[To THE EDITOR or THE "SPECTATOR."' SIR,—The Spectator has long
been regarded in this country as a publication friendly to the United States, not disposed to find evil where evil does not exist. May I ask you, therefore, why the British Press and British speakers continue to pour abuse upon us on every possible occasion ? Why talk about " blood brotherhood" and "hands across the sea" when the British Press maintains an incessant attack upon us as "low and immoral people " ?
It would seem that athletic sports are not of sufficient importance to destroy or mar national friendship, yet since the Olympic games at Stockholm our newspapers here have been filled with reprints from the London Press of wholly baseless slurs upon us. Because our young men won and those of England did not, our character as a nation is assailed, and the London journal which was once regarded as first in the world is foremost in the assault. Are the English people children, or are they unable to lose like gentlemen P Certainly the great majority of Americans are beginning to have a very low opinion of the English sporting spirit.
This abuse is carried to a yet greater extent in the matter of the Panama Canal tolls. Our Press to-day, and for many days preceding, has been reprinting the most savage denuncia- tions of us from the London dailies and weeklies. They are not only reprinted here, but all over the United States. Most of us think that Congress has done wrong in that particular Act, and our newspapers have not been backward in saying so, but we do not care to have ourselves assailed generally as a people devoid of honour.
All these things have sunk deeply in the American mind. A nation that assails another in such a manner should have a flawless record of its own. Has Great Britain such a flawless record P Fresh in our memories are the Jameson Raid, the general belief in this country that the British Government was an accomplice to it ; and the mobbing of the Boer republics. The British people may or may not want our friendship. It is their own business, but the course of their Press indicates that they do not want it, and there can scarcely be a doubt that it has been impaired seriously.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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