LAND OF SMALL TOWNS

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVII, Issue 23114, 31 January 1945, Page 4

LAND OF SMALL TOWNS

American Background The Home Of Democracy “Whenever we drive through one of your smaller towns I think I am back in the United States. They are so like our own towns back home,” said Mrs Marjorie B. Greenbie, of the United States Office , of War Information, in an interview with a representative of “The Timaru Herald” yesterday. “Owing to the amount of publicity our larger towns have received, many people imagine the United States as a land of great cities,” continued Mrs Greenbie, “but actually there are only about half a dozen cities in the States with a population of more than a million. By far the greater proportion of our population live in the smaller towns. The city man is proud to tell you he comes from a small town. He keeps up his associations with his home town, and no matter how big an executive he may be, he will read his home town newspaper before he opens up his mail in the morning.” Mrs Greenbie explained that President Roosevelt came from a small town, and when he said in a recent broadcast, that “democracy grew from the grass roots up" he meant that the essence of democracy lay in the life of the smaller communities. “I happen to have spent my girlhood days in Hyde Park, the town of the President, which is the centre of a farming area.” Many of the larger Universities were built in the smaller towns. The University which Mrs Greenbie attended was situated at Ithaca, in the State of New York. The population of the town was 15,000. but the University had 5000 students.

It was pointed out by the speaker that these towns had a strong and virile community life. “For- example,” she said, “the seaside town in which we now live, although it has only a population of 500 people, has an excellent library, a large town hsll equipped to meet the requirements of the community, and a docking area for yachts.” The main street of any New Zealand town could be the main street of any American one, but Americans were lovers of trees and the residential parts of their towns had wide, treeshaded avenues. The New Zealand bungalow was like the Californian home. In the Eastern States, the Colonial type of architecture was more popular, and the old type of large, roomy home was more in evidence there. “You will pardon my saying it, but to me the American home seems more friendly,” remarked Mrs Greenbie. “So many of your New Zealand homes have their blinds half-drawn, and are hidden behind high fences. We do not bother about drawing blinds and our lawns meet the streets with no barriers. We do not mind if the whole village knows we are having visitors in the front parlour, and it is an old American custom for the family to sit on the front porch on a Sunday afternoon to see all and be seen by all. “I love this country with its marvellous scenery; but more than that, I love the hospitality and good will of its people. And I have especially enjoyed my stay in this part of New Zealand. I have been told that this is the best district in the best country in the world; I am not going to contradict it.”