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 the franc 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 10? 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
damned 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, Americans" |
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