America: The Good
Neighbor.
Widespread but only partial news
coverage was given
recently to a remarkable editorial
broadcast from
Toronto by Gordon Sinclair, a Canadian
television
commentator. What follows is the full
text of his
trenchant remarks as printed in the
Congressional
Record:
"This Canadian thinks it is time to
speak up for the
Americans as the most generous and
possibly the least
appreciated people on all the earth.
Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent,
Britain and
Italy were lifted out of the debris of
war by the
Americans who poured in billions of
dollars and
forgave other billions in debts. None of
these
countries is today paying even the
interest on its
remaining debts to the United States.
When France was in danger of collapsing
in 1956, it
was the Americans who propped it up, and
their reward
was to be insulted and swindled on the
streets of
Paris. I was there. I saw it.
When earthquakes hit distant cities, it
is the United
States that hurries in to help. This
spring, 59
American communities were flattened by
tornadoes.
Nobody helped.
The Marshall Plan and the Truman Policy
pumped
billions of dollars into discouraged
countries. Now
newspapers in those countries are
writing about the
decadent, warmongering Americans.
I'd like to see just one of those
countries that is
gloating over the erosion of the United
States dollar
build its own airplane. Does any other
country in the
world have a plane to equal the Boeing
Jumbo Jet, the
Lockheed Tri-Star, or the Douglas DC10?
If so, why
don't they fly them? Why do all the
International
lines except Russia fly American Planes?
Why does no other land on earth even
consider putting
a man or woman on the moon? You talk
about Japanese
technocracy, and you get radios. You
talk about German
technocracy, and you get automobiles.
You talk about
American technocracy, and you find men
on the moon -
not once, but several times and safely
home again.
You talk about scandals, and the
Americans put theirs
right in the store window for everybody
to look at.
Even their draft-dodgers are not pursued
and hounded.
They are here on our streets, and most
of them, unless
they are breaking Canadian laws, are
getting American
dollars from ma and pa at home to spend
here.
When the railways of France, Germany and
India were
breaking down through age, it was the
Americans who
rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania
Railroad and the
New York Central went broke, nobody
loaned them an
old caboose. Both are still broke.
I can name you 5000 times when the
Americans raced to
the help of other people in trouble. Can
you name me
even one time when someone else raced to
the Americans
in trouble? I don't think there was
outside help even
during the San Francisco earthquake.
Our neighbors have faced it alone, and
I'm one
Canadian who is tired of hearing
them get
kicked around. They will come out of
this thing with
their flag high. And when they do, they
are entitled
to thumb their nose at the lands that
are gloating
over their present troubles. I hope
Canada is not one
of those."
Stand proud, America!
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