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TRIBUTE TO THE UNITED STATES of
AMERICA:
The Good Neighbor.
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 France 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 DC10? 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 5,000 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, America
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