TAXI-CAB POLITICS
By DR. ALBERT PEEL F I were to be asked how the opinion of America could best be gauged I should recommend a course of taxi-cab rides in tferent parts of the country. At home conversation with a taxi- iver is limited to " Euston " and " Thank you," with perhaps Keep the change" if one is in an expansive mood. In America e talks—or listens if there is no chance to talk. I spent four onths in the States in 1940 and nearly five in 1942, and I have t ended the first lap of another five months' stay. Much of my e I spend in Faculty Clubs and on college campuses, but I am lined to think I learn quite as much on cab rides as in academic
rcles. •
Nowadays, of course, an opening gambit is " gas," and the response the American driver to information about the ration allowed the ndon taxi-man reveals at once the immense need there is for the semination of knowledge alrut ordinary life in Britain. British (urination Service has done some admirable pieces of work, but ere is still crying need for people in all ranks of life to cross the antic and talk to their own groups about what life in war-time ritain is like for ordinary folk. If Americans of all types could made to realise the exact situation in regard to motor travel- trol rationing, the absence of " pleasure riding," and the shortage taxi-cabs, their eyes would open wide as they realised the contrast tureen their lot and our own. Certainly these taxi-cab drivers had ken no thought what people in Britain eat, what they drink, or erewithal they are clothed. After five years of war the facts of food and clothes rationing remain unknown, and when they are Id about our ration of eggs and milk, meat and butter and bacon, eY say, " But what do you live on? "
In these days one doesn't ride far before the talk turns to politics. oretically, I am pretty much of a Republican, but having been the States during four Presidential election years-1920, 1928, 0, 1944—I have become aware of some of the things to be said r Monarchy. In 1928 the distussion on the meaning of Coolidge's hoose to run" was loud and long ; in 1940 the " third term " as the centre of the struggle ; now it is the fourth. The election sts its shadow on the whole political scene ; rarely is a decision ade without reference to it. And what fierce politicians the ricans are! So far I have been moving mainly in Republican Sates and in Republican circles, where no words have been too d for the President—and for Mrs. Roosevelt, for she is not spared. haps in Gladstone-Disraeli days adulation and vituperation were much in evidence as they are here at present, but I have not Wit them in Britain in my own life-time in anything like the me measure. From the lips of learned divines and charming old es I have heard sentiments and language that have put Billings- e in the shade. I ran into this feature of American life immediately arrived in Washington, with its alluring taxi-cab system where e rides on and on four miles or so for some fifty cents. My ver was an intelligent student of international affairs ; about the ar and the post-war world he talked with shrewd common sense. once he began on the President—about Washington's desire for
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a change at the White House, the growth of officialdom, and the appalling departure from the Constitution in a third and possibly a fourth term—his language knew no limits. The President had no " integrity "—he used this word—and he could not speak the truth if he tried. These were among the mildest of the opinions of one otherwise thoroughly reasonable.
A New 'York driver was of another type, though he spoke so quickly in an East Side dialect that he was not always easy to follow. His major concern was not politics, but his own business : the con- dition of his cab, the expense of repairs, the chancy nature of his takings. He was specially eloquent about the ease with which a garage could sell less than the quantity of gas it was paid for, and explained how large quantities could be retained in the hose and so on. He had asked me if I minded if he stopped to fill up, and my Yorkshire training made me notice that his conscience did not prevent him allowing the clock to tick up the nickels as we waited.
• In Cleveland was yet another type—a fine old man who left Servia forty-nine years ago. He emigrated to avoid army service, an said that before the first war he would not have gone back to Europe if they built a bridge ; " Now I would not go if they built two bridges." He was a great believer in education, and pointed out all the educational institutions to me as we went along. To have a passenger new from England was interesting to him, and he was full of stories of an English business-man who many years ago en- gaged him for a week ; next morning I was interested to see him in the front pew in church. As I talked to him, I wondered how long it would be before English people really understood the heterogeneous nature of these American cities. On this trip I have begun to doubt if the United States is the melting-pot it was a generation ago. I have asked many people if my impression is correct. That the assimilation is not as swift and general as once it was, that the tendency now is much more for the races to remain in their national blocks—Poles, Greeks, Italians, and so on. In every case I was told that the impression was accurate—in one city my driver remarked, "These streets are a section of Italy," and said that just as there were negro sections, so there were other distinct national groups in clearly defined locations. This cosmopolitan character of the urban population of America was emphasised by the fact that one man who drove me about was a Japanese—the butler-valet-cook-chauffeur of the Dean of an Episcopal Cathedral. He, too, apari from his professional accomplishments, was a highly intelligent student of affairs, bringing knowledge from yet another angle to bear on the international situation.
Am I prepared to make any generalisations about America as a result of many conversations with taxi-cab drivers? Far from it. The time I expressed confident opinions about this great land and its people was after my first trip twenty-four years ago. With each new visit I become confident only of the extent of my ignorance. I am not even prepared to forecast the result of the election in November. That, I suspect, will depend in large measure on the war situation. It looks at the moment as if the desire for change, the widespread suspicion of a prolonged tenure of office at the White House, and hatred of the New Deal and the " Bureaucracy," are about balanced by belief in the folly of swapping horses in the middle of the stream, the conviction, reluctant though it often be, that the President has handled the international situation well, fear of an untried man in this critical stage of the world's history, and the Services' desire to " support the Commander-in-Chief."
One thing that has surprised me in conversations in New England, with hosts of young people as well as taxi-cab drivers, has been the number who have said they would have voted for Willkie, but they will not vote for Governor Dewey if he be the Republican candidate. Of course, they may change their minds before November ; but right now it seems clear that if the war is raging furiously then, many who have denounced the President with all the eloquence they pnssess will be found voting for him if he decides to run. But the Conventions have still to be held, and much water will flow under the bridges and much blood will be spilt before November comes.
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