CHANGED AMERICANS

Waikato Independent, Volume XXIV, Issue 2390, 30 October 1924, Page 3

CHANGED AMERICANS

"PURSUIT OF PLEASURE AND THE DOLLAR." NE\V ZEA LANDKI .'• '8 ('()-\I M K NTS.. Home interesting comments on America and the American people were made to a Wellington Post representative by Dr J. Macmillan Brown. Chancellor of the New Zealand University who has just returned after a few months' visit to the west coast of America. After stating the results of his observations in connection with ethnological research relating to the peoples of the Pacific Ocean, Mr Macmillan Brown said: —

"One other thing I went to see was \ how the character of the American was j changing. I had not been in America for fourteen years, but I went through , America about forty years ago, and ; after the present visit I have come to ; the conclusion that in the West the j Americans have become in the one sex i absolute pursuers of pleasure, and, in j the other, pursuers of the dollar. The women have printed in their faces that j soft, luxurious look which comes from [ constant pleasure, and which is so at- j tractive. The men have a set cxpres- ; sion on their faces; it is the pursuit of j the dollar; a firm lower jaw; ends of - the mouth turned down, whilst those of the women are turned up. Altogether, my impression is that the American nation has moved down the slope towards the abyss —the same abyss as the Roman empire reached. What has made them show this phenomenon more | than any other is that it is the richest j country in the world, and the most ' prosperous still.

''The nation really needs a set-buck; and it would bo no bad thing if the war which is threatening between Japan and America should come about. It would leave America financially bled, and that, would be like the old bloodletting cure for disease. It would make them healthy and strong again. Japan and America were the two nations" that won the war financially, all the other Allies lost it financially. The result is that the pleasure-seekers that 1 met in Alaska and down the Yukon all asserted: 'We won the war.' My reply was generally, 'Yes, just as it was the last straw that broke the camel's back.' Itis that tendency to swelled head amongst the well-to-do, semi educated middle-class that will flare out if any untoward incident in the relations with Japan should occur."