The Home Front:
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn A Canadian Acts As Interpreter WE LIVE in a strangely irrational age. Our means of communication are superior to those of any earlier generation. Newspapers and...
...For this function he is well equipped...
...All the Europeans are our distant cousins...
...But, instead, we are precisely the ones who are most given to thinking that everyone who is different must he inferior...
...This sort of mass confrontation is physically impossible...
...Yet this whole thing—with its tragic results—is based upon little but misinformation and nonsense...
...We are descended from all the peoples of Europe...
...Television and radio keep millions upon millions of people in many lands instantly aware of what is being said and done...
...Hutchison offers a clue to the character of the British when he explains that they like to take things easy, they don't feel like breaking their necks to make money or to break a record...
...It is by a Canadian, Bruce Hutchison, and is entitled Canada's Lonely Neighbor (Longmans, Green, $1.00...
...An American who is a sober, decent fellow at home often seems to act like a jackass when he goes for a holiday in Europe...
...This northern neighbor of ours has done what he and his fellow citizens arc supposed to do...
...But that merely makes matters worse...
...Wide-eyed and dismayed, the plain citizen of the U.S...
...They look across the Atlantic and see us productive, rich, powerful and having a wonderful time...
...One phase of this general failure of human relations is the wide distrust and dislike of America and Americans...
...He is acting as interpreter between Americans and Europeans—especially Britishers...
...Newspapers and magazines cover the earth...
...Policies of governments are minutely explained to their own citizens and to the wide world...
...Both of them have enjoyed positions of world leadership...
...And plenty of Europeans have put on silly exhibitions in this country...
...Now that the balloon has burst, both of them feel themselves unfairly let down...
...And travel seems not to serve the purpose...
...I met only one man, an English politician too eminent to be identified, who had a word of gratitude for the U.S.' Such deep separation reduces cultural interchange, hinders political and military cooperation, and weakens the democratic nations in the face of Communist opposition...
...I never did that man a good turn in my life...
...Hutchison tells a story about Field Marshal Smuts...
...And he has the wit that is necessary to make a man laugh at himself...
...As an antidote for what ails us...
...More than anyone else I can think of, he has knowledge, understanding and insight into the qualities and interests of nations...
...We make a great palaver about equality, yet the differences between our rich and poor make the Grand Canyon look like an irrigation ditch...
...If it were possible for all Englishmen to meet typical Americans under normal circumstances—and for all Americans to get acquainted with average Englishmen in the same way—the mutual prejudices would melt away like snow in April...
...What do they want...
...We, above all peoples, should appreciate the gaudy variety which results from national differences...
...The British are surely among the most democratic of peoples, and yet their class distinctions stick out like sore thumbs...
...murmurs: "What can we do...
...No nation really leads the world...
...He was asked why he was being so ferociously attacked by a politician...
...The moment you begin to look at two peoples as they are, you begin to see that differences are so complicated that no nation can lay claim to general superiority...
...His motive for writing he explains on his second page: "In 7,000 miles of travel by automobile through the eight major nations of Western Europe, I heard over and over the same dismal recital: The Americans are ill-mannered and blundering children, their civilization is a combination of wealth, corruption, Coca-Cola and Senator McCarthy, their government is probably leading the world to war...
...After all that we have accomplished in two wars, after all the generosity of the Marshall Plan and the Truman Doctrine, we are probably more widely distrusted than any other nation ever was...
...But I have just read a little book which gives me hope of ultimate relief...
...And yet, there is more misunderstanding, more mistrust and hate, than the world has ever known...
...Surely we should have understanding and tolerance for their quirks of character...
...Our author was probably too polite to record the fact that we Americans lack, especially, the one virtue which we might be expected to have...
...Both innocents at home and innocents abroad put on rather deceptive shows...
...But they thought they did—and that is the important point...
...Such a deep ailment cannot be cured by any simple treatment...
...I recommend this little book...
...Both the French and the British have found their postwar fate hard to bear...
...To be sure, we have been throwing away wealth with both hands...
...It is true that they have kidded themselves a good deal about this business of leading—just as we do now...
...He answered: "I can't imagine...
Vol. 37 • September 1954 • No. 39
