder that one marriage in every twen e results in divorce. In Montana, Oregon and Washington there is a divorce lor every five marriages. The recent warning of an American "sociologist is not wunouv profound meaning: “ fhc reconstruction of the family i« being jeopardised m America.”

“AMERICANISING” CANADA. After crossing tlie boundary iiito Canada, the traveller is surprised to find 1 80 J'Vf® “ Americanism colouring the, life oftho people. This is particularly noticeable ol the slang, that highly-scanned vocabuUry that obtains in both countries. Of all Canadian cities Toronto »» "ic American. Wlicn one remembers that 70 per cent, of the population of Uanada lives within TOO, miles of the United States border, and that there W i ffWg intermingling of the people, it “tJthb that the jiowcrfully aggressive oaUon to the south' should profoundly influence State to the north. It is we l nisc tliis fact. During Uic P«t f our yc» England has lost ground m Canada to the United States in trade, commerce, and emigration. Imports from Britain, in 1914 formed 21 per cent. ° ftihc Caiaadian total, had dropped in 1919 to 8 I Kr< -S,;j while those of America were tenfold "reater. British emigrants, who. in formed 30 per cent., in 1918 were on v 18 i»cr cent of the total, as compared with 51 per cent from the United British business concerns had cs abl shco less than a dozen centres, the American. tad built up OM, SOO There is urgent need for British tracje jiropaganda and publicity.