ANGLO-AMERICAN FRIENDSHIP.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Snt,—Mr. Victor S. Yarros, of the Chicago Daily News, struck a true journalistic note in the letter which you published in your issue of December 2nd. Unless we can get to know each other better Americans and English would be better apart, for distance would lend enchantment to personal peculiarities. But as together we must stand or fall, the first consideration should be given to our different points of view. At a certain height we are one, but below that height we have to meet the common fret of friendship, which can only be overcome by a broad-minded understanding and a frank acknowledgment of differences in view-point.
It Is the chief object of the members of the Society of Women Journalists to promote international good feeling, and a new campaign is being organized which has the support of some of the most important of our newspaper proprietors, who have shown their practical sympathy by very generous financial assistance. They are glad to hear grumbles, because the cause of them can be removed. They are glad to know how they offend, by omission or commission, because they can reform.
The three suggestions made by Mr. Yarros could easily be accomplished. Already the Spectator is supplying one need, and, as Mr. Evelyn Wrench states, the English-Speaking Union has begun what might be developed into both a library and a bookshop. More than anything else that is needed is the true journalistic taste, that can state a different point of view without being offensive, and that can understand the idealisms of others. It is for this end that Englishwomen are holding out the hand of friendship to sister journalists in other countries and seeking to entertain those who visit Englandr who, with an insight into the home life of the country, would gain a knowledge of England as she really is, and be able to form a bulwark against misrepresentations.—I am, Sir, &c., D. M. L.
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