MORE TOLERANT THAN AMERICA.

Timaru Herald, Volume CVIII, Issue 16822, 30 May 1919, Page 3

MORE TOLERANT THAN AMERICA.

UNITED STATES EDITOR'S IMPRESSIONS. Mi- Oswald Garrison Viilard, editor of tin© New York "Natron," who has bet-n spending tnc last four weeks in ■ london, l'oft for Paris recently. I saw , lum at the Savoy -Hotel, and he consented to say something for the "Manchester Guardian" about his impressions of England and .the way in which feeling here compares with that of tha United States (writes th e London corresuondtofc of the "Manchester Guardian"). Mr Villard said that the first thing that struck him on his arrival in England was the much greater tolerance that existed here in comparison with America, and (his impression in that regard had been strengthened during lias stay. In America person s of minority opinions were treated a,lmost as social outcasts, whereas it seemed to him that in England most people were ready t 0 listen to opinions from which they disagreed, and did not allow differences of opinion to interfere with their seo 7 'al relations.

The British Government, Mr Villard said, was also much more tolerant than the American;, although there had bsea incidents such as the interdiction of the dispatch of certaiin papers abroad. Such pipers as the "Labour Leader l " or the "Herald" would not have befn allowed to exist in America during the war, nor would the American authorities have permitted puKc meetitisr s in favour of ■pe-acm snich as had in England throiiprWut. th> war. Mr Villard "cons;derfd that this Wferant spirit honoured _both the Britislh Government and the British public.

CONSERVATISM STRONGER IN AMMRICA. Mi' Villard saald that he had also been "profoundly impressed" by the keen inrehectual interest shown in England in the probems of the future. There was no Labour Party in American, and no such Jarge groups of young thinkers and writers on international subjects as was to bo found in Great Britain. Such writers and thinkers were very few in America. In fact, America was much more conservative than England; most people were content to go in the old way, and did not realise that, a 'new world was coming and that there were problems im immense importance to be solved. I asked Mr Villard what he thought of the effect of the victory on the publie temoer in 1 this country. He replied that there seemed to him to be less bitterness than in America against our enemies, although, perhaps, he had hardly seen enough to form an opinion ion that point. Certainly some of the Engl'sh newspapers were still very bitter, but he doubted Whether they reflected public opinion in general. No doubt. Mr Vill'ard on to say, the very completeness of the victory had! had the inevitable effect feeling in England, as in other Allied countries. However much we rejoice at the destruction of the Gterman miliary power, nevertheless the sweeping character of Hie victory had inevitably sitrenstnenfd Imperialist feeling and imb'tinn* in all the victorious countries, and England was nt> except-on to the rule. A' victory rather leas complete might havff been more ln-aMiy for the .victors. LABOUR.' AND MR, GOMPEKS'S i . ~' INFLUENCE. .'■..;■:

"Wliat asitounds me particularly, in England/' Mr VilParfl' m-oceededv ■ ''is the raporochement between. Liberal' intelligentsia and Labour. . It doesno* exist in the United : States, thanks' to the stupidity of Mr Samuel Gompers. wbose on Labour- questions aire -it Vast a auarter of a cfintnrv behind the times. Nevertheless, despite Mr Gompers. and notwWistaTidin.cr his opposition. 4 there are ih/i be<nnm,in!-rs of a Labo/rr uarty in the United States. 'ln the near future the history of American Labour will be that of a fight between the Gompers view and one more like tliait of the British Labour Party. Unfortunate organisPid Labour in ~ the United States bas been too' often identified with lawlessness and violence. This has repelled a gjood many people who are sincerely desirous of advancing tne cause of Labour. "On the other hand there is in America a complete misunderstanding of the Socialist party. The term Socialist is still behaved to be synonymous with Anarchist, and in New York a man who declared himself to- be a Socialist would be ajlmost 'declasse.' That is another sign of the Jack of tolerance in , the Unwed States. Further, there is no political choice in America; no vital issues separate the Republican and Democratic parties, wliioh have the same faulty and the same tendenei<?s. The only marked, difference between them is that tii© Democratic party has "Woodrow Wilson,. whereas the Republican party is wholly reactionary." i I asked Mr. Vilfard how he thought that the : Press this country compared with that of America. He "'aid that it compared very favoni-ablv. There no great Press of the Left in the United States, and scarcely n. renllv Tiberal dai'-c ]'ke_+Tie "Manchester Guardian." tft,'* "Dfi'ily News." or even the Gazette." There was uow a daily Socin.liqf paiwr .k,Neiv York called ■&"*■ "OWL" wbir 11 !. y-rvs o-.pH-jng «n verv , "" I 'l. 1 ->" 4 - i+ Btno' 1 ■svTb!"-e Tn +Jiic rpcrnrcl M v VillnWl cysirta-nor? +Tjat Enp--bad an enormous advantage over America.