Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1901-01-10
SUCCESS OF AMERICANS.
Alfred Harmsworth Tells Where tho
United States Beats the World.


United States Beats the World,
In the following editorial, written by
Alfred Harmsworth, the millionaire
English editor, in the tabloid edition Of
the New York World, he tells where
the United States is ahead of the
world:
Americans are not withouC good
grounds for their assertion that the av-
erage British traveller who comes to
this country is accustomed to grumble
all the time at what he sees. They
would take less notice of John Bulls
criticisms were they aware that the old
gentleman regards grumbling as his
national privilege. | read the other day
in cable dispatch from London that
the reviews and newspapers are filled
with dismal forebodings and croak-
ings on the part of pessimists in regard
to the British empire" Out of curiosi-
ty have turned to the British Annual
Register for 100 years back and found
that John Bull was croaking and whin-
Ing with equally great vigor at that
time
Not the least of the differences which
exist between the peoples OF the two
sides of the Atlantic is that you are
optlmIsts and we are pessimists That
fact accounts for a great deal of the
grumblingS by British tourists which
are SO much resented here. And the
United States offers a splendid oppor-
tunity to the British grumbler by rea-
son of the circumstance that it's faults
are on the surface.
There are no secrets in America The
American newspaper is powerful
microscope which magnifies everything
and everybody-all that is good and all
that is bad-in the country. The
American does not shut himself in q
big house surrounded by moat, and
that again placed inside q park which
in it's turn is encircled by high wall
You can see him at any time exactly
as he is, and he is therefore particu-
larly easy to criticise. 1t is doubtless
for this reason that he comes in for
so large share of comment. advice
and admonition.
Now, | propose reversing the order
of things for a moment by stating eX-
actly where think Americans are
ahead of most countries have seen
and have travelled extensively. On
the mechanical side of everyday life
you have entered upon the twentieth
century so far ahead of the world that
l doubt whether we will ever catch up
with you. In the great matter of
surface transit-surely one of the most
important features of modern life-you
are leading the universe.
You gave US the Morse telegraph. the
telephone, the photograph. the mean
descent lamp. the Maxim gun. the Hoe
printing press, the linotype typeset-
ting machine. the electric automobile,
the typewriter, the sewing machine,
the model office building. the Westing-
house brake and motor, and number
less Improvements on existing inven-
tons which testify in every land to the
force of American genius. You are
giving your young people an education
which. in my opinion, is altogether
more suited to the requirements Of the
twentieth century than that we pro-
vide. Your public school system is the
admiration Of the world,
Those who are too prone to criticise
surface faults in the United States
should witness, as | have. the landing
at Ellis island of the hordes of litter
ate foreigners fresh from the tyranny
and miSrule of thecontnental countries.
and should remember that Americans
stand exposed to the criticisms of the
whole world on events and actions
largely brought about by these swarns
of newly arrived immigrants. The
kind of American news that comes to
Europe consists chiefly of strike riots
and other crimes too frequently COM
mitted by this same foreign element.
No other people in the world could as
simulate and in single generation
make man of the kind of human
derelict dumped down daily on your
shores from Europe. No other people
can so readily adapt themselves to the
changing Kaleidoscope of progress.