ENGLAND AND AMERICA.

Waikato Times, Volume 113, Issue 18947, 17 May 1933, Page 4

ENGLAND AND AMERICA.

SOME INTERESTING CONTRASTS

“To the Englishman marriage is the joining of families of the past and the future, as well as of the present. To the American marriage is the uniting of two individuals,” says Charles F. Thwing,: in the Review of Reviews of America.

“The English tendency Is to develop the individual, the American to develop the community. “England makes few laws and enforces them. America, in both State and Federal Government, makes many laws and enforces few.

“In England the criminal has few chances of escaping conviction, and fewer still of pardon. In America the criminal has few fears of conviction and many hopes of freedom. In one case the motto is ‘He ought to be punished—punish him.’ In the other, ‘Give the poor dog a chance.’ “In England the government of the great cities is honest and effective. In America the government of the great cities is the weakest part -of the whole system. It is liable to be' extravagant,. Ineffective, corrupt. “The Englishman remembers yesterday; the American forgets it'. The Englishman thinks of and for to-day, and anticipates to-morrow. The American works for to-day and takes little thought for to-morrow. "The thinking of the Englishman Is more consistent, more continuous, more concentrated. The thinking of |

the American Is more diffuse, more general, more volatile. ■'

“In the English system Parliament Is omnipotent. It makes or unmakes. In America is found no such single power. Power is, under the Constitution, subject to many divisions and diffusions.

“The Englishman believes in and uses the under-statement; the American believes in and uses the power of the over-statement. In the interest of truth fulness the first represents the right of magnifying, the second represents the duty cf minimising."