UNITED STATES

New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25105, 19 January 1945, Page 3

UNITED STATES

NO UNIFIED OUTLOOK FIVE DISTINCT COUNTRIES SOME AMAZING CONTRASTS HY MAJOR 8. F. MARKFIAM, M.P. The author of this article was a member of a British Parliamentary delegation which recently toured the United States. He had the opportunity of seeing several of the largest war factories in the world and of visiting Hollywood and citrus farms in the neighbourhood. In he spent four months at the University of Virginia. Of America today there are perhaps as many opinions as there are registered voters. They ranee from the libellously critical to the most boastful imaginable. As a sample of the first the following occurs in a book entitled "Oji My Own," by Walter B. Pitkin, former professor of journalism in a famous school, just published in New York:—

"Today's American ... is so thoroughly culturrless that ho lacks all morals, all religion, nil political sense, and even sound business judgment. Ho lacks artistic taste, too, fo a degree that staggers the sensitive. He is a monumental liar and hypocrite, as well as a yellow dog at times. He has no manners and wants none. He cares nothing for education. in spile of his bluff about it. In school he will not study. He will cheat his way through any examination and bribe a teacher to pass him in a course."

On the other hand there are publicists of high standing, including the Vico-Frcsident of the Republic, who proclaim that the twentieth century belongs to America, that never in the world's history has there been such a colossal production from a single country or such a hope for mankind if only tlio world will recognise America's leadership. Differences in Opinion

In my view these opinions aro not contradictory—they are all opinions on various parts of America, and it is a profound mistake to think that any single opinion does any more than represent a single facet*of one of the greatest countries of all time. There are at least five distinct countries in the United States, which differ more in opinion, manners and morals than most European countries. Tho North-East, including Washington, is probably as cultured on area as any in tho world. The universities of Yale, Harvard and half a dozen others have a standard of scholarship that any European university might envy. The average person, especially in Connecticut and Massachusetts, is as well read as the average person in London or Oxford.

The South, by contrast, although it has world-famous centres of learning such as the. University of Virginia, has a comparatively low level of education, industry and housing. Here aro the highest illiteracy rates, the lowest health rates and some appalling housing conditions.

The Middle West, with its GermanSwedish traditions, is as distinct again from the East or South. It is the birthplace of Isolationism and of most of tho anti-British feeling in the United States. It has a temper peculiarly its own, which varies from the hair-trig-ger strikes of Detroit, the contempt of law and order in another city, to the incredible stuff printed by Colonel Robert It. MeCormick and believed by tens of thousands of people from Chicago to the Canadian border. To the West of the Middle West are the Mountain States, which, whilst having none of the jumpiness of the Middle West, yet are almost equally isolationist. It is a strange, wild area for the most part, rarely visited by Britons, and still in many parts in a pioneer farming stage. The Pacific Coast Finally we come to the Pacific Coast, the most up-and-coming area of all the United States, an area which takes tho world as its parish and is the lure and magnet of all mankind. From Seattle (to my mind one of the loveliest cities in" the United States) to San Diego you may find a hundred towns and cities each throbbing with its growing importance, and most important of all these is Los Angeles, which, if present trends' continue, will become the largest city in the world in our lifetime. Here and nt San Francisco is tho greatest world-minded-ness in tho United States, the greatest productivity per head and the greatest wealth per head of any area in the world. From Hollywood come tho films, fashions and songs that capture the universe. Yet those industries pale before the vast aircraft production, the enormous shipping yards, tho tremendous furniture industry and the astonishing fruit industry. California has got everything—but only once did I meet a second-generation Californian. Everyone else was an immigrant—and all were as enthusiastic about the future of California as any convert about a new religion. And their faith was justified. These, then, aro the five main areas of the United States. But there are others. Arizona and New Mexico — more backward than tho Balkans are quite distinct from any, while Maine and Florida aro problems in their own right and Texas is a sub-continent on its own. But all go to make up> a melting pot that does not melt ; lhe Negro, Mexican, Indian and Oriental —totalling 20,000,000 at least—remain unabsorbed and almost unabsorbable. Class distinctions aro greater than in Britain —as for example the gulf between F.F.V.s (First Families of Virginia) and tho "Poor Whites in Virginia, or between Fifth Avenue and tho Italian quarter in New York. No "American" Opinion My general impression, therefore, is that wnilst one may speak with exactness and authority about American war production, none can speak with authority about American opinion. There is'no American opinion, although Washington often has the trying task of attempting to state it. Tho United States is the richest and most powerful single State in the world, but it lacks a unified outlook both on home and world affairs. If she can attain an inner unity her hands will chiefly shape the future of mankind, for at her best she offers to the world an interpretation of democratic fundamentals which is unsurpassed. _ But, as one is reminded forcibly m Hollywood's newest and most daring production "Wilson," he who attempts to express American opinion, even though he be President of the United States, may find himself in a feeble minority in a maelstrom of conflicting passions. CLEAN UP LOS ANGELES WOMAN WANTS TO BE MAYOR SYDNEY, Jan. 12 Mrs Dolores Gunn announced her candidacy for election as Mayor of Los Angeles with the promise- that she would "turn this hick town into a modern city," reports a Sydney Morning Herald staff correspondent in California.

Outlining her platform, Mrs Gunn said: "E will clean out the City Hall. T will build a new gaol and take the steel from the steel bunks and give the inmates beds on which to sleep. 1 will speed up transport. "Instead of arresting every innocent and helpless person who comes along, I will open up this town and let the people live." In 1942 Mrs Gunn spent 30 days in gaol for starting a bureau for providing female dance partners. Her term in gaol perhaps explains her interest in the steel bunks. GERMAN GIRL IN TANK SYDNEY, January 12 When forward troops searched a knocked-out German tank they discovered that one of the dead occupants was a woman gunner, reports the Sydney Morning Herald war correspondent with Field Marshal Montgomery's forces, H. A. Standish.. Aged between 20 and 25, she was dressed in an ordinary soldier's uniform.