Evening star., 1937-03-14
BY JACK BEALL.

served LOT one QdtlOH ny dIIOIllel ID
"Uncle Shylock," by which the Brit
ISL and large section of Europe mean
the United States This is applied
when the subject of war debts is fore
most in their consciousness or, shall
We say, conscience?
For some time the word has not ap-
peared in the British press, but the
papers here have suddenly broken out
into quite rash of illusions to Uncle
Shylock" and to the Well-knoWn fact,
as the New York correspondent of the
London Daily Express puts it, that
money-getting is practically the only
concern in the life u an American.
The same correspondent has just ca
bled cute piece about debate in
the United States Senate on the war
debts, and he refers to Senator j.
Hamilton Lewis as "Shylock No. /" and
to Senator William Edgar Borah as
'Shylock No 2"
At various times I have observed
the effect of the epithet, direct or i'm
piled, upon American travellers in
Europe. When the subject OF the
debts arise they are usually apologetic
and anxious that they not be thought
like those materialistic upstarts and
soulS-of-dross money-grabbers and
dollarchaSers back home, those who
take the attitude of the late Presi-
dent Coolidge: They hired the money,
didn't they?"
1t Makes Americans Cringe
The point is that the label dollar
chaser" has had the power, so often
has it been applied, to make Americans
cringe and to put them in fear that
they are less worthy than their ln-
materialistic cousins, the British.
whose minds and souls dwell on higher
things.
This is national inferiority COM
pleX, which Europeans have found
they can exploit enormously to their
own profit 1t can be applied with
great safety, for seldom can an
American in Europe be found who
will defend his own kind. Besides, he
is utterly shaky on the subject of
the other fellows right to go about
mote-and-be plucking. not to say
calling us Uncle Shylock" and spit
This occasions the making of a
few mild observations on the preva-
lence of the acquisitive instinct in
the English. At this time the most
obvious thing which meets the eye
are the prices which the unWorldly
British are proposing to charge Wis
iting Americans on or about May II.
Some of them have already been
publicized in America through the
insertion of advertisements in Amer
ican newspapers
The top range seems to be $500
for coronation week for the rent of
a town house, complete with chauf
feur and car Hundreds of others
are askings as much in week for
fat as they themselves pay in a
year Rooms overlooking the pro-
ceSsion are being held for $500 for
one day, sometimes with lunch thrown
in. Flats and hotel rooms are not
being let by the day at jacked-up
rates. 1t is obligatory for the lessee
to take them for a period ranging
from five days to IA days at about q
5000 per cent advance on the regular
per diem.
Seats Are Downright Cheap.
The price of seats, most of them
privately held. seldom is less than
S25 and runs as high as S255 for one
seat and the privilege of sitting in
it in a covered stand for eight hours
to see the royal procession go by
twice That people are willing to
1rlv oh
Americans are truly dollar chasers,
the English are pound hounds.
The point is this, that. while Ameri-
cans might try to get such prices
for an event such as this if it oc-
Cured, say, in New York, neverthe-
less there's no reason to call us dirty
names, exclusively. 1t looks pretty
much as if we were all alike under
the skin, and in Skinning one another.
The subject of money naturally
divides itself into two categories, get
ting and keeping. On the getting
end, I wonder if anything New York
has ever produced can hold a candle
to the actual riot that occurred one
day this Winter on the Royal EX
change? That day, eight brokers were
laid out, either through injuries or
by fainting, in the rush to fill orders
for a new issue of Morris Motors.
Many more were hurt but eight had
to receive medical attention. If it
had occurred in America one can
imagine the headlines which would
have announced this latest evidence
of American vulgarity and crassness
to English readers.
Market Corners Continue.
In America they have stopped try
ing to achieve market corners but
1t goes on merrily here. An attempt
to corner the white pepper market
was pulled off last year, there have
been other attempts in tin and shell
lac and only recently there was a
mild stencil raised over the way the
boys tried to corner the metals mar
ket, practically the instant the gov
eminent announced its fl,500,00000C
rearmament budget. incidentally, the
government had pledged there would
be no profiteering.
This naturally brings up the budget
leakage scandal of !" Summer. II
you nudge yourself you will recall thai
j. H. Thomas, then colonial secre-
tary, received a very handsome sun
from one Bates, with whom he played
golf, and that he received horse.
race tips from Sir Alfred Butt, M. P
Both Bates and Butt profited from
insurance with Lloyds on the forth.
coming budget, and an investigating
tribunal found they had received theil
information from Thomas. The Labor.
tte cabinet minister resigned his port.
folio. There was another scanda
which the government was apparentl.
able to hush up without anything toc
damaging coming to view over tht
leakage of information about New
foundland bonds. 1t aroused severa
questions in the House, but the risk O.
1jba1 maS too preat tn r,l1sh the thiOc