ON HATING AMERICA [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—Though I am an American I am venturing to write a few lines to your paper on " Hating America." It seems to me a tragedy that the two most enlightened countries in the world should understand each other so little, and that the English and American peoples cannot agree to disagree, and to make the best of each other. My parents were of English descent, and I was taught to love and admire England, and a large number of my country people, I am sure, feel the same way. However, it is impossible for an American, when he comes in contact with English people, not to feel that their estimate of us, as a nation, is most unflattering. The glaring faults of a certain class of vulgar Americans are thought to belong to us all, and books that deal only with our exaggerated and ridiculous fallings are read with great relish, and are the
" best sellers." in England.
Another reason for misunderstandings between us is the utter lack of any correct idea, in the mind of the average Eng- lish person, of what America really is—of its size, of the differ- ences in different localities that are sometimes separated by thousands of miles, and of our resources. There is a book, lately published, which, if read from cover to cover, will show why America is prosperous, and why wages are high there. The title of this book is North America, by J. Russell Smith, Professor of Economic Geography, Columbia Univer- sity, New York.—I. am, Sir, &c., New York. E. D. BREUETON.
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